A 10-year-old girl in Arizona was punished by her parents with brutal beatings and torturous “discipline” — including “laps and planks” around their apartment, according to prosecutors. According to cops, the child attempted to conceal the abuse by telling “stories to protect their parents” before dying as a result of it.
According to court documents obtained by Law&Crime, Apache County prosecutors are attempting to bring Rebekah Baptiste’s biological father and stepmother, Richard Baptiste and Anicia Woods, to trial together for her death last month. According to the documents, the couple is facing charges in connection with Rebekah’s alleged murder and abuse, as well as abuse charges against her two siblings, ages 8 and 6.
Baptiste and Woods, who remained in custody on Thursday, are accused of subjecting Rebekah and the other children to grueling exercises inside their apartment, as well as other twisted forms of punishment. According to prosecutors, the children’s teachers recognized signs of abuse and reported it to state officials.
On July 27, Baptiste and Woods drove a “unresponsive and unconscious” Rebekah to a small medical center in the Holbrook area, where she was transferred to a hospital “based on the extent of her condition,” according to court documents. She died a day later as a result of injuries caused by “non-accidental trauma.”
According to police, Baptiste and Woods were arrested on July 29 and charged with multiple counts in Rebekah’s death. According to police, the couple lived in a remote area of rural Apache County with their children.
Prosecutors say Rebekah’s abuse became so severe that she “jumped out of the second story window at their apartment in Phoenix” to escape. According to prosecutors, her parents claimed “she was running away from us” and said she was “gonna run to the well because she would at least be able to get water and maybe find somebody there” who could possibly help her.
“In their statements, both Defendants admit to use of exercise as punishment, as well as spanking and hitting the children with a belt on multiple occasions,” according to court documents. “Baptiste described hitting R.B. with the belt approximately 10 times, with a pain level between 1-10 at a 7, and said he used ‘excessive force.'”
As police investigated the parents’ involvement in Rebekah’s death, investigators discovered that Baptiste and Woods’ children had appeared at school with “marks, scratches, or bruises” on their bodies, and they complained about “physical discipline of laps and planks, and not being fed” multiple times between November 2023 and May 2025.
When school officials inquired about the alleged abuse, the children changed their stories to protect their parents, according to prosecutors.
“For instance, [the 8-year-old] said he got scratched on the neck because he did not clean up, and the following day, the 6-year-old changed his story completely, stating ‘his mom didn’t scratch him because he wasn’t cleaning, it was because he was playing outside, and he was falling and mom tried catching him,'” according to court filings.
“My mom was mad at me and accidentally scratched me,” the 8-year-old allegedly told a teacher. “Never mind, she didn’t do that, I just fell.”
DCS officials say that at the time of Rebekah’s death, the family was being investigated for an open complaint filed on May 19, according to a fatality summary report.
“An investigation was launched, and attempts were made to locate the family without success. When the report of the near-fatality incident arrived, the Department was still working to locate the family.
According to DCS, the May 2025 report focused on the alleged abuse of Rebekah’s siblings. According to the DCS summary report, the department has reports of alleged abuse and concerns from as early as 2015, but no evidence was found to “support” them.
The most recent report involving Rebekah was made on Jan. 16 and alleged that Baptiste would have her “run as a form of punishment, while not allowing her bathroom or water breaks,” according to officials. “The DCS investigation found no evidence to support the allegation. “The allegations were unfounded.”
