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.

Christina's Mother, Stepfather Indicted On Murder Charges (11/11/94)
Attorneys Braced For Ziles Fight (11/12/94)
... And Give Boys A Loving Family (11/12/94)
Christina Confession Could Be Tossed Out (11/12/94)
Zile's Attorney May Question Legality Of Confession (11/13/94)
Recalling a Charade (11/13/94)
John Zile's Confession Questioned (11/13/94)
Anything To Please (11/13/94)
John Zile Mute On Murder Charge (11/15/94)
Attorney Wants Zile's Indictments Dismissed (11/15/94)

CHRISTINA'S MOM, STEPFATHER INDICTED ON MURDER CHARGES
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 11, 1994
Author: JUDY PLUNKETT EVANS Herald Staff Writer

A Palm Beach County grand jury indicted the mother and stepfather of 7-year-old Christina Holt on Thursday on first- degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges, accepting police assertions that the child was beaten until she lost consciousness, her body hidden in a closet before finally being buried behind a shopping center.
The murder charge means Pauline, 24, and Walter John Zile, 32, both could face the electric chair if convicted, but State Attorney Barry Krischer said he has not decided whether to pursue that punishment.

The first three counts of aggravated child abuse cover the "unnecessary punishment and torture" of Christina, Krischer said. The fourth count applies to the accusation that the Ziles kept Christina out of school 24 of 29 days.

The abuse counts cover a period from June 15, when Christina came to live with the Ziles, to Oct. 1, two weeks after police believe she was killed. Krischer said he would not discuss the reason the abuse counts extend two weeks after Christina's death, saying only that the reason is related to evidence.

"The system is slow, but the system works," Krischer said. "The community needs to have faith and trust that the
criminal justice system will appropriately resolve these cases."

Ellis Rubin, an attorney for Pauline Zile, said he expected the indictments because people are looking for a scapegoat for Christina's death.

"A tidal wave of hate and revulsion and cries for vengeance has inundated South Florida, some of it emanating from South Carolina," Rubin said, referring to the South Carolina mother who was charged last week with killing her two sons. "There is a lynch mob mentality in the atmosphere, and I think it's my job to dispel it."

John Zile's attorney could not be reached for comment on the indictment Thursday afternoon. John Zile has been held without bond since confessing to the crime on Oct. 27; Pauline Zile, also being held without bond, was arrested last Friday.

The medical examiner's office released the cause of Christina's death Thursday, saying she died of asphyxia. She choked on her own vomit and food particles were found in her lungs, which means she was unconscious when she started to strangle, said Tony Mead, an investigator for the medical examiner's office.

John Zile has told police that Christina went into convulsions after he hit her several times. But Mead said her body was too badly decomposed to determine whether she had suffered a seizure. Bruises were found on the body.

Rubin has asked the medical examiner's office not to release the body so he can have his own expert examine it.

The medical examiner's findings coincide with what John Zile has told police about Christina's death on Sept. 16. Zile said he started hitting Christina because she soiled her pants and would not stop crying. She suffered an apparent seizure, he said, and began choking. Food started coming out of her mouth and Zile said he tried to perform CPR. She died a few minutes later.

Zile told police he hid Christina's body in a bedroom closet for four days, then wrapped her in a blue tarp and buried her behind the Tequesta Kmart.

Pauline Zile has said she was asleep when the beating began and awoke too late to stop the assault. Her husband contradicts the statement, though, saying she was awake the entire time.

The difference is important if the prosecution proceeds under the theory of felony murder, a form of first-degree murder. Felony murder occurs when the victim dies during the
commission of a felony. In this case, if the Ziles were abusing Christina or witnessing the abuse, both actions are felonies and they could both be found guilty of murder.

After Christina's burial, the Ziles rehearsed their abduction story, then told it to police on Oct. 22. They confessed five days later.

Pauline Zile's confession is the subject of a motion Rubin filed Thursday. Rubin asked the court to disqualify Krischer because he was present when her statement was taken, which means he might be called as a witness.

Rubin already has asked the court to disqualify Krischer
because of statements he has made to the media. The motions will be considered during a hearing Monday.

Several people involved in the Zile case were in court Thursday for the indictment's announcement. One was Nancy McBride, executive director of the Adam Walsh Foundation, which
assisted in the search for Christina when the Ziles claimed she had been abducted from a restroom at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.

McBride said she was thankful for the grand jury's decision.

"I hope people realize that either in the Smith case in South Carolina or in the Holt case here, the parents did not get away with what they tried," McBride said.

ATTORNEYS BRACED FOR ZILES FIGHT
LEGAL WRANGLING TO START AFTER ARRAIGNMENT MONDAY
Sun-Sentinel
November 12, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

With John and Pauline Zile indicted on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Pauline's daughter, Christina Holt, the legal wrangling is set to begin.

On Monday, the Ziles will be arraigned on their charges, enter their expected pleas of not guilty and learn when their trial will be.
Ellis Rubin, the Miami attorney defending Pauline Zile, 24, will throw his first legal punches at the prosecution in a court hearing after the arraignment.

Rubin will argue to disqualify the state attorney, disband the grand jury and declare the indictment null and void because the process has been tainted by media reports of statements made by Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer.

Iola Mosely, the public defender representing John Zile, 32, has said she has not decided whether she will join Rubin in his attempt to have the indictments dismissed.

If the court refuses to void the indictments, the defense would file motions for discovery, which requires the prosecution to disclose all evidence it has against the couple in the death of Christina, 7. This would include physical, forensic and scientific evidence, as well as written, recorded or videotaped statements made by the Ziles or others questioned by investigators as part of the criminal investigation.

