Girl, 10, who died after ‘torture’ had ‘begged teachers not to make her go home’

A 10-year-old girl who died after alleged abuse from her father and his girlfriend had begged teachers not to send her home.

Rebekah Baptiste was found unresponsive by police on a highway in Holbrook, north Arizona, on July 27, reports citing the Apache County Sheriff’s Office said. Emergency services took her to Little Colorado Medical Centre in Winslow, Arizona.

She was then flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital before she died alone on July 30. Prosecutors said in a court hearing on Monday that she had suffered severe injuries and was malnourished, had bruises all over her body and was missing toenails. It comes after reports of a dad’s desperate phone call moments before explosion kills him and his daughters.

One doctor described what had happened to her as “torture”, prosecutors said. AZ Family reports prosecutors said Rebekah’s condition showed signs of “child physical abuse, sexual abuse and torture”.

Her father Richard Daniel Baptiste, 32, and his girlfriend Anicia Woods, 29, were arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, kidnapping and three counts of child abuse. Two of the child abuse charges were in connection to alleged abuse of Rebekah’s younger brothers. The two boys are now in the custody of the state. Baptiste and Woods are being held on a $1million bond.

Since the girl’s death, a row has erupted after Rebkah’s uncle and an official at the school she attended both said the state could have done more to protect her. School staff said the children begged not to go home.

“They didn’t do enough to protect her,” said Rebekah’s uncle Damon Hawkins according to AZ Central. “They absolutely failed.”

According to WCSC, he said: “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 haemorrhage.”

Rebekah’s school said it called Arizona’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) 12 times between November 2023 and January this year. But this was disputed by the DCS and a spokesperson told ABC15 that Empower College Prep called their hotline five times over the past year. The spokesperson also said only one of the allegations raised met their statutory criteria.

On the four other occasions, the DCS was “not able to investigate the allegations because they did not meet the statutory threshold for abuse or neglect”, according to spokesperson Darren DaRonco.

“We take every call to our hotline seriously, but we only have the authority to initiate an investigation if the call meets statutory report criteria,” Mr DaRonco said. “Rebekah deserved love, safety and a chance to thrive. There are no words that will make sense of the pain she endured or her life that was tragically cut short.”

But Empower’s Executive Director Brian Holman said it “cannot explain why DCS is missing records of our calls” and that the school was not informed the complaints it raised did not meet the statutory threshold for abuse. He also said at least 20 additional reports to DCS were made by outside agencies, according to the ABC15 report. A team at the DCS will now review the case.

Mr Holman said: “Our staff was told four times that the report was assigned to the same DCS Supervisor for further investigation. She only visited the school once to further investigate.

“We were promised a follow-up that never occurred, even though each of the 12 reports included clear and observable signs of abuse, neglect, and ongoing harm of a young girl and her two younger brothers.”

Natalia Mariscal, the school’s director of student services, added: “I’ve had social workers concerned, students make statements that they were concerned about their classmate, as well as teachers, administration, [and] outside service providers that work with the students – all concerned that there was abuse and neglect happening at home toward all of the children.”

In a GoFundMe for Rebeka’s funeral costs, Damon Hawkins called Rebekah a “bright light”. He said Rebekah was “known for her infectious laughter, unwavering kindness, dedication to her family and her positive attitude”.

He said: “She touched countless lives with her generosity, wisdom, and her passion for life and will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her.”