Sometime after the two started walking, Sage turned around and started hiking back toward the car, Bear testified.
“She got too cold,’’ he said. “Her feet were starting to get numb.’’
Sage died of hypothermia and rescuers found her body the next day. Bear, then 12, survived by taking cover in a single-stall restroom at a recreation site.
The youth, who a family member testified has been attending weekly counseling sessions since his sister died, was the prosecution’s final witness.
The defense rested yesterday after examining a handful of witnesses before a jury of eight women and four men in rural Lincoln County. Both sides were expected to present closing arguments today.
Aragon was driving the children to see their mother on Christmas morning when the car hit ice and slid into the snowbank, Bear testified. His father got out of the car and used a small military shovel to free his 1988 Buick Century.
The boy said he decided to set out on his own because he wanted to find help for his father. Sage decided to go with him.
“He said, ‘OK, stay together and don’t go into the fields,’ ’’ Bear testified.
After Sage and Bear began walking, Aragon freed his car from the snowdrift and drove back to their home in Jerome. The children’s mother called later to say the children never arrived.
When authorities found the father about 10 that night, he was searching for the children at the site where the car had become stranded. A search and rescue team soon found the youth at a rest area near the highway, more than 4 miles from where the children started walking.
A search dog found Sage’s body the next morning, barely visible under windblown snow. She was wearing a brown down coat, a black shirt, pink pajama pants, and tan snow boots.
Teressa Aragon, a Jerome resident and half sister to the children, was among the witnesses for the defense who testified that Aragon was a good father. Public defender Patrick McMillen argued that the weather didn’t worsen until after the children started walking and that Aragon did not knowingly put Sage and Bear in harm’s way.
Temperatures in the area at the time the girl was missing ranged from 27 degrees above zero to minus 5.
