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Stepp,Aaron C.missing March 11,1997; Ohio
Topic Started: Sep 1 2006, 07:36 PM (276 Views)
oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/stepp_aaron.html
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oldies4mari2004
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Aaron Cody Stepp



Upper Images and Lower Left: Aaron, circa 1997;
Lower Right: Age-progression at age 11 (circa 2004)


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: March 11, 1997 from Columbus, Ohio
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: September 24, 1993
Age: 3 years old
Height and Weight: 3'2, 39 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Blond hair, blue eyes. Aaron goes by his middle name, Cody.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A red jacket, blue sweatpants and black and white high-top tennis shoes.


Details of Disappearance

Cody was reportedly last seen playing in a neighbor's backyard on Hosack Street in Columbus, Ohio at approximately 7:00 p.m. on March 11, 1997. He has never been heard from again.
Cody vanished the day before his mother, Robyn Y. Stepp, was released from prison. She served 17 months for two theft convictions. Robyn's sister, Mickey Stepp, had physical custody of Cody since January 1994 and legal custody since December 1996. Mickey told authorities that she believed Cody's maternal grandmother, Janice Stiles, was supervising him while she went to the store. Stiles claimed that she thought Cody accompanied Mickey on the errand.

Robyn attempted to have her son declared legally deceased in 1998, approximately 17 months after he was reported missing. She claimed that Mickey and Stiles withheld information regarding Aaron's disappearance. Several family members testified that they had not seen the child for several months prior to March 1997. Mickey and Stiles denied allegations that they allowed Cody to be removed from their home in order to receive illegal monthly welfare benefits of $279.

One of Stiles's children testified that she physically abused her children in the past. Stiles's two-year-old daughter died in 1964 and numerous burns were found on the child's body. Authorities closed the case without filing charges against anyone.

Investigators were unable to locate evidence suggesting Cody even resided with Mickey and Stiles after he was reported missing. Authorities said that there was no clothing, toys or photos connected to the child inside the home. Robyn testified that she saw Cody for the final time on December 18, 1995. She claimed that her mother and sister refused to allow her to speak to her son when she called from prison.

Investigators testified that they suspected foul play was involved in Cody's case, but could not produce evidence to support the theory. The judge refused to declare the child legally deceased due to the inconclusive nature of his case.

There was an unconfirmed sighting of Cody in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1997, four months after he disappeared. The witness reportedly saw a child fitting Cody's description between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. at DeFluri's Restaurant on Benner Pike. The child was accompanied by two unidentified adult females and two other children at the time. One of the women was described as a Caucasian female with medium-length dark hair. She was approximately 30 to 40 years old and 130 pounds. The second female was described as being of Asian or Pacific Islander descent with very short dark hair. She was in her late teens or early twenties and wore dark-framed eyeglasses and full-length jeans or denim shorts. The people spotted in the restaurant have never been identified, including the children.

Cody's case remains unsolved.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Columbus Police Department
614-645-4670



Source Information
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
Columbus Police Department
The Digital Collegian
America's Most Wanted
Heaven's Littlest Angels
Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse



Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004.

Last updated July 17, 2005.

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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story...0311-C1-03.html

Case cold 10 years after boy vanished
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Theodore Decker
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Aaron Cody Stepp was reported missing from his South Side home on March 11, 1997. He was 3 years old at the time.


Jim McCoskey rarely takes out the box anymore.

A phone call or tip sometimes prompts the Columbus homicide detective to lift the lid and leaf through the binders of information, much of it a decade old.

And each year around this time, he says, the reporters come calling. He takes out the box then, too, even though he’s added little new information to it in recent years.

Written in marker on the side of the box is the name Cody Stepp.

His full name is Aaron Cody Stepp, and he was 3 years old when he went missing from the South Side 10 years ago today.

In the years since the boy vanished, there have been interviews and polygraphs, accusations and excavations, even a court hearing when his mother unsuccessfully sought to have him declared dead.

Yet there remains no sign of Cody. No one has been charged in his disappearance.

"Cody could have been given away. He could have literally been sold," McCoskey said. "Do I know definitely, is he dead? No, I don’t."

Cody was reported missing on March 11, 1997, by his aunt Mickey Stepp.

His disappearance outside the family home at 214 Hosack St. came the day before his mother, Robyn Stepp, was to be released after 17 months in jail.

Mickey Stepp, who died in 2004 at age 31, had legal custody of the boy from when he was 4 months old because of Robyn Stepp’s long history of drug use and prostitution.

Police soon began doubting the scenario outlined by Mickey Stepp and Cody’s grandmother Janice Stiles, who lived with Mickey Stepp and Cody .

