WATERLOO - The father of a slain teenager is crying foul after he was arrested for missing a court date when he traveled to Colorado to see her grave.

Rob Allen Patterson, 43, of Waterloo, said he didn't learn of his 14-year-old daughter's death until April 22, which was about a month after her body was found near the West Pueblo, Colo., home where she lived with her mother.

When word finally reached Patterson, he frantically packed and made the 900-mile trip to Colorado.

He said an April 23 pretrial conference for a pending misdemeanor charge of eluding was the furthest thing from his mind.

"All I was thinking about was where she was now," Patterson said Monday.

He said he didn't think to call his attorney until about a week later as he traveled back to Iowa.

When he showed up at the Black Hawk County Courthouse Friday to straighten out the matter, he was arrested for failing to appear in court for the April 24 conference.

Judge Nathan Callahan set bond at $5,000, which was posted Sunday.

Patterson said he was told to be quiet when he tried to explain his absence.

"It's unfair treatment; it's not like I stayed there. I was only there a week," said Patterson as he prepared to pawn his stereo to make up for the $500 he paid a bondsman to post his bail.

He's also out the $200 that he paid a bondsman when he was initially released in October following his original arrest.

Patterson said his phone had been disconnected for about a month and a half. A friend of the family eventually told him of the death.

He missed the funeral, and he wasn't listed in the girl's obituary.

Patterson, a Colorado native who moved to Iowa about six years ago, said the last time he saw his daughter, Ashley Kate Patterson, was in January.

She had been rock hunting near her house when she disappeared March 29. Her body was found in a grassy field later that day, and police arrested a neighbor, Paul Wayne Stark, 64, for murder after allegedly following tire tracks to his home.

The girl had been strangled to death, and there were signs of sexual assault.