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.

Florida Law Protects A Wife Who Conceals A Man's Crime (10/29/94)
'A Poor, Lost Little Soul' (10/29/94)
Abduction Ruse Leads To Undoing (10/29/94)
Christina's World Of Pain (10/29/94)
Sad Life, Tragic Death For Christina (10/29/94)
Christina's Maryland Life Was Different (10/29/94)
Pauline Zile Could Face Charges In Girl's Murder (10/29/94)
Stepfather Has Record Of Tangles With The Law (10/29/94)
HRS: Two Sons Should Not Go Back To Ziles (10/29/94)
The Week In Review (10/29/94)

FLORIDA LAW PROTECTS A WIFE WHO CONCEALS A MAN'S CRIME
The Palm Beach Post
October 29, 1994
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

John Zile is in jail. Pauline Zile is not.

The reason, prosecutors say, is that it isn't against the law in Florida for a wife to help her husband cover up a crime.
Even murder.

Under a Florida law passed in 1868, anyone who ``gives the offender any other aid, knowing that he had committed a felony'' is guilty of a crime called accessory.

But the law doesn't apply when a family member helps the offender. The law is believed to have been designed, in part, to protect the wives and mothers of escaped convicts who fled back to their homes.

``The accessory law is a waste,'' State Attorney Barry Krischer said Friday. ``The individuals that usually come to the aid of offenders - family members - are excluded from the statute.''

But prosecutors could try to charge Pauline Zile under the state's felony murder statute. To do that, the state would have to prove that she was involved in a continuing crime, such as child abuse, and that her daughter Christina Holt died while that crime was being committed.

On Thursday, after Zile missed an appointment with detectives, prosecutors subpoenaed her. The statement she gave to police and prosecutors, in which she said her husband killed Christina, can't be used against her.

But if they can independently confirm that she was involved in the crime and the coverup, they could charge her with the crimes she confessed to. The most likely charges would be child abuse or murder.

A grand jury will begin hearing testimony next week about the girl's slaying and may consider charges against her mother, Krischer said.

Florida's perjury law doesn't apply to Zile because she was not under oath when she falsely reported that her daughter had been kidnapped at a Broward County flea market. However, Broward prosecutors could charge her with a misdemeanor: filing a false report.

After prosecutors sort out the charges against the couple, there remains the issue of spousal immunity, which could affect the prosecution of both their cases.

Under Florida law, private conversations between a husband and wife, called ``pillow talk,'' are not admissible in court.

However, the law applies only to conversations, not actions. That means the Ziles could be ordered to testify against each other about what they saw each other do to Christina.

`A POOR, LOST LITTLE SOUL'
GIRL'S BODY KEPT IN CLOSET FOR 3 DAYS
The Palm Beach Post
October 29, 1994
Author: DAVID HOLMBERG, MARY JANE FINE and JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

The remains of 7-year-old Christina Holt were unearthed from a shallow grave Friday as authorities pieced together the horrific details of the little girl's short life.

The tragic truth about Christina's fate finally unfolded five days after her mother, 24-year-old Pauline Zile, told an emotional tale of her daughter's abduction from a Fort Lauderdale flea market.
Her elaborate story, police said, was a self-protective lie.

The truth was that Christina's last weeks were nightmarish. Her stepfather told police he beat her repeatedly. Her mother said she stood passively by during her final, fatal minutes.

And at least two people had some knowledge of the child's tortured existence, but neither called police.

For a while, though, Zile's story - repeated in the glare of television cameras and to probing investigators - never wavered: Her daughter had been abducted from a ladies room at the Swap Shop while Zile was in a bathroom stall.

But the story ultimately fell apart Thursday night, and the child's stepfather, John Zile, 32, confessed to the murder.

The abduction story was concocted, investigators said, more than a month after the death of the child, whom one family member called ``a poor, lost little soul.''

The stepfather told investigators he beat the child until she collapsed in convulsions and began spitting up blood. After attempting to revive her in a tub of cold water, Zile said he hid her body in a bedroom closet for three days while searching for a place to bury her.

He then bought a shovel and a tarp at a Home Depot and buried her in soft sugar sand near a Kmart shopping center in Tequesta. That was where police found the body early Friday, led to the spot by Zile. While investigators dug, Zile sat in the back seat of a police car and smoked cigarettes.

Within three hours, at 2:30 a.m., the girl's body was found, wrapped in a blanket, a children's tent, bags and a tarp. An investigator said Zile told police he ``wanted to preserve (the body) the best he could, like a coffin.''

Zile's confession and the recovery of the body came after the couple panicked, fearing their intricate tale was unraveling, police said.

After fleeing their Singer Island apartment and missing a police interview Wednesday, the couple made a suicide pact, police said.

