Background: News footage of Aaron Paulsen during a November 2025 court appearance (KATU). Inset: Dane Paulsen (Lincoln County Sheriff's Office).
An Oregon man told police he was watching TV and playing games on his phone when his 2-year-old son left the house and fell into the river where he was eventually found dead.
Aaron Scott Paulsen was charged with child neglect in late 2025, months after his 2-year-old son Dane was found dead in a river by the family home in Siletz, Oregon. As Law&Crime previously reported, Dane was last seen in the backyard on March 1, 2025, 10 days before his body was recovered. Paulsen was indicted by a grand jury in October 2025, and he pleaded not guilty.
According to court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate KOIN, Paulsen admitted that he was distracted by his TV and his phone when he saw Dane walk out of the house, never to return.
Deputies from the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office wrote in the criminal complaint that Dane's mother, Chamet Jackson, left the little boy with his father in the living room of the house after bringing him in from outside. She told Paulsen she would return shortly. Paulsen told police that he was "binge" watching a sitcom on TV and playing games on his phone when he saw Dane leave the house by himself through a sliding glass door.
Jackson told police that she was in a trailer on the property and heard someone knock on the door. Her first thought, according to the complaint, was "Oh s— the baby's out." She told police that she heard Dane walking around outside, but she did not open the door or leave the trailer right away.
Paulsen said Dane was gone for 15 minutes when Jackson came back into the living room looking for their son. Paulsen and Jackson told police that Dane loved the water, and there was a trail that led from their house to the Siletz River. However, Dane did not know how to swim.
Police said they responded to the home after a fisherman called about hearing a woman screaming by the river.
According to the court documents, this was not the first time Dane had eluded his parents. When he was 18 months old, a teenager allegedly found him by himself, walking along a highway about 100 yards from the family's home. He was wearing nothing but a diaper and a blue sweater. The teen walked Dane back to his family's house, where his parents reportedly seemed unconcerned that their toddler had walked out to a highway by himself.
The teen told investigators that he continued to see Dane in the front yard of the home by himself or under the watch of the couple's then-8-year-old daughter.
Paulsen was charged with second-degree child neglect. His next court date is scheduled for June 22, and a jury trial is scheduled for July.