And, within the next 30 days, the prosecution will inform the defense whether it intends to seek the death penalty against Pauline and John Zile. A committee of prosecutors in Krischer's office will review the case and make a recommendation to Krischer.

Under the state's speedy trial rule, the Ziles must be brought to trial within six months of their arrests, unless they waive the rule so their attorneys have time to develop their defenses.

Jim Eisenberg, a West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer, said defense attorneys probably will file a flurry of written motions in the coming months.

Among those motions, Eisenberg said, will be attempts to suppress evidence that the state will use at trial.

The defense, Eisenberg said, probably will try to suppress any statements the Ziles made to police before and after their arrests.

Because the case has two defendants, the defense also could ask for separate trials, Eisenberg said.

"If there's testimony that John Zile was just an animal and a beast, then this prejudice could also go against his wife, who stayed through all of this," Eisenberg said.

Because the Ziles gave statements that implicated each other, separate trials also could be sought.

For example, if the Ziles were tried together, prosecutors would be prohibited from entering Pauline Zile's statement, which implicates her husband. That's because Pauline Zile could refuse to testify, and then John Zile's attorney would be unable to cross-examine her about her statement.

Severing the murder counts from the child abuse charges also could be requested. Evidence about abuse could sway a jury to believe the murder allegation if jurors had heard testimony that the parent had been abusive in the past, Eisenberg said.

Assistant Palm Beach State Attorney Ellen Roberts, who has prosecuted many murder cases, said the game plan is the same for each one.

"You just try to get all the evidence in, obviously, to prove your burden of proof," Roberts said.

But even the prosecution must be on the defensive, Roberts said. "We anticipate what the defense is going to do so we can be ready with the law" to fight defense attempts to suppress evidence.

... AND GIVE BOYS A LOVING FAMILY
Sun-Sentinel
November 12, 1994

If the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services wants to prevent any more children from becoming victims in the Christina Holt case, it should swiftly place Daniel and Chad Zile in a loving home.

Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, are the sons of Pauline and John Zile, who have been charged in the beating death of 7-year-old Christina, Mrs. Zile's daughter by a previous marriage.
Both Ziles have contested HRS' proposal to put their sons up for adoption. The boys are living temporarily in a foster home.

HRS has asked a court to find the Ziles unfit parents as a result of the fatal beating of Christina in September. Both are facing first-degree murder and aggravated child-abuse charges.

Neighbors have testified the couple abused Daniel and Chad, but the state is not obligated to prove they were mistreated. Under Florida law, abuse of a sibling is sufficient grounds for finding parents unfit.

Regardless of the outcomes of their trials, there already is an ample record that the Ziles were criminally irresponsible parents who provided a tyrannical home environment for their three children.

The two little boys, now suspended in bureaucratic limbo, deserve the best possible chance to escape their nightmarish family and begin a new life with adoptive parents as soon as possible.

There are plenty of potentially suitable couples willing and able to offer them a safe haven. HRS officials should take steps to cut through the legal red tape and guarantee that Daniel and Chad will spend the holidays with a permanent family that will love and protect them.

CHRISTINA CONFESSION COULD BE TOSSED OUT
ZILE SAYS HE ASKED FOR A LAWYER
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 12, 1994
Author: DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writer

The most damaging evidence against accused child killer John Zile -- from his confession to the discovery of his stepdaughter's body -- could be thrown out because he didn't get an attorney when he asked for one.
At issue is whether Riviera Beach Police or Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer made improper attempts to get Zile to talk during his 12-hour wait for a public defender.

Zile's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Iola Mosley, said she will seek to have Zile's statements and all the evidence collected as a result of them excluded from the case.

"I have reason to believe it wasn't a legal confession," she said. "He invoked his rights before he made any statements."

Police say Zile voluntarily changed his mind about talking with an attorney, and was not coerced or pressured. But Zile, in a jailhouse interview with The Herald, said Krischer spoke to him about a possible deal after Zile had requested an attorney Oct. 27, the night he confessed to killing his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina.

"If that's true, Barry's got a hell of a problem," said Milton Hirsch, a Miami attorney who wrote the book Florida
Criminal Trial Procedure. "Assuming those facts, the confession and everything that came after it is constitutionally flawed.

The law is clear. Once a suspect invokes his constitutional right to counsel, it's as if a magic curtain comes down and authorities cannot legally initiate conversations intended to persuade a change of heart, legal experts say.

Krischer, once regarded as one of Palm Beach County's leading criminal defense attorneys, refused to discuss circumstances surrounding the confession.

"We're not going to discuss anything involving this case, especially anything John may or may not have said," said Mike Edmondson, Krischer's spokesman.

Mosley said the public defender's office wasn't called to represent Zile until more than 12 hours after he first asked for an attorney.

"Other than what we saw on the television, the first we knew about this case was when we got a call after he was booked into the jail," she said. "What's going to happen is, it's going to boil down to credibility. To me, what my client said seems more realistic."

Both John Zile, 32, and Pauline Zile, 24, were indicted on first-degree murder and child abuse charges this week. Last month, they concocted an elaborate ruse of child abduction to cover for the girl's disappearance, launching a nationwide search for Christina.

But within a week, their story fell apart. The Ziles admitted John had beaten the girl, stashed her body for four days in a bedroom closet, and then buried her.

As the defense begins to build its case, strategies center on the day the Ziles confessed at the Riviera Beach Police Department.

Through interviews with police, attorneys and Zile himself, here's the sequence of events that day:

The couple showed up together around 2 p.m. Oct. 27 at police headquarters and were immediately separated and read their Miranda rights.

Both were interrogated on and off into the night, as police laid out the evidence and confronted them with inconsistencies in their story.

Around 7 p.m., after failing a lie-detector test, Pauline talked. She told police she saw Zile beat Christina in the living room of their Singer Island motel apartment until she
went into convulsions and died.

