The Rescue of Baby Jessica McClure

10 snips

Apr 6, 2026

A harrowing 1987 backyard accident and the extraordinary, painstaking rescue that followed. Tense descriptions of drilling a parallel shaft and the risky, slow extraction. The story’s role in the rise of 24-hour news and the scramble over privacy and TV rights. Personal costs for rescuers and the long shadow fame cast over a small community.

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ANECDOTE

How Jessica Fell Into The Well

Reba answered a phone inside her sister Jamie's house and returned to find toddler Jessica missing before hearing her cry from 20 feet down in an old well.
The well had an eight-inch opening and Jessica fell roughly 22 feet into a narrowed 11–14 inch section with one leg pinned above her head.

INSIGHT

Why Pulling Jessica Up Was Impossible

Rescuers discovered Jessica had wedged into a narrowed section of the well 22 feet down where the pipe tapered to 11–14 inches, making self-extraction impossible.
Below her the pipe narrowed to six inches, so further descent was prevented but extraction required external access through the surrounding earth.

ADVICE

Stabilize The Victim Before Heavy Operations

Prioritize immediate environmental life-support before invasive rescue moves: test temperature, supply warm air, and monitor oxygen.
Midland quickly lowered a thermometer, ran warm air from a telephone truck, and added air hoses to preserve Jessica while planning excavation.

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On October 14, 1987, Reba McClure and her eighteen-month-old daughter, Jessica, stopped by the Midland, Texas home of her sister for a visit. As Reba sat in the backyard watching Jessica play with some neighborhood children, she heard the phone ring and went inside to answer it. When McClure returned to the backyard a few minutes later, she saw the other children staring at the ground on the far-side of the yard, but Jessica was nowhere to be seen.

To Reba McClure’s absolute horror, while she was inside on the phone, Jessica had fallen twenty-feet down into the well on her sister’s property and become lodged in a section only fourteen-inches wide. Rescue teams arrived at the house not long after Jessica fell into the well, but the situation proved far more complicated than anyone had expected; they needed to dig a parallel shaft to rescue the girl, but any amount of significant vibration in the earth could have collapsed the well entirely.

In the early days of cable news twenty-four-hour news coverage, the rescue of Jessica McClure became one of the most watched events in the United States. However, while the rescue of the girl was everyone’s primary concern, the wall-to-wall coverage itself quickly became a major part of the story, as ordinary smalltown Americans were shoved into the spotlight and questions over rights to the story (and rights to privacy) took center stage.

References

Belkin, Lisa. 1988. "Baby Jessica's rescuers fighting over TV rights." New York Times, March 24.

Bone, Mark, and Gregory Rosati. 2021. How 58 hours in Midland, Texas, changed the future of TV news. July 30. Accessed March 24, 2026. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/30/opinions/baby-jessica-cnn-films-shorts-mark-bone-opinion.

Comiter, Jordana, and Carolina Blair. 2025. Where Is ‘Baby Jessica’ Now? Inside Her Life 38 Years After Her Harrowing Rescue from a Texas Well. October 16. Accessed March 24, 2026. https://people.com/all-about-baby-jessica-life-now-11830322.

Crimmins, Patrick. 1987. "Toddler's rescue 'matter of time'." Midland Reporter-Telegram, October 16: 1.

Hillrichs, Julie. 1987. "Naps, choruses of nursery song help toddler endure her ordeal." Midland Reporter-Telegram, October 16: 1.

Kennedy, J. Michael. 1987. "Jessica makes it to safety-after 58 1/2 hours." Los Angeles Times, October 17: 1.

Lunsford, Lance. 2024. Inside the Well: The Midland, Texas Rescue of Baby Jessica. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press.

Madigan, Tim. 1987. "Rescue just agonizing inches from sobbing girl in Midland well." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 15: 1.

—. 1987. "Town shares emotion of toddler's relatives." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 16: 1.

Nye, Ramona. 1987. "Jessica free, under doctors' care." Midland Reporter-Telegram, October 17: 1.

Pitts, John Paul. 1987. "Concerned people give of themselves for Jessica." Midland Reporter-Telegram, October 17: 1.

Thomas, Evan, and Peter Annin. 1997. "'Baby Jessica' grows up." Newsweek, October 27: 34.

Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)

Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)

Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash Kelley

Listener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra Lally

Listener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025)

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