The few times that Aaron Thayer has been in the news locally go back to May 2015, when his 58-year-old father George Contos of Apricot Avenue in Daytona North disappeared and Thayer sought the Flagler County Sheriff’s help to find him. Contos’s 1997 car was subsequently found empty in a Palm Coast strip mall. Months later a message from Thayer was read at the unveiling of a billboard on State Road A1A offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Contos’s discovery, or recovery.
On Saturday, Thayer, 39, who was armed and had been reportedly chasing his girlfriend with a gun, was felled by a taser dart at the edge of his father’s property as he refused to comply with deputies’ orders to get on the ground. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Thayer had been working in Connecticut, where his family originates. His long-time girlfriend, with whom Thayer has a daughter, had been going through a breakup with him. She was still at the Apricot Avenue property, which Thayer had ringed with security cameras that he could monitor from Connecticut.
On Friday, she alerted sheriff’s deputies that Thayer had texted her explicit threats that he’d come down from Connecticut and kill her: “Hope you die.” “I’m coming down and I’m gonna fix this for ever.” “Imma kill you.” He also accused her of cheating on him. She told a deputy that in December 2020, Thayer had strangled her and battered her at the 5853 Apricot Avenue home, but she didn’t report it to law enforcement, and that he’d previously kicked her in the face with steel toe boots. (He has a 2002 felony conviction for assault in Connecticut.)
Even as she was speaking with deputies, she kept receiving texts and questions from Thayer wondering whom he was seeing in the surveillance camera footage. He called, she answered, placing him on speaker phone for the deputies to hear him ask “who the fuck were you with that was on my property?” (The property is still in Contos’s name.) He asks her where she was. She remained silent. Deputies then heard him explicitly threaten murder, his words laced with insults.
His girlfriend told the deputies that she feared he’d get on a plane or in a car and come down to kill her. She declined an offer to go to a safe location.
A warrant for Thayer’s arrest was signed. The charge: written threats to kill. Deputies pinged his phone. It showed he was on the move, traveling south, until the pinging turned up empty, suggesting he’d turned off his phone.
The frantic 911 calls from his girlfriend came the next day at 3:25 p.m. In the first, she tells a dispatcher that he’d arrived at the house and was breaking in–with what would later be determined to be a tire iron he’d picked up from his father’s truck. But the line dropped. In the second call moments later, the woman is heard running and saying, “he’s got a gun,” as she was attempting to evade him.
As deputies ran toward him, Thayer defied their orders to get on the ground. “This is ridiculous bro, this is my fucking house,” he said, standing near the edge of the driveway, his hands crossed over his head.
“On your knees,” “Do it now,” two deputies kept repeating, and when he asked “what for,” a deputy fired the taser.
“Signal zero, he’s got a fucking gun in his waistband,” a deputy warns–the second time in three weeks that Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies have confronted an armed and resisting suspect. (He was also charged with resisting arrest.)
He was compliant after that, turning around in his Hatebreed t-shirt to be handcuffed, but also yelling at his girlfriend, perhaps assuming she was near: “what the fuck, I love you, I came here for you.”
“So where do I go from here, man?” Thayer asked later as he stood by a patrol car, before being placed in it.
“To jail,” a deputy tells him.
“For, for-for real? To jail? For what?”
“Threats to kill.”
“Pfffft. Wow. Unreal.”
“No, it’s very real,” the deputy tells him.
His arrest report notes that he’d taken the gun from the dresser in his girlfriend’s bedroom–as well as $400 in cash that she had there, provided to her by a friend after she said Thayer had withdrawn all funds from their account. To deputies in an interview later, Thayer said he was not intending to hurt her nor deputies, and would not do so. He had allegedly admitted to a friend with whom he’d driven down that he’d written the threatening texts, but also that he hoped his girlfriend didn’t take his texts seriously. It’s not clear why he had not texted to say as much–or to say that he was traveling down because he missed his family and wanted to spend Easter with them, as he told deputies later.
He told deputies he’d used the tire iron to break into the house because he’d forgotten his keys. He told them he’d grabbed the gun because he needed it as self-protection “or to use against what he believed to be [his girlfriend’s] new boyfriend,” according to a deputy’s report.
