‘The worst bruising I have observed on a child’: Rathdrum man beat 11-year-old for hours, causing kidney failure, court records say

A Rathdrum man arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder his 11-year-old daughter beat her for so long she began to seize and went into kidney failure, according to court records.

Aaron Dyk, 32, waited a week after the alleged beating to call first responders because his daughter was seizing in his car Friday, court records say. Police and fire crews responded around 8:10 p.m. off Idaho Highway 41 near Nagel Road and took the girl to the hospital.

While at the hospital, staff warned responding Officer Tyler Vasicek they had concerns of child abuse, according to the officer’s court affidavit.

The girl had gone into kidney failure, had trauma around her ears that showed signs of pulling, and sustained bruising and scabs all around her legs and back.

“It was the worst bruising I have observed on a child in my professional experience,” wrote Vasicek in his affidavit.

Vasicek spoke to the girl’s stepmother and step-grandmother, who told him they believed the girl enjoyed stealing things. When disciplining their children, the family told police they often spank them, make them do chores or “run laps,” the documents say. There are eight children in the home.

A week before the seizure, the family told police that the girl had stolen a watch from her sibling and they were deciding how to discipline her, but ultimately left it up to Dyk.

When Vasicek asked Dyk what happened, he explained he had “spanked” his daughter with a leather belt so many times he lost count, court records say.

The beating went on for four hours as Dyk would ask her where the watch went and continue to beat her if she didn’t give him an answer, according to court documents. The girl eventually went pale, threw up and couldn’t eat for days.

Dyk’s wife told police she was concerned he had gone too far, but did not want him to be arrested as he was the sole financial provider in the home. Because his wife was not the girl’s biological mother and the mother could not be contacted, police had to declare an emergency so the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare could consent to her being placed on dialysis for acute kidney failure, court records say.

Police believed the beating was “torturous” in an “interrogation style” manner that resulted in “prolonged pain” and “brutality, leading them to recommend attempted murder charges.

The girl was in critical condition Monday at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane .