In a remarkable tale of survival, a mother of three from Indiana endured nearly a week trapped in her car after a crash, using her sweatshirt to absorb water for drinking. Brieonna Cassell, 41, was discovered on Tuesday in her Ford Taurus, which had veered off the road and into a ditch approximately 80 miles from Chicago. The vehicle was partially submerged in a streambed and entirely hidden from the road above.
Cassell’s father, Delmar Caldwell, described the harrowing scene, stating that his daughter was in severe pain and crying out for help. She could hear the sounds of passing cars, but her predicament was invisible to them. Cassell had been missing for six days after leaving her mother’s house to visit friends, a journey she never completed.
Upon her disappearance, her family promptly alerted the police. The Jasper County Sheriff’s office initiated a search and circulated missing person posters, but their efforts to locate the mother of three proved fruitless. However, on Tuesday, a drainage worker operating machinery in the town of Brooks stumbled upon the wrecked Ford Taurus in the ditch. When his supervisor arrived at the scene, they found Cassell conscious and alive inside the vehicle.
Jeremy Vanderwall, the supervisor, recounted his disbelief at finding Cassell, who had been widely searched for and whose disappearance had been widely publicized on social media. Cassell was extricated from the car and airlifted to a Chicago hospital, where the details of her extraordinary survival began to unfold.
According to her father, Cassell had fallen asleep at the wheel, causing her car to veer off the road and into a deep ditch, invisible from the roadway. The crash resulted in severe leg injuries for Cassell and left her trapped under the steering wheel, unable to escape the wreckage. With nighttime temperatures plummeting into the 20s and her phone battery dead, Cassell had to resort to innovative methods to stay alive.
Cassell’s father explained how she used her sweatshirt to absorb water from the creek, wringing it out to drink and sustain herself. Her mother, Kim Brown, expressed her relief and admiration for her daughter’s resilience, stating, “She did what she could to survive. I am so glad she was found alive, and I just can’t wait to hug her and kiss her.”
Cassell is currently in the ICU undergoing surgery for injuries to her wrist, ribs, and legs. While there is a risk of her losing her legs, she is expected to recover otherwise. Her father expressed optimism about her recovery, stating, “It’s going to be a long road to recovery. Don’t lose hope. Don’t give up. We had thought the worst. It had gone through our minds so many times, but thank God.”