FBI May Enter Case of Chained Girl
Originally published by United Press International, May 15, 2001
LAREDO, Texas, May 15 (UPI) — The FBI may enter the case of a 12-year-old Mexican girl who was found chained, beaten, and dehydrated in the backyard of a Laredo home in South Texas where she worked as a maid.
Sandra Bearden, who allegedly recruited the girl from Mexico to work in her home, was jailed Tuesday on charges of aggravated kidnapping, injury to a child and child abandonment. The 28-year-old mother, a resident alien from Mexico, was being held in lieu of a $400,000 bond at the Webb County Jail.
The girl, who was not identified, was in stable condition at Mercy Health Center in Laredo where she was being treated for deep cuts on her arms and legs. She also had severe bruises on her face and body, according to police who found her Saturday after receiving a phone tip.
Police had to use bolt cutters to free the girl from shackles in a 3-by-3-foot patch of dirt behind a concrete wall in the backyard of the home in the Eastwood subdivision. She had been chained outside for about two months after Bearden allegedly accused her of stealing.
"She would come in for chores or beatings and then was put outside," Mexican Consul Daniel Hernandez Joseph told the Laredo Morning Times. "The lady told her she was chaining her to keep her from taking things 'that don't belong to you.'"
Bearden's husband, Warren Bearden, returned from a long-haul trucking job Monday and refused to answer police questions. "I don't know anything about this," he said.
The consul general has taken temporary custody of the child and arranged for the girl's parents to come to Laredo. The child is from a rural village near Guadalajara and she came to Laredo in October with Bearden, according to police.
Hernandez Joseph said Bearden apparently convinced the parents that she could offer the child food, clothing and a better life in the United States. The girl is the eldest of four children and the family survives on $100 a month in Mexico, he said.
Police said the Bearden's 4-year-old boy appeared to be in good condition and he is staying with the father's family. Investigators don't believe he was mistreated.