In an interview with The Herald at 9:10 that night, Riviera Beach Police Lt. David Harris said John Zile had been confronted with his wife's statements. "He's invoked his rights. He's not saying anything," Harris said.

The next day, Harris said Zile had voluntarily decided to "uninvoke" his rights around 11:30 p.m.

What happened in the 2 1/2 hours in between -- what motivated John Zile to change his mind and confess -- is a matter of contention.

Police say Zile decided on his own to begin talking.

"We had him in this room and he had decided not to say anything, to invoke his rights," Harris said. "Then, all of the sudden he says, "I think it's time to talk.' He said he'd take us to the spot (where he buried Christina)."

Zile made the decision to talk while a police officer was in the room preparing a routine arrest report before taking Zile to jail, Harris said.

But in his Nov. 4 interview with The Herald at the Palm Beach County Jail, Zile matter-of-factly detailed a different sequence of events -- seemingly unaware of any legal ramifications.

"They came in and said they knew what happened," Zile said. "They said Pauline told them the whole story. They had us in there for seven hours, I knew she'd tell them eventually. It was just a matter of time. I asked them what I could do to help Pauline, and myself.

"They said their number one priority was to find Christina," Zile said. "They said they needed to find the body and put an end to all this. I kept asking them how I could help our situation."

Zile said the detectives said they would see what they could do and left him alone in the interrogation room. Zile said he did not know what time it was. But his wife began to confess about 7 p.m.

"They came back and said, it's too late, the decision has already been made to charge you with murder and aggravated battery," Zile said. "That's when I said I want my attorney. Everybody said OK, they got up and left."

Some time later -- Zile didn't know exactly how long -- Krischer came into the room and began a conversation.

"He said he knew that I had asked for an attorney and that meant they couldn't talk to me anymore, but he said I needed to make some decisions. They wanted to find Christina," Zile said.

"I asked him what I could do to help Pauline, what I could do to help myself. He said I was already charged with first- degree murder and that he couldn't make any promises, but that maybe it could be involuntary manslaughter or accidental death if I cooperated."

Zile said it was after that conversation that he decided to take police to Christina's grave behind a Tequesta Kmart.

Mosley, the public defender, said it wasn't until around 9 the following morning, when Zile was booked into the jail, that her office was called to represent him.

Several prominent criminal defense attorneys said the sequence of events could cause all sorts of problems for Krischer's office -- and possibly force the office to hand off prosecution to another jurisdiction.

"It's a major bullet to the prosecution any way you look at it," said Donald Murrell, a West Palm Beach defense attorney and past president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"Whether it's true or not, Zile and his attorney will have to either accuse Krischer of misconduct or lying, one or the other," Murrell said. "And the only way to decide whether it's true is to have a hearing. I think Barry has set himself up to get his whole office kicked off this case."

Richard Lubin, a prominent Palm Beach County defense attorney and friend of Krischer, said he can't imagine Krischer making such a mistake.

"I just don't buy it," Lubin said. "Barry is too smart for that. I have to believe that if he went in to talk to this guy, he believed he was acting legally."

Lubin said there are likely more circumstances and unknown details. "How do we know this guy didn't say something like, 'I'm not talking to anybody except the guy who can make me a deal?' How do we know he didn't summon Barry?

"I mean, Barry knows the law, he's been on both sides of the fence."

Roy Black, one of Florida's best-known and most-successful defense attorneys, said a judge's decision on how the confession was obtained will be pivotal.

"The next question after they lose the confession is whether or not they would have a body without it," Black said.

Black said there is a relatively new legal precedent called the "doctrine of inevitable discovery" under which prosecutors would have to prove they would have found Christina's body without Zile's help.

"We're talking no confession, no evidence from the body, no medical examiner's testimony, no autopsy," said Hirsch. "What are you left with? They're left with a missing girl and nobody who knows where she is. They're left with a mother who says he killed her, but how credible is that when you're dealing with a mother charged with the same crime?"

Pauline Zile was told by police that her confession that night could not be used against her.

In addition, Black said, the prosecution won't be able to use her statement against her husband without her direct testimony at trial. "They have to have her," Black said. "They can't use just her statement, that's hearsay. I'd say they're in a position where they would have to cut her a deal to compel her to testify.

"She has no incentive to testify now. She's charged with first-degree murder," Black said. "What are they going to do, cite her for contempt of court?"

Murrell said whether or not John Zile's account is accurate, "I would be suspicious of the police behavior that would allow this to happen. Why was he sitting there for so long after he invoked his rights? Why wasn't he at the jail or sitting beside his attorney earlier?"

Murrell said he suspects Krischer decided to push for a first-degree murder indictment against Pauline in order to offer her a deal for a lesser charge in exchange for testimony.

"Now they have the electric chair as a weapon to use against her," he said. "And I'm sure that will help uncloud her memory a great deal."

Said Hirsch: "I've known Barry for years. He's too smart to make such a fatal flaw. Maybe he figured he had Pauline and he didn't need John's statements for a conviction. Maybe he figured he owed it Palm Beach County to find this little girl's body."

This is the Riviera Beach Police Department's Miranda Rights form. Walter John Zile and Pauline Zile signed this form before their confessions Oct. 27.

"You have the right to remain silent and not answer any questions.

"Any statement you make must be freely and voluntarily given.

"You have the right to the presence and representation of a lawyer of your choice before you make any statement and during any questioning.

"If you cannot afford a lawyer, you are entitled to the presence and representation of a court appointed lawyer before you make any statement and during any questioning.

"If at any time during the interview you do not wish to answer any questions, you are privileged to remain silent.

"I can make no threats or promises to induce you to make a statement.

