Christina's Story: Newspaper Articles

Home --> Christina Holt's Story --> Christina Holt's Story: Newspaper Articles --> 1995 Page 1

Christina's Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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

Thank you!


*In Loving Memory Of* Christina Diane Holt May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."	(Not her actual headstone)
These pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

1994, The Year in Quotes (1/1/95)
Person Of The Year: Christina Holt (1/1/95)
6 Youngsters Among 102 Slain in '94 (1/2/95)
Zile Case Evidence May Be Inadmissable (1/6/95)
Jury Likely To Hear of Coverup in Christina's Death (1/8/95)
Task Force Taking Closer Look at HRS (1/9/95)
Memo: Krischer Interviewed Ziles (1/10/95)
Ziles Maintained Hoax in Lengthy Suicide Note (1/12/95)
Uncle Sam May Not Be Such a Bad Babysitter (1/12/95)
Ziles' Suicide Notes Released (1/12/95)

1994: THE YEAR IN QUOTES
The Palm Beach Post
January 1, 1995

OUR CHILDREN

``A poor, lost little soul.''

- A relative's description of Christina Holt. Her stepfather admitted beating the 7-year-old to death Sept. 16. He buried her in Tequesta, and he and the girl's mother claimed she had disappeared from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop. Both are charged with murder.

``Amanda was such a happy-go-lucky child. It didn't seem that she knew fear.''

- Danese Dowler, mother of a friend of Amanda Dougherty. The 5-year-old North Lauderdale child disappeared from her home Sept. 22 and was found strangled two days later in a ditch west of Boca Raton. No one has been arrested.

``I had another nightmare that I had fallen. My father was on me, wanting me to sleep with him, and I grabbed him around the neck, and instead it wasn't my father, it was my son.''

- Clover Boykin of Royal Palm Beach, in statement to police. She has confessed to killing her 5-year-old son, Dayton, Oct. 27, and 8-month-old Kayla Basante, a friend's daughter, whom she was baby-sitting, on Nov. 27, 1993.

``Whoever has my children, please, please bring them back.''

- Susan Smith of Union, S.C., on Nov. 3, hours before she admitted rolling her car down a boat ramp with her young children inside, then concocting a story that a black man had stolen the car.

``Tim and I love children so much. (He's) the best dad. That's the thing I loved about him. Any child that had him as a father, I feel very fortunate for.''

- Paulette Cone, mother of Pauline Cone. The little girl died Nov. 10; police say a plywood lid on her crib was slammed on her head. The Cones have been charged with murder.

``My God, please, baby, Sassy, please, stop baby, if you can hear me, come back!''

- Carlos Schenk, heard on a 911 tape Nov. 23, trying to revive 4-year-old Sasha Gibbons. The Pompano Beach man admitted stuffing her under a waterbed mattress when she cursed him.

``We love you forever. See you in heaven.''

- Message scrawled at a Fort Lauderdale intersection by friends of Sarah Alexander, 12, one of six - five of them children - killed when a van plowed into a minivan Dec. 8.

PERSON OF THE YEAR
CHRISTINA HOLT
The Palm Beach Post
January 1, 1995
Author: FRAN HATHAWAY

It was the year of the child. The dead child.

It was the year South Floridians realized that the most dangerous place for children is not in the streets or the malls or the schools but at home - with their parents.
Consider these snapshots from 1994's grisly scrapbook.

Snap! Oct. 22.

A distraught Pauline Yingling Zile runs from a restroom at a Broward County flea market, shouting that her daughter is missing. But 7-year-old Christina Holt is dead, beaten to death five days earlier by her stepfather, John Zile. He confesses to stuffing the child's body in a closet of their Riviera Beach apartment for four days before burying her near a Tequesta shopping center. Charged with first-degree murder, Pauline and John Zile may face the death penalty if convicted.

Snap! Oct. 27.

Clover Boykin, 19, of Royal Palm Beach kills her 5-month-old son, Dayton. She also confesses to killing 9-month-old Kayla Basante in November 1993 while baby-sitting the child. Clover Boykin is indicted on two counts of murder.

Snap! Nov. 10.

Pauline Cone, 2, dies when a wooden lid rigged to her crib slams shut and strangles her. Adoptive parents Paulette and Timothy Cone of Lake Worth are charged with first-degree murder and child abuse. They had earned $65,000 as foster parents while caring for 43 children during a four-year period, despite numerous police calls to their home.

