Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

Home --> Christina Holt's Story --> Christina Holt's Story: Newspaper Articles --> 1994 Page 19

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.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.

Thank you!


*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.

Can Murder Defendants Be 'Moms'? (12/22/94)
Zile Case Attorney Wants To Quiz Prosecutor (12/22/94)
The World Needs More Josephs (12/25/94)
Child Killings A Losing Battle in South Florida (12/26/94)
Attorney Wants Ziles Trial Separated (12/31/94)
Many Doubted Ziles' Story (12/31/94)

CAN MURDER DEFENDANTS BE `MOMS'?
The Palm Beach Post
December 22, 1994
Author: CHARLES BOND

A day in the life of the Listening Post editor? No, just a sampling of messages from the answering machine when he has a few days off:

From Jack Topalian of North Palm Beach: ``My complaint is over the increasing use of mom where mother should be used.
``Mom,'' he continued, ``always has been an endearing term for mothers, and it connotes love and nurturing. Mother is a biological term for a woman who has given birth to offspring. An article (Dec. 13 Post) has the headline, `Court papers: Mom feared losing custody.' This woman, Clover Boykin, has admitted killing her infant son and also killing an 8-month-old old baby while she was baby-sitting.

``Also in The Post last week, an article on Page 1B had the headline, `A.J.'s stepmom gets 30 years for abuse.' (She is still awaiting trial in the boy's murder.) I've noticed the continuous use of mom in the local murder of Christina Holt. Her mother, Pauline Zile, is a co-defendant in that case. And mom has been used also in the Susan Smith trial in South Carolina, where the mother planned the murder-suicide of her young boys but got out of the car and let them drown. Then she concocted the black carjacker story.

``Are these women moms?'' asks Mr. Topalian. ``Where is the love and nurturing in these cases?''

Comment: Though appreciating the point, it's a distinction that I wouldn't expect - or want - reporters and editors to make. The newsroom standard on this matter, Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, lists mom as a colloquialism for mother. Mother, in turn, is defined as ``a woman who has borne a child; esp., a woman as she is related to her child or children.'' Mom also works better in a headline.

Gordon Kerr of Tequesta ``was shocked to see that your (Dec. 14) paper didn't have a story in it about the Delray Beach cop who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing a prostitute. That's a horrendous omission.''

Comment: The paper did run a brief article in the south-county editions.

``Here's another thing,'' said Mr. Kerr. ``There was a big story on the national news yesterday about a dozen cops in New Orleans arrested mostly on drug charges. I would think that would be worth a story. Especially since there was an earth-shaking story on today's front page about `Congress shelves Pickle Weeks.'' I guess you're specializing in trivia today, huh?''

Comment: I was more interested in the Republican House freshmen's move to abolish commemorative days, months and years, but I wish we'd had both stories.

The next caller left no name but one of those rare messages: ``Good morning. I really appreciate the new print you're using in the financial section. It is much easier to read. Thank you.''

Comment: Noted, and thank you, ma'am.

From Peter Derderian: ``Charles, I'm looking at the front page of The Palm Beach Post Wednesday, Dec. 14, and where the headline says `Middle-class tax cut' . . . Then look a little further over, and it says it's an analysis from The New York Times.'' But analyses, he said, ``belong further down below the fold, or on an inside page.''

Comment: I have no problem with analysis and commentary appearing on the front. I am bothered when it isn't clearly labeled for readers as such. This one was.

Mollie Stark was annoyed about a Dec. 13 accident report that said a 7-month-pregnant woman ``lost her fetus'' and was in critical condition. ``That is not a fetus, it's a baby,'' said Ms. Stark. ``You can deliver that baby, and it will be a healthy baby.''

Comment: While recognizing the underlying debate, again, Webster's rules define fetus as the unborn young, specifically ``in humans, from about the eighth week after conception until birth.'' But baby would have been fine.

Charles Bond is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.

ZILE CASE ATTORNEY WANTS TO QUIZ PROSECUTOR
Sun-Sentinel
December 22, 1994
Author: JIM Di PAOLA Staff Writer

Pauline Zile's attorney told a judge on Wednesday that he should be allowed to question the Palm Beach County state attorney to determine what role he played in Zile's confession to police.

But prosecutors said State Attorney Barry Krischer should be protected from giving a sworn statement because he oversees all criminal cases in the county.
If Krischer is listed as a witness for the murder trial of Pauline or John Zile, it may force a judge to select an independent prosecutor from another county to handle the cases.

"The defense has to show that the information they want from the state attorney has no other source and the information is important for the defense," prosecutor Ken Selvig told Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp on Wednesday.

