Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

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Christina's Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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*In Loving Memory Of* Christina Diane Holt May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."	(Not her actual headstone)
These pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

Girl, 7, Missing (10/23/94)
Girl, 7, Abducted From Flea Market (10/24/94)
Search For Girl Yields Nothing (10/24/94)
Mom Pleads For Return of 7-Year-Old Daughter (10/24/94)
Hunt Widens For Child Lost At Swap Shop (10/24/94)
Did Missing Girl Really Go To Flea Market, Police Ask (10/25/94)
More Questions Than Answers (10/25/94)
Abductors Rarely Strangers (10/25/94)
For Broward Parents, A Chilling Flashback (10/25/94)
Video May Help In Hunt For Missing Girl (10/25/94)

GIRL, 7, MISSING
Sun-Sentinel
October 23, 1994
Author: Staff Reports

A Riviera Beach girl, 7, disappeared on Saturday from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop after she went to the restroom with her mother.

Broward sheriff's deputies searched into the night for Christina Holt, sheriff's spokesman George Crolius said. The search resumes today.

Christina was with family at the Swap Shop, on West Sunrise Boulevard. About noon, she went to the restroom with her mother, Pauline Zile. When Zile came out and looked in a nearby stall for her daughter, the girl was gone, Crolius said.

Christina is 3 feet 9 inches tall, 44 pounds, with dark eyes and short, dirty-blond hair. She was wearing long white pants with polka dots, a white shirt with a brown teddy bear on the chest and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information should call the Broward Sheriff's Office Missing Persons Unit, 305-321-4240, or CrimeStoppers, 493-TIPS.

GIRL, 7, ABDUCTED FROM FLEA MARKET
The Palm Beach Post
October 24, 1994
Author: CAROLYN FRETZ and CHRISTINE WALKER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A Saturday outing turned into a nightmare for a Riviera Beach woman whose 7-year-old daughter was abducted from a restroom at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.

Pauline Zile, 24, of 1215 Beach Road, and her daughter, Christina Holt, arrived at the flea market on West Sunrise Boulevard shortly before noon, said Broward sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal.
``As soon as they got on the grounds, they looked for the nearest bathroom,'' he said. ``They went into separate stalls. When she came out, Christina was not in the bathroom.''

Zile looked outside for her daughter and then asked Swap Shop security guards for help. They called the sheriff's office.

Deputies originally treated the incident as a separated child case, but as the afternoon wore on the search intensified, Leljedal said. Deputies used dogs and helicopters, but by Sunday night, they had found no trace of the little girl.

``We're trying to generate leads at this point,'' Leljedal said. ``We don't have people remembering the little girl, but they do remember the mother panicking.''

The swap shop is an 80-acre, open-air market with 2,000 flea market vendors, an entertainment center, food court and circus.

Zile has been divorced from Christina's father for about seven years, and Christina has lived most of her life in Maryland with her father's parents. The girl just began living with her mother, stepfather, John Zile, 32, and their two sons in June, Leljedal said.

Zile told police she doesn't suspect Christina's father or any other family member was involved in the girl's disappearance, Leljedal said. But detectives are investigating all possibilities.

``We're working it as an abduction,'' Leljedal said. ``We're just not sure what kind of abduction it is.''

Zile's neighbors and former co-workers at Ocean's Eleven North and the Buccaneer Restaurant & Lounge on Singer Island describe her as quiet, hard-working and a devoted mother.

``She spoke of her daughter often,'' said Bobbi Ringer, who was a hostess at the Buccaneer when Zile was a waitress there. ``She was working hard to get her back (from Maryland).''

Christina is 3-foot-9, 44 pounds, with dark eyes, a fair complexion and short dirty-blond hair. She was wearing white pants with multicolored polka dots, a white shirt with ruffled sleeves and a brown teddy bear on the chest, and white sneakers.

