NEWTON COUNTY, Indi. (DDN) – A missing woman was discovered and rescued on Tuesday after spending six days in her crushed automobile in Newton County, Indiana.
Brieonna Cassell, 41, of Wheatfield was reported missing six days ago, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
Cassell’s mother, Kim Brown, said her daughter paid her a visit Wednesday night. However, Brown had not heard back from Cassell in some days.
“She just fell asleep, and… there was a bridge there, and she just veered over to the left and missed the bridge and ended up in a very deep ditch,” said Cassell’s father, Delmar Caldwell.
According to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, Cassell’s car went into a ditch off a rural county road. The back of the car was submerged in a brook.
But, according to authorities, Johnny Martinez, who was driving a 10-foot-tall tractor for Deyoung Drainage on County Road 600S near County Road 300E near the Newton County Landfill, witnessed the automobile crash in a ditch by the roadside. He informed his supervisor, Morocco Fire Chief Jeremy Vanderwall, who joined him to investigate the collision.
According to Vanderwall, Martinez initially believed no one was in the automobile. When Martinez drove him to the scene, Vanderwall stated he didn’t notice anyone in the car at first.
“I didn’t see anybody in it. There was something white on the dash, which is pretty typical — you know, front-end collisions, the airbag deploys, and the airbags are all white. So I just assumed it was an airbag,” Vanderwall said, “and I actually kind of started to roll forward a little bit, and I saw it move.”
It came out that there was actually someone in the automobile.
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“I was like, ‘Johnny, there’s somebody in there.’ So I put it in park, grabbed my fire radio, because I’m fire chief the next department over, and I got a hold of our county dispatch and told him what I had going on,” Vanderwall said, “and I got down to the car. I had hollered at her. I’m like, ‘Are you okay?’ She says, ‘No, I’m not.’ She’s like, ‘I need help.'”
When police investigated the car, they discovered Cassell inside alone, aware and able to communicate. They discovered she had been injured and imprisoned inside her smashed automobile for about a week.
Vanderwall stated that Cassell did not believe she would make it out and had anticipated to die in the ditch. He said he told her he would not let that happen.
Vanderwall claimed Cassell informed him she had been dipping her green cardigan sweater into the ditch to get water.
Cassell was airlifted to a Chicago-area hospital for treatment. She remained in care at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn on Tuesday night.
Brown stated that if this scenario has taught her anything, it is to ensure that people utilize a tracking device or app to keep track of their loved ones.
Matt Reum had a similarly intense experience in Northwest Indiana in December 2023. Reum survived for six days in a canyon beside Salt Creek in Portage, Indiana, after his pickup truck fell over an Interstate 94 overpass.
The pickup truck was shattered and damaged, and he was unable to get out or access his phone to contact for assistance. So he spent six days there, subsist on rainwater and using his airbag as a blanket when it got chilly.
Reference: Missing woman found alive, “trapped and alone,” 6 days after crashing car near Indiana landfill
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