Rapp agreed with Selvig - at least for now. Rapp told Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, that he should take sworn statements of the six other police officers and prosecutors who were with Pauline Zile when she talked about her role in the death of her daughter, Christina Holt, on Sept. 16. If Rubin still wants to question Krischer, Rapp said he would grant another hearing.

Riviera Beach police say Holt, 7, died while being punished by her stepfather, John Zile. The couple hid Christina's body in a closet for four days before John Zile buried her in a sandy grave behind a Tequesta shopping center.

After police questioned John and Pauline Zile on Oct. 27, the couple led the detectives to the makeshift grave.

It is the interview with Pauline Zile - when Krischer was present - that Rubin wants to know more about.

On Wednesday, Rubin told Rapp that he should be allowed to question Krischer about Krischer's role in Pauline Zile's taped interview.

In the 30-page transcript of the interview, there were 280 sections of Zile's statement that were unintelligible, Rubin said.

"We are informed that Barry Krischer was at the taking of the statement of Pauline Zile before she was charged," Rubin told Rapp. "Certainly, the taking of a statement or confession is relevant to the charge."

THE WORLD NEEDS MORE JOSEPHS
The Palm Beach Post
December 25, 1994
Author: ROBERT DOUGLAS

As some of us prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ and all of us mourn the death of Christina, let us pause to reflect on the nature of a man who set their lives apart.

Joseph.
In 1994's winter of discontent over abused children and negligent parents, his unsung heroism deserves praise and emulation.

Jesus Christ and Christina Holt had much in common.

Both were conceived out of wedlock.

Both were victims of torturous and unwarranted punishment.

And both were buried in temporary graves.

Christ and Christina both had stepfathers, too.

But only one was Joseph.

The other was his antithesis. A man called John.

Joseph personifies the goodness of Christian paternalism and its equivalent in every faith and secular system that upholds human decency as a virtue.

For reasons he shared with his God and his wife, he nurtured Jesus, who was not his child, as if he were.

Not so, John Zile.

For reasons that may become more clear when he goes on trial for murder next year, he fatally beat his wife's daughter, swaddled Christina's body in a tarp and laid it in a sandy grave, where it stayed until police dug it up.

Since his self-confessed crime in September, John has emerged as a symbol of social dysfunction.

An unskilled delinquent who couldn't hold a job or his liquor, he once told a judge ``I have a problem with accepting responsibility for myself and my actions.''

Actions that include killing a child in his custody who, at age 7, was legitimately too young to be responsible for herself.

We have not heard the end of John's vilification.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both him and Christina's mother. And as the pursuit of that goal generates more insights into his act of inhumanity, there will be a chorus of calls for his blood as if it will somehow cleanse the dark corners of our own humanity.

But today, let's look on humanity's bright side.

Let's look at Joseph and the hope he embodies for children who don't ask to be born into a world that isn't ready for them.

Here's a man who learned that his fiancee, whom the Bible tells us he did not know in the biblical sense, was pregnant.

Yet he did not abandon her.

And from the very start, he did more than merely accept her offspring.

He gave Jesus a name.

He gave him comfort.

And he put himself between the child and the Zilelike rage of an unrestrained authority figure.

When King Herod felt threatened by reports that a king of the Jews had been born, the ruler of Palestine ordered the execution of all infant boys.

To protect his wife's son, Joseph took Jesus and Mary to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod died.

The angels may have told Joseph that Mary's conception was immaculate.

The angels may have told him to flee from the wrath of Herod.

But Joseph didn't have to listen.

As a man of free will, he didn't have to take responsibility.

But he did.

And in doing so, he changed the course of history.

Maybe John Zile did, too.

Maybe Christina was destined for a life of greatness that will never be.

We'll never know what gifts she may have brought.

But in the spirit of this season, we can give her death our own gift of meaning.

We can make it a reminder that the world needs more Josephs.

Men - and women - who will suffer the little children to come into our world and help them live long enough to make it a better place than they found it.

Robert Douglas is business editor for The Palm Beach Post.

CHILD KILLINGS A LOSING BATTLE IN S. FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel
December 26, 1994
Author: NANCY SAN MARTIN Miami Bureau

Twenty-five South Florida children won't see the new year. All were killed in 1994, the victims of abuse or neglect.

One, a 9-year-old boy, had a kitchen knife plunged into his chest by his mother while he was sleeping. Another, a 5-month-old boy, was choked to death by his mother while he slept. A month-old boy was shaken to death by his father.
For state health officials and social workers trying to prevent these incidents, it's a losing battle.

"It's a growing and alarming trend," said Anita Bock, head of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Dade County. "Tragically, it's not going to get better in 1995."

In 1993, 98 children died in Florida as a result of abuse or neglect, state records show. Total figures for 1994 are not available but are expected to be much higher, experts said.

