DENVER -- The two people in the center of the investigation of a missing girl in Aurora have finally talked publicly, and they talked only to 7NEWS.

Aaron Thompson and his girlfriend, Shely Lowe, say they did not kill Aarone Thompson.

"No, I did not. I'm still looking for my daughter. My parents are still looking for daughter. My family is still looking for my daughter. If they got an investigation against me, OK. Why stop looking for my daughter?" said Thompson.

"No. And we were hoping everybody else was still looking for her, helping us," Lowe said. "Don't give up on her because you're suspicious of us."

Thompson reported Aarone missing Nov. 14. He said she ran away from the house after a fight. After searching the area for three days, investigators called off the search and said they believe that Aarone is not missing but that she's been dead for more than a year and half. They call Lowe and Thompson "persons of interest" in the case.

Thompson and Lowe criticized police and say the focus of the investigation is in the wrong place.

"We are tired of hearing that we did it and we're also tired of hearing of the fact they are not looking for her. They are doing nothing. Her grandparents were out putting up fliers and they went back over stores. They were told they had to take them down. Don't allow fliers to be put up of Aarone. Why?" Lowe said.

"When we first called the police and we were in the home, we asked them all the time, and everyday, 'What can we get out and do?' They didn't want us to leave that house. 'Nothing. Stay here,'" Lowe said.

Thompson and Lowe said police unfairly attacked their character and their credibility and they feel as if officers have been treating them as if they're guilty and they have to prove their innocence.

"We want her home. We all want her home. Even the children, that's all they were concerned. The first thing that came out of the mouth was, 'It's cold outside. She's been gone too long. That little jacket ain't going to keep her warm, is it?'" Lowe said.

Police have not formally interviewed Thompson and Lowe since they were named "persons of interest" in the homicide investigation. The couple has repeatedly turned down police requests for an interview.

Thompson and Lowe said they did grant interviews the first couple of days police were in the house.

"The first night I talked to police without lawyer representation or anything," said Thompson.

"And so did I," said Lowe.

"And I agreed. I went down to the station with them. (I answered) all the questions that we were talking about. I went through everything. And after that night and after I talked to my parents and everybody, they said, 'Don't talk no more. You gave them what you wanted them to hear, so why you keep going over it?'" Thompson said.

"It just felt like we gave them so much. It was like, 'Wow, they're asking us ...'" said Lowe.

"That's the point we make when we say that they have cooperated," said family spokesman Sam Riddle. "What's happening, quite frankly, is the police are not getting the answers they want to justify the police department's rush to judgment."

"I read in the paper it was like the children were scared to answer and every time they answered a question they looked at Dad. They looked at me. I wasn't even in the room with them," Thompson said.

"It wasn't true. We were not around. They would literally run into the house, down into the family room and start questioning the kids. We didn't even know it. After a long argument with me, I agreed to let them take each children, one by one, up to their room, close the door and interview. They had each of those kids in there about 30 minutes each," said Lowe.

They told 7NEWS that in the three days following Aarone's disappearance they allowed detectives total access to all the kids in the house.

"When the kids would be interviewed and spoken with that they would look at us -- that is a complete lie. Those children were interviewed by eight different sets of officers," Lowe said.

They said they had nothing to hide.

"I gave them everything. We gave them everything they asked us for," said Lowe.

Riddle said that they gave the police a doll that Aarone plays with and a bloodhound tracked that scent to a 7-Eleven store on Mississippi and Chambers and then lost the scent.

"We also heard that night, the first night we called in, that a woman was seen at a Wendy's -- a black woman with chin-length hair, with a little girl described from head to toe -- clothing and everything, hairstyle -- with Aarone's description," Lowe said. "They told us that the first night. An officer came in."

"It was reverse-911 call they put out. And they said they got that lead off of that," Thompson said.

The couple believed that there was a warrant for their arrest issued Thursday so they were on their way down to the police station to face the charge when they learned that that wasn't the case. They decided to talk anyway -- to 7NEWS.

A report on Thursday said that the couple submitted a Christmas wish list to a nonprofit organization 14 days before Aarone's disappearance but the list did not include the girl's name. A spokesman for the Beacon of Hope Outreach Center said that the letter, sent in late October, asked for help buying Christmas presents but Aarone's name was omitted from the list of their children.

The couple responded to the report by shaking their heads.

"That is so bogus," Lowe said.

"I was so angry about that this morning. We never made out any Christmas list," Thompson said.

"We don't even know ... What is the name of this church, again?" Lowe said. "Even though it's a struggle to have as many kids as we have. We can purchase their things,OK? We appreciate donations and things that we can get but we didn't sign up for nothing like that. That was just crazy."

The couple also said that Aarone was with the family when they took a summer trip to Disneyworld. As part of their investigation, Aurora investigators flew to Florida to confirm whether or not the girl was with the family.

A spokesman for the Aurora Police Department said Thursday that there will be no comment until police have seen the entire interview. He also said the interview does not change the fact the couple has not sat down with police investigators.

Aarone Thompson's seventh birthday was Wednesday.

A candlelight vigil is planned for the missing girl Friday night. It will be held at Mississippi and Buckley beginning at 8 p.m.

Please watch 7NEWS for more on this story.