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.

Grand Jury Decides On Zile Murder Case (11/9/94)
Pauline Zile's Lawyer Asks Judge To Disqualify Krischer (11/10/94)
Ziles Face Indictment Charge Of Murder (11/10/94)
Zile Defense Wants Prosecutor Off Her Case (11/10/94)
Zile, Wife Indicted On Murder Charges (11/11/94)
Media Blitz Planned To Prevent Child Abuse (11/11/94)
Agency's Abuse Video Raises Awareness (11/11/94)
Ziles Mark Their Fourth Anniversary (11/11/94)
Ziles Face Murder Charges (11/11/94)
Father Says He Had Planned Custody Fight For Christina (11/11/94)

GRAND JURY DECIDES ON ZILE MURDER CASE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 9, 1994
Author: JUDY PLUNKETT EVANS Herald Staff Writer

A Palm Beach County grand jury has decided whether to indict the mother and stepfather for the murder of 7-year-old Christina Holt, but the decision will not be released until later this week, a state attorney's spokesman said Tuesday.
Pauline and Walter John Zile are charged with the first- degree murder and aggravated child abuse of Christina, but they could not be tried on those charges if the grand jury failed to indict them.

The grand jury heard testimony about Christina's death Monday and Tuesday, then deliberated for almost two hours Tuesday afternoon. Because the jury still has to hear testimony about two unrelated homicides, state attorney spokesman Mike Edmondson said the Zile decision will not be released until Thursday.

The grand jury's deliberations came after it asked for additional information in the case Tuesday morning. State Attorney Barry Krischer said he had not anticipated the request, but he provided the information because he wanted to make sure the jury had everything it needed to return indictments against the Ziles.

"We need to be sure that the grand jury is presented all the relevant information to be sure that whatever decision they make is one that can be sustained in open court with a conviction," Krischer said during the lunch break Tuesday.

John Zile, Christina's stepfather, has told police that he hit the girl several times, until she went into convulsions and died on Sept. 16.

Pauline Zile has said she was asleep during the beating and awoke too late to stop the deadly assault.

Six witnesses testified before the grand jury on Tuesday, including five investigators and the medical examiner, Dr. James Benz. Benz has not released Christina's cause of death. Krischer said the information will not be released until the grand jury concludes its deliberations.

Also on Tuesday, Pauline Zile attended a separate hearing about the state's attempt to take away her two other children, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3.

PAULINE ZILE'S LAWYER ASKS JUDGE TO DISQUALIFY KRISCHER
The Palm Beach Post
November 10, 1994
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

An attorney for Pauline Zile fired a bitter legal salvo against State Attorney Barry Krischer on Wednesday, asking a judge to disqualify Krischer and the grand jury investigating the death of Christina Holt.

Ellis Rubin, the attorney for Christina's mother, accused Krischer of creating a ``lynch mob frenzy all over the county.''
``The state attorney's office is guilty of prosecutorial misconduct,'' Rubin said, likening the media coverage of the Zile case to the O.J. Simpson trial. Rubin wanted the judge to ask the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp agreed to hear Rubin's complaints against Krischer but denied Rubin's request to hear the motions immediately.

``We really don't have any comment on any defense motions,'' said Krischer's spokesman, Michael Edmondson. ``The case is still before the grand jury, and we expect a report'' today.

Pauline and John Zile appeared in court together for the first time since John Zile's arrest Oct. 27 and Pauline Zile's arrest Nov. 4. Both have been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for the Sept. 16 death of Pauline Zile's 7-year-old daughter, Christina.

``I love her,'' John Zile said of his wife as he was escorted to court Wednesday. ``The truth will come out in court.''

Pauline Zile declined to comment. The couple were separated by several chairs.

According to court papers filed by Rubin:

After learning of Pauline Zile's imminent arrest from three ``media sources,'' Rubin attempted to negotiate her surrender. ``The prosecutor later explained to the press that there was no time to make arrangements for her surrender.''

