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.

Abuse Suspected In Missing Girl's Home (10/26/94)
Christina Sent From Home To Home (10/26/94)
Search Continues For Missing Girl (10/26/94)
Missing Girl Had Not Been Seen In Weeks (10/26/94)
Missing Girl's Parents Sought (10/27/94)
Wanted: Christina's Parents (10/27/94)
Mom Who Cried Kidnap Now Fugitive (10/27/94)
Stepdad Says He Beat Girl To Death (10/28/94)
Stepfather Faces Charges in Christina's Murder (10/28/94)
Chemical Used To Find Blood Traces (10/28/94)

ABUSE SUSPECTED IN MISSING GIRL'S HOME
The Palm Beach Post
October 26, 1994
Author: VAL ELLICOTT, ELIOT KLEINBERG and CAROLYN FRETZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Police searching for a missing 7-year-old girl went back to her family's apartment with a search warrant Tuesday night and said they have evidence that one or more children in the family, and possibly the missing girl, have been abused.

Riviera Beach Detective Pat Galligan said the abuse investigation was triggered by something Broward County Sheriff's Office deputies found Monday night while they were inside the Singer Island home of Pauline Zile, who reported to police Saturday that her daughter, Christina Holt, was abducted from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.
Police would not say what they found that led to the abuse investigation.

``There's abuse there,'' Galligan said. ``This is a brand-new case. This is separate from the missing child (case).''

Pauline Zile, 24, and her husband, John Zile, 32, have not willingly spoken publicly about Christina's disappearance since Saturday. The couple this summer got custody of Christina, who had been living with her grandmother in Maryland.

The Ziles have two sons, Chad, 5, and David, 3. Police said Tuesday night that the boys are with their parents.

Galligan said police and FBI agents are continuing to treat Christina's disappearance as a missing child case. Investigators have questioned whether Christina was abducted from the Swap Shop, as her mother claimed.

Zile said she last saw Christina as the girl entered a restroom at the Swap Shop. Zile used a separate stall.

Detectives in Broward are examining videotape from 36 surveillance cameras at the flea market in hopes of spotting the moment Pauline Zile says she and her daughter crossed a skywalk from a parking lot into the Swap Shop.

Authorities wouldn't discuss what, if anything, they had found on the tapes.

Sheriff's divers also spent several hours Tuesday in the C-12 canal, which winds around the Swap Shop lot along Sunrise Boulevard in suburban Fort Lauderdale.

Although the investigation seems to be leading away from a simple abduction, Broward Sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said Pauline Zile's story has been consistent since Christina disappeared.

One of the perplexing aspects of the case is Christina's recent withdrawal from school. The girl was enrolled in a Jupiter Farms elementary school until early October, then was pulled out and apparently not re-enrolled in another school, officials have said. Jupiter Farms is not the school she should have attended, but a family acquaintance said the Ziles wanted Christina to go there because they liked the school.

The family has not been staying in their Singer Island apartment since Christina's disappearance. Monday night, Broward officials were inside the family's apartment searching for what they called routine clues - hair and fingerprint samples. That search was done with the family's permission, officials said.

Tuesday's search, however, was done with a court order. Details of such orders are never made available in court until a search is complete.

Also Tuesday, Pauline Zile, her husband and her ex-husband, Frank Holt - Christina's father who came down from Maryland - filmed two separate episodes for America's Most Wanted. The family has been working with the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center, which is helping with support, fliers and other publicity.

Neighbors and co-workers generally describe Zile's newly found relationship with Christina as close and protective.

The mother and daughter have been apart for most of Christina's life. According to Maryland court records, Pauline Zile married Frank Holt in 1986. Christina was born in 1987. Pauline's mother, Paula Yingling, who lives in Jensen Beach, said it was a case of ``babies trying to raise babies.''

Maryland records show Christina's parents filed for divorce in 1988 but did not argue in court over custody of their daughter, which eventually went to Holt's mother in Poolesville, Md., outside Washington, D.C.

Court records show Pauline Zile battled a drug and alcohol problem in her late teens. But her mother said she moved to Florida, met Zile, started over and began a second family.

The couple worked at restaurants and took care of their sons. Neighbors say they were a close family.

A Maryland judge this summer agreed Pauline Zile could have custody of Christina although details of those court proceedings weren't available Tuesday.

Judy Holt, Frank Holt's mother who until this summer was raising Christina, said Tuesday that she recently spoke to the family in Florida, and everything seemed fine.

Tuesday, Judy Holt met at her home for about 70 minutes with an FBI special agent. She said she didn't want to discuss her granddaughter's disappearance.

``There are so many people we have got to talk to,'' she said. ``I don't know any other thing.''

Despite the renewed relationship with her daughter, Zile's life still was complicated. Paula Yingling said her daughter had a baby this month, but the couple gave the child up for adoption.

``After a lot of soul-searching, they decided they couldn't give to a fourth without taking away from the three they already had,'' she said.

Staff writers Jounice L. Nealy and Larry Lipman contributed to this report.

CHRISTINA SENT FROM HOME TO HOME
CUSTODY DISPUTE CENTERED ON WHO WOULD KEEP MISSING GIRL, 7
Sun-Sentinel
October 26, 1994
Author: CINDY ELMORE, JILL YOUNG MILLER and STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writers
Staff Writer Marego Athans contributed to this story.

