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

[Inthedetails]

Calls should have been made directly to the local police department. This is criminal behavior. Why are we going through a useless alphabet soup agency when crimes should be investigated by law enforcement? CPS are not trained criminal investigators for the most part, and this is why they fail with such regularity.

Exactly! If the assaults had been done to a neighbor kid, the police would be involved. But because it happens within a family, it's not a police matter?!

jmopinion

 

[tlcya]

Exactly! If the assaults had been done to a neighbor kid, the police would be involved. But because it happens within a family, it's not a police matter?!

jmopinion

unfortunately current policies dictate that LEOs contact CPS who are alleged to be better equipped to remove children legally and provide resources and services to them.

Of course as so many threads full of little victims here can attest, that is not at all the case. The system is wholly broken. IMO

 

[tlcya]

Calls should have been made directly to the local police department. This is criminal behavior. Why are we going through a useless alphabet soup agency when crimes should be investigated by law enforcement? CPS are not trained criminal investigators for the most part, and this is why they fail with such regularity.

sounds as though they were, on more than one occasion, and LE punted things straight back to CPS by "reporting" their concerns to that agency. It's a circle of inaction and it's happening every day, all over this country.

 

[Inthedetails]

unfortunately current policies dictate that LEOs contact CPS who are alleged to be better equipped to remove children legally and provide resources and services to them.

Of course as so many threads full of little victims here can attest, that is not at all the case. The system is wholly broken. IMO

I guess I don't understand why both can't happen - CPS removes the child and provides services and LE investigates the crime. These are crimes against children being treated like a family squabble.

(I'm not directing my frustration at you, of course, and appreciate an explanation of how cases are usually handled.)

jmopinion

 

[tlcya]

I guess I don't understand why both can't happen - CPS removes the child and provides services and LE investigates the crime. These are crimes against children being treated like a family squabble.

(I'm not directing my frustration at you, of course, and appreciate an explanation of how cases are usually handled.)

jmopinion

it's IMO because of stupid family reunification mandates, the laws and policies are all geared toward the IMO mistaken idea that blood family is best and so agencies do not want to pursue criminal charges on behalf of the abused child because their plan is to "fix" the family problem and return the child eventually. JMO

It's a serious fuster cluck

 

[Inthedetails]

it's IMO because of stupid family reunification mandates, the laws and policies are all geared toward the IMO mistaken idea that blood family is best and so agencies do not want to pursue criminal charges on behalf of the abused child because their plan is to "fix" the family problem and return the child eventually. JMO

It's a serious fuster cluck

And, my cynical self asks, perhaps it's because keeping the family together is cheaper then providing services. I'll just leave it at that.

jmopinion

 

[Dotta]

I guess I don't understand why both can't happen - CPS removes the child and provides services and LE investigates the crime. These are crimes against children being treated like a family squabble.

(I'm not directing my frustration at you, of course, and appreciate an explanation of how cases are usually handled.)

jmopinion

Yep.

This happens in Europe.
I recently read about a girl who complained to a teacher at school in the Netherlands.

And guess what?

She never returned home.
That very day she was taken to a safe house
and the the case started to be investigated.

And I don't even mention Scandinavian countries.

So...
If there is a will
there is a way.

Children must be protected.
They mean future.

JMO

 

[georgiajean]

WOW I have never heard of a school doing that!!

It has to be really bad. As in, not going to let the child go back to that environment. Injuries that need immediate medical attention or disclosure of horrific abuse. Have seen it happen two times (once for disclosure of sexual abuse, and once for a huge bruise on a kid's eye and their disclosure that a drunk father punched them in the eye), and neither time required locking down the school. But the admins I worked with at the time would have done it.

 

[Tealgrove]

I JUST CAN’T.

 

[agilbe]

I guess I don't understand why both can't happen - CPS removes the child and provides services and LE investigates the crime. These are crimes against children being treated like a family squabble.

