From The "When I Was Your Age, I Had To Walk In The Snow..." Files

The father of an 11-year-old girl who died, likely of hypothermia, after trying to walk 10 miles in the snow on Christmas Day has been charged with second-degree murder and felony injury to a child. And no, it wasn't walking to the store to get daddy some smokes.

Robert Aragon was emotional during the short hearing. He banged his head on the defendant's table as the charges against him were read. Sage Aragon and her 12-year-old brother, Bear, were with their father on when his truck got stuck in a snow drift near state Highway 75, in southcentral Idaho. The children live with Aragon in Jerome and he was taking them to visit their mother, JoLeta Jenks, in West Magic.

Let us stop to marvel at all the white trashiness so far.

After the truck got caught in the snow, authorities allege Aragon let the children out to walk to their mother's house while he and another adult stayed behind to free the vehicle. Jenks said she called Aragon because she was concerned after no one arrived at her home. Aragon had driven back to Jerome after letting the kids out to walk to her house, Jenks said. A rescue team found the boy at a rest area near the highway shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday night.

The boy was found wearing only long underwear. Apparently delusional from hypothermia, the child had discarded his jacket, pants and shoes. He was treated and released at a nearby hospital. The rest area was about 4.5 miles from where the children started walking. At some point the children separated and their mother said her son told her they disagreed about whether to keep going or turn back.

"(Bear) kept on telling her: 'Let's go, Sage, let's go, Sage,'" Jenks said, recalling what her son told her. "She said, 'No, I'm going back.'" The little girl was found about 2.7 miles from where the two set out, barely visible under windblown, drifting snow when search dogs located her along a local road. She was wearing a brown down coat, black shirt, pink pajama pants and tan snowboots.

Officials say temperatures in the area at the time the girl was missing ranged from 27 degrees above zero to minus 5. Believe it or not, Jenks and Aragon are not married. While she said she doesn't understand the decision Aragon is accused of making in letting the children walk to her house, Jenks added, "I don't need to sit and yell. I know he's going through hell right now."