The Incident
On October 14, Jessica was staying with her aunt, Jamie Moore. Jamie ran a daycare center at her Midland, Texas home and was looking after several other children as well as Jessica on that fateful day. Jessica’s mother, Cissy, was there too to keep an eye on her daughter, but she learned the hard way that if you let a child out of your sight for just a moment, the consequences can be disastrous. The kids were playing in the yard, and the phone rang. Cissy went inside to get the call, and Jamie wasn’t supervising them at the time either.
Rescuers worked for 58 hours to free ‘Baby Jessica’ from the eight-inch-wide hole in which she fell. (Photo by David Woo/Sygma via Getty Images)
Just a few minutes later, Cissy and Jamie heard screams from outside and rushed out, shocked to see that Jessica had seemingly vanished without a trace. Moments later, Cissy realized that her daughter had fallen into the little well in Jamie’s backyard. Jamie knew about the danger of the well but had covered it up with a large rock to avoid any accidents. The exact way in which Jessica ended up in the well remains a mystery to this day, but Cissy wasn’t interested in how it happened at the time; all she wanted was to get her daughter out alive. The well itself measured 8 inches in diameter and ran down for around 22 feet. It was a very tight, slim shaft and little Jessica had fallen very far down.