"Any statement can be and will be used against you in a court of law."

ZILE'S ATTORNEY MAY QUESTION LEGALITY OF CLIENT'S CONFESSION
The Palm Beach Post
November 13, 1994
Author: DAVID HOLMBERG
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

John and Pauline Zile will be arraigned Monday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of 7-year-old Christina Holt, and a lawyer for John Zile said Saturday that one strategy she might pursue is an attack on the legality of her client's confession.

Iola Mosley, an assistant public defender who's representing Zile, said she didn't know when she would launch such a strategy, which she said would take considerable preparation.
The Ziles were indicted last week on charges related to the death of Christina, whose body was stashed in a closet for four days after her death. They're expected to plead not guilty at Monday's arraignment.

John Zile is the child's stepfather, and Pauline Zile is her mother.

Extensive legal maneuvering is anticipated next week and as the case moves along, but attention was focused Saturday on a potentially significant issue: whether John Zile got an attorney when he asked for one.

Constitutionally, authorities are not permitted to continue questioning a suspect once he has invoked his right to counsel.

Zile, according to news reports, said he was questioned after asking for a lawyer. And the probing continued, he said, until he finally led police to Christina's grave behind a Kmart in Tequesta. Police, however, say Zile voluntarily changed his mind about talking with an attorney. They said he was not coerced or pressured.

Mosley said she might file a motion to suppress Zile's confession if she believes it was illegally obtained. But she said Saturday she didn't anticipate making such a motion at Monday's arraignment, adding she might make it the following Monday ``or the Monday after that or maybe later in the month or in 1995.''

She said she couldn't enter the motion yet because she hadn't interviewed State Attorney Barry Krischer or police officers involved in the interrogation of John Zile.

A motion to suppress would result in a hearing at which the officers and Krischer would be required to testify, Mosley said.

The timing of such a motion would be important in what she said will be a protracted case. She said jury selection might not be completed until February.

``This is a very young case,'' the lawyer said. ``Nothing is final yet.''

Mosley said if she does decide to file such a motion, it will not be ``frivolous.'' She said police generally are very careful to protect a defendant's rights in sensational cases such as Christina's death but, ``I wouldn't say it's impossible'' to challenge them.

Local defense attorney, Richard Lubin, said Saturday that ``it's very rare for a confession in a murder case to be excluded - it almost never occurs.''

Another defense attorney, Carey Haughwout, said such a motion would raise ``a very significant issue,'' and a hearing could be lengthy and complicated.

Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for Krischer, said, ``We expect a very rigorous defense of Zile, and we're prepared for that.'' He declined further comment on the possible motion.

RECALLING A CHARADE
FRIENDS OF CHRISTINA'S FAMILY RE-CREATE RECENT INCIDENTS, PAINT PORTRAIT OF A FAMILY IN DECLINE.
Sun-Sentinel
November 13, 1994
Author: MAREGO ATHANS Staff Writer
Staff Writer Jill Young Miller contributed to this report.

For Elliot Harris, it was just another typical evening of pot smoking with his friends, the Ziles, in front of the TV.

As usual, John and Pauline Zile's two boys were playing Power Ranger on the floor, and Christina again was grounded in the bedroom, with the door shut.
Harris never heard Christina's voice, but he had no reason to doubt she was in the room at the Singer Island apartment. After all, John Zile excused himself to check on his 7-year-old stepdaughter and Harris said he heard Zile scolding her from behind the closed door.

It took two weeks and major headlines for Harris to make the chilling realization that Christina, 7, was not studying in the room that night.

She was dead.

"They just played a game on me," he said. "They had mastered it. He was in the bedroom acting like he was raising his voice, and she was dead.

"They both need to be burned right now."

Harris is among many friends and acquaintances who said they are replaying the scenes in their minds, who paint a portrait of a family on a downward spiral that no one recognized for weeks, but that now seems so obvious.

It's become common knowledge in South Florida: John and Pauline Zile are charged with killing Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt, 7. Pauline Zile has admitted that they concocted a story that the child was kidnapped to cover up the murder.

Looking back on those September and October days when he would drop over on his motorcycle every three days or so, Harris says it all fits now:

-- The strawberry incense, not to hide the smell of pot as he thought, but to hide the smell of the decaying 44-pound corpse.

-- The whole family sleeping on couches in the living room while the body lay in the bedroom closet.

-- The sound of John talking to the child without response from her.

It was all an artful deception, the friend finally concluded.

"When I saw the article I totally got cold and goose bumps," Harris said on Friday. "I felt betrayed and devastated. It's really depressing."

Harris, 19, who met John Zile two years ago when they worked together at Ocean's Eleven North restaurant in Singer Island, got the news two weeks ago with the rest of South Florida: The missing child story was actually a calculated cover-up of a child's murder.

Last week, he described the final days of his friendship with the couple: Again and again, he sat in the brown-toned living room listening to Led Zeppelin or Bon Jovi, or watching Who's the Boss or kids' cartoons while John and Pauline Zile shuttled in and out of the bedroom, carrying plates of food, schoolbooks and homework papers for Christina.

"Oh, man. I don't believe she just -sh-on the floor," John once said as he came out of the room.

The Ziles told Harris that Christina had been withdrawn from school and was being taught at home because of chronic behavior problems. Once, John Zile complained to Harris that he had caught Christina sexually molesting Zile's 3-year-old son.

Harris was in the Ziles' living room on the Saturday that Pauline reported Christina missing from the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale, while Pauline was running around getting ready to go out.

Later, he was so convinced Christina had been in the bedroom that day, about to accompany her mother, that after police started suspecting the Ziles, he went to the police station to defend them.

Now that they're both behind bars, each charged with first-degree murder and child abuse, Harris wants his old friends to fry.