Christina Holt searched for a real home many times in her seven years.

Now, police are searching for Christina, after the girl's mother frantically reported her disappearance from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop on Saturday.

Court records in Maryland and interviews with relatives paint a picture of a child bounced from home to home, only to land unexpectedly with her mother in Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County in June.

The custody dispute over the missing girl "was not in the customary sense," said Jim Leljedal, spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office. "With most custody battles, you usually think [people are saying) `I want her.' This wasn't the case [with Christina). There wasn't, in our knowledge, anyone fighting to keep her.

"But there were people who cared about her," Leljedal said. Four days after her mother frantically reported the child's disappearance from the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale, more facts emerged about the missing Christina's unsettled life, and:

-- Riviera Beach police executed a sealed search warrant on the apartment of her parents, Pauline and John Zile, on Tuesday after Broward sheriff's detectives found possible evidence of child abuse during a search for fingerprints and hair samples there on Monday night, said Riviera Beach Detective Pat Galligan.

Said Galligan: "We're working it like a child abuse case. There is child abuse [allegations) here, but I can't tell you what."

A Broward sheriff's spokesman would not discuss what was found, but revealed detectives had sprayed the apartment with Luminol. Luminol is a chemical used to detect bloodstains.

-- The FBI continued to interview shoppers and vendors at the Swap Shop, and relatives. -- Broward sheriff's divers searched the canals around Swap Shop flea market.

No witnesses were found who saw Christina at the Swap Shop, and the canal search proved fruitless. And deputies would not reveal if they had found anything while reviewing security tapes taken from the 36 surveillance cameras at the Swap Shop.

Christina's mother and stepfather could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but Pauline Zile was interviewed for the TV show America's Most Wanted. The segment about Christina's disappearance will air on Saturday night.

Relatives in the small Maryland town of Poolesville, where Christina grew up, recounted her turbulent life.

Pauline and John Zile got custody of Christina in June, when the girl's paternal grandmother, Judy Holt, drove her to Riviera Beach.

Holt just "decided she didn't want her and just dropped her off," said Christina's maternal grandmother, Paula Yingling, of Jensen Beach. "No warning, no notice, no nothing."

Holt declined to be interviewed. Christina was born to Pauline Zile - then Pauline Louise Holt - and Franklin Delano Holt Jr. on May 23, 1987. Three months later, Pauline left the infant with her husband, said Dorothy Money, 70, the child's great-grandmother.

"The mother didn't want her - the real mother," Money, 70, said on Tuesday. But Pauline Zile's mother said her daughter was 16 when she gave birth, 17 when she gave up Christina.

From there, Christina lived in a succession of relatives' homes until she wound up at age 5 1/2 months with Dorothy and Raymond Money.

She remained in the Moneys' four-bedroom, wheat-colored house in rural Poolesville, 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., until Aug. 14, 1992. The child had maple trees in the yard and her own bedroom.

During those years, Pauline Zile wanted the Moneys to adopt her daughter, said Money, a retired waitress. But when Christina was 5, Holt - Money's adopted daughter - said she would like to take care of the child at her townhouse 2 1/2 blocks away. "Judy told me, `I want to do things for her that I never did for my children,'" Money said. Because Money had developed painful arthritis in her hips, she agreed. Custody was officially transferred in January 1993. The Moneys still saw Christina regularly, however, and the child often stayed over on weekends.

Then last June the child told Dorothy Money: "`Mimi, I'm going to Florida. Grammy is taking me down.' I said to her, `Christina, are you staying?' Christina said, `No, I don't want to. But Grammy wants me to stay. I only want to go down for a little while.'" When Money asked Holt about the move, Holt told her that she and her husband no longer wanted Christina.

"She told me that a month before she took Christina to Florida," Money said.

Moreover, Holt said Pauline Zile would be getting her daughter "whether she wants her or not," Money said.

Money said Holt was jealous of her close relationship with Christina. She said she has not spoken with Holt since Christina was taken to Florida in June.

On Monday, Holt told a different story, saying Christina wanted to live with her mother and "I figured she was old enough."

Yingling, the child's maternal grandmother, said Pauline and John Zile would not have given up their recent newborn for adoption if Christina had not joined the family. With Christina and two children of their own - Chad, 3, and Daniel, 5 - the couple could not afford another baby and do not believe in abortion, Yingling said.

Despite the financial strain, Yingling said her daughter was "tickled to death" about Christina's arrival.

Also on Tuesday, Christina's biological father, Franklin Delano Holt Jr., who visited his daughter every few months when she lived in Maryland, arrived in South Florida on Tuesday to look for his daughter. He came with his fiancee. They were in a Ford Explorer plastered with posters of the missing Christina.

Anyone with information about Christina should call 493-TIPS.

SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING GIRL
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 26, 1994
Author: Herald Staff

Three days after the disappearance of Christina Holt, investigators searched a canal near the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop -- to no avail -- and spent hours going through the family's Riviera Beach apartment.
There was not a trace of the 7-year-old, whose mother said she disappeared Saturday from the flea market. Broward sheriff's officials said they have found no one -- other than immediate family -- who remembers seeing the girl in recent weeks.