Snap! Nov. 26.

Sasha ``Sassy'' Gibbons, 4, dies at a Broward County hospital four days after Carlos Schenk spanks her for cursing at him, hits her with a belt when she doesn't stop, pours hot sauce in her mouth, wraps her in a comforter and wedges her under a waterbed mattress in their Pompano Beach home. Schenk, fiance of Sassy's mother, Rebecka Gibbons, is charged with first-degree murder.

Snap! Dec. 10.

Blowzy, brutal Jessica Schwarz is sentenced to 30 years in prison for abusing her 10-year-old stepson, A.J. He was found dead in the family's backyard pool in May 1993. The Lantana woman still must stand trial on murder charges in his killing.

All of these deaths stunned South Florida - especially because they involved people who should have been protecting the children. But it was Christina who crystallized the horror.

Within days of that shock, public outrage was compounded by an eerily similar tale told by a 23-year-old South Carolina secretary named Susan Smith. On Oct. 25, Ms. Smith tearfully claimed that her sons - Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months - had been abducted by a carjacker. On Nov. 3, the boys' decomposing bodies were found in their mother's car in a lake near the small mill town of Union. Ms. Smith, who came from what townspeople called ``a good family,'' will stand trial on murder charges.

Before closing the album, consider one more picture.

Snap! June 17.

Ever-smiling celebrity ex-jock O.J. Simpson is arrested on charges of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The couple's two young children were asleep inside Ms. Simpson's townhouse when their mother was slashed to death, her head nearly severed from her body. Emergency 911 tapes later indicate that Nicole Simpson was a battered wife.

We call such spousal beating domestic abuse. We call parental battery on children child abuse. Increasingly, however, we describe it all as family violence.

Each year, The Post selects a Person of the Year, someone who has had a major impact on Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. For 1994, The Post's Person of the Year is Christina Holt, a child who in death represents all the children who are brutalized by those they trusted. In 1994, no issue shocked and angered us more than the deaths of children at the hands of their parents.

Abuse - physical, emotional, sexual - does more than warp children's lives. It endangers society when kids who live with violence act out that violence on others. Last year, a tide of kids with few morals and little hope crested in a wave of juvenile crime that would have been unthinkable earlier. In one 13-month period, Florida saw 10 fatal attacks on foreign visitors, most by teenagers.

The 1994 legislature responded by passing a $237 million reform of the juvenile-justice system that created a Department of Juvenile Justice. Gov. Chiles called it a balance of prevention, early intervention and detention. But the emphasis was punitive.

Few children are born bad. It's just that more and more are born to people who conceive them ``accidentally'' and don't give a damn about raising them. These adults are the criminals, and preventing more like them is essential. The 1994 Person of the Year reminds us that child abuse sows the seeds of our own destruction.

We live what we learn. Children who grow up in violent households are likely to become offenders themselves. Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer wants the law to help break this cycle. In December, he told local legislators that beating a spouse in front of a child should be considered child abuse, punishable by up to five years in prison. He's right. Children who witness a mother being beaten may be as traumatized as if they were being beaten themselves.

If performing sexual acts in front of children is a felony - which under state law it is - violence in front of kids should be, too. The increase in child-on-child sexual abuse - kids as young as pre-schoolers acting out sex acts on other children - tells us that children are either seeing those acts in their own homes or are being molested.

Abuse takes another form - neglect - that seems less deadly. But neglected children shrivel psychologically and physically. Neglected babies may fail to thrive. Being home alone isn't funny after all.

And it's getting worse. Social workers say that what outraged them 20 years ago seems almost tame compared with behaviors often leavened by drugs, alcohol and pornographic material.

At the same time, some parents insist that they have a right to discipline their children by hitting them. Even some lawmakers see nothing wrong with violence as punishment. Last spring, the legislature passed a bill intended to ``restore parental authority'' by allowing parents to spank their children on public property. (When child advocates said the bill's definition of what constitutes abuse was not appropriate, Gov. Chiles vetoed it.)

One lawmaker who sees a great deal wrong with violence as punishment is incoming Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. As the expected chairwoman of the House Select Committee on Child Abuse, Ms. Frankel has both the will and the way to propose better ways of protecting all citizens from abuse.

