Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Was Going to Have to Cut My Leg Off

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

April is brutally assaulted then set on fire by an acquaintance after taking them and her ex-boyfriend for a ride. Mark is forced to amputate part of his leg after it is caught in a drive shaft of an oil well. An act of kindness backfires on Jesse when he is attacked with a hammer and run over by the hitchhikers he reluctantly gave a ride Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. 

Hi, iSurvived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of iSurvived, as well as the A&E Classic podcast, Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now, onto the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. I didn't want to die.

I knew that if I didn't get away, he was going to kill me, and there was no getting away. Real people... There was nothing left of my leg below the knee. The only way I was going to get free. I was going to have to cut my leg off. Who faced death. I just felt that I wasn't supposed to do that.

That I wasn't supposed to die. And lived to tell how. I remember being in the trunk and it just being completely lit up with the fire that was coming off my body. This is I survived. It's November 2005 in Paris, Tennessee. April's ex-boyfriend Brandon has asked her to pick him and a friend up for a joy ride. Brandon got into the passenger seat

and Virgil got in the back and they said, let's ride. And we just took off riding. I just thought Virgil was a nice guy, just funny and fun to hang around with. You know, maybe into a little drinking and stuff, but not anything psycho or anything. It got quiet and we were on a really dark road. And out of nowhere, Virgil grabbed Brandon by the throat

and pulled him over the passenger seat into the back. April slammed on the brakes as Virgil started strangling Brandon. I was hitting Virgil and pushing him. I didn't know what to do. I was just like, you know, I thought they were playing at first until he really pulled him completely over. Whenever I tried to drive again, he grabbed me by the hair of my head.

And I don't remember his exact words, but it was basically, no, you don't. He had me pull into the cemetery, and Brandon was wheezing, and it looked like he was unconscious. I didn't know if he was dying or anything. I guess that's what triggered me to jump out of the car and take off running, and that's when he caught me, and he started punching me in the face and the head.

My ex-boyfriend told him to do whatever he wanted with me, but to leave him out of it. April was shocked that Brandon was not going to help her. I thought he might help me, you know? I figured, you know, he's a pretty big guy. I'm his ex-girlfriend. We're good friends. Why would you let somebody hurt me?

And I just lost everything right then. I knew that there-girlfriend. We're good friends. Why would you let somebody hurt me? And I just lost everything. Right then I knew that there was no help. And I was either going to have to fight back or just take it. Then he said, Brandon, he pointed at him, and he's like getting the trunk. And he cowardly ducked his head and said fine and got in, and he closed the trunk. We were on the top of a pretty good-sized hill

of the cemetery. As he was taking me down the hill, he stopped, and he told me to take off my clothes. And I'm just thinking the whole time that this isn't happening to me. This is not happening to me. I'm not thinking the whole time that this isn't happening to me. This is not happening to me. I'm not about to get raped.

We were on the top of a pretty good-sized hill of the cemetery. As he was taking me down the hill, he stopped, and he told me to take off my clothes. And of course, he was still assaulting me. And there was really, I couldn't do anything. He had my hair. There was no getting out of it. I was so small, I couldn't fight back. He's a really big guy.

He took me down to where there was a brush pile and just a big ditch. And he raped me. He took me back up the hill and knocked on the trunk and made sure that Brandon answered him and he took me back down and up and back down about four times. Virgil beat and sexually assaulted April several times during the night. During and after the rapes, he would strangle me into unconsciousness. I think I tried to fight back once, and he grabbed me and he choked me

and he threw me on the ground. And I just remember not being able to move or talk or anything. And I could see the cemetery and the moon, and all I could hear him say was, how do you like that? I was very scared of Virgil. I was scared to run because I knew he was going to catch me and if I ran it was just going to make him madder and make him hit me even harder. He kept telling me, don't cry, don't cry. And so I'm just trying to just disembodied myself and to just,

I didn't want to die. I knew that if I didn't get away, he was going to kill me. And there was no getting away. He would knock on the trunk and say, you know, are you still there? And just get an answer out of Mike's boyfriend just to make sure that he hadn't gotten away or passed out or anything. He would then take me back down the hill and to rape me again.

The cemetery was in an isolated location on the outskirts of town. I kept hoping that every time a car would go by that it would be a cop. And I would look up the hill and he kept saying, do you think somebody's going to save you? Do you think someone's going to just save you? And that made me lose any hope I had of anybody helping me. Virgil's behavior became more erratic. He went from the devil to a friend of mine. He was like, he was going from raging to laughing and wanting to just like cut up. And I don't even know him well enough to sit and talk to him,

much less make conversation after he's raped me. April was still looking for an opportunity to escape. I was just looking around trying to figure out, if I run, where can I run to? Is there any way that I can get away? And all I could think of was, if I take off running, he's going to knock me down and bust my head on one of the headstones.

