Town mourns girl who died after miles in snow

JEROME, Idaho – Townspeople and relatives crammed into a church Wednesday to mourn 11-year-old Sage Aragon, who died while trying to trudge through 10 miles of snow on Christmas Day to reach her mother.

At the service, a relative asked for forgiveness for Sage’s father, charged in her death and the injury of her brother.

The girl died, apparently of hypothermia, after she and her 12-year-old brother, Bear, tried to walk through snow and freezing temperatures to reach their mother’s house after their father’s car got stuck in a snowdrift.

The boy survived. The girl was pronounced dead Friday, 11 days after her 11th birthday. The father, Robert Aragon, has been charged with second-degree murder and felony injury to a child.

Aragon, 55, was briefly allowed out of jail Wednesday and escorted by deputies to a funeral home in this south-central Idaho town to mourn his daughter after the memorial service, said Blaine County sheriff’s Lt. Jay Davis.

Darrell Tendoy, a great-uncle to the children and uncle to their mother, delivered a eulogy to about 300 people at the memorial service at the 1st Ward Chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, Tendoy also played traditional drums at the service and sang.

“I want forgiveness for Mr. Aragon. He raised those children, I was proud of him,” Tendoy said. “Sometimes in our lives, we do make mistakes. He must be feeling a lot of pain right now.”

During the service, the children’s mother, JoLeta Jenks, said she was not going to judge Aragon for what happened.

“I talked to him, and he said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ ” Jenks said.

She and Bear left quickly after the service to meet Aragon.

Friends and families at the service described Sage as a sweet girl who was close to her brother, and knew the words to every song in the movie “Grease.” Jenks earlier said her daughter wanted to be a lawyer when she got older, then decided she’d rather be a judge.