(I'm not directing my frustration at you, of course, and appreciate an explanation of how cases are usually handled.)

jmopinion

And I'm sure it probably differs from state to state on how things like this are handled.

 

[TravelingBug]

it's IMO because of stupid family reunification mandates, the laws and policies are all geared toward the IMO mistaken idea that blood family is best and so agencies do not want to pursue criminal charges on behalf of the abused child because their plan is to "fix" the family problem and return the child eventually. JMO

It's a serious fuster cluck

Yup. And AZ is especially pro bio-mom or other bio family

(source? Self. I am raising a kiddo in AZ who was kept with bio-family way too long, much to their detriment, and who is paying a serious price as a result)

 

[georgiajean]

Yup. And AZ is especially pro bio-mom or other bio family

(source? Self. I am raising a kiddo in AZ who was kept with bio-family way too long, much to their detriment, and who is paying a serious price as a result)

That is interesting to hear. There have been several cases in the south west (AZ, NM, UT NV) which align with what you said. Kids who should have been rescued long before their deaths. Not like these cases where people have hidden children and no one knew what was happening, but out in the open cases with many many CPS notifications and even visitations. Our CPS system is broken, has been for a long time, and is not going to get better without a complete overhaul and massive funding.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Yup. And AZ is especially pro bio-mom or other bio family

(source? Self. I am raising a kiddo in AZ who was kept with bio-family way too long, much to their detriment, and who is paying a serious price as a result)

Interestingly, I have not seen the biological mother figuring into these articles... just biological father and his "girlfriend".

I really hope that doesn't mean she's more harrowing than this waste of space; but I fear she might be.

 

[georgiajean]

Interestingly, I have not seen the biological mother figuring into these articles... just biological father and his "girlfriend".

I really hope that doesn't mean she's more harrowing than this waste of space; but I fear she might be.

I have wondered why the journalists have not tracked down more of the immediate family. Why did bio dad have custody?

 

[Inthedetails]

I have wondered why the journalists have not tracked down more of the immediate family. Why did bio dad have custody?

The bio-mom and her mother have spoken to the press, bbm


"'Something needs to be done,' said Rebekah's grandma, Sondra Hawkins. 'Something has to be done.'

Sondra and her daughter, Sandi Hawkins, Rebekah's mom, spoke for the first time with ABC15 on Wednesday.

The Hawkins family said Baptiste had custody of Rebekah and her two siblings. Sondra and Sandi said they had been visiting the kids, until Baptiste and his girlfriend stopped allowing them to....

Sondra wants the little girl to be remembered as a hero.

'Yes, it is a tragedy, but no one is talking about how that little girl ran and she ran her heart and soul off to get help,' said Sondra."

Governor takes questions on DCS, Rebekah Baptiste's mom and grandma speak

The 10-year-old girl, according to records, was found by police in Holbrook bruised, not breathing, and appearing malnourished.

www.abc15.com

 

[georgiajean]

Phoenix PD contacted DCS 5 times after contact with Rebekah Baptiste and her siblings This article makes the hole that DCS (CPS) has fallen into even deeper.
POLICE contacted DCS five times. First time in 2018. The last 4 were Dec 2023 to April 2025, which were all in the 3 years Rebekah was at the charter school.

In the article, there were 20 other reports to DCS outside of the school's reports, made by other agencies that came in contact with the family.

Based on FB information from bio dad, bio mom was not involved during this time. This was all on the bio dad and GF. Again, WHY did he have custody?

I hate how this article reveals the buck passing the DCS is doing, about how reports have to meet statutory criteria for an investigation. Also that if people don't want to participate, that can limit the evidence they can use to get court action. AUGH.

 

[georgiajean]

The bio-mom and her mother have spoken to the press, bbm


"'Something needs to be done,' said Rebekah's grandma, Sondra Hawkins. 'Something has to be done.'

