A 12-year-old girl who had been held captive in a rural Alabama mobile home is being called a “hero” after she escaped by chewing through her restraints, breaking her braces in the process.
She was found walking along a road Monday, after being tied to a bed post for nearly a week, during which time she was assaulted and given alcohol to keep her in a “drugged state.” Authorities found the decomposing, dismembered bodies of her mother, Sandra Vazquez Ceja, who had been "smothered to death with a pillow," and brother, who had "been bludgeoned to death," at her captor’s mobile home, court records shows, reports The New York Times.
The suspect, identified as Jose Paulino Pascual-Reyes, has been charged with capital murder, first-degree kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. He was reportedly the mother’s boyfriend, Sheriff Jimmy Abbett said.
According to Fox News, the suspect is a previously deported illegal immigrant from Mexico—a detail that has not made its way yet into reporting on the crime by mainstream news outlets, many of which referred to him as an "Alabama man."
The Daily Caller News Foundation also reports, per Abbett, that “Vasquez Ceja and her two children were apprehended in 2017 and were classified as ‘parole pending asylum.’”
There are still a number of questions that remain about the case, including the fact that there were other individuals at the mobile home when authorities investigated.
Fox News | Previously deported illegal alien Jose Paulino Pascual-Reyes arrested in Tallapoosa County, AL.
— Miss Francis ?? (@bymissfrancis) August 4, 2022
• One count of first-degree kidnapping
• Multiple counts of capital murder
• Two counts of abuse of corpse pic.twitter.com/XtyeQggcLT
As Fox News's Will Cain observed, "we have enough of these problems here in America, we don't need to be importing these types of problems."