AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora police and the family of Aarone Thompson were both talking Tuesday about the case of the missing and presumably murdered girl, but apparently they aren't talking to each other.

Aarone was reported missing last week but police called off the search last Thursday, saying that it was no longer a missing person's case but a homicide investigation.

Aarone Thompson's father, Aaron Thompson, and his live-in girlfriend, Shely Lowe, are considered "persons of interest."

Aurora police held a news conference earlier in the afternoon, renewing the department's request for interviews with Thompson and Lowe. Police spokesman Marcus Dudley said they have requested interviews with Thompson and Lowe and both have repeatedly declined.

Police have also asked Thompson to volunteer for a polygraph but he's declined, Dudley said.

"We really would like to interview the parents of Aarone, and namely Aaron Thompson and Shely Lowe. There are some specific questions that we would like them to answer for us. And so, in another attempt for them to be cooperative with this investigation, we hope they'll be willing to sit down with us and have an official discussion about what exactly has taken place with Aarone," Dudley said. "There's already been several new facts that have come to light to us that we need to ask them about. There's some inconsistencies in what they have been telling us."

The family has questioned why police aren't searching for the girl and instead are going on a "fishing expedition" in the family's back yard.

Police responded by saying they are still actively searching for Aarone but they hold firm to their belief that the girl is no longer alive and nothing has occurred in the last 48 hours that would change that belief.

In fact, what they've learned so far has only strengthened their belief that the child was killed, perhaps months ago, Dudley said.

"Up to this point, no one other than the parent that reported her missing has been able to substantiate that she has still been around this area, or at least in that house, within the past year and a half," Dudley said.

Dudley said the department is very disapointed that the family is calling for a search to resume even though they are not talking to investigators, who are trying to conclude their investigation. Dudley said that their last communication with Thompson was last Thursday when they executed the search warrant at his rental home at East Kepner Place.

He said officers suspended the neighborhood search because officers had looked anywhere and everywhere that a 6-year-old girl could have walked to and a tip led them to the family's back yard.

He said officers plan to be searching the Aurora home for another week.

Dudley said that the homicide investigation has expanded beyond Aurora, to Detroit and Florida. Aurora officers were in Florida Tuesday because the family was vacationing in Disney World over the summer and investigators were there to check out if Aarone was with them, 7NEWS reported. Detroit is where the family used to live.

During a countering press conference at Mount Gilead Baptist Church, the Rev. Acen Phillips, a family friend, and Aarone's grandfathers asked the community to help them search for Aarone and defended her father.

"The family is basically saying they are not concerned about the homicide investigation, but they are concerned that there's no one looking for their lost child. They want to make certain that if you keep on with the investigation, that's fine, but will somebody please help us find our child," Phillips said. "I say we ought to keep searching for a live child until you find a dead one."

Phillips said that the Aaron and his girlfriend have a history of turning to the police department for help with runaways. In the past they had called police when a teen in the home -- Lowe's younger brother -- ran away and when Aarone's 11-year-old brother, Aaron Jr., ran away.

"When you have a pattern of calling the police department because you're in trouble and your child has run away and you want someone to help you find the child, you don't do that if you've already killed the child and buried them in the back yard. That does not make sense. That's illogical. Why would you call the police if you already know that you've committed a crime?" Phillips said.

The grandfathers would not say when was the last time they saw or spoke to Aarone, and would not speculate as to why Thompson and Lowe have not talked to police since being named "persons of interest."

"I'm here today to make a plea to the community, to please help us find our granddaughter," said Jesse Cloman, Aarone's step-grandfather.

"We are really asking the whole community, let's go looking for this child," Phillips said. "The problem we have is that nobody is actually looking for the child, except these parents. They've been getting up everyday trying to do what they can, on their own, to look for their child."

During the news conference, a lead detective confronted Phillips and the two grandfathers, requesting to speak directly to Thompson and his girlfriend.

"We haven’t had a formal interview with Aaron Thompson since Nov. 14, the day she was reported missing. We have never had a formal interview with Shely Lowe. We are requesting that Aaron Thompson and Shely Lowe come to the Aurora Police Department for formal interviews today," Hansen said.

Phillips countered, "You've had an opportunity. You were there in the home when they called you. They talked to you then. You were there several days. There's been a lot of opportunities."

Nevertheless, Phillips said he will meet with attorneys to try to set up some sort of communication between the family and law enforcement.

Aarone's biological mother, Lynette Thompson, is cooperating with investigators. She lives in Detroit and said her husband needs to take a lie-detector test.

"They need to make her take one too," Lynette Thompson said, referring to Lowe." "I hope all of them get what they deserve. Only four people know what happened to Aarone -- Aarone, God up above, Aaron and Shely."

The Aurora Sentinel is reporting that that Aaron Thompson agreed to take a polygraph last Monday, before the case was being treated as a homicide, but he didn't show up and that was one of the things that tipped off police.

No arrests have been made in the case.

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