SEARCH FOR GIRL YIELDS NOTHING
FAMILY CLINGS TO HOPE AS BAFFLED POLICE SEEK LEADS
Sun-Sentinel
October 24, 1994
Author: HENRY FITZGERALD JR. Staff Writer
Staff Writers Seth Borenstein, Phil Davis and Lane Kelley contributed to this report.

Pauline Zile, clutching her daughter Christina's favorite doll, returned on Sunday to the last place she saw her child: a restroom at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop on Sunrise Boulevard.

Although a 30-hour search of the Swap Shop offered no clues, Zile clung to the hope that Christina, 7, could hear her pleas.
"Christina, if you're out there, please let someone know where you are," Zile said. "I miss you so much."

After ruling out other options, Broward Sheriff's officials say they are left with the possibility that Christina Holt was kidnapped. Deputies are quick to point out that they have no evidence of or witnesses to an abduction.

"We don't have any good leads right now. The next step is to act on any good tips we may get," said Jim Leljedal, a spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office.

The investigation now centers on waiting for phone tips and interviewing people who know Christina and her family.

Officers say that today they will begin comparing Christina's disappearance to other missing children cases, including that of Amanda Dougherty. Amanda disappeared from her North Lauderdale home 33 days ago and was found dead two days later.

"There are no obvious connections to the two cases," Leljedal said.

At a news conference on Sunday morning, Zile described her last hours with her daughter. The two had planned a girls' day out at the Swap Shop, an hour's drive from the family's apartment in Riviera Beach.

Christina had never been to the Swap Shop and talked eagerly on the drive about seeing the circus and going on the the amusement rides, her mother said.

But before enjoying the attractions, the two took time out to go to the restroom at the west end of the flea market. Zile said she and her daughter took separate stalls, and Zile kept talking to her. When Christina didn't answer, Zile knocked on the stall wall. She hurried to look in the stall and found it empty.

"I thought she may have been waiting outside for me, but when I got outside, she wasn't there," said Zile, twisting the doll's blond curls over her fingers during the news conference.

"When I didn't see her, I thought maybe she had gotten excited and ran over to the rides. I looked for her but didn't find her."

After searching for her daughter about 20 minutes, Zile said she contacted Swap Shop officials. By 1:30 p.m., sheriff's deputies were helping with the search.

A dozen deputies questioned vendors and customers and rode around the 80-acre site on bicycles and cars. The Sheriff's Office helicopter flew over the area.

By midafternoon, Swap Shop workers were circulating pictures of the girl, and her disappearance was announced at the end of one of the circus shows.

Because of the Swap Shop's limited access, deputies don't think Christina walked off the grounds unattended, Leljedal said.

The grounds are fenced, with five entrances, all staffed throughout the day. Preston Henn, owner of the Swap Shop, said vendors and employees are instructed to stop unattended children and to take them to the two information booths on the property.

As deputies interviewed people at the Swap Shop, they found one vendor who saw a girl fitting Christina's description but could not remember where, Leljedal said.

Vendors who work near the restroom said they neither heard nor saw anything suspicious. "On weekends, there are 40 to 50 people standing here," said Francisco Tellez, who operates Francis Landscaping just outside the restrooms. "I don't see how she could have been kidnapped from here, and no one heard or saw anything." The size and crowds at the Swap Shop made the investigation difficult, detectives said. Swap Shop officials said on a typical Saturday as many as 20,000 people pass through its gates.

Because of the circus and other family activities, sometimes 30 children a day become separated from their parents. Seven lost children were waiting for their parents at one of the two information booths on Sunday.

"It happens all the time, but we always have a happy ending," Henn said. He said he has 25 to 30 off-duty deputies and his own security personnel patrolling the grounds on weekends.

Deputies also considered Christina's family history. Christina is Zile's daughter from a previous marriage, and the girl had lived with her paternal grandmother in Maryland most of her life, her mother said.

Christina came to live with her mother in Riviera Beach in June, after "a protracted custody battle," Leljedal said. Zile has been married to her husband, John, for five years, and they have two sons.