They told police they planned to asphyxiate themselves in their white Cadillac Eldorado, using a hose. But Port St. Lucie police responding to a statewide bulletin, stopped the couple about 3 a.m. Thursday. Investigators were still searching Friday for a suicide note the couple said they had drafted.

It was an unexpected ending to what had, for days, seemed a mother's heart-rending tale. Each time investigators asked her to tell the story, a distraught Zile would recount each painful detail. Her anguish seemed clear and credible.

``I told a couple people Sunday, if she's lying, she deserves an Academy Award,'' said Broward sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal.

Two incriminating details were crucial in finally cracking the case.

First, Zile always referred to her daughter in the past tense. Most parents of missing children talk about them as if they are still alive, especially in the few days following a child's disappearance, Leljedal said.

Second, family members in Maryland told investigators that the baby doll Pauline Zile always seemed to be clutching was not Christina's favorite - and it appeared brand new.

``It began to look as if it was probably a prop,'' Leljedal said.

And there were other indications that the story might be false:

A tipster told police of seeing Pauline Zile rehearsing Christina's disappearance Oct. 20 - calling out the child's name - two days before she reported her missing.

Although dozens of investigators worked on the case, they found no one who had seen Christina in weeks, not since she stopped going to school Sept. 12.

As early as Monday, the couple's story had begun to fall apart. That was when police entered their apartment to search for hair and fingerprints to help identify the girl. Once inside, deputies found a pair of Christina's jeans with blood stains on them. They also found blood on a bed.

Deputies tested the bed and jeans with Luminol, a chemical that reveals blood and turned up traces on both items. During the testing, the chemical sprayed onto the rug and north wall and also turned up traces of blood, reports said.

NEIGHBORS SUSPECTED GIRL WAS BEATEN

Deputies then left the apartment and interviewed neighbors, including Dale Ackerman, who said there was a disturbance at the Ziles' apartment three to four weeks ago and believed John Zile had beat Christina unconscious then.

At that point, deputies notified Riviera Beach police, who obtained a search warrant.

Riviera police discovered that Christina had attended school only five of the 29 days she was enrolled. And no one other than her mother and stepfather had seen the girl in 22 days.

The couple's ruse ended late Thursday, after Pauline Zile agreed to take a polygraph test. She failed when she repeated her account of the abduction.

She lost her composure under questioning and, with pressure from her mother, Paula Yingling, who was cooperating with FBI agents, began telling the real story.

Four hours later, after learning of his wife's confession, John Zile confessed and agreed to lead police to the body. Dr. James Benz, who was at the grave Friday, will perform an autopsy, but probably will not have the results in time for the grand jury, which meets to review the case Monday, said Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp.

The fatal beating occurred on Sept. 16. An arrest affidavit released Friday - in which John Zile was charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse - told a chilling story of the last minutes of Christina's life:

Zile told investigators that about midnight, as his wife and son slept in the living room, he questioned Christina about ``sexual activity.'' Police gave no details of that reference.

The girl, facing him, began defecating, which angered Zile, according to his account. He then said he hit her several times on the bottom, once on the lip and on the side of the face. When she started crying, he covered her mouth with his hand.

Pauline Zile, however, told investigators her husband covered the girl's mouth with a towel, as he had done in past beatings to keep her cries from being heard.

GIRL WRAPPED IN BLANKET, PUT IN CLOSET

The girl suddenly collapsed in convulsions. John Zile said he tried to administer CPR, but the girl was spitting up blood and food and her heartbeat quickened. Suddenly it slowed and she died, he said.

Zile then said he rushed the girl to the bathroom and put her in cold water to revive her.

As she lay dead in the cold water, Zile said she had black and blue marks on her bottom, a fat lip and blood coming from her mouth. Fearful that he would be accused in the beating, Zile said he wrapped her in a blanket and sheet and put her in the bedroom closet.

Christina's body stayed in the closet until he found a place to bury her on Sept. 19. The grave he dug was behind the Kmart at 500 North U.S. 1 in Tequesta. It was 5 1/2 feet deep. Zile dug the grave and then returned to his Singer Island apartment for the body, took it to the field, wrapped it and buried it.

Before he left, John Zile told investigators, he said a prayer.

While police removed Christina's body from the grave, a judge was deciding the fate of her two stepbrothers, David, 5, and Chad, 3. State Health and Rehabilitative Services officials took custody of the boys Thursday afternoon.

HRS officials said they intend to file court papers seeking to terminate the Ziles' parental rights, claiming ``egregious abuse.'' Circuit Judge Karen Martin ordered the brothers to be placed in HRS' foster care program.

In Maryland, where John and Pauline Zile both grew up, Dorothy Money mourned.

The great-grandmother who reared Christina for most of her life, Money has kept a menagerie of stuffed toys on the girl's canopied bed, just as it was when she lived there.

Money was too distraught to talk to reporters on Friday, and a daughter, Carolyn Ortiz, said the family is worried about her health.