Krischer told reporters at a news conference that Pauline Zile had failed a polygraph test, which cannot be used in court.

The grand jury should be disbanded because of the ``deluge of prejudicial and inaccurate information leaked to the media.''

Details of the Oct. 24 search of the Ziles' Riviera Beach apartment also were released Wednesday. Among the items police seized were two box springs and mattresses, videotapes, a used paper towel, a sink trap, towels and stuffed animals and toys.

ZILES FACE INDICTMENT ON CHARGE OF MURDER
CHILD ABUSE COUNTS ALSO FORTHCOMING IN CASE INVOLVING CHRISTINA
Sun-Sentinel
November 10, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
Staff writers Kathleen Pellegrino, Stephanie Smith and Jim Di Paola contributed to this report.

A Palm Beach County grand jury has voted to issue first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse indictments against John and Pauline Zile in the death of their daughter, Christina Holt, the Sun-Sentinel has learned.
The announcement of the indictments is expected as early as today.

Additional indictments are expected against the Singer Island couple, who are being held without bail in the Sept. 16 death of the 7-year-old girl.

Should the grand jury discover additional evidence before the indictments are announced, the panel could delay its announcement and reopen the case for further investigation.

John Zile, 32, was arrested on Oct. 27 on charges of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse after confessing to beating his stepdaughter. John Zile told investigators that after Christina fell into convulsions and stopped breathing, he stored her body in a closet for four days before burying it behind a Tequesta Kmart.

Pauline Zile, 24, was arrested on Friday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for failure to protect Christina. Pauline Zile has painted herself as a victim, saying she did not report Christina's killing and went along with her husband's plan to cover up the girl's disappearance because she feared he would harm her or their two sons.

On Wednesday, Miami attorney Ellis Rubin, who represents Pauline Zile, asked a judge to dismiss the grand jury. The move is similar to that made by the defense in the O.J. Simpson case, which resulted in the grand jury being dismissed.

Rubin said the grand jury in the Zile case was unable to "act impartially and without prejudice" because of the "deluge of prejudicial and inaccurate information leaked to the media."

Rubin also wants Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer disqualified for prosecutorial misconduct. Krischer has "demonstrated a continuing pattern of misrepresentation, misinformation and contempt" to "infuriate and sway public opinion," Rubin argued in written motions.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp declined to rule on Rubin's motions, saying he would set a hearing next week.

Rapp also denied Rubin's request to delay the release of the grand jury indictments until his motions could be argued.

Iola Mosely, John Zile's public defender, stopped short of saying the grand jury had been tainted by media reports.

"This panel has been given a lot of [news media) information that some of it might be true and some of it is not true," Mosely said. "I know [grand jurors) aren't going in there untouched by what they've read or seen" in the news media.

Krischer on Wednesday dismissed Rubin's allegations. "I know what I've said and you know what I've said. [Rubin) can characterize it any way he wants," he said.

Prosecutors from Krischer's office spent three days presenting evidence to the grand jury. Witnesses this week included Medical Examiner James Benz; Pauline Zile's mother, Paula Yingling; neighbors of the Ziles; and police investigators.

The grand jury reportedly issued the indictments in the Zile case on Tuesday evening. The panel, however, deferred announcing its decision until today at the earliest, when it releases a report on several cases under consideration, including that of Clover Boykin, a Boynton Beach woman accused of killing two infants - one her own.

On Wednesday, search warrants unsealed by court order revealed new details of the cover-up police say the Ziles conducted after Christina's death.

On Oct. 22, Pauline Zile told police that Christina disappeared from a restroom at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale. But days later, Pauline and John Zile became suspects in her disappearance when bloodstains were found in their Singer Island apartment.

The search warrants were served on the apartments on Oct. 25 and 31, and the Ziles confessed to Riviera Beach police on Oct. 27.