He took me around to the back of the car, and he knocked on the trunk to see if my ex-boyfriend was still in there, and there was no answer. Then he said, do you think that he's asleep or do you think that he's dead? As frantic as I was, I was just, he's asleep. He has to be asleep. He can't be dead. He has to be asleep. April and Virgil did not know that Brandon had escaped from the trunk and run off. And he never opened the trunk. He took me around to the front of the car,

where he raped me again. I was constantly negotiating with him, talking and trying to figure out what was going on. As I was pleading with him, my words were, I have no idea what's going on. I don't know anything about you. I don't know anything about your personal life. I don't know anything about your family.

I kept trying to instill in his mind that I was absolutely in the dark and I had no clue. And to please at least tell me what I'd done. Why are you doing this? Why me? Why? He never gave me any reason as to why it was happening, except he felt as though he was being set up.

He thought that I knew that he had drugs or that I was going to get him into trouble. The more April pleaded, the more violent Virgil became. He beat me until I was unconscious quite a few times. He laid me down in front of the car and tried to run me over, but I came too quick enough to crawl out of the way, and it was like he couldn't do what he was trying to do. He was trying to get rid of me, and he couldn't.

I was unconscious, and I came to. He was above me, and he was holding a screwdriver. And I knew I'd been stabbed because it had blood on it. And he was trying to find other places to where he could puncture me. And I had made the decision to play dead. Virgil then turned his attention to removing evidence from the car. I knew he was doing something and he was moving really fast. And I just kind of glanced over at my car

and he was wiping his fingerprints off of the steering wheel, the door handles, the trunk, everything. He was done with that and I guess he decided that it wasn't good enough that he had to finish off what he had started. It started to rain heavily as Virgil forced April back into her car and drove away. He was still hitting me in the head, so I'm sure I've blacked out a couple of times. And he was just, because the town is so small that I would know where we were, anywhere he turned. He was going down roads and turning around, doing U-turns.

And I don't know how I remember this, but I remember him backing my car into his driveway and he came out with a gas can. Virgil drove April to a remote field on the outskirts of town. Her clothes were soaking wet from the heavy rain. He put me into the trunk and that's when I realized that Brandon wasn't there. He poured gas on me and that's when he lit the fire. He closed the trunk and it was one big whoosh of fire. He knew I was alive then because I screamed. The whole time that I was on fire, he was pouring gas on the rest of my car. He then set my car on fire. I heard it go

up in flames. And the only thing I could think of was my gas tank is going to blow up and it's right underneath my head. I remember being in the trunk and it just being completely lit up with the fire that was coming off of my body. April knew her car's trunk was fitted with an emergency release cord. As I was on fire, I was holding onto the cord, waiting for my opportunity. It was my lifeline, and I was just waiting for any opportunity that I could to pull it. I heard out of nowhere there were tires on gravel behind my car.

And I didn't know if it was help or I didn't know who it was. I heard a car door close and the car drive away. And as soon as I could tell the car was down the road, I pulled it and everything went black. I just, I knew that I did it, that I did it. I got help. April escaped from the burning car and realized Virgil had gone.

She was still on fire. It was kind of just like a sigh of relief. When that trunk lid opened, I don't remember getting out. I don't remember putting the fire out. I just knew that he was gone and I had a chance to live. April's ordeal had lasted seven hours. I started walking, and there was a truck that pulled up beside me. My car was on his property, and they saw the fire.

And I said, I need an ambulance. So the only thing on my mind was, I can't breathe. I need help. I'm hurt. I just know that he put me in his truck. He took me in and laid me on the couch and then put me on the floor. And his family crouched down and prayed for me

while he called 911. 911, what are your emergency? I got a car that's going off the road. It's on fire. I got one here, hurt pretty bad. OK, you need to tell me what kind of injuries we have.'s on fire. I got one here hurt pretty bad. Paramedics. You need to tell me what kind of injuries we have. I don't know but she's bleeding pretty good.

Okay and give me some description of her other injuries. What other injuries you got? Burn. She's burned pretty good. She's burned? She's stabbed in the back. She's what? She's stabbed in the back.

Stabbed in the back. April suffered third degree burns to almost half her body. She spent 116 days in the hospital. Doctors amputated her right hand and all the fingers on her left hand except her thumb. April has never found out exactly why Virgil attacked her. He never gave me any reason as to why it was happening, except he felt as though he was being set up. He thought that I knew that he had drugs or that I was going to get him into trouble.