"We have no evidence that anyone in the family had anything to do with Christina's disappearance," Leljedal said. "We know the father also lives in Maryland but has had very little contact with the little girl. We have also been in contact with family members there, but we have no domestic connection to go on."

Broward deputies and Riviera Beach police officers talked to several people near Christina's home and to her friends "to learn a little more about the girl and the situation to see if there was something that can help," Leljedal said.

Neighbors along Beach Road on Sunday described the family as quiet people who kept to themselves. They didn't make much noise and were seldom seen outside their apartment on Singer Island.

John Zile works as a cook at Ocean's Eleven North, said Al Rosen, owner of the bar and restaurant. Pauline Zile worked there until recently, Rosen said.

Rosen said John Zile was to work on Saturday night. "He called me yesterday at 4 p.m. and said Pauline was at the Swap Shop and had lost their little girl. He left in a panic."

The family is staying at a Broward County motel while the search for Christina continues.

The Zile family has lived in the low-priced apartments in the the beachfront neighborhood for years, said Steve Stogiannis, manager.

Pauline Zile "is very alert," said Tina Stogiannis, who manages the Sea Nymph Apartments with husband, Steve. "She holds them very tight. She doesn't even let the kids out to play - that's how careful a mother she is."

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MOM PLEADS FOR RETURN OF 7-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 24, 1994
Author: AMY DRISCOLL Herald Staff Writer

Cradling her daughter's favorite doll and choking back tears, the mother of a 7-year-old girl who vanished from the Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdale pleaded Sunday for her child's safe return.
"I just want her back," said Pauline Zile, wiping her eyes with a folded napkin. "I just want her safe and sound."

Christina Holt disappeared from a women's bathroom at the Swap Shop about noon Saturday, vanishing in a minute or two while her mother was in a bathroom stall a few feet away. Detectives with the Broward County Sheriff's Office have been unable to find anyone who saw the 44-pound child leave.

"I thought she was in the bathroom with me," said Zile, 24, who returned Sunday to the spot where she had last seen her daughter. "I kept talking to her and then she didn't answer."

Saturday was supposed to be a special mother-daughter day, a treat to celebrate a new custody agreement that allowed Christina to live with her mother. The child had been raised by her father's mother and an aunt, both in Maryland.

In June, the grandmother voluntarily signed over custody of the child to her mother, and Christina moved to Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County to live with her mother, a waitress, and stepfather, Walter Zile, police said.

Saturday's trip from Riviera Beach took more than an hour, so the twosome headed straight for the bathroom after parking their car, said Sgt. David Robshaw, an investigator with the sex crimes/missing persons unit of the sheriff's office.

They entered the bathroom and walked down a corridor with four stalls lining each side. The mother went into the last stall, and as she was closing the door, she saw her daughter, a blond, dark-eyed, little girl, just a few feet behind her.

It was the last time she saw Christina.

"While she was in the stall, (the mother) thought she heard the stall door next to her close," Robshaw said. "After a minute or two, she started talking to Christina but Christina didn't answer, and that's when she got worried."

Zile quickly went down the rows of stalls, opening each door and calling out for her daughter, Robshaw said. When she had searched the bathroom, she ran out to the flower shop next door and began shouting.

"She was yelling, Christina, Christina," said Kim Bukowski, a flower vendor. "She was terribly upset. So we started searching right away."

Security guards joined in, and later, the sheriff's office.

By nightfall, the Swap Shop closed its doors to customers and police searched the grounds. from end to end. Police dogs tried without success to follow her trail.

The search widened Sunday, as detectives fanned out to question flea market merchants who might have seen the little girl. Anyone with information about Christina's disappearance should call the sheriff's office missing persons unit at 321-4240 or Crimestoppers at 493-TIPS to become eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

HUNT WIDENS FOR CHILD LOST AT SWAP SHOP
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 24, 1994
Author: AMY DRISCOLL Herald Staff Writer

Cradling her daughter's favorite doll and choking back tears, the mother of a 7-year-old girl who vanished from the Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdalepleaded Sunday for her child's safe return.
"I just want her back," said Pauline Zile, wiping her eyes with a folded napkin. "I just want her safe and sound."