MISSING GIRL HAD NOT BEEN SEEN IN WEEKS
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 26, 1994
Author: TRISH POWER and DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writers
Estimated printed pages: 3

As authorities continued their search Tuesday for 7-year- old Christina Holt, investigators said they have found no one -- other than the immediate family -- who remembers seeing the missing girl in recent weeks.
And investigators have found no one at the Swap Shop who saw Christina on Saturday, the day she was reported missing.

David Fox, manager of the hotel-apartment complex next door to where Christina's parents live, said he rented an apartment in his building to Pauline Zile and her husband, John Zile, about four years ago.

They moved out when the season began and the rates went up, he said.

"They've been back in the neighborhood about four months," Fox said. "I knew they had a couple of little boys. I saw them around once in a while. But to tell you the truth, I never saw a little girl."

Pauline Zile told investigators she and her daughter left Riviera Beach about 11 a.m. Saturday.

Zile said they arrived for a mother-daughter day at the Swap Shop about noon and headed straight for the restroom. Christina disappeared while Zile was in a restroom stall a few feet away.

Investigators are continuing to search for witnesses.

"The mother's story has been very consistent," said sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal, "but there are no independent witnesses."

Investigators paint a picture of a distraught girl who was uprooted last June from her grandmother's home in Maryland and
sent to live with a mother, stepfather and two stepbrothers she barely knew.

Despite reports to the contrary, Christina was not the center of a custody battle, investigators said.

"There wasn't anyone fighting to keep her," Leljedal said.

From all accounts, the move to Florida was not without problems.

Christina didn't adjust well to her new school. She didn't make friends. Her mother withdrew her from Jupiter Farms Elementary School several weeks ago. She was not registered in a new school.

"Given what we know, running away would seem plausible," Leljedal said.

But, considering the fenced perimeter of the Swap Shop and the limited resources of a 7-year-old girl, the theory seems unlikely, he said.

"Security people don't let kids wander off the property," Leljedal said. And even if she had, the security cameras that monitor the entrances and exits to the Sunrise Boulevard flea market likely would have picked her up.

But authorities refused to say what, if anything, they have found on videotapes from security cameras.

"It's investigative material," Leljedal said.

Swap Shop owner Preston Henn said Tuesday he was told by FBI agents not to discuss the surveillance tapes that may hold information critical to the investigation.

"They've got us quieting down," Henn said.

Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities are questioning dozens of employees at the Swap Shop. They also returned to the Ziles' apartment in the Singer Island area of Riviera Beach on Tuesday, after searching until nearly midnight the day before.

BSO was joined by FBI agents, and Riviera Beach and Miami police canvassing the neighborhood and collecting more evidence.

"They're just asking the standard questions," said Fox, the apartment manager. "They wanted to know what kind of people they are and whether anyone has seen the little girl recently, and how long they've been here -- that kind of stuff."

Broward and federal investigators roped off the apartment and sealed the windows with evidence tape. A sign taped to the door read: "This residence has been treated with chemicals. Do not occupy for 24 hours. Posted 10/24/94 at 23:55 hours. Broward County Sheriff's Office."

In Broward, BSO divers spent hours Tuesday searching the 12-foot-deep canal that runs for nearly a mile along the south and west of the flea market.

"It's routine. We don't believe she's in there," Leljedal said. "But we feel we'd be remiss if we didn't search."

MISSING GIRL'S PARENTS SOUGHT
The Palm Beach Post
October 27, 1994
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH CAROLYN FRETZ and ELIOT KLEINBERG
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Police investigating the disappearance of a 7-year-old Riviera Beach girl have found blood in the parents' apartment and car and Wednesday issued a statewide bulletin for Pauline and John Zile after the couple missed an appointment with Broward County detectives.

Broward Sheriff's spokesman George Crolius said they had no reason to keep tabs on the couple because they had been cooperative until Wednesday.
``There may be a reasonable explanation to this,'' Crolius said.

After Pauline Zile, 24, and her husband, 32, missed the 5 p.m. appointment, detectives waited two hours, then issued a be-on-the-lookout bulletin for the couple's 1985 white, two-door Eldorado Cadillac, Crolius said.

Sources said Wednesday that blood was found in the trunk of the Eldorado, but because two agencies - Broward County and Riviera Beach - are involved in dual investigations, the vehicle was never seized.

The early evening development followed another day of dramatic turns in the case that started Saturday when Pauline Zile told police her brown-eyed little girl, Christina Holt, had been abducted from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.

Broward County authorities initially treated the case as a simple abduction. But once inside the family's apartment on Singer Island, investigators sprayed Luminol, a chemical that reveals traces of blood. It showed blood on the floors and walls, sources said.

Broward officials then called Riviera Beach, which began investigating for foul play.

Sources said they also found blood on knives and in a tool box in the trunk of the Eldorado.

Before she was reported missing, Christina had not been seen by anyone other than her immediate family in 22 days, police said.

Pauline Zile called Broward County sheriff's deputies from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale about noon Saturday, saying the two walked into a bathroom together and into different stalls. When Zile left her stall, she could not find her daughter, she told police.

Deputies also called police in Riviera Beach to ask whether Christina's stepfather had seen her, but he was not home, records show.

Investigators speculated that video cameras installed around the sprawling flea market would show the girl or her mother. But by Wednesday, after viewing tape from 32 cameras, investigators were unable to pick either Zile or her daughter from the grainy tape, sources said.

