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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.
PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.
Thank you!
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In Loving Memory Of 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. |
|
Lawyer Claims Mother
Victim Like Christina (11/1/94)
Counselors At School Help Students Cope (11/1/94)
Christina's Mother Defended (11/1/94)
Experts Have No Easy Explanation Why Christina's Mom Did
Nothing (11/1/94)
How Must It Feel To Murder A Child? (11/1/94)
As Charade Unraveled, Ziles Tried Suicide (11/1/94)
For Christina, Don't Look Away Again (11/2/94)
Reporter's
Tape Sought in Zile Case (11/2/94)
Agencies Will Work Together To Protect Children (11/2/94)
People Sick, Tired Of 'Victim' Excuse (11/2/94)
LAWYER CLAIMS MOTHER
VICTIM LIKE CHRISTINA
The Palm Beach Post
November 1, 1994
Author: VAL ELLICOTT and JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Pauline Zile, reviled by a public convinced that she sat by while her
7-year-old daughter was beaten to death, told her attorney she was asleep
when the incident began and woke up too late to intervene.
``She hollered at him to stop,''
attorney Ellis Rubin said Monday. ``That's when the child keeled over
and began to choke. She (Pauline) was hysterical.''
Pauline Zile's account, as relayed through Rubin, hints at the defense
she may use if she is charged in connection with Christina Holt's death.
Rubin characterized his client as a weak-minded woman ``under the tremendous psychological influence'' of her husband, John Zile, who has confessed to the beating that killed his stepdaughter.
``She is as much a victim of John as Christina was,'' Rubin said. He said a number of people have made ``hate calls'' to Pauline Zile's home.
John Zile, 32, appeared in court briefly on Monday on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse. He told police he considers what happened ``an accident'' that occurred while he was disciplining Christina.
``I'm not guilty of first-degree murder,'' he said as he was led away from Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp's courtroom. ``I love my wife and two sons.''
Grand jurors began hearing testimony in the case Monday but adjourned after about five hours. They will reconvene Monday.
Jurors could indict Pauline Zile, 24, as well as her husband, on a charge of first-degree murder. They could opt for a less serious charge, including failing to protect Christina, a third-degree felony, State Attorney Barry Krischer said.
Pauline Zile was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury Monday but was not called to testify. She may be summoned again when jurors meet again next week. If she does testify under subpoena, her testimony cannot be used to prosecute her.
Monday's testimony came from Broward County deputies and tabloid cameraman Robert Calvert, who interviewed Pauline Zile on Sunday.
PAULINE ZILE'S STORY
Pauline clung tightly to her mother and kept her eyes fixed on the ground as Rubin outlined her version of Christina's violent death.
She was about to call 911 to get help for her daughter after the Sept. 16 beating, but her husband stopped her, warning that she would never see him or their two sons again, Rubin said.
``She was afraid for her two boys as well as for herself,'' he said.
She was nearly nine months' pregnant at the time. She gave birth Oct. 4 and later gave the child up for adoption.
It was John Zile's idea to concoct the story, supported by his wife's able acting, that Christina had disappeared from a Fort Lauderdale flea market, Rubin said. When that ruse began to unravel, Zile pressured his wife into agreeing to commit suicide with him, he said.
MOTHER DEFENDS PAULINE
John Zile gave his wife whiskey to put her to sleep while their car filled with carbon monoxide early Thursday morning. But he left the car periodically ``to check the hose,'' Rubin said.
``He never intended to go through with it,'' Rubin claimed. ``He was breathing in fresh air. She was not getting any.''
When the car was about to run out of gas, John Zile drove to a gas station, where police caught up with the couple.
Pauline Zile's mother, Paula Yingling, fought back tears as Rubin recounted her son-in-law's allegedly coercive behavior.
``I lost a granddaughter to this man, a beautiful granddaughter,'' Yingling said. ``I don't intend to lose my daughter to his tyranny and his pressure.''
NO SUICIDE NOTES FOUND
Investigators would not speculate on Rubin's claims that Pauline Zile was asleep at the time of the beating.