Ortiz also said the family will bury Christina in Olney, Md. They have chosen a dress for Christina to wear, green velvet with white lace trim. Dorothy Money bought it for her, and Christina really liked it.

``The pain I feel, just magnify it by 1,000 times over and that's the condition my mother is in,'' Ortiz said.

She called Christina ``very sweet. Very, very lovable. Very fragile. Very frail.''

Ortiz said Christina should be remembered ``as a poor, lost little soul that has been loved under this roof.''

``Although she was loved here and knew she was loved here, she was very insecure'' because of her early background, Ortiz added.

Ortiz was referring to the fact that Christina's mother, Pauline, relinquished custody of her before the child was a year old. ``What I knew of Pauline was that she was a very troubled person, just a troubled kid,'' Ortiz said.

Ortiz added that Pauline ``made no bones about'' wanting neither Christina nor her husband (Christina's father), Frank Jr.

``She said, `I don't want you and I don't want her.' ''

Christina lived with Money - and later with Judy Holt, her paternal grandmother - until June, when she was sent to live with her mother and stepfather, Pauline and John Zile,

John Zile had had troubles of his own.

Convicted of burglary in Rockville, Md., in 1984, he was placed on probation, which he later violated. While in the Montgomery County jail, he sought early release, writing a neatly printed letter to the judge: ``I have a problem with accepting responsibility for myself and my actions. I know I am a much better person than I have shown to the court and I truly want to prove to myself, my family, and to the court that I can and will deal with my problems in a mature and adult manner.''

Zile served nine months and then again violated his probation by moving to Florida.

It was in Florida that he met Pauline, and the two fell in love. When John was subsequently extraditedto Maryland, it was Pauline's turn to make an impassioned plea for leniency.

STORY STUNNED SOCIAL WORKERS

``He really is a terrific guy,'' Pauline wrote to the judge, ``and I do believe him when he says he's really sorry for what he's done!''

The story that transfixed South Florida even stunned social work professionals accustomed to working with unstable families.

Tana Ebbole, director of the Children's Services Council, said that several people in her office cried on Friday morning after learning of the stepfather's confession.

She said one woman speculated early in the week that the mother's story was shaky, and then said Thursday that she believed the parents had killed the child.

``As dysfunctional as some of our families are,'' said social worker Julie Helgesen, director of Children's Case Management Organization, ``they wouldn't just stand by and watch their children being beaten to death. A lot of our clients say `They can abuse me, they can be mean to me, but not to my child.' ''

Helgesen said that on the way to work Friday morning, her own daughter, who is 9, said: ``What a waste of human life.''

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

An account of Christina Holt's death based on the police investigation:

Sept. 12 - Christina Holt's last day of school. Of the 29 days she was enrolled, Christina attended only five.

Sept. 16 - When John Zile questions Christina about ``sexual activity,'' Christina soils her pants. Zile blows up, beats the girl to death, then hides her body in a bedroom closet.

Sept. 19 - John Zile buys a shovel and tarp, selects a vacant field behind a Kmart in Tequesta and digs a grave 5 1/2 feet deep. He returns to his Riviera Beach apartment, retrieves the body and returns to the field where he wraps the body in a blanket, a child's tent, a tarp and secures it with tape before burying it.

Saturday, Oct. 22 - Pauline Zile - more than a month after Christina's death - goes to the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop and tells security staff that her daughter is missing. Broward County sheriff's deputies respond and begin a missing-person investigation. By Saturday night, detectives learn details about Pauline and John Zile's backgrounds, including Zile's criminal records and details about the custody case.

Sunday, Oct. 23 - Detectives are focusing on the possibility that a family member from Maryland may have abducted Christina.

Monday, Oct. 24 - Broward detectives ask the FBI for assistance. The FBI sends several agents into Poolesville, Md., to interview family members. By that night, they develop a family profile. The natural father is not considered a likely suspect because he had little contact with Christina, even when she lived in Maryland. The Ziles give Broward investigators permission to search their apartment and car for fingerprint and hair samples that can be used to identify Christina. That evening, a detective finds a blood stain on Christina's bed post and a pair of her jeans. He then uses the chemical Luminol, which reveals traces of blood in other parts of the house. They also find blood on knives and in a box in the trunk of the car. The investigation begins to focus on John and Pauline Zile.

Tuesday, Oct. 25 - Pauline Zile returns to the Swap Shop to film an episode for America's Most Wanted. Broward deputies search a canal near the swap shop but find nothing. Riviera Beach police obtain a search warrant for the Ziles' apartment. Riviera Beach and Broward investigators return that evening to search and find more blood on walls and floors. Broward detectives also view a surveillance video from the Swap Shop but decide it is of no use in the case.

