{"id":252458,"date":"2026-04-16T11:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252458\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:38:24","slug":"baby-jessica-now-40-arrested-in-texas-on-assault-charge-after-domestic-disturbance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252458\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Baby Jessica,’ now 40, arrested in Texas on assault charge after domestic disturbance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica McClure Morales, the woman widely known as \u201cBaby Jessica<\/a>\u201d after she was rescued from a deep well in 1987, was arrested Saturday following allegations of a domestic disturbance at her Midland County home, NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Deputies with the Midland County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to her residence around 10 p.m. local time and Morales was taken into custody at the scene, according to arrest records.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old was charged with assault causing bodily injury involving family violence.<\/p>\n

She was later released from the Midland County Detention Center after posting bond.<\/p>\n

Officials have released limited information about the incident and an arrest affidavit was not yet available.<\/p>\n

Morales gained worldwide attention in October 1987 when she fell 22 feet into a narrow well casing outside her aunt\u2019s Midland home. The 18-month-old became lodged in the eight-inch-wide shaft.<\/p>\n

Emergency crews worked around the clock for nearly 60 hours to free Baby Jessica during a rescue mission that gripped the nation. Rescuers eventually drilled a parallel shaft and a horizontal tunnel through rock to reach her.<\/p>\n

At one point during the rescue, crews reportedly heard the toddler singing, bringing them a sign of hope during a stressful operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica McClure Morales, the woman widely known as \u201cBaby Jessica\u201d after she was rescued from a deep well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-252458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}