A man has been arrested after a 12-year-old girl was held captive for one week in caravan with the dismembered remains of her mum and brother. Police in the US state of Alabama said the girl gave vital 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”. The girl was found along a country road by a passer-by following her escape on Monday and 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 ran away after chewing through the ties that held her down on a bed, police 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.