“This guy told the victim he was going to kill her and less than 24-hours later he had driven all night and was at her door to kill her,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “I am so thankful that my deputies were able to intercept this guy and used their training, tactics and de-escalation techniques before he was able to hurt anyone. They handled a very volatile and dangerous situation by running toward danger to protect the victim. This situation that could have had an entirely different outcome with either the victim, suspect or deputies injured or killed if not for the heroic efforts of our deputies.”
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TR says
Thank goodness his ex wasn’t hurt and the fcso responded quickly.
One saying comes to mind “You can’t fix stupid”
Happening now says
What happened to the father?
Scott says
His father mysteriously disappeared back in 2015. His body has still not been found. Thayer is a person of interest.
T says
No he isn’t. He wasn’t even in the state at the time.
Steve says
Hes empowered because of not being charged or prosecuted for what he has done in the past. Tends to catch up with you eventually especially with these blatant acts
Trailer Bob says
Good job by our sheriff’s department, once again.
Just one more loser that we need to remove from the Mondex.
I find it highly doubtful that were it not for law enforcement being there, the end result would not have been good.
Resident says
Thank you FCSO. Bet this isn’t this guy’s first rodeo.
Mythoughts says
Not the sort of guy you would want your parents to meet and not the sort of guy any woman child with him or not should keep as their boyfriend. I think prison is a good place for him.
Only Me says
Hope she is smart and gets out of his property and far away from him before he hurts her for good.
Prayers offered says
What a terrifying situation for the lady and the Deputies. Evil exists. Prayers for all first responders, and the woman and child in this report.
Truth Seeker says
This situation probably could have been diffused by an officer trained in social work or mediation. The guy was just standing there in his front yard, he wasn’t out of breath from running or chasing anyone. Didn’t look out of control. Seriously, look at how far the officers had to run to get to him. Something seems fishy about this whole story.
Denise says
I totally agree with you. He wasn’t doing anything but standing in his own yard & didn’t try to escape. On the other hand, if in fact he did send those scarey texts, he will have to deal with whatever comes his way. What I will say, every day for many years now he has been dealing with the murder of his father’s murder & not knowing where his body is. The case was assisted with Cold Justice. When it was all said & done, that had enough circumstantial evidence against 2 men. I don’t know the status of it today. I can only imagine dealing with the murder of a parent & not having their body returned. It sounds like this young man is still dealing/reeling from this & will hopefully get help.
curious says
Wow! Now I’m wondering if he could have had something to do with his father’s death/disappearance.
Cold Justice Fan says
Cold Justice solved his father’s death/disappearance with the 2 guys from Palm Coast. The handyman and his stepson. And besides, he was living up North with his family when his father went missing. It’s too bad the FCSO detectives couldn’t solve. I think the mold issue in their work environment affected their health and ability to get the job done. Sad all around.
JGLOW says
Unfortunately, this case still has not been solved. In 2018 Cold Justice resurrected the case and Flagler County sheriff’s detectives recommended prosecutors charge Donald Corcoran and his stepson Andrew Nemec with first-degree murder. The only information given t0 the public at that time was that Flagler County was working on the case to bring charges against the two men. However, as of today 12/18/2021 not only has justice still not been served, but STILL neither men have been arrested. I personally cannot comprehend what the hell is wrong with Flagler County and why there is no justice for George Contos!
Erika Keck says
No he didn’t, genius. You need to do a little research before commenting like that. Two men are responsible for his disappearance, they just can’t seem to bring them to justice.
Deborah Q says
Maybe the poor guy is just tormented because he sees his fathers killers roaming around the town.I’m so glad I live in a country where guns are against the law!
Deborah Q says
Don’t be so ridiculous, he was heartbroken at his Dads death…two people were found to be responsible for his dads death but the police couldn’t get their case together!!
James says
Sad story. I just watched his Father’s Cold case on the Oxygen channel. Afterwards, I did a Google search to find out if the two suspects were arrested yet. Then I saw this. Great job by local law enforcement. Let’s get his father’s case closed too. I will pray for all involved.