She should get some help from two new local groups. Palm Beach County's Domestic Violence Council was formed after the Simpson case heightened awareness of spouse abuse. And beginning in January, a countywide task force formed by the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services will review Palm Beach County's child protection system.

But we all have a responsibility to report signs and sounds of violence coming from someone's home. When people do call the state abuse registry, HRS has a responsibility to make sure calls are evaluated properly and investigated promptly by local officials. In the A.J. Schwarz case, a Lantana neighbor called HRS to report that Jessica Schwarz beat her stepson and smoked crack cocaine. An HRS worker threatened to take the neighbor's children if she didn't stop calling. A grand jury report sa id A.J. might have been saved if HRS had done its job properly.

Sometimes, however, HRS doesn't even get the chance. In the Christina Holt case, Riviera Beach neighbors of John and Pauline Zile heard screams and sounds of beatings and did nothing. A friend of John Zile's saw him beat Christina with a belt but did not call HRS, as required by law.

Violence behind closed doors is no longer a ``private matter.'' Anyone in doubt about calling HRS should remember this message from the Family Violence Prevention Fund: ``If the noise coming from next door were loud music, you'd do something about it.''

Fran Hathaway is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.

6 YOUNGSTERS AMONG 102 SLAIN IN '94
The Palm Beach Post
January 2, 1995
Author: JOUNICE L. NEALY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

1994 will be remembered as a record-setting year for young children slain in Palm Beach County.

Corey Johnson, 10; Kevin Tyson, 7; Amanda Dougherty, 5; Christina Holt, 7; Dayton Boykin, 5 months; and Pauline Cone, 2. They painfully and unpredictably became part of the increasing number of homicides in Palm Beach County.
``One of the reasons the statistics have increased in that area is directly related to the emphasis of law enforcement and prosecution,'' said Mike Edmonson, spokesman for the State Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors specializing in crimes against children and aggressive police work have produced thorough investigations that led to several arrests, he said.

In 1994, 102 people were victims of homicide in Palm Beach County, 10 more than in 1993, according to reports from the Medical Examiner's Office.

Memories of the six dead children will linger into 1995 because five parents have been charged in three of the children's deaths. Their trials probably will be held this year.

Pauline Cone's adoptive parents were charged with murder in her Nov. 10 slaying. Timothy Cone originally told police Pauline died when she fell out of her crib. The medical examiner determined that a plywood lid on top of Pauline's crib slammed on her neck and strangled her.

Dayton Boykin died Oct. 27 and his mother, Clover Boykin of Royal Palm Beach, confessed to strangling him. She also told police she killed a 9-month-old girl she was baby-sitting in November 1993.

On Oct. 28, investigators dug up Christina Holt's body behind a Kmart in northern Palm Beach County. John Zile admitted to beating his 7-year-old stepdaughter and burying her after she died Sept. 16. Christina's mother, Pauline Zile, had told police that the girl had been abducted from the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.

The strangled body of Amanda Dougherty was found in Boca Raton on Sept. 24. Detectives are investigating.

Two other children - Corey Johnson of Delray Beach and Kevin Tyson of Boynton Beach - were killed by gunfire.

The increase in the number of homicides is the county's second in a row. Between 1989 and 1992, homicides decreased from 109 to 83.

The victims were not limited to children.

Three cabdrivers - Yves Quettant, William Swank and Robert Lee French - were killed on the job.

Quettant, 39, was shot in the head in West Palm Beach in his Hill's Gold Coast cab Jan. 16. Three teenage girls were charged; one has been convicted.

Less than two weeks after Quettant's murder, Ace driver Swank was beaten to death in West Palm Beach. His slaying has not been solved. French, a Yellow Cab driver, was shot to death in Riviera Beach on Sept. 9. His killer has not been found.

Alberta Burden and Russell Bean were gunned down on their way to work.

Burden, 60, was killed Sept. 29 in the parking lot of the West Palm Beach mental health clinic where she worked. She witnessed her goddaughter's slaying in July, and police believe she was killed to keep her from testifying against the gunman.

Three men were shot and killed by police.

K'Andre Garner, 17, was shot Jan. 20 by West Palm Beach police officer Chris Fragakis, who was cleared of any wrongdoing. Police said Garner was in a crack house and had a gun.