McCoskey said the investigation revealed that no neighbors or relatives could recall seeing Cody for nearly a year before he was reported missing. A search of the home shared by Stiles and Mickey Stepp turned up little evidence that a child his age lived there. Authorities also dug in several sites for Cody’s body but found nothing.

Detectives also learned that Stiles had a daughter named Tennie Stepp, who died in 1964 at age 2. Her death certificate says Tennie died of chronic bronchitis, but an autopsy showed burns all over her body. Her death was never investigated further, McCoskey said.

Mickey Stepp flunked two polygraph tests, police said. Stiles refused to take one, and McCoskey said both women rapidly became uncooperative, never checking on the status of the investigation as the years passed.

A message left for Stiles, 67, at her home at 258 E. Barthman Ave., where a "We Believe in Angels" sign hangs in the front door, was not returned last week.

It is unclear whether a rift that developed between Stiles and Robyn Stepp after Cody’s disappearance still exists. Robyn Stepp could not be found for comment, but court records and police reports from the past year show her living at Stiles’ home.

Soon after the boy vanished, Robyn Stepp accused relatives of taking her son and hiding him from her.

McCoskey still gets an occasional call on the case, usually prompted by an age-progressed picture of what Cody might look like now. All have been dead ends.

"You could almost term it a cold case at this point," he said. "There’s nothing new."

His own theory: "He’s dead, or he was sold into a culture like a pornography culture."

A reward of up to $2,000 is still available through Central Ohio Crime Stoppers for information that cracks the case, president Kevin Miles said.

"It’s hard to believe it’s 10 years," Miles said.

It’s rare for children to turn up alive after a long time, but it can happen. On Jan. 12 near St. Louis, police found in the apartment of a 41-year-old pizzeria manager not only a 13-year-old boy abducted four days earlier but a 15-year-old boy who had disappeared in 2002.

"We never close a case until it’s resolved," said Joann Donnellan, spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The center to date has received 80 tips on Cody and still features his picture in mailings and online, focusing on Columbus and an area of West Virginia where he has relatives.

"We can’t give up on (Cody) until we have some sort of resolution," she said.

Anyone with information on Cody should call the homicide squad at 614-645-4730, the national center at 1-800-THELOST (843-5678) or Crime Stoppers at 1-877-645-TIPS (8477). A picture of what he might look like today can be found at www.missingkids.com.


tdecker@dispatch.com
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...opic=1885&st=0&
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
http://www.10tv.com/?sec=news&story=sites/.../521801971.html

New Photo Of Missing Child Released
Mar 12 2007 8:42AM
Investigators hope a new image will help find a Columbus child who went missing 10 years ago.

Cody Stepp disappeared from his south Columbus home on March 11, 1997. He was 3-years-old.

Imaging specialist Steve Loftin used a computer to show what Cody would look like today (pictured, right).

This is the third time the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has age-enhanced Cody's photo.

"We've probably age-progressed in excess of 3,000 images and out of that 3,000 we've had over 700 recoveries wherein this kind of imaging work was done," said Loftin.

Monday was Cody's birthday; he would be 13-years-old.

No one has ever been charged in his disappearance.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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oldies4mari2004
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Aaron Cody Stepp
Missing since March 11, 1997 from Columbus, Ohio
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: September 24, 1993
Age at Time of Disappearance: 3 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3'2"; 39 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Blond, short, curly hair; blue eyes.
Clothing: Red jacket, blue sweatpants and black and white high-top tennis shoes.
AKA: Cody


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumstances of Disappearance
Stepp was last seen playing in a neighbor's backyard on Hosack Street at approximately 7:00 PM in Columbus, Ohio on March 11, 1997.
Police do suspect foul play in Aaron’s case. It has been reported that Aaron had not been seen by family members for many months prior to his reported disappearance in March 1997. It is alleged that his aunt and his maternal grandmother, allowed Aaron to be removed from their home to collect illegal welfare.
The aunt was Aaron’s legal guardian at the time of his disappearance. Aaron’s mother, Robin, was released from prison the day after Aaron was reported missing. While still in prison, Robin’s sister and mother would not allow her to speak to her son when she called.
Police were unable to compile evidence that Aaron even lived in the home. After his disappearance was reported, an investigation of the home had no clothing, toys, or pictures of the boy.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Columbus Police Department
Missing Persons Unit
614-645-4670
Email

NCMEC #: NCMC830065

NCIC Number:
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Ohio's Missing Children Clearinghouse
SPOTLIGHT Aaron Cody Stepp
Columbus Police Department
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