In 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent was hitchhiking near Berkeley, California, when she was picked up by 50-year-old Lawrence Singleton. Singleton drove her to Del Puerto Canyon near Modesto, California, where he brutally raped and assaulted her. To cover up his crime and ensure she would not survive, Singleton used a hatchet to sever both of her arms below the elbows before throwing her off a 30-foot cliff into a ravine and leaving her for dead.
Despite experiencing catastrophic blood loss and severe trauma, Vincent demonstrated extraordinary will to survive. She used dirt and mud to pack her bloody stumps to stanch the hemorrhage and slow down the infection, preventing herself from bleeding to death. She then hauled herself up the steep embankment of the ravine and walked nearly three miles along Interstate 5 until she managed to flag down a passing couple, who immediately dialed emergency services.
Vincent survived her injuries, received prosthetic forearms, and went on to provide crucial courtroom testimony that led to Singleton's conviction and a 14-year prison sentence. Singleton served less than eight years before being paroled due to prison overcrowding, a release that sparked widespread public outrage and legislative reform regarding violent crime sentencing. Vincent later advocated for victims' rights, though her assailant went on to commit another murder in Florida in 1997, for which he was sentenced to death before dying in prison in 2001.