That was the only explanation I ever got. Virgil spent 45 days on the run before turning himself in. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison for attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, and sexual assault. April's ex-boyfriend Brandon was not charged. She has not heard from him since the attack. I survived because I watched a show with a lady who had gotten kidnapped, and she lived by getting out of her trunk

with the emergency release. The fact that my clothes were wet, the fact that it was raining really saved my life. really saved my life. I Survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus you can count on their great customer service

to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. It's April, 1984 in southeastern Illinois. Mark works alone on oil wells, checking and

maintaining the machinery. The wells extract a mixture of oil and salt water from the ground. I pulled up to the well site and parked my truck about 50 yards away, got out and was maintaining the engine, checking the unit. This site consisted of an engine, and then through a series of drive shafts, ran a saltwater pump which moved the saltwater from one site to another. And it was at that time that I had done what I had done hundreds and thousands of times before I stepped over the moving shaft. The shaft's safety guard had been removed during earlier maintenance. Once the safety guard is moved, then of course the shaft is totally exposed.

I didn't really notice the guard was off until I was stepping over it and of course at the point of when it had grabbed me and sucked me in. Mark's right leg became caught up in the drive shaft. At first, I wasn't sure what had happened because I immediately felt the pull and the throwing. It was like someone slamming me in the back, especially the lower body, with maybe the force of a car. And as I landed on my left leg and disengaged the motor, I could see my ankle and the bottom part of the hip boots laying about 25 feet away. That's when I realized that this machine had not only

separated my ankle from the rest of my foot, but also had pretty much destroyed all of my leg below the knee. It was really a moment of disbelief. I seen my foot in the boot. I was trying to understand what had happened. It had thrown me around. And I guess at that point in time, I realized that, you know, my life was in jeopardy and

that something was going to have to be done. That's when I looked down and seen the blood and everything as well below me. I realized very quickly that something's going to have to be done because I have an open wound and blood is flowing very freely. The drive shaft had severed major arteries in Mark's right leg. First response was I started yelling out, God, don't let me die like this. Started waving. I was only 50 yards away from a major highway. But by being so low to the ground,

still connected to the shaft, the engine really obstructed people from seeing me. My thoughts were continually, this is supposed to happen to someone else. As I assessed the situation, you were running out of options and you had to change the situation very quickly. At this point, I was still not really feeling any pain. I was faint and felt very nauseous and knew that I'd lost a lot of blood, but not really any pain. Mark's body had gone into shock, greatly reducing the pain.

The feeling was one of urgency. I knew I had to do something to better my chances of surviving. I was caught up in this machine, blood was going everywhere, and time was being minimized pretty quickly as to what I had to do. I looked down and see everything below my knee.

It was wrapped around the shaft, that there was nothing left of my leg below the knee. And the only way I was going to get free, I was gonna have to cut my leg off. I was wearing a uniform provided by the company, shirt and pants and also a belt. And with one that also was wearing a hunting knife that was looped through the belt. As I took the knife off of my belt, which I just started wearing two weeks before that,

and I started to cut, I dropped the knife, maybe out of the instinct of, this is not right. I shouldn't be cutting myself. At the time when I dropped the knife, I reached in front of me and opened up a one-inch water valve which was used to bleed and to bleed air out of the pump. I splashed some of the salt water in my face and my mouth. It was very sulfur-based, coming from 3,000 foot down.

That stung a lot. It was nasty tasting.based, coming from 3,000 foot down. That stung a lot. It was nasty tasting. I attribute that to keeping me awake and conscious. Then I reached back for the knife, realizing that was my only option to get free of this machine. Having hunted deer, Mark knew how to handle a knife. After many years of dressing and skinning out deer, knowing how tough the skin was,

that led to some knowledge that I had knowing that there was no way I was going to pull free, that there was going to have to be another option. I knew that my bone had been broken, the femur bone. There was nothing solid connecting me. It had taken everything just above the knee. That's where I was still connected. With Mark's bone shattered, he needed to cut through skin and muscle to free himself. Once I picked the knife back up, it was a clean slice, just a matter of seconds.

Not even sure I can tell you that I looked at it. Just knew where my leg was, where I was connected, and made a quick sweep of the knife and cut free. After the initial feeling, I believe the adrenaline kicked in and everything else, and I think there was more focus on surviving than the pain itself. I took the first step with what was my right leg, and I fell flat on my face. Then I started crawling. I knew I had to get in front of the engine.