John Zile told police that when he disciplined Christina on Sept. 16 for playing doctor with her brothers, she was wearing a bathrobe when he beat her. After attempts to revive Christina failed, Zile said he wrapped the girl's body in a blanket and a sheet and put her in a bedroom closet.

He told police he buried her four days later.

When investigators unearthed her 44-pound body behind the Tequesta Kmart, they found her wrapped in a blue tarp, plastic bags, a child's tent and a blanket.

Removing the layers of what one investigator described in the search warrants as a tiny "bundle," investigators found Christina's decomposing body.

She was dressed in the clothes that Pauline Zile tearfully had described for investigators when Christina was reported missing from the Swap Shop: the long white pants with various colored polka dots; a white shirt with red ruffles on the short sleeves and a brown teddy bear on the front; and white sneakers.

Investigators say the dressing of Christina's corpse and the precise description of what the girl wore demonstrates the care the Ziles took to carry out the cover-up of the second-grader's death.

The search warrants also outline what was seized by investigators. Among the items were mattresses and box springs, towels, stuffed animals and toys, a broken picture of a unicorn and videotapes. Also, investigators seized carpet from the closet where Christina's body was hidden, clothing, pillows and other items.

ZILE DEFENSE WANTS PROSECUTOR OFF HER CASE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 10, 1994
Author: JUDY PLUNKETT EVANS Herald Staff Writer

An attorney for Pauline Zile, charged along with her husband in the murder of her 7-year-old daughter, has asked a judge to disqualify the state attorney's office from prosecuting her, saying the chief prosecutor has inflamed public sentiment against his client.
Attorney Ellis Rubin also asked a judge to disband the Palm Beach County grand jury that has heard the cases against both Ziles and has already reached decisions. He argued the grand jury has been tainted by unspecified inaccurate media reports and public comments from State Attorney Barry Krischer.

The jury's findings will be released today, and Rubin wanted the jury dismissed before the results become public. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp denied Rubin's request to dismiss the grand jury.

Rapp said he will hear Rubin's concerns about Krischer next week, but did not set a date. At that time, Rapp also will conduct a bond hearing for Pauline Zile. Both she and her husband Walter John Zile are charged with the first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse of Christina Holt, and both are being held without bond.

In a motion Rubin filed Wednesday, he said Krischer has made statements in the media about the public calling his office to thank him for arresting Pauline Zile. That and other comments show the prosecutor is biased against his client, Rubin said.

"This statement was an obvious attempt to prejudice the public and the grand jury, to self-servingly justify the action of his office and to attempt to further glorify himself for personal gain," Rubin wrote in his motion.

Rubin declined to discuss the motion outside court.

Krischer also declined to talk about Rubin's accusations, except to say he has been careful about his comments to the media.

"I know what I've said," Krischer said. ". . . He can characterize it any way he wants."

Also Wednesday, the requests for two search warrants were released, detailing the reasons police wanted to search the Ziles' Singer Island motel apartment. The first search was conducted Oct. 24, two days after Pauline Zile told police her daughter had been abducted from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.

Detectives from the Broward Sheriff's Office went to the apartment to look for hair and fingerprints belonging to Christina, items that could be used to identify her body. That search turned up a pair of Christina's jeans with blood on them and revealed bloodstains on a mattress, the carpet and a wall.

Police seized several items from the apartment, including videotapes, stuffed animals, towels and two beds.

Officers used a second warrant to search the apartment Oct. 31, after John Zile, the child's stepfather, confessed to hitting Christina until she went into convulsions and died. He told police he hid her body in a bedroom closet for four days, then buried her behind a Tequesta Kmart.

Police removed carpet from the closet, three pairs of shoes and a couch cushion, among other items. Pauline Zile was arrested Friday, four days after police searched the apartment a second time.

ZILE, WIFE INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGES
The Palm Beach Post
November 11, 1994
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Christina Holt's mother and stepfather were indicted on charges of murder Thursday and medical examiners said the little girl died of asphyxiation, not from the beating she sustained the night she died.

