AZ - Rebekah Baptiste, 10, killed by father and girlfriend - Holbrook, 27 July 2025

[LarkBunting]

There are few details out there about this poor little one:

Arizona father, woman accused of murdering his 10-year-old daughter

A northern Arizona father and a woman are accused of killing his 10-year-old daughter.

www.azfamily.com

 

[LadyL]

his FB (last public post in 2024):

Richard Baptiste

Richard Baptiste is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with Richard Baptiste and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.

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her FB (last public post in 2024):

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See posts, photos and more on Facebook.

www.facebook.com

 

[tlcya]

Girl, 10, Found on Highway Was Allegedly 'Tortured,' Father and Girlfriend Arrested: 'Black and Blue From Head to Toe'

This beautiful child was tortured in the most heinous ways.

dehydrated, malnourished, missing her toenails for God's sake, sexually abused, bruised from head to toe. Her school contacted DCS no less than 12 times with concerns. each time no meaningful action was taken to protect her. Now that she' dead, DCS are ""actively collaborating with law enforcement in a joint investigation to ensure that the people responsible for this heinous act are brought to justice."

Give me a break. Way too little way too late.

Case Number: S-0100-CR-202500177
Title: STATE OF ARIZONA VS RICHARD BAPTISTE Category: CRIMINAL
Court: Apache County Superior Filing Date: 7/29/2025
no upcoming hearings are currently listed on the docket for this "father"

Case Number: S-0100-CR-202500178 search for case minutes
Title: STATE OF ARIZONA VS ANICIA WOODS Category: CRIMINAL
Court: Apache County Superior Filing Date: 7/29/2025
same goes for ms. Woods - no hearing dates listed

 

[tlcya]

On Monday, prosecutors said they had more than 100 pages of medical reports and provided details from a doctor regarding Rebekah. They said she was malnourished and said one doctor used the word "torture" to describe what the little girl allegedly went through.
[snip]
Richard Baptiste and Woods will have a preliminary hearing on September 4 in Apache County.
Father accused in death of daughter appears in Apache County court

They apparently ad a hearing on Monday, at which they were each given 1 million bond and remain in custody right now. Prosecutors may join their cases for economy, currently the cases are not joined. There were two otehr young children in the home, both under 10 years old. Both also displayed signs of abuse. The school seems to indicate that Rebekah's family had withdrawn her from school back in May, or she would have started 5th grade this week.

Could the murder of an Arizona 10-year-old have been prevented?
this link contains interviews with school staff, who indicate all the children would come in bruised and hungry. they were concerned for all of them. Staff is devasted by Rebekah's death. They describe the child as exceptional, a leader among her peers. Some of Rebekah's work is shown at the link where she describes herself followed by a poem written by one of her teachers. I am gutted by this one and wish I'd never heard of this case.

 

[Dotta]

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[tlcya]

Damon Hawkins, the girl's uncle, said she had two black eyes and was 'black and blue from her head to toe.'

'She spent the last four days in the hospital by herself and the only thing DCS can say is, 'I'm sorry you weren't informed,' Hawkins told AZ Family.

Hawkins said he had also made repeated reports to DCS, including allegations of sexual abuse.

'I made it clear to the investigator and DCS that the system failed her,' he said. 'We have logs and logs of the times where, over the past years, they've been contacted, of the worry that we had.'

'We got word of sexual abuse about a year and a half ago, and they [DCS] turned a blind eye to it.'
Girl, 10, who died all alone 'begged teachers not to make her go home'

So not only was the school reporting (over a dozen times) but family members say they were as well, over and over. WHY was this not prevented?? In one article I read the school indicated that of the dozen or so calls they made to DCS, only 3 were ever assigned a caseworker to investigate?? How can this be? We must do better by children. We simply must.

 

[LarkBunting]

Omg. This is horrendous. Social services failed this little girl beyond belief. So many caring people called in their concerns so many times. How the h*ll did this little one fall through the cracks? My heart feels sick.

 

[georgiajean]

Another FB page for RB Richard Baptiste
There is a lot to be learned in the FB.

 

[georgiajean]

Damon Hawkins, the girl's uncle, said she had two black eyes and was 'black and blue from her head to toe.'

'She spent the last four days in the hospital by herself and the only thing DCS can say is, 'I'm sorry you weren't informed,' Hawkins told AZ Family.

Hawkins said he had also made repeated reports to DCS, including allegations of sexual abuse.

'I made it clear to the investigator and DCS that the system failed her,' he said. 'We have logs and logs of the times where, over the past years, they've been contacted, of the worry that we had.'

'We got word of sexual abuse about a year and a half ago, and they [DCS] turned a blind eye to it.'
Girl, 10, who died all alone 'begged teachers not to make her go home'

So not only was the school reporting (over a dozen times) but family members say they were as well, over and over. WHY was this not prevented?? In one article I read the school indicated that of the dozen or so calls they made to DCS, only 3 were ever assigned a caseworker to investigate?? How can this be? We must do better by children. We simply must.

Damon Hawkins is brother to bio mom.

