Left inset: Richard Baptiste (Apache County). Center inset: Rebekah Baptiste (GoFundMe). Right inset: Anicia Woods (Apache County). Background: The rural Arizona property where Richard Baptiste and Anicia Woods allegedly subjected Rebekah Baptiste to deadly abuse and punishments (KNXV).
An Arizona girl who died after she was allegedly abused by her father and stepmother reportedly ran away from home to beg for help before her death.
Richard Baptiste and his girlfriend Anicia Woods are both charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and child molestation in connection with the death of his daughter, 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste. As Law&Crime previously reported, Rebekah died on July 28, 2025, a day after Baptiste and Woods brought the unresponsive girl to a rural medical center in Arizona”s Apache County. Doctors said the girl died of “non-accidental trauma,” and Baptiste and Woods were arrested the day after her death.
On Dec. 30, 2025, the Phoenix Police Department released a report from October 2024, months before Rebekah’s death, that detailed an attempt by the girl to seek help from strangers after she ran away from home.
The October 2024 incident was mentioned in court documents reviewed by Law&Crime. In the documents, authorities said that Rebekah “ran away” from home several times, according to Baptiste and Woods. More details about that incident were made available in the police report released by the Phoenix Police Department obtained by local media.
Local CBS affiliate KPHO reported that on Oct. 17, 2024, police responded to a call from Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where Rebekah had been taken after she ran to a gas station and told the clerk working there that she “was being abused by her stepmother.” According to the report, Rebekah told an officer that Woods “hit her on her hands and feet with a brush.”
During a court hearing in September 2025, Apache County Sheriff’s Office investigator Kole Soderquist testified that Rebekah had jumped out of a second-story window to escape the home. Before she arrived at the gas station, she found a homeless person and asked them for help, Soderquist said. When authorities questioned Baptiste and Woods, they said Rebekah’s injuries were self-inflicted. The investigation into Rebekah’s accusations of child abuse were closed.
Law&Crime previously reported that teachers alerted authorities to potential child abuse against Rebekah and her two siblings several times before the girl died. The two other children reportedly changed their stories to protect Baptiste and Woods, according to prosecutors. All the children complained to teachers that Baptiste and Woods would allegedly punish them with “physical discipline of laps and planks, and not being fed.” The teachers noticed visible “marks, scratches, or bruises” on all the children.
At the time of their arrest, Baptiste and Woods were being investigated for an alleged incident in May 2025.
Baptiste and Woods are both charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and child molestation. They are currently awaiting trial in Apache County.