Christina's body, stashed in a closet for four days after her death, then buried behind a Kmart, was so badly decomposed that the medical examiner's office could not determine how the asphyxiation occurred.
``The cause is asphyxia due to multiple blunt trauma,'' said Tony Mead, an investigator with the medical examiner's office. ``If you're unconscious and you vomit and you breathe in your vomit that would cause (an inability to breathe). So would putting a cloth over your face.''

John Zile told police that Christina went into convulsions and vomited after he punished her on Sept. 16. He said he held a towel over her face to muffle her cries.

The grand jury returned first-degree murder indictments against Pauline and John Zile, along with indictments on four counts of child abuse.

Details of the alleged abuse between June 15 and Oct. 1 were not made public. However, State Attorney Barry Krischer said three counts stem from ``unnecessary torture and punishment'' and the fourth charge from keeping Christina home from school.

John Zile's attorney could not be reached for comment. Ellis Rubin, Pauline Zile's attorney, said ``prosecutors have whipped up the public to the point where they hate this lady before knowing anything about her.''

``I want to see the evidence and I want to see the proof,'' Rubin said. ``I haven't seen anything yet.''

The Ziles are under a suicide watch at the Palm Beach County Jail. Because of threats from other inmates, the couple is segregated from other inmates.

Jail records released Thursday show Pauline Zile spends most of her time sleeping and reading. Attorneys, investigators and officials from the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services have visited the couple.

The indictments bring the highly publicized case into the legal arena, where prosecutors face new challenges. No date has been set for a trial, but it is likely that defense attorneys will ask for separate trials.

When two people charged with the same crime incriminate each other in their statements to police, the trials often are severed. The severance debate focuses on an accused's constitutional right to confront the accuser.

For instance, ``if the husband gave a statement that incriminated the wife and then the husband refused to testify at trial, prosecutors could not use that statement against the wife,'' defense attorney Carrie Haughwout said.

``She has a constitutional right to cross-examine her accuser and you can't cross-examine a taped statement,'' Haughwout said.

Defense attorneys also may ask a judge to sever the child-abuse charges from the murder charge.

``The jury must weigh the evidence separately for each charge,'' Haughwout said. ``If that is impossible to do from an emotional standpoint, the judge can sever the murder count.''

That happened in the case of Jessica Schwartz, charged with second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of her stepson A.J. Schwartz. A jury convicted Jessica Schwartz of child abuse in September. Her murder trial begins next month.

Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty against the couple, Krischer said. That decision will be made within 30 days, Krischer said.

``The system is slow, but the system works,'' Krischer said.

Staff writers Jenny Staletovich and John Fernandez contributed to this report.

MEDIA BLITZ PLANNED TO PREVENT CHILD ABUSE
The Palm Beach Post
November 11, 1994
Author: SCOTT SHIFREL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Reacting to the death of Christina Holt and two young boys in South Carolina, social service officials Thursday kicked off a yearlong media campaign aimed at educating the public about child abuse.

The group's first goal is to produce a pamphlet to tell people where to call if they know about child abuse or need help. They also plan posters, television spots and a volunteer recruiting drive.
``We cannot rely on governmental agencies entirely to protect vulnerable children,'' Children's Services Council Chairwoman Pam Dunston said.

A few years ago, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services had a media campaign aimed at fighting child abuse, but the state was criticized for getting too involved in family matters.

``HRS backed off, and it was the wrong thing to do,'' Dunston said.

Now, in the wake of the recent deaths, the state has enlisted the help of the Children's Services Council, the United Way, the Children's Home Society and other groups, as well as the public.

Besides recruiting volunteers and money - the Junior League of the Palm Beaches on Thursday donated $1,000 toward publication of the pamphlet - the agencies urged the public to attend a series of three town meetings.

The meetings on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach and Nov. 21 in Boynton Beach and Belle Glade will include representatives from the county commission, the United Way, HRS and the CSC.