"I thought she was in the bathroom with me," said Zile, 24, who returned Sunday to the spot where she had last seen her daughter. "I kept talking to her and then she didn't answer."

They entered the bathroom and walked down a corridor with four stalls lining each side. The mother went into the last stall, and as she was closing the door, she saw her daughter, a blonde, dark-eyed little girl, just a few feet behind her.

It was the last time she saw Christina.

"She was yelling,'Christina, Christina,' " said Kim Bukowski, a flower vendor. "She was terribly upset. So we started searching right away."

They looked first in an empty building adjacent to the Farmer's Market section of the Swap Shop, and continued in ever- widening circles. Security guards joined in, and later, the sheriff's office.

Zile gave police a color photo of the little girl, which was photocopied and posted on booths and buildings all through the Swap Shop, with its 2,000 vendors.

By nightfall, the Swap Shop closed its doors to customers and police searched the grounds from end to end. Police helicopters, which had swooped over the Swap Shop during the day, took to the air with searchlights to scan the surrounding acres. Police dogs tried without success to follow her trail.

"There are a lot of places a child could hide, but we looked everywhere," said Preston Henn, who owns the Swap Shop. "We lose children all the time here, but we always find them again. People are always wandering off, but this is the first time anything like this has happened."

. The search widened Sunday, as detectives fanned out to question flea market merchants who might have seen the little girl. They have talked several times with the child's paternal grandmother in Maryland.

The child's father, who also lives in Maryland, knew nothing about the apparent abduction when police spoke with him, according to Robshaw. Christina has never lived with her father, who has no interest in custody, police said.

Christina, who attends Jupiter Farms Elementary School, is 3-foot-9 and was last seen wearing white pants with colored polka dots and a white shirt with a brown teddy bear on the chest and white sneakers.

Christina's disappearance is the second Broward missing child case in recent weeks. On Sept. 22, 5-year-old Amanda Dougherty vanished from her North Lauderdale home. Her strangled body was found in a canal near Boca Raton two days later. The murder has not been solved.

Anyone with information about Christina's disappearance should call the sheriff's office missing persons unit at 321-4240 or CrimeStoppers at 493-TIPS to become eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

DID MISSING GIRL REALLY GO TO FLEA MARKET, POLICE ASK
The Palm Beach Post
October 25, 1994
Author: CAROLYN FRETZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

FBI agents joined the search for a Riviera Beach girl missing since Saturday, and Broward County Sheriff's deputies on Monday spent hours inside the girl's home - collecting hair samples, fingerprints and at one point taking out couch cushions.

Investigators spent the weekend trying to determine if 7-year-old Christina Holt was taken from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop by a stranger or by someone she knew. Now, officials - including 24 FBI agents who joined the case Monday - say they are questioning whether the child was ever at the flea market and circus on West Sunrise Boulevard.
``We don't have any eyewitnesses, and there's no physical evidence showing that an abduction actually occurred,'' said George Crolius, spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

Holt's mother, Pauline Zile, 24, of 1215 Beach Road in Riviera Beach, told investigators she and her daughter arrived at the Swap Shop just before noon Saturday and went to a restroom right after they went through the gate. Mother and daughter went into separate stalls, and when Zile came out Christina was gone.

Zile is divorced from Christina's father, and Christina was raised by her paternal grandmother and other relatives in Maryland. In June, a court awarded custody to Zile, and the little girl moved to Florida to live with her mother, stepfather, John Zile, 32, and their two young sons.

``From what we understand it was an amicable custody agreement,'' Crol-ius said. ``The mother had a stable home for the girl, and the grandmother willingly sent the child to live with her.''

Neighbors of the Ziles on Singer Island said the three children rarely played outside, and they couldn't remember the last time they had seen Christina.