"I just totally hate both of them," he said. "I have no feelings for John or Pauline."

There are few secrets in this beach community of job-hopping restaurant and bar workers, most in their early 20s, who live in motel apartments, clustered in a mile-square enclave flanked by upscale homes.

"I started working here Friday night at 11 and by 12:30 everyone knew I was here," said Bridget McKinlay, a waitress and former co-worker of Pauline ZIle's, who just got a new job. "It's like its own little small town."

But this was the place where police say Pauline and John Zile laid the groundwork of their hoax, fooling people who liked the couple, trusted them, felt sorry for them, lent them money, partied with them, played with their children.

Three weeks ago, the 110-pound waitress with baby doll looks and her surly husband were anonymous drifters. Now they're the most reviled people in South Florida, neck-and-neck with Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who police say recently confessed to killing her two toddlers.

In Singer Island, part of Riviera Beach, the horror of John Zile's confession was one thing: that he beat Christina, put a towel over her mouth to stifle her cries, tried to revive her in the peach-colored bathtub, stashed her body in a closet, buried her behind a Kmart. Just as puzzling to this crowd is what happened to Pauline Zile, the woman who friends considered sweet and devoted but who prosecutors say is as guilty of murder as her husband.

"[Pauline) looked like a girl who was ready to go to her Sweet 16 party," McKinlay said, sitting in a booth in the restaurant where she now works, wiping away tears with a paper napkin.

It's hard to find anyone in the Singer Island restaurant set with much good to say about John Zile.

Friends describe him as devoted to his two boys. "He'd drag the big electric car up and down the stairs so the kids could play," said Frank Eimiller, a former neighbor and co-worker, a father of young children himself, who runs the bar at his family's restaurant. "He was good to those kids."

But as a cook in restaurant kitchens, John Zile was often described as a testy fellow who yelled at other cooks and snapped at waitresses when they asked to change an order. Harris said Zile came to work high and took hits from his marijuana pipe out back during his breaks.

"John was kind of a jerk. Nobody liked John," Eimiller said. "They tolerated him because they liked Pauline."

For years, people gossiped about how Zile let his wife work two jobs while he didn't work at all, or bounced from job to job or took off unannounced for Woodstock.

But Pauline Zile remains an enigma. McKinlay hardly recognizes the hardened face she sees on the 11 o'clock news, a far cry from what she described as the "porcelain doll" who carried a key chain with pictures of all her children.

Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, is pushing the helpless wife image, saying his client was asleep during the beating and went along with the ruse because she feared he would hurt her and the boys.

That depiction doesn't wash with McKinlay. "She didn't seem submissive," she said. "She stood up for herself and didn't let people walk on her."

Pauline and John Zile were both raised in Maryland suburbs of the nation's capital.

Pauline Zile battled drug and alcohol problems and at 16 got pregnant and dropped out of 10th grade. Three months after giving birth, she left baby Christina with her new husband, Frank Holt, and fled to Florida on a Greyhound bus.

A mother ditching a child was not a new concept for Pauline Zile. Her mother, Paula Yingling, left Pauline and her two siblings with their father when Pauline was 5, Maryland court records show.

Shortly after Christina was born, Pauline went to Jensen Beach, where her mother lived, and soon met John Zile - a ninth-grade dropout who had racked up a juvenile record, a burglary conviction, a history of drug and alcohol problems, and had skipped out on probation.

Young Pauline was sitting on a bench with friends when John Zile drove up and introduced himself, and they fell in love immediately, Harris remembers John Zile telling him.

They lived in a series of motel apartments, and worked a series of jobs, she as a waitress, he as a cook - most recently at Ocean's Eleven North. That's a beachfront place with dark wood tables and a pool table, a place that serves burgers and fresh seafood and has a sign out front that reads "Bathers Welcome."

John Zile was described as always in control.

"She never had one bad word to say about him," McKinlay said. "If she was going to be five minutes late she'd be on the phone calling John. Three or four times I remember her hanging up crying because he'd be yelling at her.

"She was very pretty. There were plenty of men who would have taken her away from all this. But she was totally oblivious. Her life was her life and that was it. Any time anyone tried to come on to her, she'd say, `I'm married.'"

Meanwhile, Christina was being raised in Maryland by her paternal great-grandparents, who eventually gave custody to their daughter, the child's grandmother. Pauline Zile was hoping to get Christina back.

In Singer Island restaurants, Pauline Zile was the type of waitress who never complained and didn't ask for help when things got too hectic, said Michael Fitzmaurice, who ran the Buccaneer Restaurant and Lounge, where the couple worked for more than three years. Fitzmaurice, as a notary, married them four years ago last Friday in a patio ceremony too small to warrant closing the restaurant.

At the 3 1/2-star restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway, Pauline Zile was not regarded as a genius, but she wasn't considered stupid either. Sometimes she had trouble auditing her sales at shift's end, but she always got the job done, Fitzmaurice said.

For a long time, the couple didn't have a car, so Pauline Zile would walk about four miles, across the Blue Heron bridge, to the supermarket, then take a cab back with diapers and groceries.

"You thought to yourself, is this kid ever going to get a break? She seemed like the kind of person who did nothing but good, but just had such a hard life," McKinlay said.

Pauline Zile said she wanted to get Christina back as soon as she could afford her, and she frequently showed off pictures to the other waitresses.

"It was always Christina with the Easter Bunny, Christina with Santa Claus. She called her religiously once a week," McKinlay said.

Then, about a year ago, Pauline Zile got pregnant again.

"These people were scraping by. This poor kid couldn't afford a dress," McKinlay said.