Police also notified the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to look into the welfare of Pauline and John Zile's two younger children, boys ages 3 and 5. HRS spokeswoman Beth Owen said HRS had not conducted past abuse investigations involving Christina. But because of confidentiality laws, she could not say whether the agency is now investigating or whether the agency has taken the boys into protective custody.

Meanwhile, police retraced their steps, gathering 21 investigators from Broward, Riviera Beach and the FBI for a four-hour meeting Wednesday morning.

People involved with the case, including Pauline Zile, were called back for second and third interviews, said Broward spokesman James Leljedal. The couple have not been allowed back into their apartment and stayed briefly at a hotel in Riviera Beach.

Zile and her husband have avoided public comment since Saturday. On Tuesday, they returned to the swap shop to film two episodes for America's Most Wanted, a television show connected with the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center.

John Walsh, whose young son was abducted in 1981, said the segment will run despite police speculation.

``She is somewhere. Somewhere she shouldn't be,'' Walsh said about Christina. ``It drives me crazy when police and the media speculate about what might have happened.

``The girl is missing . . . and that's all that matters to me.''

The Ziles obtained custody of Christina in June from her paternal grandmother and enrolled her in Jupiter Farms Community Elementary School.

Lydia Johnson, Christina Holt's second-grade teacher, said she hadn't seen the child for a month or more. Zile officially withdrew Christina from school Oct. 7, but school officials said she stopped attending Sept. 12.

No other school ever requested Christina's records, and school officials said Wednesday that they are not required to pursue an explanation for a child's withdrawal unless it's an HRS case.

Christina was raised by her paternal great-grandparents, Dorothy and Raymond Money of Poolesville, Md., from the time she was an infant until 1992 when she went to live with the Moneys' adopted daughter, Judy Holt, about two blocks away, according to court records and interviews.

Dorothy Money said Christina lived with the Holts for 22 months before being taken to Florida in June.

Money said she barely knew Pauline Zile, who visited her daughter once a year in Maryland.

``The little girl wouldn't go any place with her,'' Money said. ``She thought I was her mother. When she did go any place, she cried and before long they came right back.''

Despite Christina's strained relations with her mother, Money said the girl was anxious to go to Florida to ``get away'' from Judy Holt.

``She said, `Mimi, I'm going to Florida.' I said don't forget to call. I wanted her to call so I could tell her (Pauline Zile) I would come get her (Christina) if she didn't want her.''

She said she never heard from Christina or Pauline Zile again.

Christina's other grandmother, Paula Yingling of Jensen Beach, said her daughter has not spoken with reporters at the request of Broward investigators.

Yingling could not be reached Wednesday night after police issued a bulletin for her daughter and son-in-law.

``The only important issue is that there's a little 7-year-old girl out there somewhere, and we need to find her,'' Yingling said.

Staff writers Jounice L. Nealy, Larry Lipman, Jill Taylor and Scott Montgomery contributed to this report.

WANTED: CHRISTINA'S PARENTS
POLICE ISSUE BULLETIN ON ABUSE, ABDUCTION SUSPICIONS
Sun-Sentinel
October 27, 1994
Author: CINDY ELMORE, JIM Di PAOLA and DEBBIE CENZIPER Staff Writers
Staff Writers Jill Young Miller, Stephanie Smith, C. Ron Allen and Mary C. Williams contributed to this story.

Two hours after the parents of missing Christina Holt failed to show up for a meeting with Broward sheriff's detectives, police issued a statewide alert on Wednesday for their arrests on suspicion of aggravated child abuse and child abduction.
The bulletin asked police to be on the lookout for a 1985 white, two-door Cadillac El Dorado that is registered to John and Pauline Louise Zile, of the Sea Nymph Apartments in Riviera Beach. The license plate number is PXI 39U.

Pauline Zile, 24, is the mother of 7-year-old Christina; John Zile, 32, the stepfather.

The child's disappearance was reported about noon Saturday, shortly after Pauline Zile said she and her daughter arrived for a day's outing at the Swap Shop on Sunrise Boulevard west of Fort Lauderdale.

The mother said Christina disappeared while both were in a women's bathroom in separate stalls. Nearby vendors said Zile came out of the bathroom screaming for her missing daughter.

But detectives have found no one who can verify the 7-year-old was at the Swap Shop.

On Wednesday they were still trying to determine when Christina was last seen by anyone outside the family. They had not found anyone who saw the girl since Pauline Zile withdrew her from school on Oct. 7.

The search for the Ziles was launched after they did not show up for an appointment with Broward sheriff's detectives set for 5 p.m. Wednesday, said spokesman George Crolius.

Investigators spoke to the couple by phone at 3 p.m. at an undisclosed Broward hotel, when the Ziles agreed to come in. Investigators wanted Pauline Zile to give a blood sample for genetic typing, which Broward sheriff's Sgt. D. Robshaw said is common in missing child cases.

Because the couple had been cooperative all week, there was no reason to put them under surveillance, Crolius said. He would not say what was found when police went to the hotel after the couple failed to show up for their appointment.

Riviera Beach police put out its own lookout alert later Wednesday with references to the child abuse and abduction suspicions attached. The couple have not been formally charged.

"We would just like to talk to them," said Sgt. Ed Brochu of the Riviera Beach Police Department. "We haven't been in contact with them this afternoon or tonight, obviously, because their child is missing, we would like to talk to them. We would hope they would like to talk to us."Riviera Beach police would not explain why they issued the bulletin.

