CONCHO, AZ – Ten-year-old Rebekah Baptiste walked into an Arizona gas station last October with a bloody lip and bruises covering her hands and feet, begging the clerk for help. Authorities investigated, then closed the case. Nine months later, she was dead.
Now her father Richard Baptiste and his girlfriend Anicia Woods face first-degree murder charges, accused of subjecting the child to prolonged torture before she finally succumbed to her injuries at a remote off-grid campsite where the family had been living.
Newly released police records reveal the heartbreaking extent of missed opportunities to save Rebekah’s life. Child welfare officials were contacted at least 12 times over two years about concerns for the girl’s safety. None of it was enough.
When Phoenix police officers responded to the gas station in October 2024, they documented visible injuries on the frightened child. She was taken to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for treatment and told investigators what was happening to her at home.
But Baptiste and Woods had explanations. They claimed Rebekah’s injuries were self-inflicted. Somehow, that was enough for the case to be closed.
The family later relocated to a remote yurt outside Concho, living without electricity or running water in conditions that made monitoring nearly impossible. It was there, on July 27, 2025, that Rebekah was found unresponsive near the campsite.
The medical examination revealed the full horror of what she endured. Doctors found brain hemorrhaging, burn marks across her body, missing toenails and patches of hair, and countless cuts and bruises. She died days later at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the same facility that had treated her months earlier.
According to court documents, Woods claimed to have nursing experience but waited to seek medical help even as Rebekah grew too weak to drink from a straw. Investigators found bloody clothing inside the family’s tent that had been changed before emergency services arrived.
Baptiste admitted to hitting his daughter with a belt but denied causing her fatal head injuries. Woods allegedly subjected the child to beatings with brushes and belts and forced her to run laps as punishment.
Records show Rebekah had tried to escape multiple times, including once by jumping from a window. Each time, she was brought back.
Arizona’s Department of Child Safety has launched a review into how a child who begged for help so many times could fall through the cracks so completely.