To make matters worse, Pauline Zile had to stop working because of problems with her pregnancy. Then, in June, Christina showed up. Friends say the arrival was unexpected. Maryland relatives insist it was planned. In any case, mother and daughter seemed happy about the reunion; Christina, relatives said, had asked to live with her mother.

Over the summer, the pregnant Pauline Zile would bring Christina into the neighborhood 7-Eleven.

"Christina said she wanted her mother to have a little girl so she could have a sister," said a clerk, who refused to be named.

Pauline didn't tell people her real plans for the baby: The Ziles had decided to give it up for adoption, to a well-off Palm Beach family with a nice house and a big yard.

But around mid-September - about the time Christina was killed - acquaintances said Pauline Zile's personality took a dramatic turn.

She would drop by Ocean's Eleven, where John Zile was working, once or twice a week, to chat with workers. McKinlay said she started saying weird things:

That Christina had been molesting the Ziles' boys, Chad, 3, and Daniel, 5. That Christina had been sexually abused by a male baby sitter in Maryland. (After Christina was reported abducted, the FBI checked out allegations of sexual abuse and found no confirmation.) That Christina, told to stand in a corner as punishment one day, had smacked her head against a wall and knocked herself unconscious for 20 minutes; she said they didn't take her to a hospital because she "seemed fine."That the school had removed Christina from class because she urinated and defecated in her clothes.

That Christina was "tearing the family apart."

What struck McKinlay as particularly odd is that Pauline Zile blamed Christina.

"She wasn't acting like a mother; she was more angry at Christina than angry at the person who abused her," McKinlay said. "She looked not distraught but exasperated, at wit's end. ... These are the things that let me know she was involved."

When Pauline Zile appeared on television on Sunday, Oct. 23, clutching Christina's so-called favorite doll and crying about the child's disappearance, all McKinlay wanted to do was help.

On the next Tuesday night, McKinlay went to the apartment to leave a note on the door. Police told her no: It was a crime scene. Forensics was there. Traces of blood had already been found.

McKinlay held her faith through the next two days, angry with the locals speculating about the couple's involvement.

"We all thought this was a big witch hunt," McKinlay said. "How could they do this to these poor people?"

On Friday morning, Oct. 28, Elliot Harris was on his way to Buddy's Cafe and Deli for breakfast when he picked up a newspaper and saw that John Zile had confessed to killing Christina.

Harris got on his Honda cycle and sped around the island, stopping at a bridge to throw up, speeding at 90 to 100 miles an hour, thinking about how he had sat with the Ziles on their living room couch.

"I got tears in my eyes and my stomach was turning," he said. "I thought the kid was actually missing for a week."

Bridget McKinlay, sitting in the booth in the restaurant where she works, weeps as she tells the story, thinking about how she was probably one of the first to hear Pauline Zile's disturbing words, the alarm signal that a child was being mistreated.

"The only thing that keeps me sane is that it was already too late," she said.

"I cannot piece this together.

"You want so much to hate her and be angry but then you remember this is someone you're close to. It's like aliens came and took her away and left someone in her place."

A Greek Orthodox priest came last Monday to bless apartment No. 3 at the Sea Nymph in Singer Island.

On Tuesday, city workers came, at the landlady's request, to get rid of the Ziles' furniture.

By Wednesday, the carpet had been ripped out, the brown wood furniture and paintings that belonged to the owners sat in a heap in the middle of the living room. The apartment awaits a paint job that the owners hope will help erase not only the blood but also the memories of a child's last tears.

Just outside the door, the lush courtyard was quiet. All but two of the eight tenants who lived in the building at the time of the murder have moved out. One said he couldn't stand "the smell of death."

Outside the Ziles' apartment, a basket of African violets sat on the air-conditioning unit, left by an unidentified woman. In the basket was a handwritten note on heart-shaped paper that ended with the words: "My guardian angel, please protect the daughter I love most deeply."

Staff Writer Jill Young Miller contributed to this report.

JOHN ZILE'S CONFESSION QUESTIONED
ATTORNEY MAY ATTEMPT TO HAVE IT THROWN OUT
Sun-Sentinel
November 13, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS and LISA J. HURIASH Staff Writer

The defense attorney for John Zile may move to have Zile's confession in the slaying of his stepdaughter thrown out, arguing that it was obtained illegally.
John Zile, 32, was indicted with his wife, Pauline Zile, 24, in the killing of Pauline Zile's daughter, Christina Holt, 7.

On Thursday, a Palm Beach County grand jury indicted each of the Ziles on charges of first degree murder and four counts of felony aggravated child abuse.

John Zile's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Iola Mosley, said if her client asked for an attorney but his confession was obtained before the attorney was furnished, then his confession can be suppressed.

However, she said, the decision to make a motion to suppress his statement has not been made because she has not interviewed the Riviera Beach police officers involved or Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer. A motion to suppress later in the week is a possibility, she said.

"I would expect the police to tell the truth [during my interview)," she said. "Their job is to see justice."

"The police are careful, but I wouldn't say it's impossible if evidence was illegally obtained," Mosley said.

"Everything was done properly," said Riviera Beach Police Chief Jerry Poreba, referring to the questioning of Zile.

"If Mr. Zile's attorney files a motion to suppress his statement we will respond at the appropriate time," Paul Zacks, a chief prosecutor for the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office, said on Saturday.

"We're not going to try this in the press," Zacks said.

Mosley said her client will plead innocent at his arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Monday. She said she has not determined whether to request a change of venue for the trial, expected to last six to eight weeks next summer.

John Zile told police on Oct. 27 that he beat his stepdaughter as he disciplined her for playing doctor with her two younger brothers.

John Zile told investigators that he tried to muffle Christina's screams. The girl then began vomiting, collapsed and died. He then hid her body in a closet until he buried her four days later behind a Tequesta Kmart.