Robshaw said police think the couple are traveling with their two sons, Chad, 3, and Daniel, 5.

Pauline Zile inexplicably withdrew her daughter from Jupiter Farms Elementary in north Palm Beach County on Oct. 7, said Broward sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal.

WPEC-TV, Ch. 12, in Palm Beach County, reported earlier on Wednesday that a Broward Sheriff's Office source told them that videotapes recorded by one of the Swap Shop's 36 cameras shows Pauline Zile alone on Saturday.

Riviera Beach police spent Tuesday in the Ziles' apartment searching for evidence of child abuse. That search, with a warrant, was prompted after Broward sheriff's detectives found something suspicious in the apartment during their Monday night search for Christina's fingerprints and hair samples.

Neither police agency would disclose what was found, but a Broward sheriff's spokesman acknowledged that Luminol was sprayed in the apartment. Luminol is a chemical that detects bloodstains.

Pauline and John Zile did not talk to reporters on Wednesday. Police have said little about their investigation, which stretches from Fort Lauderdale to Riviera Beach to Poolesville, Md., where Christina lived with relatives until being brought to her mother's apartment in June.

The 3-foot, 9-inch girl was passed around several times by relatives in her short life, and no one was fighting to keep her when she was uprooted in June, police said. Relatives said the girl was dropped off at the Ziles' apartment without warning in June and was not happy in Florida.

Before then, Christina had lived with her mother for a few months after her birth, relatives said. And her biological father, Franklin Delano Holt Jr., "was part of her life, but not a major figure. She sent him birthday cards, things like that," Leljedal said.

The stepfather, John Zile is a bartender at the beachfront Ocean's Eleven North lounge and restaurant in Riviera Beach, a few blocks from the couple's apartment. John Zile has not returned to work since Christina was reported missing, said Al Rosen, the lounge's owner.

Pauline Zile worked as a waitress at the lounge until five months ago, when she was told by her doctor to take a break from her job because of a problem pregnancy. The Ziles put that child up for adoption because, relatives said, they could not afford a new baby along with Christina and her two half brothers.

John Zile was convicted of burglary in December 1984 after he and a friend broke into a house in Rockville, Md., and stole a rifle and silver flatware while the homeowner was in a hospital, court records show. He was sentenced to five years, but the sentence was suspended to three years' supervised probation. Probation was revoked two years later after Zile left the area without notifying his probation officer and failed to enter a court-ordered drug and rehabilitation program.

Other court documents said Zile had numerous arrests as a juvenile and he lived in several shelter homes. He has a ninth-grade education, court records show.

Anyone with information about Christina should call 493-TIPS.

MOM WHO CRIED KIDNAP NOW FUGITIVE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 27, 1994
Author: TRISH POWER And DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writers

The mother and stepfather of missing 7-year-old Christina Holt were being sought throughout Florida Wednesday night on charges of aggravated child abuse and abduction of a child.
Riviera Beach police issued a statewide alert for a 1985 white two-door Cadillac, Florida tag PXI 39U, owned by Pauline and Walter John Zile.

The bulletin asked that the occupants be arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse and abduction of a child and that the car be sealed.

Broward sheriff's officials issued their own bulletin -- minus the child abuse and abduction charges -- after Pauline Zile did not show up for a 5 p.m. appointment to give investigators a blood sample, something they called routine.

Broward Sheriff's spokesman George Crolius said that, despite the Riviera Beach alert, the couple are not considered suspects by BSO. They were staying at a Broward motel that the sheriff's department was paying for.

"No one was watching them. That was not the nature of our investigation," Crolius said. "We were continuing to investigate for a missing person."

The two bulletins came four days after the girl was reported missing at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop. Although Pauline Zile, 24, said she was talking to her daughter from a restroom stall Saturday at the Swap Shop, when Christina disappeared, there are indications the mother was alone.

Her story slowly eroded as Riviera Beach police came up with more questions than answers.

Investigators searched the Ziles' Singer Island apartment for clues in the disappearance. They collected hair samples, fingerprints, looked for blood stains.

Authorities have been unable to find anyone outside the family who has seen Christina since her mother pulled her out of her elementary school a couple of weeks ago.

Preston Henn, owner of the Swap Shop, said Wednesday he is prevented from discussing the investigation, but added "from everything I'm aware of, so far, that child was not at the Swap Shop on Saturday."

Investigators refused to discuss videotapes taken from the flea market's security cameras.

Meanwhile, police computer records confirmed that Riviera Beach police started a separate investigation Tuesday at the Ziles' motel apartment, the same day they executed a search warrant and carried off grocery bags full of evidence.

Police refused to discuss details of the new case, but it was clear Wednesday that the focus of the investigation had shifted away from the Swap Shop and toward Christina Holt's family.

Broward Sheriff's deputies, FBI agents and Riviera Beach police officers met for three hours Wednesday. "The consensus was to go talk to everybody again," said Jim Leljedal, a Broward Sheriff's spokesman.

Christina was in second grade at Jupiter Farms Elementary School until her mother withdrew her Oct. 7, barely six weeks into the school year. The school confirmed that Christina's mother had not requested the girl's records, meaning it is unlikely Christina was enrolled in another school.

No reason for the withdrawal has been given, but Leljedal said Christina had problems adjusting to the new school.