Wednesday, Oct. 26 - The Ziles miss an appointment with Broward detectives. Riviera Beach learns the Ziles have taken all their belongings from their apartment and not returned. Broward and Riviera Beach issue statewide bulletins for the missing couple.

Thursday, Oct. 27, 3:15 a.m.: Port St. Lucie police find the couple. They later tell Riviera Beach investigators they had made a suicide pact and had a hose so they could asphyxiate themselves in their car. Riviera Beach police question the couple in Port St. Lucie. The Ziles agree to meet at the department later for questioning and allow police to search their car.

2 p.m.: The Ziles arrive at the Riviera Beach Police Department and allow officers to draw blood samples. Pauline Zile also agrees to take a polygraph test. After failing the test, Pauline Zile agrees to tell police what happened to her daughter as long as her statement cannot be used against her.

About 6 p.m.: John Zile confesses to Christina's murder after learning of his wife's statement.

11:30 p.m.: John Zile, riding in the back of a detective's car, directs investigators to a sandy field where he buried his stepdaughter Sept. 19.

Friday, Oct. 28, 2:30 a.m.: Investigators find what they believe is Christina's body wrapped in a tarp.

11:30 a.m.: Investigators pull the body from the grave, still wrapped in the tarp and bound with tape.

Staff writers Christine Stapleton, Larry Lipman and Joe Newman contributed to this report.

A CHRONOLOGY
1. Friday, Sept. 16
John Zile beats Christina to death.
2. Monday, Sept. 19
John Zile buries Christina behind Kmart in Tequesta.
3. Saturday, Oct. 22
John and Pauline Zile stage phony abduction in Fort Lauderdale.
4. Thursday, Oct. 27
The Ziles are stopped after police issue a bulletin.
5. Thursday, Oct. 27
John Zile confesses during a nine-hour interrogation.
SOURCE: Riviera Beach Police Department

ABDUCTION RUSE LEADS TO UNDOING
POLICE SAY FEW HAD NOTICED GIRL MISSING
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994
Author: CINDY ELMORE Staff Writer

Christina Holt didn't disappear at the Swap Shop. But her parents' story did.

Had Pauline Zile not faked her daughter's abduction at the flea market west of Fort Lauderdale, police said Christina's stepfather, John Zile, might have gotten away with murder.

"They had gotten away with it until they decided to report her missing," said Jim Leljedal, Broward Sheriff's Office spokesman. "For some reason, they felt like they had to explain her disappearance, even though it hadn't been noticed by a lot of people."

A tearful Pauline Zile frantically told police last Saturday that her daughter disappeared from a bathroom stall at the Swap Shop. She said they had driven there from Riviera Beach for a mother-daughter outing that the child eagerly anticipated.ed for Christina to come home. The public was captivated and horrified. Detectives said it was a well-planned ruse, and may have been rehearsed. Despite days of interviews, the couple's story never wavered until Thursday night. The details were consisten t, time after time, interview after interview, police said.

"Speculatively speaking, they had a few weeks to get together on this," Broward Sheriff's Office Capt. Paul Lauria said. "They had several weeks to accept the fact that a crime had taken place" and to come up with their story.

Christina was killed on Sept. 16 - 36 days before Pauline Zile's Swap Shop hoax. That was long enough for the Ziles to have another baby, give it up for adoption, bury Christina and think about how they would explain Christina's disappearance, police said.

There were even props.

Pauline Zile told police she and the girl went straight to the Swap Shop bathroom because her daughter had drunk half a box of juice during the ride. Police found the half-empty juice box in the Ziles' car. Zile told police her daughter had eaten candy on the ride from Riviera Beach. Police found a partially eaten bag of licorice in the car. Zile also had a quick and detailed description of the clothing her daughter was supposedly wearing on the day she disappeared.

"We didn't doubt her at first, because the whole scenario she gave us was entirely possible," Leljedal said.

Once the story hit every local newspaper and television station, a man called police to say he saw Pauline Zile at the Swap Shop on Thursday, Oct. 20, coming out of a different bathroom, calling Christina's name, said Swap Shop owner Preston Henn. It was as if she was rehearsing. Or possibly she intended to carry out the ruse two days before she did, but changed her mind because few children are there on weekdays, Henn said.

By Saturday night, officials from the Swap Shop and the flea market's liability insurance carrier were convinced the tearful woman clutching her daughter's doll was acting, attempting to get money from the business.

No one could figure out how a girl could have been stolen away from the bathroom and forced out of the gated flea market without anyone seeing anything unusual. Why was Pauline Zile carrying the doll, rather than Christina? Why was the distraught mother already referring to her daughter in the past tense on the day she was supposedly lost?

Detectives wondered. For days, police refused to tell reporters whether Pauline Zile or Christina had been recorded by any of the flea market's 36 surveillance cameras - a silence police acknowledged may have been an "investigative aid," Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Robshaw said.