My truck was 50 yards away, but I was concerned about having to be able to get up into the truck, and not sure about whether that was possible. Even though I was closer to my truck, I thought my better chance of getting help was making my way to the highway, which is twice as far away as my truck. So I started crawling, much like you would under ropes, army type of crawl, using my arms and what I could with my left leg. I looked down and blood was gushing out of my leg. The open wound, it was just going everywhere. Mark had lost two-thirds of his blood

and was close to death. I knew I was gonna have to try to restrict the flow of blood out of my limb, and that's when I pulled my belt off, wrapped it around what was left of my leg, found a piece of driftwood and twisted it and got the pressure strong enough, hopefully, to where it would restrict the flow of blood.

Mark's makeshift tourniquet helped him to remain conscious. He still had over a hundred yards to crawl to reach the highway. I was really in fear of my life, and, you know, at moments would still have thoughts of my family. You know, how would my wife make it without me? How would my brothers, you know, and my parents, how would they do without me if I did die? As I was crawling, a couple of vehicles went by and they did not notice me, apparently. But then it was just within a minute that I did hear brakes and then more brakes.

And I knew that some vehicles were stopping. I hoped that they were stopping because they saw me. It was really quite strange because it was two guys that I knew served on the volunteer fire department with them. One went to the scene to see if there was anything that could be done there. The other knelt by me and started speaking to me. He was asking me questions as to,

was there anything left in my leg, anything that could be saved or reattached? I told him no, that everything was mangled and pretty much wrapped up in a shaft. And then he kept asking me other questions to keep me conscious and to reassure me that help was on its way. I'm still concerned about the amount of blood

that I'd lost and I'm still concerned about living. The ambulance arrived, immediately put an air cast type of splint on my leg, stopped the blood from flowing. They also initiated three IVs to try to get the fluids built back in. The emergency personnel was very cool and calm, very reassuring. But you could still see the concern on their faces of a course of blood loss and the possibility of me slipping away. Mark was taken to a local hospital, but needed emergency surgery elsewhere.

I continued to ask the emergency doctor, am I going to live? He's in the process of calling for helicopter support for transport. All three helicopters that are normally available were not available. So I was transported with a police escort to an orthopedic hospital around 57 miles away.

I had three surgeries before my leg was sewed back up and 15 days in a hospital before I went back home and rehabilitation, learning to walk again with a prosthesis. And I was back on the job within nine months exactly to the date of my accident. The type of oil well that caused Mark's injuries is no longer in use. Mark now works as a news and sports director for an Illinois radio station. I survived because of the grace of God giving me the opportunity, the instinct and the ability to assess the situation very quickly was a key, I believe, in allowing me to survive this accident.

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It's April 1983 in Pampa, Texas. Jesse is driving in a freak snowstorm in the Texas Badlands, on route to Chicago. He stops at a store where two strangers in their twenties ask him for a ride. Even though I kept saying no, they followed me. And as I came out of the store, I noticed they had a dog with them. I felt sorry for the dog. So I said, okay guys, see if you can move some stuff around. When they jumped at the opportunity,

ran in, started shifting stuff around, and then we all piled in. One of the fellows was certainly more forthcoming and charming. His friends seemed reticent and hesitant. The snowstorm had eased, but the roads were still dangerously icy. Jesse decided he and the hitchhikers should check into a motel. I got my room, and they registered together in the room right next to me.

And I said good night, and spent the rest of the evening wondering if I had made a mistake. I had involved myself with two people about which I knew nothing. I even called my mom back in Beaumont I had involved myself with two people about which I knew nothing. I even called my mom back in Beaumont just to let her know that the weather hadn't hurt me. She said, I don't know about hitchhikers. You really shouldn't do that. I didn't think that they would steal the van, but I was worried about something.

I returned to the van a couple of times that night. I woke up at probably five o'clock in the morning the next day. As soon as I was up, I thought I would leave. Leave them in their rooms. I had got into the van, even started the van, and I looked and saw their room, and I thought, I can't do that to anybody, that would be wrong. I lightly knocked on their door hoping that they wouldn't answer

so that I could, at least in my heart, say I'd given them a chance and they blew it, it wasn't my fault. But one of them answered immediately and we were on the road again by 6.30. The affable one had become quiet, which was a very strange feeling because now we were in the van with no one talking. About an hour down the road, one of them said, do you mind pulling over?

I'd like to take a leak. Jesse pulled over on a remote access road. The hitchhikers got out with their dog, and Jesse remained in the van. I had the van. I had the van in gear as I recall. And just as the engine was revving up, the sliding door slid open. And I turned and that's when I saw this hammer.