Meanwhile, family friends and acquaintances portrayed Christina's mother and stepfather -- Pauline and John Zile -- as hard-working restaurant workers who lived a transient lifestyle and struggled at times to get along and to pay their bills.

"I've known them for many years, and in my mind there's no way they would ever do anything to hurt those kids," said Wendy Williams, a bartender and neighbor who described herself as one of Pauline's best friends.

They regularly moved in and out of efficiency-style motel apartments as weekly rates increased with the winter season, Williams said.

"I lived right next door to them for three months," said Robert Barbeito, who moved out of the Sea Nymph apartments in September after his girlfriend's car was stolen during the night. "I got to tell you, Pauline was the sweetest person you'd ever meet.

The husband was always really quiet and never around much," Barbeito said. "They didn't get along too well. She'd always come over and ask if we'd seen him. She'd say she hadn't heard from him for days at a time."

No one interviewed ever saw the children -- Christina and her two half-brothers Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3 -- being mistreated.

"I'm so angry and upset with what the police are doing to us," Paula Yingling, Pauline's mother, said earlier. "I just hope they are prepared to back this all up. Right now I've been 36 hours without sleep and so has Pauline. We're all very tired and upset."

Police said John Zile supported his wife's story -- that she left about 11 a.m. Saturday for a "mother-daughter" day at the flea market and circus.

Early in the investigation detectives also talked to the couple's two young sons.

"They haven't been able to say much because they're so young," Leljedal said. "They both said Christina went to the circus. But they don't have a concept of time."

Pauline and Franklin Holt, Christina's biological parents, were married on Dec. 27, 1986. Five months later, Christina was born.

The marriage did not last long. Franklin Holt filed for divorce in June 1988, saying that Pauline should not be given custody of Christina because she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. In her response, Pauline Holt confirmed that she attended drug and alcohol rehabilitation before the marriage.

Dorothy Money, Franklin Holt's step-grandmother, was awarded custody of Christina on Feb. 3, 1989, with Pauline receiving visitation rights.

Money, 70, said Wednesday that she raised the little girl
from "5 months to 5 years old," when she was turned over to Judy Holt, her adopted daughter and Christina's paternal grandmother.

Money said she agreed to the custody transfer in 1993. "(Holt) said she wanted to raise her and do right by her," Money said. She said she had no contact since the girl left Maryland on June 20.

Holt kept the child for nearly two years, then sent her to Florida in June to be with her biological mother, who was then pregnant with another child. Money became furious when she learned about it; she said she disowned Holt for sending the child to a mother who could not afford to keep her.

"I remember when Pauline brought her in to the restaurant and introduced her," Barbeito said. "She was a beautiful little girl, but I remember thinking here she was pregnant and with two kids already and now this little girl -- all crammed into that tiny apartment."

According to John Zile's employment application at Oceans Eleven, he has been through several jobs as a cook in the past couple of years. This summer he quit a job without notice to attend the Woodstock anniversary concert in New York.

"Kind of strange, that guy," said Bill Scaggs, owner of Bimini Bay Cafe in West Palm Beach, where Zile worked for about three months until mid-August.

"He was really talented and really sharp," Scaggs said. "We were even grooming him for our management team because he knew his way around so well. And then out of the clear blue sky he just disappears."

Scaggs said Zile came to him in early August "and said something about his wife being 8 1/2 months pregnant and needing more money," Scaggs said. "He said he wasn't being promoted fast enough and would have to leave soon because he wasn't making enough."

Scaggs said that a few days later, Zile didn't show up. "I had everyone looking for him, I thought something might be wrong," he said. "Then I find this note tacked to the back door telling me that a friend had offered him these Woodstock tickets and he couldn't refuse."

Pauline later gave up the new baby for adoption.

"They were just having a hard time paying all the bills, and wanted to get things straight with what they already had," Williams said.

Before Bimini Bay, John and Pauline Zile worked together at the Buccaneer Restaurant & Lounge in Palm Beach Shores -- he as a cook, she a waitress. Employees remembered them as hard- working, reliable and pleasant.

"They're very nice people, they've even been to my house with the kids," said Executive Chef Matthew Diana. "They always showed up for work, never called in sick. And he really had some talent as a cook."

Franklin Holt, Christina's father, arrived in South Florida on Tuesday to help in the search. Like the girl's mother, he has taped a segment about his missing daughter for America's Most Wanted.

"We're confident the natural father was not involved, Leljedal said. "He had some contact with her, and had sent her birthday cards and so forth. But we're convinced there's nothing that would suggest he would have taken her."

Herald staff writers Judy Plunkett Evans, Amy Alexander and Marilyn Garateix contributed to this report.

STEPDAD SAYS HE BEAT GIRL TO DEATH
The Palm Beach Post
October 28, 1994
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Less than a week after the mother of a 7-year-old girl told police her daughter was abducted from a busy Fort Lauderdale flea market, the girl's stepfather confessed to killing her, police said.

John Zile, 32, a restaurant chef with no prior violent criminal history, was arrested Thursday on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse. State officials also took over custody of Pauline and John Zile's two young boys, ages 3 and 5.
About 11:30 p.m. Thursday, after more than nine hours of interrogation, John Zile went with investigators to Tequesta, where he has told police he buried Christina Holt.

