Kidnapped girl in Alabama escapes after chewing through restraints; 2 bodies found in suspect’s home

A kidnapped 12-year-old girl chewed through her restraints and escaped from a rural Alabama mobile home where two additional bodies were found dismembered, leading to the arrest of a man living there, authorities said this week.

Police arrested José Paulino Pascual-Reyes, 37, Tallapoosa County District Attorney Jeremy Duerr said Tuesday at a news conference. He was charged with first-degree kidnapping, capital murder and corpse abuse, according to a criminal complaint.

Officers received a call about a young girl walking in a roadway just before 8:30 a.m. Monday, said Tallapoosa County Sheriff Jimmy Abbett at the news conference. A motorist spotted the child, picked her up and called 911, he said.

The girl chewed through her restraints after she was tied to a bedpost for about a week and kept in a “drugged state” with alcohol inside the mobile home in the central Alabama town of Dadeville, according to Abbett and court documents. She was assaulted “in the head area” and restrained “with the intent to inflict physical injury…or violate or abuse sexually,” according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

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When police found the girl, her braces were broken from chewing out of her restraints, and there were marks on her wrists indicative of being restrained, court documents said.

“She is safe now, and so we want to keep her that way,” Abbett said.

The motorist’s 911 call also prompted an investigation that led deputies to a “horrendous” scene where they found two decomposing bodies at the home where the girl was being kept, Abbett said.

Pascual-Reyes is accused of killing a child younger than 14 years old by striking him with his hands and feet and of smothering a 29-year-old woman, according to court documents. He is also accused of dismembering both corpses to hide evidence. Both the woman and the boy were killed around the time of the abduction, according to court documents.

Authorities did not release additional information about the girl, who had not been reported missing, Abbett said.