As it turns out, all the tapes that would have shown Zile or her daughter had been taped over by the time anyone even thought about them, Leljedal said.

CHRISTINA'S WORLD OF PAIN
TERROR, SCREAMS FILLED LITTLE GIRL'S LAST NIGHT ALIVE.
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994
Author: DEBBIE CENZIPER and JIM Di PAOLA Staff Writers

At midnight on the last night of her life, when most 7-year-olds are sleeping, 44-pound Christina Holt was summoned before her stepfather.

She was in trouble again, accused of playing doctor with other children.

She stood before her stepfather and cried, terrified of what was to come because it had come before: beatings so bad they left welts.

As Christina waited for the first blow, she soiled her pants.

Police affidavits paint a grim portrait of what followed.

In a rage, stepfather Walter John Zile started hitting the little girl on her backside. On her mouth. On her face.

Her mother stood by and watched.
Christina was bleeding and screaming now, and Zile clamped his hand over her mouth so the neighbors would not hear her cries.

The child looked at her mother and stepfather, swayed backward and began choking. Her body shook with seizures; food spilled from her mouth.

John Zile said he attempted CPR, but neither parent called for help.

Within minutes, the 3-foot-9 second-grader who had bounced from home to home for most of her life was dead.

The date: Sept. 16.

It took six weeks for the truth about Christina's fate to come out, more than a month of lies and cover-ups that finally fell apart when her mother, Pauline Zile, claimed Christina had mysteriously disappeared from the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale last Saturday.

That story held up for five days, duping police, the public and the media. The tale unraveled when police found bloodstains in the family's apartment on Singer Island: on a pair of blue jeans thought to have belonged to Christina, on her bed, carpeting and wall.

They started questioning Pauline Zile's story then, even as she made teary-eyed pleas for Christina's return.

But Christina's stepfather admitted on Thursday he had kept the body in a bedroom closet for four days while he scouted around for a burial site.

With a shovel he bought from Home Depot, he dug a 5-foot grave behind a Kmart in Tequesta. Under cover of darkness, he returned with Christina's body wrapped in a tarp bound with duct tape and buried her.

John Zile said he prayed before he left the grave.

"[John Zile) feels that the death was an accident," the arrest report says. "... He stated that by looking at the situation, their lives were over."

Early Friday morning, John Zile led more than a dozen crime scene investigators from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Riviera Beach and the county Medical Examiner's Office to the grave site.

"I have a child of my own; this is so sad," said Judy Wilson, who works at the Kmart and was one of dozens of spectators who showed up after daybreak as the digging began.

Charged with first-degree murder, John Zile, 32, remains in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail.

He also has been charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse.

One count stems from a report from neighbors who said there was a disturbance in the Ziles' apartment earlier this year that left Christina beaten and unconscious.

Another is in a beating in which a family friend told police he saw John Zile pick Christina up by her shirt, throw her on her bed and beat her with a belt. The witness said Zile pulled the child's pants down to show the welt marks from the beating.

Pauline Zile, 24, was granted partial immunity by prosecutors for implicating her husband in the slaying. She could be charged with the girl's death, though, when the case is reviewed next week by a Palm Beach County grand jury.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer on Friday defended his actions in authorizing "immunity" for Pauline Zile before she was interrogated by police. "It's our intention to make a case against her," Krischer said. "This is not that she took a walk. She didn't get a free ride."

Pauline Zile could face a charge of felony murder, a form of first-degree murder, based on evidence developed from other sources, Krischer said.

Broward sheriff's investigators, meanwhile, said what started as a believable kidnapping report soon turned dubious as inconsistencies in the Ziles' story surfaced. Most glaring was the fact that no one had seen Christina for several weeks.

Investigators also wondered:

-- Why Pauline Zile was still carrying Christina's doll after the girl disappeared. Investigators thought the girl would have been carrying her own doll.

-- During the investigation, police found that on Oct. 7 - more than two weeks after Christina stopped coming to school at Jupiter Farms Elementary - Pauline Zile withdrew her daughter and told inquiring school officials contradicting stories about the withdrawal.

-- A Swap Shop customer told police he saw Pauline Zile leave a flea market bathroom on Oct. 20, calling Christina's name, as if she was practicing for the ruse two days later.

-- Pauline Zile, in interviews with police and media, always referred to her child in the past tense. A polygraph test given to Pauline Zile indicated deception.

"The people who worked this case are incredibly saddened by the result," said Broward sheriff's Sgt. Dave Robshaw. "We had hoped, rather naively, Christina had been abducted by a family member living in Maryland."

Pauline Zile lived apart from Christina for most of the child's life and attained custody only in June. Until then, Christina had bounced between relatives in Maryland.

The Ziles have two children of their own, boys ages 3 and 5, both in the custody of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

Pauline Zile also had a baby boy several weeks ago and said she gave it up for adoption because the couple couldn't afford to care for another child.