Pauline Zile, 24, has not been charged and left the station Thursday night with her mother.

Police still are unsure what day Christina died, sources said. But investigators said she apparently went into convulsions and died after a severe beating, which is why police found so much blood in the couple's Singer Island apartment.

The confession marked a shocking end to an elaborate story that began about noon Saturday when a frantic Pauline Zile called Broward County deputies from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale and said her daughter had been abducted.

Thursday's horrible twists in the case of the missing second-grader started at 3:15 a.m. when a trucker spotted Pauline and John Zile at a gas station in Port St. Lucie. They were being sought by police but agreed to go to Riviera Beach for questioning about 2:30 p.m.

It was there that Pauline, still clutching her dead daughter's favorite doll, cracked and began talking to investigators, sources said. About four hours later, Zile confessed, sources said.

``It's over,'' said Paula Yingling, Christina's grandmother, as she left the police station about 11 p.m. with Pauline Zile.

After Pauline Zile reported her daughter missing Saturday, deputies searched the sprawling flea market and called the Ziles' Singer Island apartment to ask John Zile whether he had the girl, but Zile was not home. Deputies then opened a missing persons case and began collecting evidence to identify the girl if she was found.

They visited the couple's apartment Monday to search for hair and fingernail samples but made a gruesome discovery after spraying Luminol, a chemical that reveals blood.

On the walls and floors, traces of blood showed up. Deputies also discovered blood-covered knives and blood on a tool box in the trunk of the couple's Eldorado Cadillac.

Thursday night, investigators had the car in custody.

After finding traces of blood in the apartment, deputies notified Riviera Beach police, who obtained a search warrant Tuesday for the apartment. Riviera police discovered more evidence of a crime so disturbing that one investigator went home after the search.

As news of the discoveries surfaced, the couple disappeared.

Late Wednesday, after the Ziles missed a 5 p.m. appointment with detectives, Broward deputies alerted authorities statewide to be on the look-out for the couple's car. Riviera Beach also issued an alert, saying the couple was wanted for questioning in connection to possible abuse and assault charges.

Investigators said they charged Zile with two counts of child abuse, in addition to the murder, because he had beaten her before.

Christina has lived with her mother for only four months. She was raised by her great-grandmother and then her grandmother, who in June brought her to Florida to live with her mother.

The last day Christina attended school was Sept. 12 and her mother withdrew her on Oct. 7., which would have been just before her death.

Staff writer Jounice L. Nealy contributed to this report.

CHRONOLOGY

Saturday, Oct. 22 - Pauline Zile goes to the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop; she tells police her daughter, Christina Holt, was abducted while the two were in the bathroom.

Monday - Broward investigators find traces of blood in Pauline and John Zile's apartment. Riviera Beach officials are called in.

Tuesday - Sheriff's divers spend several hours in the C-12 canal, which winds around the Swap Shop lot along Sunrise Boulevard, searching for Christina's body.

Wednesday - Officials ask police statewide to look for John and Pauline Zile after they miss an appointment in Broward County.

Thursday - The Ziles are picked up about 3:15 a.m. in St. Lucie County and go willingly with police. Later, they are taken to the Riviera Beach police station, where John Zile confesses to Christina's beating death, police said.

STEPFATHER FACES CHARGES IN CHRISTINA'S MURDER
RIVIERA BEACH MAN LEADS POLICE TO SITE OF BURIAL
Sun-Sentinel
October 28, 1994
Author: MAREGO ATHANS and CINDY ELMORE Staff Writers
Staff Writers Phil Davis, Mike Folks, Stephanie Smith, Warren Richey, Mary Williams, Jim Di Paola and Jill Young Miller contributed to this report.

The stepfather of 7-year-old Christina Holt was arrested and charged late Thursday with her first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse.

Walter John Zile, 32, of Riviera Beach, led police to where he said he buried Christina in Tequesta, Bob Ferrell, Palm Beach Sheriff's Department spokesman, said early today.
Police set up searchlights at the site in a wooded area behind the Kmart on U.S. 1 and were to start digging early today, Ferrell said. Tequesta is in Palm Beach County north of Riviera Beach.

Zile was charged in the death of the second-grader whose mother reported her missing on Saturday. Police now question the mother's story.

It was unknown whether any charges would be filed against the mother, Pauline Zile, 24, who spent most of Thursday with her husband being questioned by police.

"The investigation is still ongoing to locate where the body of Christina Holt is buried," Lt. David Harris of the Riviera Beach Police Department had said at a 10:35 p.m. news conference.

Harris refused to answer any questions.

The mother's story of the girl's disappearance turned increasingly questionable this week as police found blood in the family's Singer Island apartment. Investigators also found evidence of an attempt to clean up the blood and indications of child abuse.

Pauline Zile said Christina disappeared from the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

And there was no evidence that showed the girl was actually at the Swap Shop.

On Thursday, Riviera Beach police spent much of the day questioning the Ziles.

Riviera Beach police spent much of the day on Thursday questioning the Ziles, who were sighted at a Port St. Lucie convenience store by a trucker who alerted police. A police alert had been issued for the pair after they failed to show up for questioning on Wednesday.

Broward Sheriff's Office spokesman Jim Leljedal confirmed that officers also found blood splatters on two knives from the Ziles' home.

"But I don't know if any of these is considered the murder weapon," he said.

