Aaron Rathke arrested, charged in death of 5-month-old son
FRIDLEY, Minn. — A 23-year-old Fridley man was arrested and charged on Friday in connection to the death of his 5-month-old child in March.
Aaron Rathke faces a second-degree murder charge in Anoka County.
Charges state that Rathke took his child, Kaiden Rathke, to the Fridley Police Department on March 1 after the boy stopped breathing. Kaiden Rathke did not have a pulse, and later died at the hospital.
Aaron Rathke told law enforcement that he had come home from work and was changing his child's diaper when he started vomiting and stopped breathing. Rathke said he then pushed on his baby's chest, but was unsuccessful in getting him to breathe again.
Documents say that Rathke said the child's mother had called him earlier in the day to say his eyes had rolled back into his head and he had stopped breathing. Rathke said that when his girlfriend pushed on the baby's chest, he started to breathe again.
He said he didn't call an ambulance because there had been previous incidents with the baby in which they were able to "bring him back." He added that the baby would sometimes "forget to breathe." A few days later, he provided another statement to law enforcement in which he said he sometimes hugged his child "a little too hard," but denied ever dropping or bumping the baby into anything.
The child's mother said in a statement that the baby had stopped breathing around noon that day. When she sat up and pressed on his chest, he started to breathe again.
Then on June 6, a woman called police saying that the child's mother had sent her a Snapchat message saying that Rathke had "killed the baby."
MORE NEWS: Minneapolis man says he owes nearly $10,000 in fees to auto shop after declining repair
Charges state that the child's mother then sent Rathke's mother several messages, saying that she was "scared to talk" and that Rathke "suffocated" the baby.
On Aug. 1, the child's mother told police that Rathke had killed their child. Then on Sept. 27, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined the baby's cause of death to be multiple blunt force injuries, and the manner of death was a homicide, according to documents.
On Oct. 3, she told law enforcement that she had initially been scared to come forward because Rathke had been abusive to her, charges say. She said that Rathke would put their child to sleep by placing pressure on his throat, causing him to pass out. She added that she'd seen Rathke "choke" their baby when he was three months old.
Rathke was arrested on Friday and booked into Anoka County Jail.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Local Domestic Violence Resources
Women's Advocates
Crisis Line: (651) 227-8284
St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
Crisis Line: (651) 645-2824
Minnesota Day One
Crisis Line: 1-866-223-1111
Esperanza United
Bilingual crisis line: (651) 772-1611.
For anonymous, confidential help, people can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.