For information about those meetings or volunteering to help the publicity effort, call the Children's Services Council at 655-1010.

To report child abuse call 911 or the abuse hot line at (800) 96ABUSE. To ask for help, call Centerline at 930-1234.

AGENCY'S ABUSE VIDEO RAISES AWARENESS
Sun-Sentinel
November 11, 1994
Author: SHERRI WINSTON Staff Writer

In the video, children told stories of pain and suffering. Little girls talked about being touched "in ways you shouldn't touch a little girl."

And a dark-haired little boy talked about being stripped naked and beaten. "Sometimes my dad, he can be very mean," the little boy said.
The Children Services Council showed the 12-minute video on Thursday at United Methodist Church as part of its effort to raise community awareness.

With the help of the United Way, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and others, the council is attempting to educate the community about child abuse - the importance of reporting it and the importance of stopping it before it starts.

Children Services Council has focused on the creation of a brochure that will offer resources for parenting classes and information on reporting abuse. Anyone who suspects abuse is encouraged to call 1-800-96-ABUSE.

"He or she who saves one child saves the world," said Elaine Alvarez, chairperson of the Health and Human Services board of HRS and co-founder and past chairperson of the council. "Let us save our community - child, by child, by child."

The video, viewed by at least 40 members of the community, was created by the University of South Florida and featured South Florida children citing actual instances of abuse.

According to a 1993 National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse survey, done in Washington, D.C., 63 children in Florida who were victims of abuse or neglect died. That ranked Florida third among the 50 states. Texas was first with 114 deaths; Illinois was second with 76.

The report also said that in the past four years, about three children a day die nationwide as a result of abuse, neglect or maltreatment.

"We have heard reports that a neighbor heard Christina Holt crying, that a family friend witnessed her beating. We can only wonder if Christina Holt would be alive if someone had thought to intervene," Alvarez said.

John and Pauline Zile, Christina's mother and step-father, have been charged with murder in her death.

ZILES MARK THEIR FOURTH ANNIVERSARY
DAY IN JAIL TO BE SPENT LIKE ANY OTHER: ISOLATED
Sun-Sentinel
November 11, 1994
Author: PHIL DAVIS Staff Writer

Today marks John and Pauline Zile's fourth wedding anniversary, though they will not be celebrating together, if at all.

The couple accused of killing their daughter will eat their anniversary dinner of chicken and gravy tonight sitting alone on steel cots in separate 6-by-11-foot cells - 12 inches from a stainless steel toilet.
"It's a pretty sedentary life," Sheriff's Lt. Chris Kneisley said of the couple's life behind bars. "The Ziles aren't going too many places."

This time last year, the Riviera Beach couple lived a block from the beach, working restaurant jobs and raising their two boys. Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt, 7, still lived up north.

Now Christina is dead, and Pauline Zile, 24, and Walter John Zile, 32, are accused of killing the child they claimed to love and then concocting an abduction story to throw police off their trail.

The Ziles used to be loners by choice. Now they are kept in isolation for their safety - under 24-hour watch because jail officials fear some of the 1,900 Palm Beach County Jail inmates might harm them.

Babykiller suspects aren't real popular in jail.

"It's not like we like these individuals or want to coddle them," Kneisley said, "but we not only have a duty to protect the community, we have a duty to protect [inmates), too."

This is the Ziles' life in jail:

For most of the week - when there are no court hearings or other reason to be brought out of the cell - John and Pauline Zile are left alone in separate suicide-proof cells. They can read a book or magazine, or peer out into the cell pod where other inmates are allowed.

Jail officers look in on the inmates every 15 minutes. Pauline Zile spends a lot of time reading, according to the log. She sleeps a lot. John Zile doesn't sleep much and he spends most of the day just "lying down," the log says.

That's about it.

Two hours a week has been set aside for visits from relatives. Pauline Zile has had a visit from her mother, but no other friends or family have come to see them, only attorneys and private investigators and other officials.

