A 15-year-old girl managed to escape from a deep valley after being abducted and having her hands severed by a malicious individual. Mary Vincent, who had run away from home and was hitchhiking to her grandfather’s house, accepted a ride from Lawrence Singleton, 51, in Modesto, California. Singleton, a former merchant seaman, lured her into his blue van on a deserted road after failed attempts to offer rides to others.
The assailant assaulted Mary, rendering her unconscious, and proceeded to strip her, bind her, and commit sexual assault. He then proceeded to sever both of Mary’s arms with a hatchet and left her in a ravine to perish. However, Mary managed to stop the bleeding by packing dirt into her wounds and crawled 30 feet out of the ravine in a desperate bid to survive.
After flagging down a passing car, Mary was rescued and taken to a hospital, where she survived. Subsequently, she collaborated with law enforcement and artists to aid in the capture of her attacker. Singleton was apprehended, tried, and found guilty of attempted murder, mayhem, kidnapping, and various sexual assault charges, resulting in a 14-year prison sentence, of which he served only eight years.
Following his release, local protests forced Singleton to reside in a trailer on prison grounds. Despite this, he went on to commit another heinous crime in Tampa, Florida, where he murdered a 31-year-old woman named Roxanne Hayes in 1997. Singleton was sentenced to death but succumbed to cancer in prison in 2001.
Mary expressed her sorrow over Singleton’s release and subsequent crimes, emphasizing that it took another tragedy for authorities to recognize the danger he posed.