John Zile has said his wife never tried to stop the beating that ended with Christina's death.

Pauline Zile has maintained she, too, is a victim, saying she did not report Christina's death and went along with her husband's plan to cover up her daughter's disappearance because she feared he would harm her and their two sons, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3.

Investigators say the couple concocted an elaborate plot to cover up Christina's disappearance.

On Oct. 22, Pauline Zile told Broward Sheriff's Office deputies that Christina was abducted from a bathroom at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale.

Investigators said the coverup began to unravel after detectives found bloodstains inside the family's Singer Island apartment, where police say Christina was killed.

ANYTHING TO PLEASE
WOMEN WHO PUT THEIR MEN'S WISHES ABOVE THEIR CHILDREN'S WELFARE ARE MORE COMMON THAN WE REALIZE.
Sun-Sentinel
November 13, 1994
Author: DONNA PAZDERA and MARJORIE LAMBERT
Staff Writers

What sort of woman would kill her children or stand by and watch them be killed?

That's what everyone is asking as they grapple with the recent child murders in Florida and South Carolina.

In South Carolina, 23-year-old Susan Smith, who concocted a story of carjacking and abduction that held people by their TV sets for nine days, confessed to drowning her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons after her boyfriend wrote her a letter saying he wanted to be with her but not the children.

In Palm Beach County, 24-year-old Pauline Zile confessed to inventing an elaborate tale of abduction at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop to cover up her 7-year-old daughter's brutal death a full month before at her husband's hands.

Experts say a common thread runs through their stories and hundreds of others: the desire of desperately insecure women to please their men, no matter the cost.

A woman who kills her child to save a relationship often suffers low self-esteem, says Nancy Tanner, director of the Broward County Victims Advocate Unit.

Such a woman also may lack friends or family members to offer support.

Killing a child because she believes it will make her husband or boyfriend happy is the most extreme manifestation of that desire.

But there are others.

No one tracks how many women cover up for men who abuse their children or women who simply abandon their kids when they get in the way of a relationship, but authorities say both phenomena are common. And they stem from the same motivation.

"Wounded women get into abusive relationships," says Jim Towey, secretary of Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. "These women want a man in their lives; it seems to validate them. And some of them are horrible men. They don't want the children around."

Sometimes a person trying to save a relationship feels cornered and does something drastic, says Lenore Walker, a clinical/forensic psychologist who has written 10 books about family violence.

"They're so desperate for survival that they don't deal with things in a normal way," says Walker, who divides her time between Fort Lauderdale and Denver.

When a mother is young and has been abused herself, Walker says the odds for future abuse are increased.

"Lots of young mothers just aren't able to parent their children. If the mother has been damaged or abused, that ability to protect has been damaged," Walker said. "I think the level of violence we see is on the increase. I see more and more kids who are growing up alienated, and they're having babies."

A woman who chooses a man over her children does so because she is dependent on him to boost her self-esteem, said Mary Littlefield, clinical director of the Center for Family Services in Jupiter. Littlefield has worked with two women who gave up their children for adoption because their boyfriends did not want them around.

"It was presented as the boyfriends were not child-oriented and did not want the inconvenience that children bring into a relationship," Littlefield said. "It's not a rational reason. But it feeds back into this woman's idea that she needs to please this unpleasable man."

In 1993, 1,299 children nationwide died because of abuse or neglect by a parent, stepparent or other caretaker, according to the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse in Chicago.

In Florida, 74 children died of abuse or neglect in the in the 12 months from July 1993 to June 1994, and authorities suspect abuse or neglect in another 36 deaths. Of those 110 deaths, 13 were in Broward - the highest number of any county. Three were in Palm Beach and 12 in Dade.

Men are twice as likely as women to kill a child, though specific numbers are not available, Florida officials said.

It took heart-rending tales of kidnappings that turned out to be hoaxes for the Palm Beach and South Carolina cases to capture the public's attention.

"We like to think it's the aberrant parent that does that," says Jack Levine, executive director of the Florida Center for Children & Youth in Tallahassee. "But our political environment allows children to be disposable."

He considers violence by parents against their children "a direct reflection of social mores and values, the devaluation of life, of regard for each other. The violence in our streets is entering our homes."

Towey blames the violence on a breakdown in relationships between men and women. Men father children, then abandon both mother and child. The mother must struggle to make a new life with the child, Towey says. And she may end up with a new man who has no tie to - or interest in - her child by another.

Ultimately, it is the child who suffers.

"They may not throw them into a lake," Towey says, "but they do it in a different way, by withdrawing, by exiling the child, by emotionally starving the child."

This summer, Towey visited foster parents in eight cities throughout Florida who cared for children born to drug-abusing mothers or abandoned by their parents.

"In every home, when I would say, `Where's the mother? How involved are they?' They all told me without exception that their mothers choose their boyfriends over babies 100 percent of the time."

If you or someone you know needs help dealing with the stresses of parenting, divorce or any other situation, call the Community Service Council Helpline at 1-305-467-6333.

JOHN ZILE MUTE ON MURDER CHARGE
The Palm Beach Post
November 15, 1994
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Attorneys for John Zile declined to enter a plea at his arraignment Monday, saying the first-degree murder indictment against him may be invalid.

``At this point we don't wish to acknowledge the validity of the indictment,'' Assistant Public Defender Peggy Natale told Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp. ``Rather than enter a plea, we will stand mute.''
Rapp entered a plea of not guilty for Zile to the murder charge and charges of child abuse.

Natale said Monday night that State Attorney Barry Krischer should not prosecute the case if he was there when police got confessions from Pauline and John Zile.

``If he was there when either defendant gave a confession, it may be that he shouldn't be the prosecutor,'' Natale said. ``Barry Krischer may very well be a witness in this case.''