According to the arrest report, she made no mention of being asleep. When John Zile confessed, he told investigators he was in the living room with Christina, his wife, ``and one of his boys who was asleep.''
Prosecutors were still waiting on Monday for a report from the medical examiner's office on the exact cause of death, Krischer said. John Zile buried Christina behind a Kmart in Tequesta, where police unearthed her body Friday.
Police said they have not recovered suicide notes that Rubin says John and Pauline Zile wrote.
``As of this time, we have no suicide notes,'' Lt. David Harris said. ``Whether there's something coming in the mail, I don't know.''
Harris also said police served a second search warrant on the couple's Singer Island apartment.
``They're just looking to tighten up the case right now,'' Harris said. ``You've got to run down leads and little stuff in the case that come up in every case, talk to different people.''
Also Monday, police said they plan to open a trust fund to help pay for Christina's funeral after receiving one check for $250 from a Miami resident and dozens of calls about donations, Harris said.
COUNSELORS AT SCHOOL HELP STUDENTS
COPE
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1994
Author: MARIAN KING and EARL DANIELS Education Writers
While some second-graders at Jupiter Farms Elementary School scared
each other during a Halloween party on Monday, others struggled to understand
the real-life horror of a classmate's murder.
At least seven children left their
classroom in pairs, or alone, to speak with school counselors about
the death of Christina Holt.
Among the professionals who helped the students were Alicia Rourke,
the school's guidance counselor, and Linda McKenzie, Palm Beach County
schools psychologist.
Jupiter Farms Principal David Horan recalled what McKenzie told the students: "Minds are like libraries, with happy books and sad books and books that have not yet been written. Sometimes you put away the sad books, but they're still there. Whenever you bring back the sad books, you will feel sad all over again."
And those feelings are normal, McKenzie and Rourke said.
Meanwhile, Horan and teacher Lydia Johnson tried to lighten the day as best as they could.
"Some parents came into the classroom and there was a little Halloween party," Horan said. "We tried to make the day as normal as possible."
But for many it wasn't a normal day. They missed their friend. And they needed to talk about it.
Jupiter Farms was not the only school that is expected to be affected by Christina's murder, officials said.
Because of Christina's death, schools throughout the district likely will be more alert to potential cases of child abuse, said John Hay, a county specialist in pupil services.
CHRISTINA'S MOTHER DEFENDED
ELLIS RUBIN: PAULINE ZILE'S A VICTIM
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1994
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
Staff writers Stephanie Smith and Dawn McMullan contributed to this
report.
Flamboyant attorney Ellis Rubin took on the defense of Pauline Zile
on Monday and immediately portrayed her as the victim of an abusive
husband forced to cover up his killing of her daughter, Christina Holt.
"Pauline Zile was as much
a victim as Christina," said Rubin, painting John Zile, 32, as
a violent, controlling monster. "Pauline was under tremendous psychological
influence of this man."
Rubin's comments came after the first day of testimony in a special
session of a Palm Beach County grand jury, during which Pauline Zile
was scheduled to testify. She had been subpoenaed to appear before the
grand jury, but was not called as a witness.
The grand jury, convened early to consider the Zile case, heard testimony on Monday from several investigators with the Broward Sheriff's Office and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.
No indictments were issued, and the grand jury will reconvene on Monday to continue its investigation into the beating death of Christina, 7. Pauline Zile is expected to be recalled on Monday, Rubin said.
"We found the body Thursday night. You don't get an indictment on Monday morning," said Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer. "This case has to work through the process. There's no rush to judgment here."
Pauline Zile was given partial immunity last week after she implicated her husband in Christina's death. But she still faces charges that range from felony murder, which carries a possible death sentence, to failure to protect a child, an abuse charge that carries a maximum five-year sentence, Krischer said.
John Zile, charged with first-degree murder in his stepdaughter's slaying, appeared briefly on Monday before Palm Beach Circuit Judge Steven Rapp, who will oversee his trial.
"I am not guilty of first-degree murder," John Zile said as he left court. "I love my wife and my two children."