HRS and the State Attorney's Office are investigating the adoption based on questions surrounding Christina's death.

Neighbors, though, said they never saw anything suspicious.

"Their kids were well kept," said Gary Kauppinen, who lived next door to the Ziles on Singer Island for the past three months. "It was just a quiet family. To think that I offered my boy to go over there [to play) scares me."

Restaurant employees who worked with the Ziles said John Zile had a quick temper and Pauline Zile basically did what her husband wanted.

SAD LIFE, TRAGIC DEATH FOR CHRISTINA
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994

The short and poignant life of Christina Holt provides one more painful example of a recurring American tragedy: The volatile combination of irresponsible parents and unwanted children.

The body of 7-year-old Christina was discovered in a shallow grave in northern Palm Beach County Friday. Police were led to the site by the girl's stepfather, Walter John Zile, who was charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse.
Christina's mother, Pauline Holt Zile, originally had reported her daughter missing from a Fort Lauderdale flea market last weekend, but under questioning she told police the girl had died after a severe beating by Zile. Apparently the mother was prematurely granted immunity, despite her role in concocting the story about Christina's abduction.

Several South Florida law-enforcement agencies deserve credit for swiftly unraveling the coverup. Broward and Palm Beach county sheriffs' deputies and police in Riviera Beach promptly detected holes in the

couple's story. Sophisticated scientific investigation of their home and car pointed to a strong suspicion of foul play.

Competent police work is laudable, but it can't compensate for the needless loss of a young life.

Christina, the child of Pauline Zile's first unsuccessful marriage, was bounced from home to home throughout her brief lifetime. In June, relatives in Maryland sent her to Riviera Beach to live with her mother, then pregnant with a fourth child, stepfather and two half-brothers. The newborn baby was given up for adoption. Christina was withdrawn from school on Oct. 7 and not seen in public since that date.

State social-services personnel have taken the Ziles' two sons into protective custody. Unfortunately, no public agency was able to intervene in time to save Christina.

CHRISTINA'S MARYLAND LIFE WAS DIFFERENT
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994
Author: MAREGO ATHANS and JILL YOUNG MILLER Education Writer
Staff Writers Jim Di Paola and Cindy Elmore contributed to this report.

When she was born, her parents didn't want her.
When she died seven years later, her stepfather buried her in a field and tried to get away with her murder, police say.

In between, she moved at least three times to live with various relatives, but Christina Holt lived mostly the happy life of a little girl.

She lived with protective relatives; that is, until she moved to Florida, to a tiny Singer Island apartment with a stepfather who police say beat her to death.

"She was a happy, sweet little girl," said Darlyne McEoeney, principal of Poolesville Elementary School in rural Poolesville, Md., population 4,000, where Christina grew up.

"Prayers for Christina" was written on the ribbon-tied pillars of Poolesville Town Hall on Friday. Children in Christina's old day-care center also wore ribbons. Neighbors described her as a playful, protected and outspoken child who liked jumping rope and playing with Legos on the front steps.

Last Halloween, she dressed as a bee.

Until she was 5, Christina lived with her great-grandmother in a four-bed-room, wheat-colored house with maple trees in the yard. She slept in a pink-and-white room with a canopy bed covered with stuffed animals.

After that, she lived with her grandmother, 2 1/2 blocks away in a neat townhouse complex, where she rarely left grandmother Judy Holt's sight.

That world ended in June, when Holt gave the girl back to her mother, Pauline Zile, and stepfather, John Zile.

John, a restaurant cook and Pauline's new husband, was struggling to support two boys, ages 3 and 5. A third baby was on the way. Christina was treated differently.

"One of [the boys) said while they'd never been spanked, Christina was spanked all the time," Broward sheriff's Sgt. Dave Robshaw said.

On Sept. 16, the spanking broke her for good. Her body lay in a closet for four days. Then, police say, John Zile buried her.

-- The second-grader was somewhat of a stranger to Jupiter Farms Elementary, in middle class northern Palm Beach County.

She wasn't part of the rural neighborhood; her mother had given a false address near the school so the child wouldn't have to attend a school in Riviera Beach.

She was small for her age, only 3 feet 9.

"She smiles all the time," her teacher, Lydia Johnson, said this week. "Maybe a little too much. ... Very happy."

Christina was an average student, sometimes exceptional, sometimes a daydreamer. She didn't like to sit in her seat. But Johnson could forgive almost anything because of that smile.

"She's a hugger," Johnson said.

Police affidavits paint a grim portrait of what happened to Christina.

With the body buried, her mother and stepfather tried to fool the police and public.

Their lies about how the girl disappeared at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop galvanized the media and police, who put her face on fliers and -television throughout South Florida.

Pauline Zile played the distraught mother for the cameras, clutching a doll she claimed was Christina's favorite. Police now think it was a prop, a doll the Ziles bought for their act.