John Zile gets short breaks from his cell for free time. He can watch television or make phone calls. Pauline Zile can't be with other inmates. It's too dangerous right now, Kneisley said.

"We just want to make sure nothing is going to happen to them," Kneisley said. "... We have to take heed of the public outcry. There is a real threat as far as [Pauline). Not much has been said about [John), though."

They get three one-hour exercise periods a week. John Zile is taken to a nearby recreation area alone, left to lift weights or play basketball.

Pauline Zile goes to the same place - at a different time. She gets a companion, Clover Boykin. Boykin is accused of killing two infants. During the uproar over the Christina Holt murder, sheriff's detectives say Boykin confessed to choking two babies - one her own.

Kneisley said the two would not be safe left alone with other female inmates.

"When they booked Pauline Zile into the stockade there were inmates yelling `Put her in here! Put her in here!'" Kneisley said. "Once the publicity dies out a little, they may be able to venture out into the population with a little obscurity."

ZILES FACE MURDER CHARGES
JURY ALSO RETURNS ABUSE COUNTS
Sun-Sentinel
November 11, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
Miami Bureau Chief Ardy Friedberg contributed to this report.

Murder and child abuse indictments issued against John and Pauline Zile on Thursday said they used "unnecessary torture and punishment" against Pauline's daughter, Christina Holt.
The indictments announced on Thursday charged the couple with first-degree murder and four counts of aggravated child abuse.

"I'm just certainly glad they got that," said Dorothy Money, Christina's paternal great-grandmother. "It just makes me sick. I hope they hang them."

Money, of Poolesville, Md., had cared for Christina from the time she was 5 months old until she was 5 years old.

Three of the aggravated child abuse charges were for "unnecessary torture and punishment resulting in injury" to Christina and the fourth for keeping her home from school, said Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer.

The "torture and punishment" are based on three incidents of abuse, with both parents charged in each instance. Each parent was charged even if one was not the actual abuser because they failed to protect Christina.

John Zile has said his wife stood by and never stopped the beatings.

Regarding the abuse indictment for keeping Christina out of school, police have said Christina attended less than two weeks of this school year. On Oct. 7, Pauline Zile, 24, withdrew Christina from Jupiter Elementary, telling one teacher she had returned to Maryland and another that she was being taught at home.

In an Oct. 27 statement to police, John Zile, 32, said he beat and punched Christina on Sept. 16 as he disciplined her for playing doctor with her two younger brothers. He said he covered Christina's mouth to muffle her screams and the girl fell into a seizure, began vomiting, collapsed and stopped breathing.

Krischer said on Thursday that the medical examiner determined the cause of Christina's death was asphyxiation, but Krischer has yet to receive the autopsy report and was unable to say how the child was asphyxiated.

John Zile told police he wrapped Christina in a sheet and blanket and hid her in a closet. Four days later, he buried her in a sandy grave behind a Kmart in Tequesta.

Prosecutors now appear to be questioning the timing of Christina's death.

The first-degree murder indictment states Christina was killed between Aug. 29 and Oct. 1. The aggravated child abuse indictments charged the Ziles with abusing Christina from June 15 to Oct. 1. The Oct. 1 date is more than two weeks after the date John Ziles said Christina died.

Krischer refused to discuss the reasons for the discrepancies, saysecret grand jury testimony was involved.

Krischer said prosecutors had not decided whether to seek the death penalty when the case goes to trial.

Arraignment is set for Monday, when a trial date will be set. The Ziles are being held without bail.

Miami attorney Ellis Rubin, who is defending Pauline Zile, has filed motions seeking to disqualify the state attorney, disband the grand jury and declare the indictment null and void because the process has been tainted by the prosecution.

Rubin lashed out at Krischer on Thursday.

"The atmosphere for this particular case is the worst I have ever experienced," Rubin said, accusing Krischer of tainting prospective jurors by releasing misinformation about his client. "You don't need a trial. You don't need a lawyer. Let a judge just pronounce the sentence and then everybody help pull the switch."