Gustavaus Jody Francis, 22, who ignored police orders to drop the butcher knife he was holding, was shot and killed July 18. Riviera Beach officers Reno Wells, Joel Audate and Cedrick Edwards were cleared.

After a scuffle with Delray Beach police, Yvon Guerrier, 42, was shot and killed by officer John Battiloro, who also was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Authorities are not making predictions for homicides in 1995.

``We see a lot of the violence,'' said Palm Beach County sheriff's Sgt. Tom Neighbors. ``You just have to deal with it when it comes.''

HOMICIDE TALLY

1994 102

1993 92

1992 83

1991 86

1990 91

1989 109

1988 89

1994 HOMICIDES

SIX YOUNG CHILDREN SLAIN:

Corey Johnson, 10, of Delray Beach. His mother shot him in the head March 9 and then killed herself.

Kevin Tyson, 7, of Boynton Beach. He was shot May 31 while sitting in a car with his mother. The gunman was aiming at another man.

Amanda Dougherty, 5. Her body was found in Boca Raton on Sept. 24. She was strangled. The case remains unsolved.

Christina Holt, 7, was beaten to death and died Sept. 16. Her body was found Oct. 28 buried behind a Kmart. Her mother and stepfather have been charged in her death.

Dayton Boykin, 5 months, was strangled Oct. 27. His mother, Clover, confessed and told police she also killed 9-month-old Kayla Basante in 1993.

Pauline Cone, 2, died when a plywood lid attached to her crib slammed shut on her neck and choked her Nov. 10. Her adoptive parents, Paulette and Timothy Cone, have been charged with murder in her death.

THREE CABDRIVERS KILLED:

Yves Quettant, 39, of West Palm Beach was shot in the head Jan. 16. Three teens, Wilona Perry, Stephanie Powell and Kimberlee Smith, were charged with murder. Perry has been convicted.

William Swank, 26, of West Palm Beach, was found beaten to death Jan. 27. The case has not been solved.

Robert French, 37, was shot in the neck Sept. 9 and found the next day in Riviera Beach. His slaying has not been solved.

THREE KILLED BY POLICE:

K'Andre Garner, 17, was shot in the head Jan. 20 by West Palm Beach police officer Chris Fragakis. After an investigation, Fragakis was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Gustavaus Jody Francis, 22, was shot July 18 by three Riviera Beach police officers after he refused to drop a knife. After an investigation, the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Yvon Guerrier, 42, was shot twice in the stomach by Delray Beach police officer John Battiloro after grabbing the officer's nightstick. Battiloro was cleared of any wrongdoing.

ZILE CASE EVIDENCE MIGHT BE INADMISSIBLE
Sun-Sentinel
January 6, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Broward County sheriff's detectives did not stop their search of John and Pauline Zile's apartment once they found evidence of foul play, and that could mean the items gathered in the search cannot be used at trial.

Police records released by the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office on Thursday dispute an earlier account that Broward County officials ended their consensual search of the Ziles' apartment and turned the case over to Riviera Beach police when blood was discovered.
A spokesman for the State Attorney's Office said prosecutors could not comment. "Those are issues that will be debated in court, I'm sure," spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, said he has not seen the reports and could not comment specifically. But Rubin said he questioned why Broward County had jurisdiction to search the apartment in Singer Island, even with the Ziles' consent.

"If I'm a Florida person, can I give Florida police permission to search my house in California? I'm going to have to research that."

On Oct. 24, the Ziles' apartment was searched twice. The Ziles agreed to the first search, involving 15 officers from Broward County and Riviera Beach, when detectives said they needed hair samples and fingerprints of the child the couple had reported missing.

Pauline Zile had reported her daughter, Christina Holt, 9, was abducted from a restroom at the Swap Shop flea market near Fort Lauderdale. John Zile later confessed to fatally beating his stepdaughter at their apartment while his wife watched and secretly burying the child in a vacant lot. Both Ziles are charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

The significance of the discrepancy is that police must specify what they are searching for and cannot gather evidence through "fishing expeditions."

Detective Robert Foley of the Broward County Sheriff's Office wrote in his report that during the consensual search, Luminol, a blood-detecting chemical, was sprayed in the bedroom and living room when bloodstains were found on the child's pillow and mattress.

Blood was also found on the girl's blue jeans, two couch pillows and a picture frame, the reports stated.