Rubin, who recently lost a bid for the U.S. Senate, is known for taking unusual and high-profile cases.
In 1991, he represented Kathy Willets on charges of prostitution and wiretapping, using nymphmania as a defense to explain her actions. She pleaded guilty to the charges. In 1977, Rubin blamed "TV intoxication" for causing 15-year-old Ronnie Zamora to kill his 82-year-old neighbor. Zamora was convicted.
In defending Pauline Zile, Rubin said he intends to show in court that his client reluctantly complied with her husband's plot to cover up Christina's fatal beating because she feared he would kill her, their two sons and their unborn child.
"He'd already killed one," he said.
The Ziles gave their newborn up for adoption before Christina's murder was made public. The two boys are now in foster care.
As Rubin spoke, Pauline Zile, tears flowing down her face, cowered in the arms of her mother, Paula Yingling. Pauline Zile did not respond to questions, but Yingling, aiming her comments at John Zile, spoke up.
"Not only have I lost a grandaughter, a beautiful grandaughter, I don't intend to lose my daughter to his tyranny and his pressures," Yingling said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Rubin said Pauline Zile awoke after midnight on Sept. 16 to discover Christina being beaten by John Zile.
"She immediately wanted to call 911. He wouldn't let her," Rubin said. "He said, `If you walk out that door to the phone to call 911, that's all there's going to be.'" Pauline Zile confessed on Thursday to investigators that she had lied about Christina's disappearance on Oct. 22 from a bathroom at the Swap Shop west of Fort Lauderdale.
John Zile later confessed to killing Christina, telling investigators he hid the child's body in a closet for four days before burying her behind a Kmart store in Tequesta.
The control and fear that John Zile held over Pauline Zile drove her to comply with the coverup, Rubin said.
John Zile had beaten his wife severely once before, Rubin said.
"It was a lesson she learned, and that all he had to do was look at her and she would do whatever he'd say. She did anything he wanted her to do," Rubin said.
To show the control John Zile had over his wife, Rubin said John Zile plotted the couple's suicide on the night they failed to keep their scheduled appointment with investigators.
Prosecutors on Monday, however, said they have received no evidence from police to prove a suicide attempt was ever made.
In other developments, Riviera Beach police investigators served a second search warrant on Monday at the Sea Nymph, the Singer Island apartment building where the Ziles lived and Christina died. Investigators refused to say what, if anything, was seized during the search. They also refused to disclose what type of investigative studies may have been conducted.
Judy Holt of Maryland, Christina's paternal grandmother, has claimed the body for burial once an autopsy is completed, said Tony Mead, investigator with the Medical Examiner's Office.
Staff writers Stephanie Smith and Dawn McMullan contributed to this report.
EXPERTS HAVE NO EASY EXPLANATION
WHY CHRISTINA'S MOM DID NOTHING
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1994
Author: ROBIN FIELDS Staff Writer
Staff writers Dawn McMullan and Mike Folks contributed to this report.
Is Pauline Zile a monster?
A victim?
Both?
For days, saddened and outraged South Florida residents have questioned how Zile could watch her husband, John Zile, fatally beat her daughter, 7-year-old Christina Holt, and neither come to the child's aid nor call for help.
Laymen and law enforcment officials
alike have wondered how any mother could help her child's murderer cover
up his crime.
The answers may lie in the Ziles' tragic, twisted relationship.
"The terror of being abandoned or of what he might do to her may have been so great that she became immobilized," said Dr. Elaine Ducharme, the consultant psychologist for the Family Sexual Treatment Program in West Palm Beach. "It doesn't have to be physical abuse. It could be emotional."
On Monday, Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, said John Zile threatened and manipulated his wife into going along with his plans.
"She was afraid for her two boys as well as for herself," Rubin said. "The rest was at his command, his coercion, as had been their whole married life."
Cases in which one spouse cedes complete control to the other, with lethal results, have garnered national attention before.
When New York lawyer Joel Steinberg was tried for beating to death his 6-year-old adopted daughter, Lisa, in 1987, many observers thought the child's adoptive mother, Hedda Nussbaum, also should have been prosecuted for not reporting or thwarting the beatings.
