Neighbors tell different story in Rebekah Baptiste murder case

Neighbors shed light on Rebekah Baptiste's final weeks

The couple accused of killing 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste will appear in court Thursday, as new details are emerging about the victim’s final weeks. FOX 10's Kenzie Beach hears from neighbors who are giving a different account than the suspects.

The couple accused of killing 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste will appear in court Thursday, as new details are emerging about the victim’s final weeks.

Richard Baptiste, Rebekah's father, and his girlfriend, Anicia Woods, are charged with first-degree murder. They lived with Rebekah and her two siblings in a remote yurt-style tent on a 28,000-acre property known as River Meadows Ranch in Apache County.

Richard Baptiste, and his girlfriend, Anicia Woods

What they're saying:

Neighbors told police that they saw Rebekah alive for the last time just a few weeks before her death.

Mary Stanley, a 25-year resident of the ranch, said she led a search party for the girl the first two times she ran away from home. The last time Stanley saw Rebekah, she described the girl as "quiet, scared, tiny."

Stanley’s son, Andrew, found Rebekah on his quad bike and returned her home, but he said something seemed off because the parents "ran her into the house at the time" and didn't offer her water.

Body language of murder suspects analyzed | Full video

After analyzing body camera footage from Holbrook PD, a body language expert is weighing in on the behavior of those who were caring for Rebekah Baptiste, 10, before she died. Richard Baptiste, and his girlfriend, Anicia Woods are accused of murder.

Three weeks later, Rebekah was flown to Phoenix Children's Hospital with injuries so severe that doctors described them as torture. She died shortly after.

According to police body camera footage, Richard Baptiste and Anicia Woods told officers that a neighbor on a quad found Rebekah unresponsive. However, residents of River Meadows Ranch say that's not true.

Stanley said her son was not the one to find Rebekah the last time she was missing.

"I didn't hear that until the district attorney called my son. Nobody picked her up. The third time nobody. No. There was no call out for search. There was no call out for nothing," she said.

Mary Stanley and Rebekah Baptiste

Dig deeper:

Following his arrest, Richard Baptiste admitted that the young girl was running away to find help and that he "at times had hit Rebekah too hard."

"If I'd even thought anything, I would have called the sheriff," Stanley said. "And right now, to be honest, if I could get my hands on them, both, they wouldn't walk off that property. They really wouldn't."