Foley's account differs from the version released when the Ziles were arrested. According to the arrest report, Luminol testing was done only on the clothing and mattress. "During the Luminol testing, some overspray made contact with the carpeting in the room and on the north wall of the bedroom," the arrest report stated.

Once blood was found, the case was turned over to Riviera Beach police for criminal investigation and to obtain a search warrant, the arrest report stated.

JURY LIKELY TO HEAR OF COVERUP IN CHRISTINA'S DEATH
The Palm Beach Post
January 8, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The death of 7-year-old Christina Holt was tragic, but what happened afterward is the stuff that infuriates juries, legal experts say.

Reports that recently became public show a well-planned kidnapping hoax staged by Pauline and John Zile. Although the couple has not been charged with filing a false missing-persons report, legal experts agree that a jury probably will hear about the hoax at the couple's murder trial.
``It's very damaging evidence,'' said Robert Adler, a federal public defender who represented a Jupiter man who killed his ex-wife and buried her behind a warehouse. ``What occurs after the crime is often worse than what happened during the crime.''

Defense attorneys are expected to argue that a jury should not hear details of the botched kidnapping hoax to cover Christina's death. Most likely, they will argue that the kidnapping hoax - a month after the girl's death - is not relevant and happened too long after Christina's death about Sept. 16.

``It's a touchy legal issue,'' said

Tom Gano, president of the Palm Beach County Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. ``I think it's going to be admissible; it goes to covering up the homicide.''

In separate confessions to police, the Ziles have said that Christina died after having a convulsion while John Zile hit her on Sept. 16. He tried to resuscitate the girl, then placed her in a tub of cold water, according to police records.

The couple then hid the girl's body in a closet in their small Singer Island apartment for four days while John Zile searched for a place to bury her, police say. He later led police to a grave behind a Tequesta shopping center. Pauline Zile said she tried to stop her husband from hitting Christina and that she did not know where he had buried her. The couple has been charged with first-degree murder.

On Oct. 22, Pauline Zile reported her daughter missing from a Fort Lauderdale swap shop. She told police that Christina disappeared from a bathroom.

Patty Ely heard the announcement for a lost child at the swap shop and found Pauline Zile sitting on a bench, according to reports by FBI agents who searched for the missing girl. Ely tried to comfort her, but Pauline Zile showed little emotion, Ely said.

``Pauline spoke in a very clear and distinct manner of speech and her tone of voice was not coupled with hysteria or uncontrolled sobs,'' the agents recalled Ely saying. ``Pauline did not exhibit any signs of anxiety.''

Instead of talking about her missing daughter, Pauline described her anguish over the baby she had given birth to two weeks earlier who she gave up for adoption, Ely recalled.

At one point, a man ran up to them and excitedly said that Pauline Zile's daughter had been found.

``Pauline did not even bother to look up,'' according to the FBI report. ``The exclamation of happiness did not produce any type of reaction from Pauline, nor did Pauline even acknowledge or look at the individual.''

Ely ran into the building to bring the girl to her mother. Pauline Zile did not follow.

As police searched for her daughter, Pauline Zile also told detectives about the baby she had given up for adoption.

``Christina was deeply disappointed that she (Pauline) did not come home from the hospital with a new baby,'' FBI agents recalled Pauline Zile telling them. ``Christina greeted her at the door with a `horrified' look on her face.''

Christina had been dead almost three weeks when the baby was born.

The report said she lied again to detectives, describing what Christina had done before they went to the swap shop. That morning, Christina had a bowl of cereal, then changed into a T-shirt with a teddy bear on it, Pauline Zile said. Underneath her clothes she wore her bathing suit, in case they decided to stop at the beach on the way home, she said.

On the way to the swap shop they stopped at a gas station where Pauline Zile said she bought her daughter a bag of licorice. The gas station attendant later told police that Pauline Zile was alone in the car.

If evidence of the kidnapping hoax is admitted at trial, defense attorneys probably will try to limit it, claiming that too much evidence about the hoax is cumulative and prejudicial.

``I think you have to focus the jury on the crime itself and not on the actions afterward,'' said Carol Haughwout, a criminal defense attorney. ``The problem is that people get so angry because they believe their sympathy was abused.''