But others saw Nussbaum, also chronically battered by Steinberg, as powerless, inexorably bound to her lover by fear and dependence.
Experts see familiar signs of domestic abuse in the Ziles' relationship, including Pauline Zile's isolation and money woes.
Tina Stogiannis, the Ziles' landlady at the Sea Nymph Apartments on Singer Island, said Pauline Zile and her children rarely left the apartment and kept the shades shut tight.
"I never talked to her," Stogiannis said. "I came several times to the door. The only time they answered the door is when I knocked really hard. Then he would come to the door."
John Zile also controlled the purse strings, especially after Pauline, pregnant with their third child, stopped working.
John Zile invariably delivered the rent money, Stogiannis said. Pauline Zile was so pressed for cash that another neighbor remembers her going door-to-door trying to sell old videotapes for gas money.
But while the signature elements of domestic abuse may have existed, experts agree that Pauline Zile could have found a way to break the cycle.
"Even when we see a woman tolerate abuse on herself, when there's abuse of the children, some women will go to the police or get out," Ducharme said. "This woman didn't just allow the beatings, she lived with a dead child in a closet for four days. She is seriously damaged."
Staff writers Dawn McMullan and Mike Folks contributed to this report.
HOW MUST IT FEEL TO MURDER A CHILD?
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1994
Author: JOHN HUGHES Commentary
Days pass, but the images won't.
It is too soon to forget Christina
Holt.
How could you not see that face on every kid who knocked on your door
for Halloween candy, dressed like a Power Ranger?
Couldn't Christina have used a super hero?
How does a man slap that child until she cries herself to death, then try to revive her with his own sorry breath?
How does that child's mother sleep with the killer, while Christina's little body decays in a closet nearby? Is that imaginable?
What do two people say to each other on nights like those?
Does the mother open that closet door every morning?
An unquiet grave
If you're that mother, how do you shop for a doll?
Do you look for one on sale? Or for one your 7-year-old would really have loved if the man you're protecting hadn't murdered her? And if you're Walter John Zile, do you say to Pauline Holt: "You go buy a doll while I run out for a shovel?" And do you search through the tool section, bouncing shovels in your palms, until you find one just the right weight for sinking in a canal?
How does it feel when you turn over that first spadeful of dirt? How do you judge how deep the hole should be for a 44-pound body? Do you place Christina in that hole gently, as if tucking her to sleep? Or do you throw her like a broken branch from an impossibly twisted tree?
Does the dirt make a noise when it hits? Does it go "thud" against that sad bundle?
His will be done?
And do you try to recall, even for an instant, where you buried your rotten soul? Do you think of that this night in a field with a shovel and a corpse that still has its baby teeth?
Does your pitiful prayer for your stepdaughter begin "Our Father ..."?
Does the mother know a funeral from a disposal? Does she practice her lies before a mirror?
Does she have any idea how contemptible she's about to become?
Prayers go up for Christina. Here's one for us all:
Dear God almighty, how can there be such evil?
Tom Jicha's column will appear Wednesday.
AS CHARADE UNRAVELED, ZILES TRIED
SUICIDE
LAWYER: CHRISTINA'S MOM WAS BYSTANDER
Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 1, 1994
Author: DAVID KIDWELL Herald Staff Writer
The night before they admitted their roles in the death of their 7-year-old
child, John and Pauline Zile parked their car in a Martin County orange
grove, ran a hose from the exhaust, and said their goodbyes.
But like other parts of their charade to cover the girl's disappearance,
this went awry, too -- the car didn't have enough gas to do the job.
This account emerged Monday from Pauline Zile's new lawyer, Ellis Rubin, the flamboyant Miami attorney well known for taking high-profile cases and developing novel defenses. The most recent example: the Kathy Willets prostitution case, in which he claimed that the drug Prozac turned her into a nymphomaniac.
Rubin stood on the steps of the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County and told the story of the girl's death from her mother's perspective: how she was awakened by Christina's screams and saw the child die; how she wanted to call for help but was persuaded otherwise by John Zile; how her husband concocted the tale of child abduction.
