Jessica McClure Morales—once known as “Baby Jessica” after a dramatic 1987 rescue from a well—was arrested in connection to an alleged domestic violence incident.
Midland County Sheriff’s Sgt. Thomas Gray confirmed the April 11 arrest to Oxygen.com.
The 40-year-old was booked, according to Gray, on charges of 𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒶𝓊𝓁𝓉 causing bodily injury-family violence. She was later released from the Midland County Detention Center after posting bond, according to jail records and KMID.
Gray told Oxygen.com that no other details would be released in the case. It’s unclear whether she has retained an attorney.
What Happened to Baby Jessica?
Morales first made headlines on Oct. 14, 1987 when she fell down a well in her aunt’s backyard in Midland, Texas, People reported.
The 18-month-old—known to many as “Baby Jessica”—was trapped approximately 22-feet underground inside the small well as rescuers rushed to save her. Nearly 60 hours into the ordeal, Morales was saved after rescuers drilled a parallel shaft and horizontal tunnel to reach the well.
The story of her heroic rescue was later recounted in the 1989 made-for-TV movie, Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure.
Rescuer rushes baby rescued from fall into a well where lay for three days before she was rescued.
Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty
Where is Baby Jessica Now?
Thirty years after the rescue, Morales—who had become a special education teacher’s aide—told People that she believed her “life was a miracle.”
“In a way I guess it happened the way it was supposed to,” she told the outlet in 2017. “I was picked on because of it, but most people are kind and think what happened is an amazing miracle. It is. I don’t believe that any of it would’ve happened without God.”
At the time, she was living a quiet life with her husband and two children and shared that many people within the Midland community still referred to her as “Baby Jessica.”
Jessica McClure Morales
Photo: Midland County Sheriff’s Office
Morales said hoped her own children would learn from how the community banded together to save her, adding “if you look hard enough, there are so many good people in this world.”
