Colo. Teen Pleads Guilty In Murder Of 10-Year-Old Kiaya Campbell

Aidan Zellmer, 16, pleaded guilty to killing the daughter of his mother's boyfriend whose body was found beaten in a park in Thornton.

CBS Local, News Partner

Posted Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 3:14 pm MT|Updated Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 5:38 pm MT

BRIGHTON, CO. (CBS4) – On Friday 16-year-old Aidan Zellmer pleaded guilty to killing 10-year-old Kiaya Campbell in Thornton in 2017. Zellmer was 15 at the time of the shocking Adams County crime.

Zellmer was with Campbell the night she disappeared in June 2017. His mother was in a relationship with Campbell’s father at the time.

Zellmer had claimed the two had been separated in a rainstorm and a search was launched for her. Campbell’s body was found the next day in a drainage ditch behind homes near 128th Avenue and Jasmine Street. The Adams County Coroner’s Office found she had been beaten to death.