By the time Rubin was finished, it was clear to everyone -- except perhaps John Zile -- that the legal battle lines between husband and wife were drawn.
"I'm not guilty of first-degree murder," John Zile told reporters after a routine court appearance Monday. "I'd like to say I love my wife and my two children."
Rubin -- retained by Pauline Zile after a tabloid television reporter called him on her behalf -- was with his client to answer a grand jury subpoena.
The mother, who remains free after being granted limited immunity in exchange for her confession, did not get a chance to testify Monday, but Rubin presented her case to the public nonetheless.
The grand jury did hear from paparazzi journalist Robert Calvert, who said he interviewed Pauline Zile on Sunday.
Calvert made headlines in 1991 when he was charged with trespassing at the Kennedy estate after William Kennedy Smith was accused of rape. Patricia Bowman, the woman who accused Smith, later got an injunction to keep Calvert away from her, complaining he was stalking her.
Calvert said Zile and her mother, Paula Yingling, asked about money in exchange for their interviews. "They knew I was a tabloid television reporter and she asked me if she would get any payment," Calvert said. "I told her I'd see what I could do, but I wasn't sure I could sell it. I mean, we have to compete with O.J. and Lisa and Michael. I told her the best I could probably do was $2,000."
Calvert said he got none of the interview on tape, and the story was "yanked out from under me" by Rubin, who told Zile to stop talking.
"I will not allow her to sell her story," Rubin said. "I will not make this into another O.J. story. . . . This is not a matter that you sell."
Prosecutors said that although Zile was promised that none of her statements could be used against her, she could still be charged if independent evidence of a crime is found.
Riviera Beach police searched the Ziles' apartment again Monday, seeking evidence.
Rubin portrayed Pauline Zile as a emotionally weak woman who was afraid of her husband and said he had beaten her once.
"Some people are strong and some people are not," Rubin said. "What kind of mother is going to watch her daughter being beaten to death? No mother would do that. She was sound asleep when the beating started. By the time she woke up, it was too late."
Police say John Zile killed the girl shortly after midnight Sept. 15. He was berating her because she had been playing doctor with her two half-brothers. In fear, she soiled her underwear, and he grew infuriated and started beating her.
Her mother awoke, Rubin said, in time to see Christina go into convulsions and die.
To cover the crime, Pauline Zile claimed that Christina had been abducted from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop. She made repeated television appeals and thousands of posters and flyers were distributed, but police kept finding holes in her story.
Last Wednesday, Broward investigators were ready to confront the Ziles with all the inconsistencies. Recognizing the plot had collapsed, the couple fled to commit suicide, picking up a bottle of whiskey on the way.
"He kept telling her it was the only way out, that it was the only way they could be together, that it was the only way they could be with Christina again," Rubin said.
"But he kept getting out of the car to check the hose," Rubin said. "He was getting fresh air, and she was in the car the whole time getting none."
The suicide attempt failed, Rubin said, when the couple's Cadillac began to run out of fuel. They were pulled over by Port St. Lucie police around 4 a.m. Thursday on their way to a service station for more, he said.
"Police have in their custody the two suicide notes they wrote," Rubin said.
Riviera Beach Lt. David Harris and Sgt. Ed Brochu, the lead detective on the case, said they have searched the car for suicide notes but found none.
FOR CHRISTINA, DON'T LOOK AWAY
AGAIN
The Palm Beach Post
November 2, 1994
Through her death, Christina Holt has defined the problem of child abuse
so that we can no longer look away. Having ignored this problem so long
that it has become a crisis, however, we seem to be making up for lost
time in the worst way - by thinking of ways to kill Christina's parents.
But if we truly want to honor
this poor little girl, who met death knowing she was unwanted and unprotected,
we will not channel our energy into something as easy and unproductive
as vengeance. We will not, as some moronic talk shows already are doing,
discuss how the public can help John and Pauline Zile carry out their
alleged suicide pact. We will not berate the criminal justice system.
