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Chopping Off Her Arms Didn't Stop Her

The Most Badass Survival Story of Mary Vincent

By FloraPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
2

I don't want to make this about him

Isn't it strange that we know the killer's names, but often not the victims? I can tell you the specific ways how Ted Bundy, the BTK Killer, and the Golden State Killer murdered their victims, but can't tell you one of their victim's names.

So I'm not going to let Lawrence Singleton get the spotlight. In fact, I am only going to call him the man going further because I won't give him the power to have a name worth remembering. The name we are going to remember is Mary Vincent.

This is all about the amazing survival story of Mary Vincent

In 1978, Mary and her teenage boyfriend decided to run away from home. Mary got into her boyfriend's car and they drove from Nevada to California. But as most teen relationships go, it was short-lived and ended quickly after they reached their destination. Mary was left stranded in California, leaving her with the only option of staying with her uncle for the rest of the summer. When fall came, Mary decided that she had enough time on her own and wanted to return home to her family in Nevada.

In September 1978, Mary began to hitchhike home

On the side of the highway, Mary held a sign that said Going South. In the '70s hitchhiking was a very common form of transportation. Mary even was accompanied by a few other teen boys going in the same direction.

That day, a blue van driven by an older man pulled up beside the group of teens. He said he was going south as well but only had room for one passenger while singling out Mary. The two boys advised Mary to not get into the van because it seemed strange to only have space for one in a large van. But the man reminded her of her grandfather in age and stature and she seemed comfortable after he mentioned he had a daughter the same age. She thought she was stronger and younger than the man and would have the upper hand if he acted against her better judgment.

Also, Mary was incredibly exhausted and desperate to get home

When she got into his van she soon became too exhausted to keep her eyes open and drifted into a deep sleep. When she woke later, the sky was dark and she noticed that the road signs were in the opposite direction.

Mary started to feel nervous and got angry at him, telling him to turn around. He apologized and repeatedly said that he was an honest man that made an honest mistake. He began to turn around but first mentioned that he needed to stop to go to the washroom.

The man pulled over onto a deserted road to relieve himself. As Mary's anxiety began to rise, she looked down and noticed that her shoes were untied. She bent over to tie them with the thought that she might have to make a run for it.

When she got out of the vehicle to escape, that is when everything went black

The man hit Mary over the head with a sledgehammer, knocking her unconscious. When Mary woke up, she found herself tied up in the back of the man's van, where he continuously raped her throughout the night until she saw the sun come up.

Mary begged for him to let her go and kept saying, "Just set me free, I won't tell anyone!"

The man then pulled naked Mary out for his van and said, "You want to be set free? I will set you free."

At that moment, the man grabbed a hatchet from his toolbox and began to swing

In one swift movement, Mary's left arm detached from her body. Mary began falling to the ground but was confused to see her hand still holding on to the man's arm. As she was lying on the road bleeding, she realized he started flicking his arm to get something off him – her detached arm still grasped to his shirt sleeve.

At that moment Mary began kicking and screaming, which made cutting off her right arm much more difficult for the man. So instead of one swing, it took a few to finally sever Mary's right arm.

Mary, who was now armless, naked, and covered in her own blood, was then drug by the man to a 30-foot cliff where he threw her over the edge. Mary broke four ribs on the tumbledown and was losing blood so rapidly she found it hard to grasp her consciousness.

She was tired, bleeding, and cold

All she wanted to do was go to sleep but her inner voice told her that if she fell asleep, that was it. She wouldn't wake up. And she vowed to somehow get help because she knew if she died, he would do it to someone else.

She put the ends of her remaining arms into the mud to pack the wound shut and began to army crawl up the 30-foot drop.

Later, When the detectives followed the blood trail that she left, they couldn't comprehend how someone even with arms could have done it.

Once Mary got to the road, she couldn't see anything for miles. It truly was a backroad in the middle of nowhere.

So she began walking

Mary had been up all night being sexually abused, had her arms cut off, broke four ribs while getting thrown off a 30-foot cliff, climbed back up it, and began walking. At that point. she had lost half of her blood, and the rest was full of toxins. Pure willpower and her spirit were the only things that kept her from death.

Mary finally got to an intersecting road that could have more passerby's, while still incredibly remote.

She walked for a total of three miles before a car finally passed. Two gentlemen in a top-down convertible started to slow down at the sight of her, but once they saw the details they sped ahead.

Although she was so angry and she didn't know if she'd made it before the next car came, she also didn't blame them for being afraid. She was naked, covered head to toe in blood, and didn't have arms. She said that she looked like she was from a horror movie.

She persisted until the second car did pull over to help. They were a young couple on their honeymoon that took a wrong turn and was about to turn around. Miraculously, they pressed on, and little did they know, would rescue Mary.

The couple wrapped Mary in a blanket and laid her down in the back seat of their truck. They sped so quickly that Mary could feel the tires rattling the truck frame as she faded in and out of consciousness.

The couple got to a phone, called paramedics where they air-lifted Mary to the hospital, in the hope to save her life.

And Mary survived

Even the doctors didn't know how someone with that amount of blood loss and trauma survived. They got her fitted for prosthetics while Mary gave such a detailed description of the man that the police had him in custody ten days later.

She faced her attacker in court, where he was found guilty for the accounts of rape and attempted murder, which sentenced him to the maximum amount of imprisonment – only 14 years. The judge even said that if they could lock him up for the rest of his natural life, they would have done so.

Mary and Singleton in court

As he was getting escorted out of the courtroom to return to his cell, he turned to Mary and said, "If it is the last thing I do, I will finish the job."

Mary went on to marry and have two boys. When the man got out of prison she was in constant fear for both her family and her own life. Until he was charged with first-degree murder for killing a mother of three.

He was then sentenced to death but died on death row of cancer.

But again, this isn't about him. We don't need to give him the power he desires. This is about Mary. How she fought against time, her failing, broken body, and even a cliff to make sure that this man would never hurt anyone else again. And if she didn't survive, he would have hurt so many more.

Stay sexy and don't get murdered (to quote my favorite murder podcast mfm)

xoxo

Flora

guilty
2

About the Creator

Flora

𝒯𝑜𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑜-𝒷𝒶𝓈𝑒𝒹 W𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓇

𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟, 𝕡𝕠𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕪, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕙𝕦𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕣

@ꜰʟᴏʀᴀꜱ.ᴀᴜʀᴀ

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