The Miraculous Survival Of Mary Vincent

In 1978, when many people did not own cars, hitchhiking was a common practice. Vincent was hitchhiking with two other people at the time, hoping to avoid the turmoil between her parents, who were in the process of a divorce, and instead live with her grandfather.

Lawrence Singleton, a 50-year-old male, pulled over to the side of the road and gave Vincent a ride alone, claiming there was no room in his empty van for anyone else. Mary Vincent, 15, stepped inside the van considering she still had a long distance to cover.

When Vincent lit a cigarette shortly after accepting the ride, she sneezed, and Singleton reached over to feel her neck, asking if she was sick. Vincent didn't like the physical contact and pulled out of his reach, but that was just the beginning of something sinister.

The Attack and The Survival

When Singleton drove past the location she wanted to stop, she pointed it out and demanded he turn back, he pretended it was an honest mistake and turned the van around. After a few more miles, Singleton pulled the van to the side of the road, saying he needed to go to the bathroom.

Vincent got out too, to get some fresh air. While she was bent over tying her shoe, Singleton hit her on the head with a hammer. He tied her hands and shoved her in the back of the van. He then raped her repeatedly over the night.

The next morning, he cut off both of her arms with a hatchet, apparently in an attempt to make it more difficult to identify her body, and threw her into a 30 foot culvert pipe, where he left her to die.

As maimed and broken as she was, 15-year-old Mary Vincent was not ready to die. She packed the stumps of her severed arms with soil to try to stop the bleeding, and then struggled and made her way to the road to find help.

She kept her arms raised in the air to prevent further blood loss, and to prevent muscles from falling out. She walked three miles from the culvert pipe where Singleton had dumped her.

A young couple in a car saw her on the road, and immediately pulled over to rush Mary to the hospital.

The Identification And Arrest Of Singleton

Mary’s description of Singleton was so clear and detailed that when the police sketch went live, Singleton’s neighbor immediately recognized him and reported him to police.

Tragically, the laws at the time were so lenient that the maximum penalty Singleton could receive was 14 years in prison, which was the punishment he got after being found guilty of kidnapping, attempted murder, rape, and a series of other serious crimes.

Larry Singleton was freed after serving eight years in prison for "good conduct."

Sure enough, in 1997, 19 years after he tried to kill Mary Vincent, Singleton committed another crime, he attacked a woman called Roxanne Hayes, a 31-year-old mother of three and sex worker. He’d been living in Tampa, Florida, and stabbed the woman to death in his own home.

As would be expected, a massive national public outcry arose in response to the second attack. The “Singleton bill” was drafted in California, this bans the early release of convicts who commit torture-related crimes Vincent testified in Singleton's second trial and spoke out in favor of the California bill.

The minimum term for a crime involving torture is now 25 years in prison. Singleton was sentenced to death but died of cancer in prison in 2001.

Mary Vincent is in her late 50s. She’s had a difficult life filled with trauma and post traumatic disorder.