HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: CRANE BREAKS, BRIDE STRANDED. RESCUERS PULL BODY TO SURFACE BUT GROOM CRIES, "THAT'S NOT HER."MIDLAND, TEXAS - On October 16, 1987, 18-month old Jessica McClure was dramatically rescued from the abandoned water well in which she had fallen and was trapped for 58 hours, bringing to a joyous conclusion an incident that had gripped the nation. Now 18 years later, still blond and blue-eyed, Jessica is grown up, and last weekend she was married to 32 year-old Daniel Morales.
Morales wanted the ceremony to be held in the local church, but there was was only one place that Jessica would consent to be married. Morales agreed, and on Saturday at 4 p.m., the bride, the groom and the local minister were lowered by crane into the now-infamous abandoned well where Jessica had been trapped 18 years earlier, and minutes later she became Mrs. Daniel Morales.
After the brief ceremony, Jessica asked if she could linger alone for a just a moment "in this holy place," as she put it, so the minister and the groom were raised to the surface. A short time later, when the crane went to pull Jessica out, it broke. Jessica's faint voice rose from the bottom of the well, "Oh, no! It's happened again!" After a frantic search, a new crane was located in Fort Worth and finally, after seven hours, a rescue crew tried to raise up the bride. When the young woman was brought to the surface, the groom looked at her and cried out, "That's not her!" Indeed, the woman brought to the surface was a slightly older redhead with brown eyes. The rescue crew and police are baffled by the switch and have no leads as to Jessica McClure's whereabouts. Morales, claiming his marriage to Ms. McClure was never consummated, has taken up with the redhead.
