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Brieonna Cassell, a 41-year-old mother of three from Wheatfield, Indiana, was found alive six days after being trapped in her wrecked car. She had crashed into a drainage ditch after reportedly falling asleep at the wheel.
“She would take her hoodie and toss it, like she’s fishing,” her father, Delmar Caldwell, told NBC Chicago. “And bring it back and suck on it to have water.”
Cassell, who was the subject of a missing persons report for six days, was only found thanks to someone operating a tractor for a drainage company happening across the wreck. Her car had gotten lodged in the ditch out of view from passing motorists. When the tractor operator found her he called his supervisor Jeremy Vanderwall, who also happens to be assistant chief at a local volunteer fire department, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office reported.
“She was very conscious, very alert, very aware of how severe her injuries were,” Vanderwall told ABC News. “She said, ‘I didn’t think anybody was gonna find me. I thought I was gonna die in this ditch.'”
When Vanderwall asked her how long she had been trapped there in her car, she replied, “Since Wednesday.”
“I said, ‘ma’am, it’s Tuesday,” Vanderwell recalled. “Tomorrow’s Wednesday.”
Brieonna Cassell said she shouted when she heard cars passing by, but no one heard her. On top of that, her phone was dead underneath the passenger seat. After she was found trapped in her car, she was flown to a hospital in Chicago where she underwent surgery for serious injuries to her legs and wrist. Despite all of that, her father says she is in “good spirits” and “eating a lot.”
“To have the wherewithal to use her shirt to get water, knowing that she had to have water to survive … just survival skills, man,” Vanderwall said.