TASK FORCE TAKING CLOSER LOOK AT HRS
The Palm Beach Post
January 9, 1995
Author: SCOTT SHIFREL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The state's 24 protective services workers in Palm Beach County keep an eye on 35 families each, more than twice the recommended standard.

The average salary for an entry-level counselor in the state's children and family division is between $20,000 and $33,000 a year.
And local Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services officials can't increase the pay scale or add workers without the Florida Legislature's approval.

Such limitations are among those to be discussed Tuesday by the first meeting of a task force of local officials concerned with child welfare.

The group - which includes Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, schools Superintendent Monica Uhlhorn, West Palm Beach Police Chief Billy Riggs and others - is the idea of HRS District Administrator Suzanne Turner.

Spurred by a recent spate of highly publicized child-abuse cases, she hopes it will explain what HRS does to those who need to work with the system.

The state agency has been criticized for its handling of some of those cases, including the deaths of 10-year-old Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, 7-year-old Christina Holt and 2-year-old Pauline Cone.

In the most recent case, poor communication was partially blamed for a situation that led to Pauline's death in a foster home. HRS was unaware that domestic problems had been reported numerous times to police.

The task force is aimed at bridging the communications gap and coming up with solutions by including law enforcement officials, judges, attorneys and child-welfare advocates.

``This is probably the first time this group has worked together,'' Turner said. ``The goal is for us to have the strongest protection system possible.''

She also hopes it comes up with ammunition for HRS officials to take to the March legislative session, which promises to focus on the state agency.

The focus of the group will be protective investigations, child protection, foster care and adoption. Turner hopes eventually to have national and local experts on these subjects give presentations.

A packet prepared for the task force's first meeting Tuesday details some of the limitations state officials run into while trying to protect children.

Besides the low salaries and high workloads - problems that have been discussed for years - the packet reviews:

The lengthy process it takes for HRS to remove a child from a home.

The criteria for child abuse to be reported into the state hot line.

The limited budget of the children and families division of HRS.

The qualifications for protective services workers.

Tuesday's gathering will be an organizational meeting with the 16 officials. Turner said she hopes they agree to meet several more times before the March legislative session.

``We're trying to educate the community about what we are, about what our shortcomings are and where we can get help,'' she said.

MEMO: KRISCHER INTERVIEWED ZILES
The Palm Beach Post
January 10, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Files made public on Monday confirmed what attorneys for John and Pauline Zile suspected - that State Attorney Barry Krischer talked to the couple the night they described the death of 7-year-old Christina Holt.

``This certainly is interesting,'' said Assistant Public Defender Iola Mosley, attorney for John Zile. ``I've never seen the state attorney take such an interest in a case.''
A memo from a state attorney investigator in prosecutors' files shows that Krischer explained the limited immunity he offered to Pauline Zile and read and explained the Miranda rights to John Zile during separate interviews on Oct. 26.

The Singer Island couple has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christina, Pauline Zile's daughter. The couple told police that Christina died after John Zile hit her on Sept. 16. They hid her body in a closet for four days before Zile buried her behind a shopping center in Tequesta.

On Oct. 22, the couple staged Christina's kidnapping from the Swap Shop in Broward County to conceal her death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Krischer's role in the investigation came under attack shortly after the couple's arrest, when Ellis Rubin, Pauline Zile's attorney, filed court papers claiming Krischer overstepped his role as prosecutor and should be removed from the case.

Krischer declined to comment on his role in the case on Monday. At a court hearing last month, Chief Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Selvig initially told a judge that ``Krischer was not a witness to this statement and did not participate in it.''

Later, Selvig said that Krischer was in the room during some of Pauline Zile's statement but ``at no point interrogated Pauline Zile.''

A judge refused to remove Krischer from the case and to allow Rubin to question Krischer about his role. Rubin said Monday that he intends to renew his efforts to question Krischer.

``As far as I'm concerned this makes the state attorney a material witness,'' Rubin said.

Two other prosecutors, one from the homicide division and another who heads the crimes-against-children division, also were at the Riviera Beach Police Department when the couple made their statements.

The four-page memo released on Monday does not say why Krischer decided to talk to the couple.

``Any one of the other prosecutors could have done that,'' Mosley said about Krischer reading Zile his rights. ``Unless there's something we're not being told, I don't know why Mr. Krischer would feel that he had to do it.''