The little girl started school at Jupiter Farms Elementary School in August. She was allowed to attend because her mother listed their family address as being in Jupiter Farms. School officials did not know why.

Zile withdrew Christina from the school Oct. 7 without explanation, Principal David Horan said.

No other school has asked for the child's records, leading Horan to believe she is not attending school.

The Ziles spent a third night in Broward County and did not speak with reporters.

Workers from the Adam Walsh Center spent the day printing and distributing 5,000 fliers with Christina's picture and description.

``It's a tough one to call,'' said the center's spokeswoman Nancy McBride. ``We just have to assume the worst - that she was taken by a stranger - and make a full effort.''

Several Riviera Beach Police officers went door-to-door with the fliers on Singer Island.

``All missing child cases are tough,'' said Detective Patrick Galligan. ``Tough on the police and tough on the heart.''

Christina's maternal grandmother, Paula Yingling of Jensen Beach, said they also circulated fliers up there.

``We just want to get her little picture out everywhere we can, as fast as we can,'' she said. ``No expense, at this point, is too great. My granddaughter is of the utmost importance.''

Yingling feared that Christina didn't just walk off.

``Christina had a very outward personality,'' Yingling said. ``But she was told you don't talk to strangers, you don't do that. You just don't know, though.''

Staff writer Mitch McKenney contributed to this report.

MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
NO LEADS IN GIRL'S DISAPPEARANCE
Sun-Sentinel
October 25, 1994
Author: HENRY FITZGERALD JR., CINDY ELMORE, and JIM DiPAOLA Staff Writers
Staff writers Marego Athans and C. Ron Allen contributed to this story.

A small army of Broward Sheriff's detectives and FBI agents resumed their search for Christina Holt, 7, on Monday, but were left with more questions than answers to the girl's whereabouts.

Also:

-- Deputies searched the girl's home in Palm Beach County.

-- The owner of the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale said security videotapes that were filmed on Saturday were being made available to investigators.

-- Christina's teacher said the child was withdrawn from school on Oct. 7.

-- Fliers of the missing child were handed out in Broward and Palm Beach counties and in Maryland, where Christina grew up.

-- Police said they have found no witnesses to confirm Christina was ever at the Swap Shop and questioned her mother, Pauline Zile, and stepfather, Walter John Zile, 32, until late in the day.
Pauline Zile, 24, told deputies her daughter disappeared from a restroom at the Swap Shop about noon on Saturday.

But two people who said they saw the girl at the flea market did not give descriptions with enough detail to be considered verifiable, said Jim Leljedal, spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Leljedal said deputies are checking into three possibilities: Abduction by a stranger; abduction by a relative; or a runaway.

Christina's parents could not be reached for comment on Monday. They spent most of the day being interviewed in Fort Lauderdale by detectives. They were not allowed back into their Riviera Beach home at the Sea Nymph apartments until late Monday because Broward sheriff's forensics detectives spent at least eight hours searching the apartment for samples of the child's hair, fingerprints and other clues.

A month ago, when the body of Amanda Dougherty, 5, of North Lauderdale was found strangled, it took days to identify her because police had no fingerprints and dental X-rays had never been taken. Amanda's parents said she was abducted or wandered out of their North Lauderdale house last month.

The sheriff's office has made no connection between Christina's disappearance and the disappearance and death of Amanda. "We have no suspects," Leljedal said in Christina's disappearance. Police on Monday reportedly viewed videotape taken by 20 security cameras at the Swap Shop's entertainment and food court areas.

"There's a chance we may have her on the cameras," Swap Shop owner Preston Henn said.

Anguished friends and relatives continued to hope for the best for Christina.

"We're just very, very upset and are hoping for her safe return," said Paula Yingling, of Jensen Beach, Christina's maternal grandmother. "From what I'm told, police don't think anyone in the family had anything to do with this."

Leljedal said investigators were interviewing Christina's relatives in Maryland, with whom she had lived most of her life. Her father, Franklin Holt, was reportedly driving to Broward County from Maryland on Monday.