Instead, we will find ways to help the other Christinas, the many children
who are being abused right now. We will find the ways that weren't there
to help children like those whose tragedies have been recent high-profile
stories: Kayla Basante and Dayton Boykin of Royal Palm Beach, allegedly
killed by Dayton's mother, and A.J. Schwarz, allegedly killed by his
stepmother.
We will find ways to teach young people how to be responsible parents. We will be brave enough to report abuse if we think a child is in trouble. We will volunteer to work at schools with children from broken families. We will demand that politicians understand how children who turn out wrong prey on children who turn out right. We will realize that we are a community, that the children are part of our community. We will realize that child abuse - indeed, all family violence - is not ``so mebody else's problem.'' We will not look away again.
WARNINGS OF A HIDDEN TIME BOMB
\ It is understandable that some of us want to leave memorials to Christina at the apartment where her life ended and at the makeshift grave where her stepfather disposed of her. But it should also be understood that this goes far beyond Christina. The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services warned us for years that abuse and neglect of children had created a hidden time bomb. HRS workers who investigate child abuse were not surprised when juvenile crime exploded during the past few years.
``There's not a night that I go to bed that I'm not worried about what might happen to somebody,'' said Suzanne Turner, who runs the HRS district that covers Palm Beach County. Right now, 2,100 children in the county and nearly 15,000 in Florida are under the state's protection, meaning they have been removed from their homes or are being closely monitored. (And those are just the documented cases; Christina wasn't documented.) Investigators are examining 1,200 cases of suspected abuse in Palm Beach County alone. Children who are victims of sexual abuse must be put on a waiting list for counseling.
`THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL OF US'
\ In trying to find a solution, we must decide how far government can and should go. ``The problem is the responsibility of all of us,'' Ms. Turner says. ``We know we in government can't handle it all.''
For years abuse was seen as something bad people did. We responded with what might be called ``community sanctions.'' We didn't associate with such people, patronize their businesses or hire them. After all, before 1933, government wasn't asked even to prevent starvation.
A second, complicating factor is the fear of being sued. We think twice before calling the law on abusers. And what if we refuse to hire them?
Will abusive personality be covered one day by the Americans With Disabilities Act? In this age of victimization, who knows?
Whatever government can do, however, will only succeed if we help by reestablishing community sanctions. The community has to tell teenage mothers - such as Pauline Zile, who wasn't even 18 when she had Christina - that such behavior is irresponsible. The community has to tell fathers who walk away from their families that such behavior is irresponsible. The community has to stop violence in the home so boys don't grow up thinking it's OK to slap around a wife or child and girls don't grow up thinking they have to take it.
MAKE CHILDREN A PRIORITY
\ We have an election Tuesday. In this and all future elections we must demand that politicians put the children first, rather than use them as tools to get elected. It's easy to run down how our children have failed - and have been failed. It's harder to figure out how we can respond with more than just a plan to build enough prisons for children who survive their abuse and grow up. Merely planning for failure is a waste of money and waste of lives.
No political party created the child abuse crisis. No political party can solve it alone. Trying to gain a monopoly on ``family values'' will not help us. The causes of child abuse go far beyond anything you hear on talk shows or in 30-second commercials. Consider just two primary causes: the changing economy, which has created so many households in which both parents must work; and integration, which freed minorities to live where they wanted but took role models out of neighborhoods, leavin g a growing and increasingly isolated underclass. Those are problems of community, not politics.
COMMUNITY ASKED TO HELP
\ In an attempt to create that community awareness, there will be a news conference at 10 a.m. today at the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach. Officials from HRS, the Palm Beach County Children's Services Council and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office will be there. But so will business people and, it is hoped, members of the clergy.
``We wanted to have this meeting out of a government office,'' Ms. Turner said, ``because we are saying, `Come help us.' We're saying to businesses, for example, `If this problem gets worse, you won't be able to hire anyone to work for you.'
``We need manpower, we need money, and we need education.''
START NOW, SAVE OTHERS
\ The Christina Holt case may focus our attention on child abuse the way Nicole Simpson's murder got our attention on domestic violence. But it's clear that, because of the accused, we had more of an emotional investment in the Simpson case than we have had in any of the innumerable kids who walk by us every day in need of help.
