A man has been arrested after a 12-year-old girl was held captive for a week in a mobile home with the dismembered remains of her mother and brother. Authorities in the US state of Alabama said the girl provided key information that led to the arrest of the woman’s live-in boyfriend.
Tallapoosa County sheriff Jimmy Abbett said she “is a hero for surviving the incident and coming forward with the information that she provided us in order to charge him”. Discovered along a country road by a passer-by following her escape on Monday, the child is now safe in the custody of state child welfare officials.
Assaulted and plied with alcohol to keep her in a stupor, the girl fled after chewing through the ties that held her down on a bed, authorities said in court documents. Jose Paulino Pascual-Reyes, 37, was charged with kidnapping and multiple counts of capital murder over the deaths of the girl’s mother, 29-year-old Sandra Vazquez Ceja, and her son, who court records show was younger than 14.