Before June, Christina had lived with her paternal grandmother, Judy Holt, and an aunt in Poolesville, Md. Pauline Zile initially gave up her daughter because she was only 17 when she had the child, relatives said. Then, five months ago, her grandmother signed over custody to the Ziles after a "protracted" custody battle, Leljedal said.

It was the first time Christina had lived with her mother since she was a baby, Judy Holt said. She was returned to Pauline Zile because the girl wanted to live with her mother, Judy Holt said.

Christina seemed to be happy in school, but her mother told teacher Lydia Johnson that the girl was not happy about living in Florida, Johnson said.

Then on Oct. 7, Pauline Zile withdrew Christina from her class at Jupiter Farms Elementary School. The child had not attended classes for about two weeks before that, Johnson said.

At first, Christina's mother told Johnson she was sending the girl back to Maryland, but said the girl would return. Later, Johnson said Pauline Zile told her that Christina's stepfather, John Zile, had decided they should teach Christina at home.

Jupiter Farms Elementary was not Christina's assigned school; West Riviera Elementary is. But district records list an address for her near Jupiter Farms Elementary. That address is the home of Edward Brannon, whose relationship to the Ziles is not known.

Relatives said the Ziles' struggled financially, living in a number of low-priced apartments on Riviera Beach's Singer Island. That struggle forced the Ziles recently to give up the couple's third child, a newborn, to adoption, relatives.

"With the three children, they thought it would give the family a better opportunity," Yingling said. "They couldn't afford another mouth to feed. They did what they thought was best."

Steve and Tina Stogiannis, who own the Sea Nymph apartments, said they have known the Ziles for eight years. The Ziles moved into their apartment in late 1987 and later, moved north, possibly to Maryland.

Police records show that John Zile was picked up by police in Martin County in 1987 for violating probation from a Maryland burglary conviction. Yingling said John Zile was sent back to Maryland and served 90 days in jail.

The couple moved back to South Florida two years ago, and back to the Singer Island neighborhood, with Christina, four or five months ago. John Zile works as a cook at the Ocean's 11 North restaurant and Pauline Zile tended the children or worked at the restaurant until taking a recent leave of absence.

"All I know is she [Pauline) is a very nice lady and a good mother," Steve Stogiannis said.

Staff writers Marego Athans and C. Ron Allen contributed to this story.

ABDUCTORS RARELY STRANGERS
MOST CASES INVOLVE PERSON CHILD KNOWS
Sun-Sentinel
October 25, 1994
Author: ROBIN BENEDICK and BERTA DELGADO Staff Writers

Was 7-year-old Christina Holt snatched from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale? As police considered the possibility that she was abducted on Monday, child abduction experts said most children are taken by someone they know.

"People think that when a child is abducted, someone uses force and drags the kid away screaming," said Peter Banks, a director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Arlington, Va. "But that's not generally what happens. More often, the person is not a stranger."

In Christina's case, it is too early to draw conclusions, police and experts said. Investigators are interviewing people who know Christina and her family.

Christina's mother reported her daughter missing on Saturday on a trip to the flea market on Sunrise Boulevard. Pauline Zile said she last saw her daughter in a bathroom stall at the market's west end. The two had driven from their Riviera Beach apartment in Palm Beach County, where they live with Christina's stepfather, John Zile. The girl's father lives in Maryland.

She is the second child to disappear in the Fort Lauderdale area since Sept. 22, when Amanda Dougherty, 5, vanished from her North Lauderdale home in the middle of the night. Her body was found two days later in a canal near Boca Raton. She had been strangled.

Investigators had no new leads or suspects in Amanda's case on Monday.

Amanda's parents, David and Laurie Dougherty, plan to hand out fliers of Christina today, said Marie Cundari, Amanda's great-aunt and the family's spokeswoman. She said the Doughertys called the Adam Walsh Center/Florida to see how they could help.

North Lauderdale Police Capt. Roy Liddicott said Amanda was the first person he thought of when he heard about Christina's disappearance.