Zile's other attorney, Iola Mosley, has said that she and Natale may attack the legality of the confession in which Zile told police that his stepdaughter, Christina Holt, convulsed, vomited and died as he disciplined her with a beating on Oct. 16.

The defense strategy would depend on proving that police continued questioning Zile alone, and extracted a confession, after Zile asked for an attorney.

Zile's wife, Pauline Zile, also is charged with first-degree murder and child abuse in the case. Her arraignment was delayed until Friday because her attorney, Ellis Rubin, had not received a copy of the indictment returned last week.

Rubin argued Monday that State Attorney Barry Krischer should be disqualified from prosecuting Pauline Zile because he made improper comments to the media that may have influenced the grand jury's decision to issue indictments.

``The grand jurors read, they see television,'' Rubin told Rapp.

Rapp will hear from prosecutors on Friday before ruling on Rubin'srequest.

Natale also agreed that extensive publicity may have tainted the grand jury deliberations before returning indictments last week.

Krischer's spokesman, Mike Edmondson, dismissed those arguments.

``Our office intends to prosecute the Ziles in court and not through the media,'' Edmondson said.

Christina died of asphyxiation, according to medical reports. John Zile said he held a towel over her face to muffle her cries after she began convulsing and choking.

The Ziles sat at opposite ends of the jury box in Rapp's courtroom during Monday's proceedings. Pauline turned several hostile glances on her husband as Rubin quoted from articles saying John Zile told police his wife had participated in abusing Christina.

ATTORNEY WANTS ZILE'S INDICTMENTS DISMISSED
MOTHER: INVESTIGATORS EMOTIONALLY PRESSURED PAULINE PAULINE
Sun-Sentinel
November 15, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
Staff Writer Stephanie Smith contributed to this report.

Zile admitted her husband killed her daughter, Christina Holt, only after investigators graphically told her what was happening to the girl's body in its sandy, unmarked grave, Zile's mother testified on Monday.
"I remember [an investigator) yelling out, `That baby sits in the ground and the bugs are eating her, and you've got to tell us where she is,' and `She deserves better than that, snakes and all,'" Paula Yingling, Zile's mother, testified on Monday, her voice cracking as she began to cry.

Yingling's description of the emotional pressure investigators used on Zile came on Monday as her daughter's defense attorney, Ellis Rubin, tried to have Zile's first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse indictments dismissed.

Rubin told a judge that statements made by prosecutors in media reports had tainted the grand jury, which indicted the Ziles on Thursday in the 7-year-old's death.

Rubin's motion to dismiss the indictments is similar to a defense tactic used in the O.J. Simpson case, which resulted in a grand jury's dismissal.

The hearing, which followed John Zile's arraignment on identical charges, will continue in Palm Beach County Circuit Court on Friday. Pauline Zile is scheduled to be arraigned then.

John Zile pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday.

Peggy Natale, one of John Zile's public defenders, said they did not join Rubin's motion to dismiss the indictments because it was premature.

"I think there's a lot more work to be done before it's presented properly. We intend to do that," she said.

Police say John Zile, 32, told investigators on Oct. 27 that he punched and beat his stepdaughter on Sept. 16. The 44-pound girl collapsed into convulsions and stopped breathing after John Zile tried to muffle her screams and she began vomiting, he said. He then led investigators to Christina's grave behind a Kmart in Tequesta.

The medical examiner has ruled Christina died of asphyxiation.

The Ziles, who were seated at opposite ends of a jury box, glanced at each other periodically but did not speak during Monday's hearing on Rubin's motions.

To prove that media coverage of statements by prosecutors and police had tainted the grand jury, Rubin read numerous newspaper articles about the case.

Pauline Zile, 24, closed her eyes and took a deep breath when Rubin read from an article that described blood stains found in the couple's Singer Island apartment.

She shook her head when Rubin read a comment about how a witness overheard her rehearse for the kidnapping ruse. On Oct. 22, Pauline Zile reported Christina was abducted from a bathroom at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale.

When Rubin read that John Zile told police that his wife had just as much of a role in abusing Christina as he had, Pauline glared at John Zile and then quickly turned her head away.

Pauline Zile wiped away tears as Yingling, her mother, was on the witness stand.

Yingling, of Jensen Beach, testified she was at the Riviera Beach police station on Oct. 27 when investigators began questioning Pauline Zile.

"[Investigators) asked me to speak with my daughter because they knew she was lying, she was covering up," Yingling said.

Yingling said she, too, suspected her daughter was lying. She said investigators turned down her offer to wear a wire to help them find out from Pauline Zile where Christina was buried.

But Yingling said she later learned Pauline Zile "didn't really know where my granddaughter was buried."

Investigators never told Zile in Yingling's presence that Zile had a right to an attorney before being questioned or before she was given a polygraph test, which she failed, Yingling testified.

Yingling said she remembered Barry Krischer, Palm Beach County state attorney, being at the police station that night, but could not recall what, if anything, Krischer may have said to her daughter.

Investigators told her that Krischer was the man who will decide whether her daughter will spend the rest of her life in prison or die in the electric chair, she testified.

When Yingling was cross-examined by Scott Cupp, Palm Beach County assistant state attorney, her credibility was questioned.

Yingling conceded she had limited contact with her daughter in the five years the Ziles were married. Although they lived only an hour apart, Yingling said she had received only two letters from her daughter.

And, Yingling said, she had never seen her granddaughter, Christina. "[John and Pauline Zile) chose to keep her in Maryland and away from me," she testified.

When Cupp questioned Yingling about a tabloid television free-lance photographer offering the family money to sell their story, Yingling denied that a deal was ever made.

"I'm not interested in making anything off this tragedy," Yingling said.