And there is nothing glamorous about Christina's case. No slow-speed chase, just a slowly dawning horror of what happened before and after she died. All of her life, no one stood up for Christina. No one really wanted her. No one really looked after her. In that final hour, when she was being beaten to death, she could not run away, and there was no one to rescue her.
We can do nothing for Christina except mourn her short life. We can save other children. There's time - if we start now.
CREATING AWARENESS
There will be a news conference at 10 a.m. today at the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach. Officials from HRS, the Children's Services Council and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office will attend.
REPORTER'S TAPE SOUGHT IN ZILE
CASE
The Palm Beach Post
November 2, 1994
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The investigation into the death of a 7-year-old girl focused on the
girl's mother this week, as authorities searched for a taped interview
she gave a tabloid reporter and other evidence implicating her.
Prosecutors subpoenaed journalist
Robert Calvert on Tuesday, demanding he produce records of the Sunday
interview with Pauline Zile.
Calvert told a reporter on Sunday that the interview was taped. If Pauline
Zile was recorded discussing the slaying of her daughter, Christina
Holt, that can be used as evidence against her, investigators said.
Calvert testified before a grand jury Monday, but that testimony is confidential. Police have been working to piece together Pauline Zile's role in Christina's death after her husband, John, 32, confessed last week to killing his stepdaughter. Zile, 24, blamed her husband in the killing just before police charged him, but that statement cannot be used against her because she was under subpoena.
Police suspect Pauline Zile played a bigger part than she first admitted. Tuesday they were searching for Zile's wedding ring, which she pawned on Sept. 17, the day after Christina died.
Zile has claimed through her attorney, Ellis Rubin, that she was asleep when her husband beat Christina and that she tried to save her daughter.
Rubin - a Miami attorney known for taking on notorious clients and using unorthodox defenses - said that Pauline Zile was manipulated by John Zile into complying with the abduction ruse she rehearsed two days before she called Broward County deputies to say her daughter had disappeared from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.
Also on Tuesday, investigators with the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office began examining tissue samples taken during an autopsy, said investigator Tony Mead.
Because the girl's body was badly decomposed, it will be tough to determine the cause of death, which could include asphyxiation, head trauma or drowning, Mead said. They are trying to discover whether the girl was sexually abused, but may have difficulty because of the body's condition.
Staff writer Christine Stapleton contributed to this report.
AGENCIES WILL WORK TOGETHER TO
PROTECT CHILDREN
Sun-Sentinel
November 2, 1994
Author: SHERRI WINSTON Staff Writer
After Christina Holt's broken 7-year-old body was discovered on Friday,
people fumed: Why did this have to happen? Could someone have stopped
it?
"There are no excuses, we
all have to take some responsibility for the children," said Beth
Owen, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative
Services.
"People need to get involved," said Lynne Spears of HRS's
Program Office of Children and Services. "People need to pay more
attention to what's going on around them; show a sense of community."
Educating the public about options that exist for families and neighbors have become a priority, service agencies say.
Because of Christina's death, the Children Services Council will work with other agencies, including HRS, to bring together churches, social agencies, industries and anyone who can offer resources and insight into how to protect children.
"We're looking for ways to structure how we disseminate our information to the community," Owen said. "The whole thrust of this is for every adult to take responsibility."
From Palm Beach County, the HRS abuse hotline received 5,679 calls from October 1993 through June. In August and September, it received another 849 calls. Statewide, according to an HRS report for the fiscal year running from September 1993 to October 1994, 110 deaths of children have been related to either neglect or abuse; abuse was the cause in half of them.
Aside from building tighter alliances with other agencies, HRS is also working on a new way to handle calls to its abuse hotline.
HRS thinks many cases of abuse and neglect go unreported because the public sees HRS as an agency that removes children from the home.
The Family Services Response System will be a new way of determining whether a child is at risk or an entire family is at risk.
For example, say someone calls about a girl who appears dirty and unfed. Upon investigation, HRS confirms the child is malnourished and unkempt.