 

[georgiajean]

Is this a case of the new GF comes into the household, the dad has custody and the new GF wants the kids out of the way? Drugs involved? Financial stress? Uncle (bio mom's brother) had reported to authorities. Was bio mom reporting? How often did she see them? School seemed to indicate they interfaced only with dad and GF.
Horrific. Hoping the other siblings will be taken care of.

 

[Inthedetails]

Damon Hawkins, the girl's uncle, said she had two black eyes and was 'black and blue from her head to toe.'

'She spent the last four days in the hospital by herself and the only thing DCS can say is, 'I'm sorry you weren't informed,' Hawkins told AZ Family.

Hawkins said he had also made repeated reports to DCS, including allegations of sexual abuse.

'I made it clear to the investigator and DCS that the system failed her,' he said. 'We have logs and logs of the times where, over the past years, they've been contacted, of the worry that we had.'

'We got word of sexual abuse about a year and a half ago, and they [DCS] turned a blind eye to it.'
Girl, 10, who died all alone 'begged teachers not to make her go home'

So not only was the school reporting (over a dozen times) but family members say they were as well, over and over. WHY was this not prevented?? In one article I read the school indicated that of the dozen or so calls they made to DCS, only 3 were ever assigned a caseworker to investigate?? How can this be? We must do better by children. We simply must.

I don't know the procedures - at what point should the police be contacted instead of DCS? It's illegal to abuse a child.

jmopinion

 

[georgiajean]

3rd FB for RB (bio dad). Richard Baptiste

 

[georgiajean]

Digging through the

I don't know the procedures - at what point should the police be contacted instead of DCS? It's illegal to abuse a child.

jmopinion

Agreed! This case is confusing and perplexing. So many people knew, for so long, that things were not okay and the children were suffering. How could they slip through the cracks? It is reminding me a bit of the KY case recently where kids kept being taken away from the parents who were addicts. Not saying addiction was involved here, just that kids get lost in the systems and systems are over burdened with the needs. Heads had better roll on this one (high up heads who make staffing and budget decisions that lead to cases being dropped due to staffing)

 

[Synergizer Bunny]

From all of the family's Facebook pages, it seems like so many of the kids' relatives were right there in the area, to include the bio mother. I am thoroughly confused as to why they didn't all join forces and go to the house or apartment or wherever they were living and forcefully remove these children? Did the father have legal custody? Even so, it seems that there were obvious signs of neglect and abuse on all of the children.

I mean, as the bio mother, why didn't she know what was going on? Why wasn't she in contact with the school? The school would have expressed their concerns with her and surely involved the police. There was no reason for this child to be tortured and murdered.

I just can't stand when people hurt defenseless, innocent children.

JMO.

 

[georgiajean]

More details from news report (video)

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So bio mom has not been in contact and bio dad didn't know her contact info?

 

[georgiajean]

Anyone able to get court info from Apache county courts? They were arraigned Monday. According to this video:

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[georgiajean]

RB and AN were arraigned on Monday, Aug 4. They are due back in court in September. They had the same lawyer at their separate hearings Monday.

I was able to find this info about the bio dad's appearance in court Monday:

I was able to find this information about the GF's appearance in court Monday:

 

[nighttimesleuth]

I don't know the procedures - at what point should the police be contacted instead of DCS? It's illegal to abuse a child.

jmopinion

When I used to work in schools, we had a few children who were seriously abused. We reported time and time again to protective services whom would just close the case. For one specific case, we believed it was so dire that we wanted to go above CPS (which we were required to report fears of abuse to) and so we contacted the police. The police said "we can't take these reports , call CPS". I was livid because the type of abuse we were hearing about, seeing evidence of, etc... toward an adult would result in arrests, police reports, etc. But not for a child...

In my experience, the police just bump it back to CPS so teachers, counselors, etc are left with their hands tied.

*edited to add: We did also file complaints with CPS/against CPS but they investigate themselves so they of course threw out those complaints too.

 

[kkdj]

I don't know the procedures - at what point should the police be contacted instead of DCS? It's illegal to abuse a child.

jmopinion

I think I would file a complaint against DCS and at the same time contact the police.

 

[Inthedetails]

When I used to work in schools, we had a few children who were seriously abused. We reported time and time again to protective services whom would just close the case. For one specific case, we believed it was so dire that we wanted to go above CPS (which we were required to report fears of abuse to) and so we contacted the police. The police said "we can't take these reports , call CPS". I was livid because the type of abuse we were hearing about, seeing evidence of, etc... toward an adult would result in arrests, police reports, etc. But not for a child...

In my experience, the police just bump it back to CPS so teachers, counselors, etc are left with their hands tied.

*edited to add: We did also file complaints with CPS/against CPS but they investigate themselves so they of course threw out those complaints too.

Frustrating! If a stranger did the same thing to a child, there would be a police investigation and criminal charges. But because a family member commits the assault, CPS investigates. Maybe.

(No disrespect to CPS workers, btw. It's the system I'm frustrated with and realize the workers likely are too.)

jmopinion