Three 911 calls have been released in connection with the death and alleged abuse of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who passed away last month.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Holbrook police discovered Rebekah Baptiste between Highway 77 and 180, near Arizona, on July 27.
Despite life-saving measures, she passed away days later, on July 30, at Phoenix Children’s hospital.
Police subsequently arrested her father, Richard Baptiste, 32, and his girlfriend, Anicia Woods, 29. They’re both facing first-degree murder and child abuse charges.
According to 911 calls obtained by AZFamily, Woods contacted police three times on July 27. She identified herself as the child’s mother, and claimed Rebekah had been running away.
“She’s been running away, but when she ran away today and the neighbor found her. She’s just been completely unresponsive, I’m sitting here giving her breath,” Woods told a 911 dispatcher.
“We’re going towards Holbrook. We’re told there’s an EMS station in Holbrook.”
After a dropped call, Woods called 911 again and said she was “putting my mouth around hers [Rebekah] and breathing in her mouth.”
The dispatcher urged her to pull over and let EMS reach them. The call ended and Woods called a third time. That’s when the dispatcher asked her to perform CPR on Rebekah.
Woods said she knew CPR and started the procedure. When EMS arrived, they rushed the victim to the hospital.
On Monday, prosecutors laid out disturbing details in court, explaining that the victim had been found with her toenails removed and signs of torture, AZ Family reports.
She also showed signs of sexual abuse, dehydration, and malnutrition, according to around 100 pages of medical reports that supported evidence of abuse.
Prosecutors also detailed abuse that included belt marks and cigarette burns. They believe Rebekah died from blunt force trauma to the head.
“She was black and blue from her head to toe. She had two black eyes, and they’re thinking the cause of death was because of a hemorrhage,” Rebekah’s uncle Damon Hawkins told the outlet.
Prior to her death, Rebekah’s school, Empower College Prep, reportedly contacted the Department of Child Safety 12 times, according to ABC 15.
“My heart just breaks and aches for her,” Becky Jones, the school director, said.
Jones said Rebekah and her two brothers attended the school until May. The children often showed up to school hungry, dehydrated and with bruises. They reportedly didn’t want to go home.
Richard Baptiste informed the school that the children wouldn’t return for the upcoming school year, claiming that the family planned to move up north and live in a tent.
DCS, however, claimed they received five calls about the alleged abuse and only one of those instances met the criteria for abuse.
“According to Department records, Empower School called the Hotline 5 times in the past year, and one time the allegations met statutory report criteria,” DCF said, in part, in a statement.
“The other four times the Department was not able to investigate the allegations because they did not meet the statutory threshold for abuse or neglect.”
DCS added that it’s committed to working with investigators and plan to review what happened. Rebekah’s siblings are currently in the agency’s care.
Meanwhile, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs addressed the situation Wednesday, after the case “sparked outrage” among teachers and family members, according to NBC’s 12 News.
“First, let me say this is obviously a very tragic situation, and we are certainly looking into what happened. The information we had at the agency prior to this case and what led up to her death, we’re certainly going to be investigating, and if there was something that we did not do right, we will do everything we can to correct that,” Hobbs said.
“That is our job. It is our responsibility to ensure Arizonans are safe and.. and we’ll, we’ll fix what went wrong. If that’s the case.”
Both defendants are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on September 4. Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo via Apache County SO]