But they also determine that the family is having financial setbacks - loss of job, limited skills, moving around a lot to find work.
Instead of automatically removing the child, Family Services Response would work with the family.
"We are seen as strictly adversarial," Spears said. "We want to change that."
The Family Services Response System will try to determine the level of need within a family. If a family is referred to Family Services instead of HRS' Child Protective Services, the family will not end up on a state registry for abuse.
HRS thinks educating the public can lead to positive solutions, either through informing needy families about services or calling the hotline if living conditions appear suspicious.
If you suspect abuse, call 1-800-962-2873. The call should be made by someone with first-hand knowledge of the abuse. The caller does not have to prove abuse, but can alert investigators of their suspicions.
PEOPLE SICK, TIRED OF 'VICTIM'
EXCUSE
Sun-Sentinel
November 2, 1994
Author: JOHN GROGAN
Commentary
Everybody's a victim.
Clover Boykin is a victim and Pauline Zile is a victim. Their children are dead, but it is the mothers who are to be pitied.
Boykin admits she strangled her 5-month-old son and another child nearly a year apart. She admits she successfully disguised the first death as an accident and tried to disguise the second as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
But she wants you to know it was
not her fault. The real culprit in this tragedy is her abusive father
who so traumatized her as a child she had no choice but to tighten her
grip around those fragile little necks.
Zile admits she watched as her husband beat to death her 7-year-old
daughter, Christina Holt. She admits she lived with the child's corpse
for four days as the couple plotted how to hide the evidence. She admits
she staged a kidnapping a full month later.
But she wants you to know it wasn't her fault. That domineering husband of hers had such control over her she was just plain powerless to resist.
An excuse for every occasion
You might think Boykin and Zile are pretty rotten mothers who deserve long rests behind bars. But there you go blaming the victims again.
When Clover Boykin strangled her son, she said she had just awakened from a nightmare that her father was chasing her for sex. She mistook the infant beside her for Dad. So, OK, he shrunk a little. Who could blame her for choking the little demon?
Lest we overlook Pauline Zile's martyrdom, she has retained South Florida's most creative lawyer, Ellis Rubin, who has made a handsome living remaking perpetrators into victims on the evening news.
In Rubin's deft hands, housewife hooker Kathy Willets rose from common prostitute to tragic victim of nymphomania and an exploitive husband. Teen-age punk Ronnie Zamora was transformed from brutal murderer into helpless pawn of "TV intoxication."
Rubin climbed the courthouse steps in West Palm Beach on Monday to proclaim: "Pauline Zile was as much a victim as Christina. Pauline was under tremendous psychological influence of this man."
To which you could almost hear South Florida's collective groan: Not again.
At her lawyer's side, the weeping Zile looked very much the victim. Her tears were almost as convincing as those she shed 11 days ago while fabricating her child's kidnapping.
`Accidents' can happen
Even her husband, John Zile, charged with murdering his stepdaughter, has an excuse. He claims the death was an "accident" while he was disciplining her. Wouldn't it be refreshing if for once a guy like Zile stood up and said, "I did it, I killed her, I'm guilty; lock me up."
I don't mean to trivialize the life-long trauma of child abuse or the power of a manipulative spouse, but, c'mon folks, isn't it time we quit whining and take some responsibility for our own actions?
The only accused felon not making excuses, it seems, is Paul Hill, the unapologetic anti-abortionist on trial for shotgunning a doctor and his escort outside a Pensacola clinic. As easy as it is to despise Hill for playing God, for taking life in the name of saving it, at least he is standing by his actions. No traumatic childhood, no dark voices in his head.
America is losing its patience.
If you kill your kid or rape your neighbor or stick a gun in someone's ribs, you deserve to go to prison. Society doesn't care if you had a rough childhood or if your parents were drunks or your spouse a louse or if you were a baby having babies.
If you're not ready for children, don't have them, or give them up to someone who is. But don't expect to pummel them, choke the life from them, dump their broken bodies in anonymous sand pits and then come looking for our sympathy.
You won't find it. People are fed up. No more excuses.