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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Second man charged in girl’s snow death

Associated Press

BOISE – Idaho prosecutors have charged a second man with second-degree murder in the death of an 11-year-old girl who was allowed to attempt to walk 10 miles to her mother’s house along a cold and snowy stretch of highway on Christmas Day.

The girl’s 12-year-old brother was found alive.

Kenneth Quintana, 29, made an initial court appearance Friday in Shoshone, where he was also charged with felony injury to a child, according to court records.

Robert Aragon, 55, the children’s father and Quintana’s cousin, faces the same charges.

Prosecutors say the men were driving the children to visit their mother when their car got stuck in a snowdrift. They are accused of letting the children attempt to hike the rest of the way to their mother’s home through drifting snow and frigid temperatures.

Sage Aragon walked about four miles before turning back. Searchers found her early on the morning of Dec. 26, almost buried in snow. Initial autopsy results indicated she died of hypothermia.