José Paulino Pascual-Reyes, 37, started living in a mobile home in Dadeville, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, United States in February 2022. He shared the home with his girlfriend Sandra Vazquez Ceja, 34, her daughter, 12, and her son, who was under 14.

On July 24, 2022, Pascual-Reyes allegedly killed Ceja and her son and kept their bodies inside the mobile home. The Dadeville man allegedly smothered his girlfriend with a pillow and struck her son with his hands and feet then cut their bodies into pieces to hide evidence.

On the same day, Pascual-Reyes allegedly abducted Ceja’s daughter with an intention to violate or abuse her sexually. He allegedly tied the girl up to a bed post and kept her in a drugged state with alcohol.

.

On August 1, 2022, the girl managed to chew herself from the restraints and escape, breaking the braces on her teeth. Just before 8:30 a.m. that day, a motorist noticed her walking alone along a road in Dadeville and picked her up.

The road was near Pascual-Reyes’s mobile home. The driver called 911 and the girl was taken to the hospital for treatment.

In the evening, the U.S. Marshal’s Office and the Auburn Police Department arrested Pascual-Reyes in Auburn, Lee County, Alabama. When investigators arrived at his mobile home in Dadeville that evening, there were other people at the residence.

The investigators found the decomposing bodies of Ceja and her son inside the mobile home. The remains were taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Hoover, Alabama for autopsies.

Pascual-Reyes was booked into the Tallapoosa County Jail in Dadeville. He was charged with first-degree kidnapping, two counts of abuse of a corpse and three counts of capital murder.

Dadeville is the county seat of Tallapoosa County. The city was named for Francis Langhorne Dade, a Brevet Major in the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment in the U.S. Army who died in the Second Seminole War in Florida, USA in 1835.

Founded in 1998 by Trey Sims, Will Sims and Andy Anderson, Wickles originated in Dadeville. Politicians Andrew R. Johnson and Lilius Bratton Rainey were both born in the city.