Of the 25 who died this year in South Florida, 14 were in Dade County, four times the number in 1993. Eight were in Broward County, double last year's number. Another three died in Palm Beach County. Experts say violence against children is particularly bad in the inner city.

"The inner cities are beginning to explode. Juvenile crime is at an all-time high, teen pregnancy is high and poverty is high," Bock said.

Some of the more brutal slayings this year include:

-- Rafael Perez, 9, of Miami, was killed on Dec. 9 when his mother plunged a kitchen knife into his chest as he slept. The boy's younger brother Armando, 6, witnessed the slaying. The mother, Ramona Perez, told police Rafael was mean to her and his little brother. She has been charged with first-degree murder.

-- Sasha Gibbons, 4, was wrapped in a comforter and stuck under a heavy waterbed mattress by her mom's boyfriend on Nov. 26 in Pompano Beach. The child was in a coma for three days before dying. The boyfriend, Carlos Tomas Schenk, told police he was trying to stop the girl from cursing. Previously, he washed her mouth with soap, then Tabasco sauce. Schenk has been charged with first-degree murder.

-- Dayton Boykin, 5-months-old, was choked to death by his mother as he slept on Oct. 27 in Royal Palm Beach. The mother, Clover Boykin, told police she killed her son after she awoke from a nightmare about her abusive father. She also confessed to killing a friend's baby while she was baby-sitting in November 1993; Kayla Basante, 9 months old, was found in her crib with a blanket around her neck. Boykin has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

-- In perhaps the most publicized case, Christina Holt of Riviera Beach was murdered, police say by her stepfather Walter John Zile. He then joined the girl's natural mother, Pauline Zile, in a ruse to fool authorities into thinking the girl had been kidnapped from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale. Both Ziles have been chared in Christina's murder.

In most abuse or neglect cases, children are 2 years old or younger. Their parents are in their late teens or early 20s. They usually have at least one sibling. The family's income is below poverty level.

Most of the children who are killed suffer from what health experts call the "shaken baby syndrome."The child is shaken so violently that the eye retina is detached and the brain is severely damaged.

Several beatings usually prelude the fatal beating.

"Very often when you read the autopsy report, you see these children have suffered a lot," Bock said. "Death is only the end result of a severe problem."

HRS Secretary Jim Towey called the trend nauseating. He said in many of the cases, single mothers choose boyfriends over their children. Or the mothers may end up with abusive relationships in which they are too terrified to protect their children.

Despite the need, help will be limited in the upcoming year. The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, the agency responsible for children's welfare, has been told to cut $51 million from its budget.

Towey, who visited South Florida last week, said for the first time in its history, the agency probably won't get any new money from the Legislature.

That means preventive programs such as the $3.6 million Community Health Team project in Dade could be slashed. Money for the program runs out today.

The 2-year-old project, aimed at schools and housing complexes, tries to help troubled families before it's too late.

At the Scott Carver housing complex in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, for example, trained professionals help parents and children deal with substance abuse and domestic violence.

The housing complex has 747 families, mostly headed by single moms. More than 700 of the children are under 5 years old.

One of the housing units has been converted into an office for the Health Team, consisting of a registered nurse, a counselor, a site coordinator and two technicians.

The office is often crowded with children who stop in after school. There is only one rule: Everyone who walks in the door gets a hug.

"We are here for them," said Maite Roca, a site coordinator. "If anything goes wrong, they come to me. You know how many parents I've chased down who are running after their kids with a big belt?" Diane Frazer, program operations administrator over protective investigations in Broward, said now, more than ever, parents should have resources. "We need to make kids visible, like having day-care programs available for children under 5," she said.

But without financial help from the Legislature, HRS officials say their job will be difficult.

"We need to educate," Roca said. "If you tell somebody watch your step over and over again, maybe they won't trip."

ATTORNEY WANTS ZILES TRIAL SEPARATED
The Palm Beach Post
December 31, 1994
Author: MITCH McKENNEY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Pauline Zile's attorney told a judge Friday that her trial should be separated from her husband's in the slaying of her daughter, Christina Holt, because she wouldn't be able to defend herself against what he said about her in his confession.

Ellis Rubin said that's because John Zile's taped statement, which prosecutors intend to use as evidence, would be hearsay concerning Pauline Zile, but Rubin wouldn't be able to examine John Zile about it unless his attorneys put him on the stand to defend himself.
John Zile, Christina's stepfather, mentions his wife 47 times in the 33-page transcript of the statement he gave Oct. 28 after leading investigators to 7-year-old Christina's grave, Rubin said.

If Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp won't separate the cases, Rubin said all references John Zile made to his wife should be deleted before the statement could be used as evidence in a combined trial.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said John Zile's references merely place Pauline Zile at the scene. ``He doesn't, to use the vernacular, dump on (her),'' Cupp said of John Zile's statement. ``It's all me, me, me, I, I, I. . . . He even goes as far as to say she didn't know where he buried the body.''

With only two defendants and no conflicting statements, the state could save money by not prosecuting the same case twice, Cupp said. He said jurors wouldn't be confused with he-said, she-said statements because he won't be using Pauline Zile's statement.

Rapp said he would rule later on that motion and others from Rubin, though he did deny a motion by him and Peggy Natale, John Zile's public defender, to allow the Ziles to make pretrial court appearances in street clothes. Rapp didn't agree that potential jurors would equate the jail-issued clothes with guilt.

Rubin also complained that he wasn't getting enough documents from the state attorney's office, though Cupp said Rubin just received a 265-page report of witnesses the FBI interviewed. That report includes some new details:

Two family doctors in Maryland who examined Christina this year said she had no evidence of precocious sexual behavior or sexual abuse, though the Ziles said Christina talked of being abused by family members. John Zile had told investigators that he began hitting Christina the night she died because she wouldn't tell the truth about where she learned about sex.

The day before Pauline Zile reported Christina missing Oct. 22 at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop, John Zile and a friend drove there to check out the security. They then spent several hours at Rosebuds, a Fort Lauderdale bar, to see Dr. Hook, but left before the show.

James M. Yingling, Christina's uncle, said Pauline and John Zile's 5-year-old son, Daniel, told him Oct. 27 that Christina disappeared after falling down a ``big hill'' into water up to her eyes. Daniel explained to his uncle that John Zile told him Christina was ``evil.''

MANY DOUBTED ZILES' STORY
FBI FILES REVEAL SOME SUSPECTED KIDNAPPING TALE FROM START
Sun-Sentinel
December 31, 1994
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

From the beginning, people around Pauline Zile were skeptical about her claim that her young daughter had been kidnapped from a Broward County flea market.

Patty Ely of Deerfield Beach was at the Swap Shop when she heard that Christina Holt, 7, was missing. But, as Ely later told FBI agents, she found it strange that Zile neither cried nor seemed emotional as the two talked.

Even more striking, Ely said, was Zile's reaction to a report that her daughter had been found. "Patty stated that after hearing the reaction concerning the discovery of the missing child, she, herself, ran into the interior of the building hoping to retrieve the child. Pauline did not follow," according to an FBI report.

Ely's statement was among 265 pages of FBI documents released on Friday by the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.

Pauline and John Zile have each been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in connection with Christina's death.

Police say Pauline Zile knew the report of Christina's discovery was false because she was there when her husband beat his stepdaughter to death in September, a month before the couple reported her abduction.

The Ziles kept Christina's body in a closet in their apartment in Singer Island for four days. They burned incense to fight the odor.

Broward County detectives searched the home for hair samples and other clues that could help them find Christina and discovered blood.

The hoax continued to unravel on Oct. 27, when Pauline Zile failed a lie detector test and confessed that her husband beat her child to death while she stood by.

On Friday, the Ziles were in court, requesting separate trials. A judge indicated he may grant the request, but deferred issuing his ruling.

After the hearing, the documents were released.

The documents show that Ginette Bastien, who works in the information booth at the flea market, also found Pauline Zile's behavior unusual.

Usually parents wait around the booth for word of their missing child or check back frequently. Pauline Zile waited for an hour before checking back with her, Bastien told FBI agents.

Bastien was also suspicious about Christina's doll. When Pauline Zile first approached Bastien, she did not have the doll. When she came back, Zile held the doll, which she said was Christina's favorite, in her arms.

One of the witnesses interviewed by the FBI predicted what really may have happened to Christina.

Private social worker Ellen B. Flaum met John and Pauline Zile only once, on Sept. 10. She assessed them for a lawyer handling the adoption of the couple's unborn baby for a Palm Beach couple.

Flaum told the FBI on Oct. 27 that when she heard on the radio about Christina's possible kidnapping, she thought that either John or Pauline Zile could have killed the girl, Special Agent Deborah K. Dillender wrote in her report. "Flaum has nothing to base this theory on other than `gut feelings,'" Dillender wrote.

Flaum's premonitions didn't end there.

"Pauline could possibly cover up for John if, in fact, he had killed Christina Holt. Again, Flaum based her beliefs on `gut feelings,'" Dillender wrote.

Later that night, Pauline Zile admitted the kidnapping was a hoax and John Zile agreed to help police find the child's body that had been buried weeks earlier behind a Tequesta Kmart.