ZILES MAINTAINED HOAX IN LENGTHY SUICIDE NOTE
The Palm Beach Post
January 12, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

John and Pauline Zile planned to go to their deaths lying to their families, friends and children about the death of 7-year-old Christina Holt, according to court papers made public Wednesday.

``She really did go to the swap shop with Pauline,'' John Zile wrote in his suicide letter to his parents. ``We hope to God the police find her and return her to her loved ones.''
Among the nearly 400 pages of documents, prosecutors released 16 pages of suicide letters. In the handwritten letters, the Ziles ask to be buried together and that their wedding rings be given to their two young sons.

``Please make sure that they never give up looking for Christina until the day she's home safe and sound,'' Pauline Zile wrote to her mother. ``Please tell the kids we love them every day! No matter what!''

The Ziles have been charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 16 death of Christina, Mrs. Zile's daughter. John Zile told police that his stepdaughter began having convulsions and died after he hit her.

The couple told police they hid the girl's body in a closet for four days before John Zile buried her behind a shopping center in Tequesta. A month later, the couple staged Christina's kidnapping from a Broward County swap shop to cover her death.

But the kidnapping hoax quickly unraveled. Shortly after reporting her daughter missing, an investigator noticed that Mrs. Zile referred to Christina in the past tense, according to records released Wednesday.

By Oct. 26 - four days after they staged the kidnapping hoax - they decided to kill themselves. They parked their 1985 Cadillac in an orange grove near Fort Pierce and hooked a garden hose to the exhaust. As they waited for the fumes, they drank Jack Daniels and wrote the letters, according to police reports.

Zile apologized to his parents and explained that ``we see no meaning in life without our kids.'' Mrs. Zile told her mother that she could have the couple's car but would have to pay off the remaining loan of $1,250.

The couple also penned a goodbye letter to their two sons, but not to Christina, whom they were still trying to portray as missing.

Finally, Zile wrote an eight-page ``Story of John and Pauline.'' In it, Zile explained how he met his wife, fell in love and had two sons. He described Christina as ``out of control'' and described how he disciplined her.

The story ends abruptly: ``I can't even write any more. The fumes are getting to be to (sic) much.'' Then, Zile ended with a prayer.

The suicide attempt failed because the couple ran out of gas and Zile left the car too many times to check on the hose.

UNCLE SAM MAY NOT BE SUCH A BAD BABY SITTER
The Palm Beach Post
January 12, 1995
Author: RON WIGGINS

Something government does well: Child-rearing.

You doubt?
A Manhattan psychiatrist who runs a residential-care center for ``adolescents no one else will take'' says the government often does a better job of rearing children than some parents. Certainly A.J. Schwarz, Christina Holt and Susan Smith's children are not around to disagree.

So why, asks Dr. Michael A. Pawel, do we treat institutional caregivers as though they were wicked stepmothers?

Pawel's essay in the January The Humanist does such a good job of addressing the issue of institutional care that I called him at the August Aichhorn Center for Adolescent Residential Care, where he is executive director.

Q: Dr. Pawel, could you expand on your statement that ``Institutional care can be a good thing, and it could be even better if the resources devoted to attacking it were instead used to improve it.''

A: Clearly institutional care is a last resort and I certainly agree that the nuclear family is the best child-rearing environment. The fact is, those families are not available to all who need them, and when the foster-care system fails, you reach a point where congregate care is the only option available.

Q: Are you succeeding where the original parents and the foster-care system failed?

A: In spite of the system, in spite of the fact that we start with physically destructive, severely disturbed adolescents, all with histories of abuse or sexual abuse, we do amazingly well.

Q: By what standard?

A: Instead of loading up the prison system, we have mainstreamed some into the: public schools, a few into job training, two want to go to college, and others have gone back to their families.

Q: How do you instill moral values when the state cannot ``preach''?

A: The kids we have, 13 and 14, are at the kindergarten level in terms of behavior. We keep it very simple and very clear: no violence, no stealing, treat others as you would like to be treated. Our youngsters have not had a close relation with adults, and we are able to give them that.

Q: And for this, you are seen as wicked stepmothers?

A: This is the main thing I would change, the belief that child-care workers are engaged in the lowest skill work available. The salary and social status of these jobs speaks to that. Would you want your kid to grow up to be a child-care worker? It is amazing to me the good job most of these people do with no recognition.

