SHOSHONE - An Idaho father has been arrested after his 11-year-old daughter likely died of hypothermia in south-central Idaho.

And now, Robert Aragon, the girl's father, has been charged with second degree murder.

He is being held in a Blaine County jail on a $500,000 bond.

Authorities say the girl died after trying to walk 10 miles in the snow to her mother's house. The girl, Sage Aragon, and her 12-year-old brother, were with their father on Christmas when his truck got stuck in a snow drift north of Shoshone.

The sheriff's office says Robert Aragon let the children walk while he and another adult stayed behind to free the vehicle. The Blaine County search and rescue team found the girl and her brother, who survived the storm, the next day.

Aragon's cousin, Kenneth Quintana, who was with the family, spoke to KMVT about what happened.

Quintana says it was their understanding that the children's mother would meet them halfway on Magic Road. He also says Robert originally didn't let the children leave when the car got stuck.

"I just want everybody to know that Bob did not send his kids out to die - he didn't," Quintana said. "He didn't even want to let them go, but the kids were confident, hell I was even confident in that she (the mother) was going to be there."

Search and rescue teams found the boy at a rest area - four miles from the highway, while the girl was found one mile east of the highway near the same rest area, by a Blaine County Search and Rescue K-9 unit.

Both children were taken to St. Luke's Medical Center in Ketchum. The boy was treated and released, but the girl was pronounced dead.

Court records show Aragon has a criminal past dating back to the early 1990s.

Court records show Aragon, 55, of Jerome, was most recently convicted of drug possession in February, and previously for trafficking drugs in 1994.