A 15-year-old girl managed to escape from a deep valley after being abducted and having her hands severed by a malevolent individual. Mary Vincent, who had run away from home and was hitchhiking to her grandfather’s house, accepted a ride from Lawrence Singleton, a 51-year-old former merchant seaman, in Modesto, California. Despite some initial hesitation, she got into his blue van. Singleton, after attempting to offer rides to other people without success, drove the teenager to a deserted road.
Subsequently, Singleton assaulted Mary, rendering her unconscious. He then stripped her, bound her, and subjected her to sexual assault. Keeping her tied up for hours despite her pleas, Singleton callously remarked the next morning, “You want to be set free? I’ll set you free,” before mutilating both of Mary’s arms with a hatchet and abandoning her in a ravine during the autumn of 1978.
Despite being left for dead, Mary improvised by packing dirt into her wounds to stem the bleeding and crawled 30 feet out of the ravine. Determined not to let the attacker harm anyone else, she flagged down a passing car for help and was eventually rescued. Mary collaborated with law enforcement and sketch artists during her recovery to aid in the apprehension of her abuser. Singleton was later apprehended, and Mary provided testimony of her harrowing experience in court.
Singleton was found guilty of attempted murder, mayhem, kidnapping, and multiple sexual assault charges, resulting in a 14-year prison sentence, of which he served only eight years. Upon his release, public outrage led to protests, forcing Singleton to reside in a trailer on prison grounds. Despite these measures, he went on to commit another heinous crime in Tampa, Florida, resulting in the death of Roxanne Hayes in 1997.
Reflecting on the tragic events, Mary expressed her disappointment that it took another tragedy for authorities to realize Singleton should never have been released in the first place, nearly two decades after her own ordeal. Singleton, the ruthless attacker and murderer, was ultimately sentenced to death but succumbed to cancer in prison in 2001.
