Girl Held Captive Recounts Torment, Torture

Originally published by The Associated Press, October 17, 2001

LAREDO — A Mexican girl found bound in chains and near death in the back yard of a Laredo home has recounted in court her tortured captivity.

The 13-year-old girl worked as a maid in the home of 27-year-old Sandra Bearden. She's on trial for alleged aggravated kidnapping, injury to a child and abandonment. If convicted, she could be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The girl referred to Bearden as "La senora" in her testimony. She told jurors that Bearden regularly beat her with her hands, a belt, a broomstick, a glass and, on one occasion, a skillet.

Bearden frequently shook her head as the child testified in the second day of her trial.

The defendant is a Mexican citizen who until May lived quietly in Laredo with her American trucker husband and their four-year-old son. Her husband, Dennis Bearden, is scheduled for trial next month for allegedly failing to protect the child who lived in his home for seven months.