-- Christina Diane Holt started life on May 23, 1987, when her mother was 16.

Three months later, Pauline left the infant with her husband, whom she divorced in 1989.

At 5 1/2 months, Christina went to live with her paternal great-grandparents, Dorothy and Raymond Money, where she stayed until she was 5. Raymond Money took the child to a Baptist church on Sundays.

In August 1992, Money's adopted daughter, Judy Holt, a hairdresser, said she wanted to take care of Christina in her townhouse 21/2 blocks away.

The great-grandmother, who suffered from arthritis, agreed.

In June of this year, Holt drove Christina to Florida and gave her to the Ziles.

Holt's neighbors, who declined to be interviewed, said that Christina wanted to live with her mother, and that Pauline wanted Christina.

Neighbor Clare Murphy said Holt stayed two weeks in Florida, "just to make sure everything was OK."

"She had to have been fooled into believing everything was OK," said her husband, Brendan Murphy. "They seemed to be very good grandparents."

"Christina was excited about going down to see the new baby," Clare Murphy said.

Others have said Holt didn't want Christina anymore, and Christina didn't want to go.

"She took her to Florida against my wish," said Dorothy Money.

There seemed to have been a dispute among the relatives in Maryland, and the great-grandparents did not have access to Christina once she went to Florida.

Acquaintances said Christina's mother was happy to have the girl back. But Christina was an added burden. Weeks ago, Pauline gave up her new baby for adoption because she couldn't afford him, relatives said.

Neighbor Gary Kauppinen said Pauline Zile was knocking on her neighbors' doors selling videotapes of children's movies, to earn gas money.

Christina stopped going to school more than a month ago, and Pauline kept changing the reasons.

Last Saturday, Pauline Zile acted out the story that Christina was taken at the Swap Shop. Her act triggered a statewide search. The story broke hearts.

Blossom Oshen, 60, of Fort Lauderdale, called the Sun-Sentinel on Friday to find out how she could honor Christina.

"I'm wondering if in her death, if anyone's doing anything for a pretty dress," she said. "My family would feel it an honor to contribute to that poor child.

"It's been with me since it first made the headlines. I awoke one night and thought of that child. It's sad so many people would live to have that child and can't, that some people don't care to realize what a gem they have. We'd like her to know she's loved."

Earlier this week - not knowing what is known now - the Moneys said that if Christina was found they would want the girl to live with them again, in their house where Christina's room is as it was when she lived there: pink and white, with stuffed animals on the canopy bed.

PAULINE ZILE COULD FACE CHARGES IN GIRL'S MURDER
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS

Despite being granted partial immunity by prosecutors, the mother of 7-year-old Christina Holt could be charged in the girl's death when a grand jury reviews the case next week.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer and FBI and Riviera Beach investigators questioned Pauline Zile, 24, on Thursday night and granted her partial immunity after she was subpoenaed. She was released after she gave a statement that implicated her husband, Walter John Zile, 32, in Christina's slaying.
"It's our intention to make a case against her," Krischer said. "This is not that she took a walk. She didn't get a free ride."

Krischer said the state cannot charge Pauline Zile based on anything in her statement on Thursday.

But she could face charges based on evidence developed from other sources. That evidence will be presented on Monday, when a Palm Beach County grand jury begins hearing the case.

Felony murder is the charge that would be sought against Pauline Zile and her husband when the case goes to the grand jury. Under the felony murder guidelines, the state can charge more than one person with murder even if they are not the actual killers, Krischer said.

Should Pauline Zile and her husband be indicted on felony murder charges, Krischer said spousal immunity would not apply to anything that either witnessed. It would apply, however, if either was to testify about what the two had said to each other.

Krischer, who has steadfastly refused to grant immunity in exchange for a witness's testimony in trials, said it was necessary to grant Pauline Zile immunity.

"These were extremely exigent circumstances. We had a 7-year-old girl who was alive or dead. The whole focus was trying to locate the child. At that time, we were desperate to find this baby," Krischer said.

STEPFATHER HAS RECORD OF TANGLES WITH THE LAW
`I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY,' HE ONCE WROTE
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1994
Author: SARAH RAGLAND and JIM Di PAOLA Staff Writers

John Zile pleaded with the judge for a second chance.

It was April 1986, and he was in trouble. Again.

He wanted to prove he was not a hardened criminal, show that he could start making good on his promises to be a responsible adult.

"I have a problem with accepting responsibility for myself and my actions," he wrote to Judge William C. Miller. "I really want to help myself and get on with my life."

Zile, 32, now charged with murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Christina Holt, has spent his life tangling with the law and losing.

The picture that emerges from court documents in Montgomery County, Md., is of a man of broken promises, not the hard-working, quiet family man neighbors and co-workers described when Christina was reported missing.

