
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 5, 1994                   TAG: 9411080021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.                                 LENGTH: Short

FLA. MOTHER CHARGED IN DAUGHTER'S DEATH

A woman who concocted a tale of her 7-year-old daughter's abduction from a flea market bathroom was charged with murder Friday in the girl's beating death.

Pauline Zile, 32, who had pleaded hysterically on television for the return of Christina Holt, was charged a week after her husband, 32-year-old John Zile, was arrested and accused of having beaten the child to death in September.

Pauline Zile had reported Christina was abducted Oct. 22 during a mother-daughter outing at a Fort Lauderdale flea market.

The second-grader's body was unearthed Oct. 27 from a 5-foot-deep grave. John Zile led police to the body after learning that his wife had told police of Christina's death.

Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, said she was a battered wife under her husband's control.

``I pray that everyone who ever knew and will know me will forgive me for not being a strong person and eventually will trust me again,'' Pauline Zile said in a statement.

by CNB