The hitchhiker who had been talkative now had a hammer raised above his head. It was a small sledgehammer, a three-pound shop hammer. I turned and I looked and I saw his face. I looked at his eyes and I said, Oh God, please don't kill me. He had blue eyes and he had spittle on his lips and he was coming down hard on me. I didn't go unconscious, but I went very fuzzy and unclear. The men also started kicking Jesse.

From the moment the hammer hit me to the boots kicking me, I don't recall any pain at all, nothing but frightening. A sense of death, a sense that this is going to be the end. Jesse was still behind the wheel of his van. As soon as I understood what was happening to me, I stiffened up and I slammed on the accelerator. I pedaled to the metal, I pushed as hard as I could, and the van lurched forward and all of the hitting stopped. They were tossed away from me. And it was a brilliant move on my part, but I didn't have a second idea after that. I just stiffened up and kept my foot on the accelerator. The road was covered in snow and ice.

I thought, I've seen this in movies before, the leading man opens the door and jumps out of the van and rolls to safety. That's what I thought I would be able to do. So I opened the door, and I jumped out of the van. But I forgot that I still had my seat belt on. And so I was once again in the same situation, where one fellow was striking me, and another guy was still steering the van. The fellow who was holding the steering wheel

began to kick me and try to kick me out of the van. And the fellow who had hit me was trying to pull me in with the harness. The van was traveling at 30 miles per hour. After a violent struggle, Jesse released the seatbelt and jumped from the van. He had a concussion, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung. I remember ending up in a snow drift of some sort. I remember looking up and thinking,

again, oh God, please don't let me die. I heard the van moving away from me, the sound of a vehicle leaving. And I thought, if I could just lie here and pretend that I'm dead, they'll continue to drive away. They'll go away and I'll be all right. Just as I thought that, I heard the van stop. And then I heard the van backing up. And I thought, I'm in the snow, they probably can't even see me. And then I thought, if they do see me, they'll think I'm dead.

I look like I'm dead. I can't feel my body. I feel like I'm dead. And I knew that if I could just be still, perfectly still, that they would not see me or they would leave me. The van reversed rapidly towards Jesse. They ran over my feet, but I didn't move. I stayed perfectly still.

I heard the door, the sliding door of the van open up and I heard one of the men call out, here bear, here bear. They had come back because of the dog. They felt sorry for the dog. They didn't want it to die out there all by itself. In the snow, it's the same reason that I had invited them into the van.

He got into the van and they closed the door and they drove away and left me in the snow to die. My clavicle had been separated from the skeleton and my ribs had been broken and my lung was collapsed and my side was caved in onto my heart. That's why I could feel it so vigorously inside me jumping. I thought, if I close my eyes, I won't wake up. Something just lifted me out of the snow.

I just felt that I wasn't supposed to do that, that I wasn't supposed to die, and that there was a reason to live, and it didn't matter what they had done, that I could do it, that I could make it. And somehow I stood up. My glasses were gone. I'm totally blind without them.

My shoes were off. I could feel my heart, and I couldn't catch my breath. And I knew that I had to walk several hundred feet, almost the distance of a football field, and I had to get back to the highway, or I wouldn't make it. Jesse struggled to remain conscious as he reached the highway.

I stood holding my right hand up, trying to stop a car, and no one would stop. I probably didn't look very much like he would want to have me in the car. And I thought again that if no one stops, I'm not going to make it. I had trouble breathing, and I kept thinking there's got to be something inside of me that's very messed up. The hammer attack had left Jesse with a collapsed lung. Suddenly a truck showed up on the right side.

I could barely see. They couldn't ignore me. And within a few minutes, I was being taken care of by the ambulance. When they took me into the emergency surgery, they had to find out basically what was wrong. I had several lacerations on my head from the hammer blows. My eyes were blackened, my face was bruised. There was bruising all down my sides. They stopped the internal bleeding, took care of my collapsed lung, taped my broken ribs.

I was in intensive care for six days. Doctors told Jesse he would have died if he hadn't been in such good physical condition. Based on what I was able to tell them and what they were able to piece together, the local police weren't able to do very much. The case was going nowhere, and so they assigned a Texas Ranger to the case. And through his sources, he was able to find that one of the assailants had escaped from a minimum security prison in California. Jesse's attackers were captured in North Carolina, 1,400 miles from Pampataxas.

Richard Vought was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder. Hammer attacker Kendall Novelli was sentenced to 30 years for attempted murder. I survived because there's something that I'm supposed to do and I haven't quite done it yet and I didn't want to die. Pluto TV is the place for movie fans like me and TV fans like me. They've got something for everyone and it's totally free. You can binge laugh-out-loud sitcoms like Frasier. And rewatch cult classics like Higher Learning.

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