Pauline Zile has maintained she is a victim, saying she did not report Christina's killing and went along with her husband's plan to cover up the girl's disappearance because she feared he would harm her and their two sons.

The couple's cover-up, police said, occurred on Oct. 22, when Pauline Zile filed a false report to police that claimed Christina was abducted from a bathroom stall at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale.

Paula Yingling, Pauline Zile's mother, could not be reached on Thursday for comment at her Jensen Beach home.

Iola Mosely, the public defender representing John Zile, also was not available on Thursday.

FATHER SAYS HE HAD PLANNED CUSTODY FIGHT FOR CHRISTINA
Sun-Sentinel
November 11, 1994
Author: JILL YOUNG MILLER Washington Bureau

Christina Holt's biological father said on Thursday that he had planned to fight his ex-wife, Pauline Zile, for custody of the girl.

"I wanted her to come live with me," Franklin D. "Frankie" Holt Jr. said, sitting with his fiancee at the kitchen table in their two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.
"I wanted to take her before my mom took her to Florida," he said.

Holt's mother, Judy Holt, drove Christina to Florida in June against his wishes, he said in his first newspaper interview since his ex-wife told police the lie last month that Christina, 7, was missing, not murdered.

"I loved her a lot. She was my first-born child," said Holt, 28, a sheet-metal mechanic.

Holt has two other children, a boy, 4, and a girl, 3, who live in West Virginia with their mother and her new husband.

Holt said he met with a lawyer after his mother - Christina's guardian - told him she planned to take the girl to Florida to live with Pauline and John Zile.

Holt couldn't afford the lawyer's fee, so he decided he would let Christina go to Florida - for a while - and, in the meantime, pick up some extra work and start saving for a court battle with Pauline or even his own mother, who still had legal custody of the child.

Judy Holt declined to be interviewed on Thursday.

Franklin Holt's fiancee, Lisa Kelley, 26, said on Thursday she had urged Holt to let Christina live with the Ziles because Christina had said she wanted to live with and get to know her "mommy."

Holt and Kelley plan to marry in September. They have lived together for a year and said Christina often stayed with them on weekends. Kelley's two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, live with them.

Holt and Kelley are expecting a child next summer.

Since Christina's death, they have kept a low profile, trying to stay away from the media.

Holt said he has been feeling especially angry since he found out about Christina's murder.

"I can't understand why he did it ... I can't understand why she did it."

He said that because of his silence, people probably have the impression he didn't love Christina.

But in the past year, he said, he saw Christina more frequently than ever - about twice a month.

Holt's grandmother, and then his mother, had custody of Christina because he never could make a stable enough home for her, he said. He would try, but then his bills would overtake him and he would move in with a girlfriend or his great-grandmother.

A high school dropout, Frankie Holt said he married Pauline in December 1986, when he was 20 and she was 16, "mostly" because she was pregnant. They lived with her father, he said.

"Really, we hardly saw each other," Holt said of his marriage to Pauline. He worked with sheet metal six days a week, 10 hours a day. She worked nights, as a waitress in a pancake house. A few months after Christina was born, Pauline's mother called and asked Pauline if she wanted to move to Florida, Holt said.

Pauline wanted to leave so badly that Holt drove her to a Greyhound bus station in Washington, D.C., and dropped her off. They divorced in 1989.

He and Pauline's father tried to raise the baby together, but then Pauline's father lost his house, Holt said. Holt took Christina to his grandmother, Dorothy Money, who agreed to care for her. Money signed over guardianship to Judy Holt in January 1993.

Frankie Holt and Kelley said they will never forget Christina. They say if their baby is a girl, they plan to name her in part after Christina: Either Christina or Christina's middle name, Diane, will be part of a girl's name.

"Even though she's dead, Christina will always be looking over the baby," Kelley said. "Her spirit will."