Share and Follow
Inset: Aaron Malone (Barry County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Aaron Malone and Aspen Lewis (Facebook/Aaron Malone).
A Missouri man has been found guilty of murder after brutally killing his girlfriend and leaving her body concealed in a wooded area. Her remains, hidden beneath a layer of leaves and branches, were discovered after he had falsely reported her missing, suggesting she might have been abducted, according to prosecutors.
Aaron Malone, 24, was found guilty last week by a Jasper County jury of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the disappearance and death of his 24-year-old girlfriend Aspen Lewis in November 2024.
According to court records, the man, identified as Malone, contacted authorities to report his girlfriend, Lewis, as missing and expressed his belief that she had been kidnapped.
However, investigators found numerous discrepancies in Malone’s account during their inquiries, as detailed in the probable cause affidavit that led to his arrest.
During an interaction with Malone concerning Lewis’s disappearance, officers noticed a “significant blood stain on the road behind Malone’s vehicle.” They also found blood evidence on his truck, and it appeared that the gravel driveway had been tampered with, as noted in the affidavit.
The affidavit further mentioned that pieces of jewelry were discovered scattered on the ground. Surveillance footage captured Malone’s truck arriving at the home around 11:35 p.m. on November 24, 2024, followed by audible screams shortly thereafter.
Malone’s truck was caught on video leaving the residence with him inside around 1:35 a.m. and then returning at 4:10 a.m., not long after he called police to report Lewis as missing.
Police interviewed Malone and asked him about the blood and surveillance footage, to which he said he would take investigators to Lewis’ body, per the affidavit. As police pulled up to a rural location Malone had directed them to, they observed “the remains of a burnt pink” shirt in the roadway. Lewis was found “off the roadway” moments later.
“The victim had extensive head trauma,” the affidavit said. “In a post Miranda interview … Aaron Malone admitted to an altercation taking place and disposing of the body.”
During his trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing how Malone “repeatedly assaulted the victim in the face, strangled her, and shot her before leaving her body in the woods in Barry County,” according to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
It took jurors about an hour to convict Malone after a three-day trial, per the AG’s office. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9.