Leljedal said that initially, police did not doubt the story of Christina's disappearance.

"The scenario she gave us was credible. But as the investigation continued, it became obvious that something was wrong. The main problem was that no one had seen the girl for over three weeks. And when [Pauline) spoke, it was always in the past tense when referring to the little girl.

"There were several inconsistencies in their story, but we're not ready to reveal these yet," he said.

Detectives are to meet this morning to discuss the case and decide what, if anything, can be made public, Leljedal said.

After the Ziles failed to show up for a meeting with Broward sheriff's detectives on Wednesday, triggering a statewide alert for their detention, they were asked to come in to the Riviera Beach Police Department on Thursday to give blood samples and take polygraph tests, said James "Chip" Howell, who lives with Pauline Zile's mother, Paula Yingling.

The Ziles told Broward sheriff's deputies that they missed their appointment on Wednesday because "they needed to take some time out for themselves to think," Broward sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said.

When the Ziles arrived at the Riviera Beach Police Department with Yingling about 1:50 p.m. Thursday, they were immediately mobbed by about two dozen reporters. Pauline Zile was clutching her daughter's doll.

"My daughter and son-in-law didn't do anything," Yingling said. "Why the hell aren't you trying to find my granddaughter?" The Ziles' two sons, Chad, 3, and Daniel, 5, were driven away from Yingling's Jensen Beach home in a separate car, reportedly by an official from the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. HRS would not confirm that the agency had custody of the children on Thursday.

Pauline Zile, 24, who had lived apart from Christina for most of the child's life and attained custody only in June, first reported her daughter missing on Saturday. Zile said the girl disappeared while the two were using separate stalls in a public restroom.

The subsequent search brought more questions than answers.

Authorities say they found no witnesses to confirm that Christina was at the Swap Shop, which operates video surveillance camera.

"All of the research and all of our people and witnesses and vendors and everyone ... no one has spotted the daughter on our premises," said Swap Shop owner Preston Henn.

As police began investigating, they found out that on Oct. 7, more than two weeks after the child stopped coming to school at Jupiter Farms Elementary, Zile inexplicably withdrew Christina.

While the child was out, Christina's teacher Lydia Johnson said she repeatedly called the home. She said Zile changed her story with each call.

The first time, Zile said she was temporarily sending the girl back to Maryland. The second time, Zile said the child's stepfather wanted her to be taught at home, Johnson said..

The next time Zile said she was transferring the child to another school in the district.

"She kept me hanging on," Johnson said. "She didn't want me to take her off the roll. She kept saying [Christina) was coming back. From what she was saying it was the stepfather's decision, that she had just had another baby and she wanted to teach her at home."

Zile recently had a baby and gave it up for adoption. Relatives said the family was having financial difficulties and would have kept the baby if they didn't have Christina.

As the week progressed, what emerged was a picture of a smiling, 3-foot-9-inch child, small for her age, who was passed around among relatives for most of her life.

Christina was Pauline's child from a previous relationship who was bounced from home to home only to land unexpectedly with her mother in Riviera Beach in June.

There was a custody battle but no one was fighting to keep Christina, police said.

Relatives in Maryland had not been in touch with Christina since she was dropped off in June. The great-grandparents who had custody of her the longest did not know Pauline Zile's phone number.

John Zile was convicted of burglary in December 1984 after breaking into a home in Rockville, Md. He was given three years' probation, but he violated it when he moved out of the area and did not enter a drug and rehabilitation program.

At Ocean's Eleven North, the neighborhood restaurant where John Zile worked as a cook, the staff was glued to the television late Thursday as the story unfolded.

"I can't believe it. You watch this on TV every night but it's finally hitting home," said Doug Smart, manager of the restaurant.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 407-845-4126 or 407-845-4150.

CHEMICAL USED TO FIND BLOOD TRACES
Sun-Sentinel
October 28, 1994
Author: KIRK SAVILLE Staff Writer

Luminol, a chemical used to detect blood in the apartment and car of Christina Holt's parents, can find traces of blood years after the stains were left.

The blood will be apparent even when the area has been washed clean or even painted.
"Sometimes you'll see scrub marks," said Jim Prestinari, crime scene supervisor for the Boynton Beach Police Department. "Sometimes you can see a handprint, or the outline of a body. It can be years and years and years down the road."

Luminol is typically used at crime scenes where no blood is visible. It can detect hemoglobin, a key component of blood, even if it has been diluted hundreds of thousands of times.

It's been around for decades, but Luminol is still common at crime scenes, said Kurt Crawford, an FBI spokesman. The FBI was using Luminol in the era of John Dillinger, and investigators have reportedly used the substance in the O.J. Simpson case.

The substance must be used in the dark and gives off a bluish-green glow when it comes in contact with blood.

Investigators typically spray a large area with Luminol and then photograph the area that is glowing.

But Luminol itself is not proof that the substance is blood. It reacts to bleaches, horseradish, citrus juice, watermelon and iodine as well as some metals and paints, say those familiar with crime scene investigations.

Positive Luminol tests can be followed up with more conclusive tests to determine if the substance is blood, said David Baer, senior crime laboratory analyst for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab in Orlando.

Usually, Luminol wouldn't interfere with DNA testing, but often, the use of the substance rules out other tests.

"Most of the time when you use Luminol there's not enough [blood) left to test," Baer said.

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