Sondra and her daughter, Sandi Hawkins, Rebekah's mom, spoke for the first time with ABC15 on Wednesday.

The Hawkins family said Baptiste had custody of Rebekah and her two siblings. Sondra and Sandi said they had been visiting the kids, until Baptiste and his girlfriend stopped allowing them to....

Sondra wants the little girl to be remembered as a hero.

'Yes, it is a tragedy, but no one is talking about how that little girl ran and she ran her heart and soul off to get help,' said Sondra."

Governor takes questions on DCS, Rebekah Baptiste's mom and grandma speak

The 10-year-old girl, according to records, was found by police in Holbrook bruised, not breathing, and appearing malnourished.

www.abc15.com

THANK YOU for finding source for mom and grandma. I have been sitting on this for days, since I had found information that was not public yet.

 

[kaen]

The school might have done what I have seen schools do. Call CPS in the morning, tell them that we are not letting the child go home due to the level of abuse, and they need to find placement for the child before the end of the school day. At the end of the day, keep the kids, lock the doors, call the police.

While it is a common sense response, it is not legal for a school to keep a child. If a school has fear that the child is imminent danger, they are to call the police. Schools can not interfere with custody of a child. As a building leader, we work to make sure that we do all we can to ensure safety. We can't tell CPS what to do. We make accurate reports and we can't commit crimes by withholding children from their families. The public doesn't want that either because we are not LEO or CPS.

If a child has injuries that need to be attended to, the school can call EMS. However, EMS won't take a child if their injuries are not requiring immediate medical attention. In the case of a more minor injury, EMS speaks to the parent and asks what they want to do.

The system is not working, clearly. In my many years in schools, I have never seen things like black eyes documented on a child which did not trigger and immediate CPS response. Not sure what happened here but if the police and the school could not get action..... someone in CPS from the hotline to the case worker to supervisors to hire ups need to go to jail for child endangerment. Ridiculous that this child had to suffer this way without the state stepping in.

 

[georgiajean]

While it is a common sense response, it is not legal for a school to keep a child. If a school has fear that the child is imminent danger, they are to call the police. Schools can not interfere with custody of a child. As a building leader, we work to make sure that we do all we can to ensure safety. We can't tell CPS what to do. We make accurate reports and we can't commit crimes by withholding children from their families. The public doesn't want that either because we are not LEO or CPS.

If a child has injuries that need to be attended to, the school can call EMS. However, EMS won't take a child if their injuries are not requiring immediate medical attention. In the case of a more minor injury, EMS speaks to the parent and asks what they want to do.

The system is not working, clearly. In my many years in schools, I have never seen things like black eyes documented on a child which did not trigger and immediate CPS response. Not sure what happened here but if the police and the school could not get action..... someone in CPS from the hotline to the case worker to supervisors to hire ups need to go to jail for child endangerment. Ridiculous that this child had to suffer this way without the state stepping in.

Agreed that this child should have been taken care of LONG before this. To be clear, I have never seen a school withhold a child. Have had CPS say that the child could not go home until they interviewed the child, and on one occasion they sent police to keep child safe until they could get there. What I was trying to convey was that I have seen school psychologists and administrators go toe to toe with CPS, and pursued other channels after filing the report to adequately convey the seriousness of the situation. That it couldn't wait for the proper channels.

 

[nighttimesleuth]

Calls should have been made directly to the local police department. This is criminal behavior. Why are we going through a useless alphabet soup agency when crimes should be investigated by law enforcement? CPS are not trained criminal investigators for the most part, and this is why they fail with such regularity.

Absolutely how it *should* be but in most states it is not. Mandated reporters are told the investigating agency IS CPS and when they try to call anyone else they are told to contact CPS instead. In fact, they are in told no one else should investigate other than CPS. MOO since I am not a verified insider but I am a mandated reporter for decades and the way we report crimes done to children by their family members is such a terrible mess and it's the children who suffer.