"There's a natural tendency to think there's a link," he said. "But stranger abduction is fairly rare."

Investigators do not think the two cases are related. They think Amanda was taken by someone she knew, someone who could slip past the family's two pit bull terriers.

With two child abductions so close together in Broward County, some parents may be unnerved.

Marilyn Segal, dean of the Family and School Center at Nova Southeastern University, said parents should teach their children that these things can happen.

"Parents have to be awfully careful not to frighten a child because they can become terrified," she said. "Parents need to say, `When you go somewhere with Mommy, you stay with Mommy. You never go with a different person even if you know them well.'"

Parkland parent Annette Friedman said her son, Joey, 101/2, often asks why he can't go into a public bathroom by himself. The Friedmans showed him Monday's newspaper story about Christina.

"He's at the age where he wants to be independent, and he thinks we're treating him like a baby," she said. "After reading the story, I don't think he'll question us about it again."

FOR BROWARD PARENTS, A CHILLING FLASHBACK
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 25, 1994
Author: CHRISTINA HEADRICK Herald Writer

In the North Lauderdale neighborhood where Amanda Dougherty used to live, the news brought disbelief and horror.

Another little girl missing.
Five weeks ago, it was the search for 5-year-old Amanda that brought out the police dogs and helicopters and missing- child posters. This time, it was Christina Holt, 7, gone from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop during a Saturday shopping expedition with her mother.

For Sharon Ali, a North Lauderdale mother of two who works at the Swap Shop, the second disappearance increased fears for her own daughters, who were within walking distance of both incidents.

"I was always scared," Ali said, holding her oldest daughter, Shari, in her lap. "Then I really got scared."

Ali's home is several blocks from the Dougherty house, where Amanda vanished early in the morning of Sept. 22. Two days later, the child's nude, strangled body was discovered in a canal near Boca Raton.

On the day Christina disappeared from a women's bathroom at the Swap Shop, Ali's daughters -- ages 3 and 7 -- were playing in an aisle near Ali's booth.

"For people who work at the Swap Shop or live near there, this has just terrified them," said Ali, 30. "We're concerned, worried, because it's one child after another."

And both cases remain unsolved. By late Monday, Broward sheriff's detectives and FBI agents had turned up no strong leads in Christina's disappearance.

Investigators at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said they have pursued tips but found little new information about Amanda's murder.

"There is no strong suspect," said Palm Beach Sheriff's Lt. John Kianka.

North Lauderdale residents don't believe the two disappearances are related, but some parents have begun watching their children more carefully.

"That's something that doesn't happen in your neighborhood," said Nancy Wegner, 33, as she picked up her children at North Lauderdale Elementary School.

Her children, ages 10, 9, and 7, often played with Amanda Dougherty and her brother, Jason, whose house is one block west.

"Not knowing what happened is the scary thing," Wegner said. "It's been really hard on the kids. There have been a lot of sleepless nights and nightmares, not wanting to be alone or go out in the yard."

Although she has always been protective, Wegner is more concerned about her children's safety now. She picks up her children from school each day, although most children walk to and from school.

Even those children generally pair up, lugging backpacks as they head for home. Sometimes parents act as chaperons for a group of children, leading the way through the neighborhood and dropping off children along the way.

Despite the Halloween pumpkins and homemade boogey men decorating the yards of the single-story homes in North Lauderdale, most parents say their children won't be allowed out alone to trick-or-treat.

"In the United States, you can't take any chances," said Hazel King, a 56-year-old grandmother, watching her 2-year-old grandson as he played on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. "You must always hold the child in hand."

Or keep them close by more secure means. Susan Clemente, 35, said the two disappearances have made her consider new ways of protecting her children.

"I used to think moms with those little leashes on their kids' wrists were dumb," Clemente said. "Now I'm ready to get a few of those things myself."

Clemente kept her eye on her 4-year-old daughter, climbing on a truck outside her mother's home, as she carried in groceries.

