The Nation - News from Jan. 13, 1988

An aunt of Jessica McClure, the child who was trapped in an abandoned well in Midland, Tex., for 58 hours, denied claims by the state that she was negligent in caring for her niece or ran an unlicensed day-care center. A letter claiming that Jamie Moore, Jessica’s aunt, and the child’s mother, Reba McClure, failed to supervise the toddler adequately before the Oct. 14 accident was mailed to Moore on Oct. 30, said Carolyn Langendorf of the state Human Resources Department in El Paso. Jessica fell into an uncapped well in Moore’s back yard. “It is not my job or responsibility to cap the well. The well should have been capped by the home’s previous owner,” Moore said in an interview with KOSA-TV in Odessa. Moore has said she was keeping six children without pay for friends and was not a day-care operator.