Q: Will state orphanages spring up if mothers are taken off welfare?

A: I don't think so. I think we'll see hostels where both mother and child can stay for a while. Let the mothers cook, get some parenting skills and look for a job. In effect, we'll say, ``We'll watch the baby while you look for work.''

Q: Be it so humble, there's no place like . . .?

A: Institutional care? In our case, yes, when you consider that like the average respectable family, we don't throw anyone out.''

ZILES' SUICIDE LETTERS RELEASED
CHRISTINA WAS ALIVE, NOTES STATE
Sun-Sentinel
January 12, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

As John and Pauline Zile waited for car fumes to kill them on Oct. 26, the couple wrote suicide notes to their parents, children and friends maintaining the lie that their daughter was alive.

Police were getting closer to discovering the truth of what happened to Christina Holt, 7, so the couple used a garden hose to draw exhaust fumes into their 1985 Cadillac Eldorado. But the hose kept falling out, and the car eventually ran out of gas.
The suicide attempt dragged on so long, the couple had enough time to write six notes and an eight-page essay on their life. The notes were among nearly 400 pages of documents released by the State Attorney's Office on Wednesday.

"Dear Mom, I love you very deeply! Please take care of our boys and Christina, too, when she comes home," said one note, to Pauline's mother, Paula Zingling of Jensen Beach. "If you can't, please find a family that will be willing to accept all three. These boys deserve the best, and Christina even more. Please keep them together, safe and happy."

In maintaining the ruse, Pauline Zile went as far as to bequeath her a piece of jewelry.

"P.S. Please give our wedding rings and jewelry to the boys. They are our most precious items and represent all the love we have shared. Please give Christina my crystal heart in hope it keeps her safe and us in her heart," Pauline Zile wrote in another note addressed "To all who knew us."

The couple tried to explain the child's disappearance by reporting that Christina had been abducted in a Broward County flea market restroom on Oct. 22. Five days later, a day after the Ziles attempted suicide, John Zile led police to the child's burial site, a vacant lot in Tequesta.

The Ziles are each charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for the beating death of Christina in September at the couples' Singer Island apartment.

In a letter to his parents in Maryland, John Zile came closer to revealing what he later told police happened, but he was insistent Christina was alive and well.

"We are guilty of some things at the apartment, but not as much as it seemed. We love Christina, but we didn't know how to deal with the things she was doing," John Zile wrote.

"She really did go to the Swap Shop with Pauline. We hope to God the police find her and return her to her loved ones. We are not the monsters we seem to be. We have never ever hurt Chad or Daniel. They are the loves of our life. But without them and Christina, we saw no life."

The couple, who are seeking separate trials and blaming each other for Christina's death, pleaded with their parents to be kept together in death.

"P.S.S. Please bury me and Pauline together, please," John Zile wrote.

They wanted their sons, Daniel, 5, and Chad, 3, to also think that their half sister was alive. The Ziles told police they did not think their sons understood what happened to Christina, although her body was hidden in a closet in their apartment for four days.

"Daniel and Chad [When old enough). We love you and what has happened is not your fault. We are praying grandma will take the best of care for you two and Christina. Please be good. We love you three so much," both of them wrote.

"We will always be with you in mind and spirit. When you are old enough, please visit our last resting place. We will know you are there and that you are well, safe and happy. Without Christina and you two, our life had no more meaning! Love you always and forever, Pauline/Mommy, John/Daddy."

Having covered all the bases, with goodbyes to their parents, children and friends, John Zile wrote an essay in a spiral notebook while still waiting for the exhaust fumes to overtake them.

"The Story of John & Pauline. It all started in 1986. I was working at a sheet metal [shop) in Rockville, Maryland. She was walking through the shop and I thought what a pretty young thing. Then I saw her get in a car with Frankie Holt [her first husband)," the story started.

He wrote about the birth of their two sons and how it changed his life.

He also wrote about Christina. "Pauline had a daughter in 1987 by Frankie Holt, but they split up 11 months later. We visited her off and on since I've known her. We planned to get her into our family one day, and I was going to adopt her and give her my last name. That came true in June of 1994."

On the eighth page, John Zile set down his pen after writing a children's bedtime prayer.

"I can't even write anymore. The fumes are getting to be too much. Now we lay us down to sleep, we pray the Lord our soul to keep. If we should die before we wake ..."