Girl, 12, chewed through restraints after being held captive with dismembered bodies of mother and brother

5 August 2022, 15:44 | Updated: 5 August 2022, 15:50

A 12-year-old girl who was held captive in a mobile home with the dismembered remains of her mother and brother managed to chew through restraints to escape her kidnapper, US authorities said.

Officers in the US state of Alabama described the girl as a "hero" after she managed to provide key information that led to the arrest of her mother's live-in boyfriend, Jose Paulino Pascual-Reyes.

She had been assaulted and plied with alcohol to keep her in a stupor, before chewing through the ties that held her down on a bed, authorities said in court documents.

She was found along a country road by a passer-by following her escape on Monday, and is now safe in the custody of state child welfare officials.

Mr Pascual-Reyes, 37, was charged with kidnapping and multiple counts of capital murder over the deaths of the girl's mother, 29-year-old Sandra Vazquez Ceja, and her son, who court records show was younger than 14.

Tallapoosa County sheriff Jimmy Abbett said she "is a hero for surviving the incident and coming forward with the information that she provided us in order to charge him".

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"They were boyfriend and girlfriend," Mr Abbett said of Mr Pascual-Reyes and Ms Ceja. "They were actually living there all together."

The kidnapping charge alleges that the girl was held hostage against her will, not that she was physically abducted from elsewhere and taken to the home, Mr Abbett said.

The girl was taken captive on July 24, around the time her mother and brother were killed, authorities allege.

Police discovered two dismembered bodies in the mobile home after the child escaped.

Mr Abbett declined to comment on whether the girl knew the fate of her mother and brother while she was still a hostage, but the chopped-up remains were found inside the home.

Mr Pascual-Reyes is being held in Alabama without bond.

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Mr Pascual-Reyes, who is from Mexico, was in the country illegally after being deported and returning without proper documentation, Mr Abbett said.

It was not clear when he last entered the United States, said the sheriff, but the group had been living in the mobile home since February.

Ms Ceja and the two children entered the United States from Mexico in 2017 and remained after requesting asylum, but their claims had yet to be decided by immigration officials, the sheriff said.

Defence attorney Mark Carlton said he and another lawyer had just been appointed to represent Mr Pascual-Reyes and declined immediate comment, saying they had not yet met him.