Baby Jessica,’ now 40, arrested following domestic disturbance in Texas by: Erica Miller Posted: Apr 14, 2026 / 07:02 AM CDT Updated: Apr 14, 2026 / 07:02 AM CDT MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – Jessica McClure Morales, who became famous as “Baby Jessica” after her 1987 rescue from a well, was arrested Saturday night following a reported domestic disturbance at her home in Midland County, Texas, according to authorities. Deputies with the Midland County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence just before 10 p.m. Arrest records indicate Morales, 40, was taken into custody at the scene. She has been charged with assault causing bodily injury involving family violence. Officials have released limited information about the incident. Midland County said it may take up to 10 days to process a request for the arrest affidavit, which is expected to provide additional details about what led to the charge. Morales was later released from the Midland County Detention Center after posting bond. The amount of the bond has not been disclosed. A Name Known Around the World Morales gained international attention as an infant in 1987, when she fell into an eight-inch-wide well at her aunt’s home in Midland. At just 18 months old, she became the focus of a dramatic, nearly 60-hour rescue effort that captivated the nation and drew global media coverage. Trapped approximately 22 feet underground, she remained lodged in the narrow well as emergency crews worked around the clock to reach her. Rescuers ultimately drilled a parallel shaft and a horizontal tunnel through rock to access the well. The effort required specialized techniques, including waterjet cutting, after traditional equipment proved ineffective in the dense terrain. During the rescue, crews reportedly heard the toddler singing, a moment that underscored both the tension and hope surrounding the operation. Paramedic Robert O’Donnell eventually navigated the cramped tunnel to reach her. Nearly 60 hours after her fall, she was lifted to safety and rushed to a hospital. The successful rescue sparked widespread celebration across Midland and beyond, with residents recalling cheers echoing through the city as news spread. Morales underwent multiple surgeries following the incident due to injuries sustained while trapped, though she has said in past interviews she does not remember her ordeal.
I understand. One of the biggest moments of the US coming together praying together and hoping against hope together I don't think anyone can truly phathom the impact of what she went through whethere they remember it or not. Rocket River
She's 40 years old and people still call her Baby Jessica. That's gotta have a negative effect on your life.
Sorry to divert from the story. When Baby Jessica was saved from the well, it revived a story when my grandfather had performed a similar rescue (saving a little girl named Teresa Fregia from a well) 20 years prior to that incident. 18 March 1967 Child Rescued After 9 Hours Trapped in Well VOTAW, Tex. (UPl)—Little Teresa Fregia was pulled from a well today where she had been trapped nine hours, inches above the water. A middle-aged rescuer had himself lowered into a shaft beside the well and smashed a hole in its tile walls with a hammer. “I pulled on her and I heard her bones crack and I knew 1 i was hurting her but I had to get ! her out,” said R. S. Bill Jr., 46, I who heads a Houston rescue 1 group. Bill found the 2-year-old girl knotted almost in a ball where she had been lodged since 6:30 p.m. EST Friday, breathing piped-in oxygen. She survived the entire ordeal with only minor scratches. Smashing a hole in the side of the well at the 22-foot level, Bill pulled her through and was bought to the surface on a rope, holding her in his arms...... That's Grampa (the "middle-aged rescuer") in the circle, slightly in profile, left of center in the circle with the white hat. The little girl he saved.
Funny you should mention. R.S. Bill Jr. Most people just called him "Bill", and why not? R.S. stood for "Ransom Stickland" Bill. I think very few called him Ransom. On another side note, as a result of the rescue, he went to New York and appeared on one of those TV shows ("What's my line?" maybe?). Panelists had an identity to determine. They asked questions to three men or women and had to guess by their answers who was the real person (the other two being impostors). The rescued girl was sitting in the audience on her mother's lap and kept looking at Grampa, and he was failing miserably at not casting occasional fatherly smiles in her direction. Probably the easiest guess the panelists ever had: "And the little girl is pretty much giving the game away. Besides, the gentleman seems the epitome of the laconic Southern man's man" is a paraphrase of one of the panelists at the show's end when it came time to guess.
Man I remember watching the TV movie about it...this scene has been burned in my memory forever. "you could pull an elephant with it if it was wearing a shirt"