At Saraniero Park, parents and older siblings also kept watch over neighborhood children, running around the playground.

Joseph Holmes, 34, a father of two, observed his 7-year-old daughter, Ashley, hanging on the park's parallel bars.

"My friend told me he's ready to leave South Florida because of all of these cases," Holmes said, shaking his head. "They used to walk home (from school). Now we pick them up. The reason why is because of Amanda."

Herald staff writer Amy Driscoll contributed to this report.

SWAP SHOP VIDEO MAY HELP IN HUNT FOR MISSING GIRL
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 25, 1994
Author: TRISH POWER and DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writers

Security camera videotapes may hold clues to the mysterious disappearance of 7-year-old Christina Holt, the Riviera Beach girl who was reported missing Saturday at the Swap Shop near Fort Lauderdale.
The girl's mother, Pauline Zile, 24, told police she and her daughter parked in the flea market's south lot on Saturday, walked across the breezeway over Sunrise Boulevard and headed for the nearest bathroom after the hour-plus drive from Riviera Beach. Zile said the girl disappeared while she was in a bathroom stall a few feet away.

The route to the bathrooms should have taken them through the indoor market. If so, a videotape may have captured their walk, said Preston Henn, owner of the Swap Shop. Tapes might also show if the girl left the Swap Shop -- and who she was with at the time.

"We're looking for the technician who was working Saturday so we can get the tapes," Henn said Monday. He said investigators hoped to view the tapes today.

Meanwhile, more than 40 FBI agents and Broward sheriff's deputies interviewed vendors and employees at the Swap Shop, but turned up few clues.

Police said they couldn't be sure the girl was ever there. "We're canvassing the Swap Shop as best we can. We've interviewed as many people as we can," said FBI spokesman Paul Miller. "We have found no verifiable information that the victim was here."

Police say they have little to go on so far. "We don't really have a lead," said Broward Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Leljedal. "Abduction is the avenue we're proceeding on most aggressively."

FBI agents also have begun contacting members of the girl's family, including relatives in Maryland. Christina had been raised by her father's mother in Maryland, and only recently moved to South Florida to live with her mother.

Zile's mother said her daughter wasn't ready to raise a child when Christina was born.

"When you're 16 and find yourself pregnant and all of a sudden you're a baby raising a baby . . . She just couldn't handle it at the time," said Paula Yingling, who lives in Jensen Beach. "Now she's grown up enough to accept the responsibility and she wanted her daughter back."

Yingling said the family had been talking about the move for years. "(The paternal grandmother) brought Christina down here in June and went back home," Yingling said.

Christina started second grade on Aug. 22 at Jupiter Farms Elementary School, but was withdrawn from school a couple of weeks ago, said principal David Horan. Horan, citing confidentiality rules, would not say why.

Leljedal said Christina had problems adjusting to the new school. "She had some problems socializing," he said.

Zile told her mother that Christina also had problems adjusting to her new home life. "All the sudden she has two new stepbrothers and she's starting a relationship with her real mom," Yingling said. "It's tough."

Christina was living with her mother and stepfather John Zile, a cook at Ocean's Eleven North restaurant on Singer Island. Pauline Zile worked as a waitress there until a few months ago, owner Allen Rosen said.

She left, apparently, because she was pregnant. Pauline Zile had a child less than a month ago and gave the infant up for adoption, Yingling said.

"With the three (kids) they already had, one more was too much," Yingling said. "They wanted to give the three they had a better life."

Family in seclusion

The couple and their two sons, ages 3 and 5, had not returned Monday to their weekly rental at the Sea Nymph Apartments on Singer Island.

Yingling said she was in constant contact with Zile, who was at the Broward County Sheriff's Office all day Monday waiting for news.

"She's a real basket case right now, you can imagine," Yingling said. "She's asked me to do all the talking for the family for a while."

The Broward Sheriff's Office asks anyone with information about Christina Holt's disappearance to call 321-4240 or CrimeStoppers at 493-TIPS.