'Baby Jessica', known for '80s well rescue, arrested for assault

"Baby Jessica," the Texas toddler who held an entire nation's rapt attention for over 50 hours after falling down a well in the 1980s, has grown up - and been arrested, according to local reports.

Jessica McClure Morales, now 40, was arrested on assault charges on Saturday, April 11, after an alleged domestic disturbance at her home in Midland County, Texas, local Fox affiliate FOX26 and NBC affiliate KXAN reported.

The Midland County Sheriff’s Office took Morales into custody after responding to a call at her residence around 10 p.m. on April 11. She was charged with causing bodily injury involving family violence and was later released from the Midland County Detention Center after posting bond.

Further details have yet to be released.

Morales is better known both in the States and internationally as "Baby Jessica," the 18-month-old who became trapped after falling down a deep well in her aunt's Midland backyard on Oct. 14, 1987. The ensuing rescue dominated every TV station and headline, with networks like CBS, ABC and NBC interrupting primetime television to carry the coverage.

For 58 hours, rescuers attempted to reach the child, stuck about 22 feet below ground in an opening just 8 inches wide. Audiences watched as officials, first responders and engineers employed oil and mine drilling tools to dig a cross-tunnel, finally allowing them to access Morales (then just McClure), who was stuck without food or water.

The rescue even garnered the attention of then-President Ronald Reagan, who Newsweek reported as saying at the time, "Everybody in America became godmothers and godfathers of Jessica while this was going on."

Morales has more than a dozen subsequent surgeries to address injuries from being lodged with her leg elevated above her head during the ordeal, but did not report having long-term effects, nor any firsthand memory of the events, she told People in 2017.