Zile didn't make good on his vow to act responsibly; instead he drifted from job to job, barely able to support his growing family.

Just two months ago, when his wife was pregnant with her fourth child, Zile walked out on his job to go to Woodstock. His boss never saw him again.

Zile's troubles stretch back to his teen-age years in Maryland, where he didn't make it past the ninth grade and instead racked up a string of charges that had him confined to several juvenile homes, court records show.

In 1984, at 23, he was convicted of breaking into a home in Rockville, Md., and stealing a rifle and silverware. He was sentenced to three years' probation.

In 1986, Zile was back in court, this time for drinking and driving and violating probation. Miller sentenced Zile to nine months in jail. There, Zile was disciplined for bad behavior at least once.

When he was released in October 1986, Zile agreed to get counseling, to stay in touch with his probation officer and to let his probation officer know if he switched jobs.

But he didn't get counseling. He stopped reporting to his probation officer in April 1987. And he quit his job at Maaco Auto Body in Rockville, Md., without notice.

He moved to Jensen Beach, where his romance with Pauline Yingling flourished.

Yingling, who married Zile in 1990, had herself just moved south from Maryland, leaving her infant daughter Christina and a bad marriage behind.

Two days after Pauline Yingling and John Zile moved in together in the fall of 1987, Zile was arrested again for violating the conditions of his probation.

This time, it was Pauline Yingling's turn to write the pleading letter to Miller.

"On January 27th, 1988, my boyfriend, soon to be fiance, will be appearing before you," she wrote. "His name is John Walter Zile, and I love him an awful lot ... I am praying John can soon come home so that we can continue our relationship together. I do miss him dearly. We're hoping to be able to put all this behind us before too long ... please just give him the benefit of the doubt."

In February, the judge sentenced Zile to the 77 days he had served, and Zile returned to Florida.

Since then, John and Pauline Zile have worked in at least four Palm Beach County restaurants, hopping from job to job in search of better pay to support their growing family.

Money was tight for the Ziles and their two sons, ages 3 and 5, before Christina came to live with them in June.

In 1992, the Ziles were taken to court for not paying their rent, a dispute settled when they paid $689.19.

But the pressure seemed to grow when Christina came to Florida. Pauline Zile, who gave birth to her fourth child several weeks ago, told friends she gave the infant up for adoption because the family could not afford another child.

The couple and the three children already were squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment at the Sea Nymph Apartments in Singer Island and struggling to pay their $550 monthly rent.

"A while back, [John Zile) came and only paid me rent one week in advance," said their landlord, Steve Stogiannis. "I said, `What's wrong? You usually pay me a month in advance.' He said work was slow, and he could only pay me for a week."

Linda Kauppinen, who has lived next door to the Ziles for three months, said Pauline Zile recently went door to door trying to sell 40 videotapes of children's movies.

"She said she was selling them for $20 because she needed gas money," Kauppinen said.

Despite the money troubles, Zile was erratic at work.

Zile had impressed Bill Scaggs Jr., owner of the Bimini Bay Cafe in West Palm Beach, when he worked there earlier this year.

Scaggs considered Zile for management, until Zile stopped showing up. Zile sent him a note saying he got free tickets to Woodstock '94 and that it was an offer to good to pass up.

HRS: TWO SONS SHOULD NOT GO BACK TO ZILES
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 29, 1994
Author: JUDY PLUNKETT EVANS Herald Staff Writer

The state's social service agency will seek to permanently remove the two sons of Pauline and Walter John Zile from the couple's care, based on the murder of Christina Holt, an agency spokeswoman said Friday.
The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services took the two boys, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, into temporary custody on Thursday. After a dependency hearing Friday before Palm Beach Circuit Judge Karen Martin, HRS placed the boys in foster care.

HRS plans to file a petition as soon as possible to terminate the Ziles' parental rights, department spokeswoman Beth Owens said Friday.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Miami Herald, The (FL)
October 29, 1994
Author: Herald Staff JANET JARMAN / Herald Staff ALAN FREUND /
Herald Staff LONNIE TIMMONS III / Herald Staff

For readers who may have missed a story during the week, and for our North Dade readers who receive the Broward Local section on Saturdays, this page offers a weekly look at some of Broward's top stories and pictures.
This week in Broward:

Sunday: A weeping mother clutched her daughter's favorite doll and pleaded for the return of her 7-year-old child. Police were told that Christina Holt had disappeared Saturday while in the ladies restroom of the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop, one stall away from her mother, Pauline Zile. By midweek, the story had become bizarre. Police could find no one who had seen the child at the Swap Shop, and, in fact, no one outside the family who had seen the child in weeks. The tragic saga finally ended late Thursday night when Walter John Zile was arrested and charged with the child's murder. Later that night, he led police to a vacant field where the child's body was buried. It is not known what charges the mother might face for her part in the cover-up.