Crime Weekly - S3 Ep303: Crime Weekly News: Left for Dead - The Survival of Mary Vincent

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Mary Vincent was only 15 years old when she endured a brutal attack that changed her life forever. In September 1978, while hitchhiking in California, Mary was picked up by Lawrence Singleton, a 50-year-old man with a history of violence. After assaulting her, Singleton severed both of Mary's forearms and left her for dead in a ravine. Mary would manage to climb out of the ravine and seek help, ultimately surviving the ordeal. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. So actually, this is a little bit of a different Crime Weekly News because over the past few Crime Weekly episodes, I have consistently brought up a case that I saw on a show called I Survived. And I have brought this case up for many reasons because, one, it traumatized me. And I don't think I can watch I Survived anymore, by the way, every single time I'm left traumatized. But secondly, it is a very important case to show and illustrates how broken and just completely screwed up at the most base level our justice system is.

And we covered that a lot. Yeah, exactly. That's why we keep bringing up this specific case. Great responses on that Crime Weekly News, by the way. Everyone was in agreement. Oh, our last one last week. Of course everyone's in agreement. It's an agreement. Oh, our last one last week. Of course, everyone's in agreement. It's common sense.

But luckily, this past episode, which was part two of the Peggy Clinky case, which if you have not seen this case, please go watch it. It's so important. So, so, so important. Again, another great episode with a lot of great responses. People were heavily impacted by that phone call. I mean, I know. I know I was. It really haunted me.

Yeah, you were a little emotional when you were talking about it and then seeing everyone's responses in the comments, they were amazing comments towards Peggy and her family, but also just hearing that phone call, I think we all had a similar reaction. A few victim blamey comments that I saw, a little disappointed. Oh yeah, I'm a little disappointed in that, but just like a handful, maybe four or five, but you know, you're always going to have, you're always going to have the outliers. Yeah. But luckily in this past video, the Peggy Clinky part two, a few people picked up on it and they were like, Hey, I think you're talking about the case of Mary Vincent. And so then I was like, Derek, can we please do a crime weekly news on it? Because I really want to tell this girl's story

because I didn't even know when I was, I kept recalling it. Cause I'd seen that episode so long ago. Mary Vincent was 15 years old when this happened to her. Let me set the stage here. Imagine being 15 years old, filled with dreams and the spirit of adventure only to have your life irrevocably altered by a single horrifying encounter. In 1978, Mary Vincent, again, thank you to everyone who provided her name, was hitchhiking through California when she accepted a ride from a man who would become the embodiment of her worst nightmare. What followed was an unspeakable act of violence. She was brutally assaulted.

Her arms were severed and she was left for dead in a remote canyon. Just a horrible situation. Yeah. So it is absolutely a horrible like you got to watch the episode, Derek. I don't, you have to watch it because she talks, she tells her story in this because she did survive, right? Mary Vincent did not die. She had the unimaginable strength and willpower to survive.

She crawled her way to safety. She sought justice against her attacker, and she transformed her trauma into a beacon of hope for others. She's inspired me, I will be honest. It was very traumatic watching her describe what happened to her. I have goosebumps right now even remembering it, but she inspired me. 15 years old, okay? I could barely take care of myself at 15 years old. And her story is not just one of survival, but of resilience, courage, and the unbreakable human spirit, what we are capable of that we don't even know we're capable of. So today we're going to delve into the harrowing

journey of Mary Vincent. And this is a tale that will leave you shaken, inspired, and in awe of what it truly means to fight for your life. Mary Vincent was born in 1963. She was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was the middle child in a family of seven. Her father was a mechanic and her mother was a blackjack dealer in the bustling casino scene. But despite the glitter of Vegas, life at home wasn't easy.

By the time she was 15, Mary had left home and was staying with friends. She was sort of bouncing between places as she tried to navigate teenage independence and a fractured relationship with her family. And in late September of 1978, Mary was in Berkeley, California. She was staying with a friend. She started to feel homesick, and she decided to hitchhike back to Las Vegas. And understand, she was not alone. Hitchhiking was very common at the time. It was the post-hippie era, and it felt like freedom. But on this particular day, that decision would prove catastrophic.

While waiting with other hitchhikers near Interstate 5, a man pulled up in a van. This man was 51-year-old Lawrence Singleton. He said he had room for just one passenger, despite the fact that there was multiple people waiting, despite the fact that he was in a van. And this should have been a red flag, but Mary's 15 years old. She doesn't know yet how horrible and evil people can be, and she was exhausted and eager to get home to her family, so she accepted the ride. Almost immediately, things felt off. Singleton seemed nervous, disoriented. Mary noticed the van didn't have a passenger handle inside, meaning it could only be opened from the outside. Another red flag, obviously.

Definitely some premeditation there for sure. And when he made a wrong turn, Mary got suspicious. She bent down to tie her shoe so she could run if needed, which was smart. And Singleton calmed her down. He said it was a mistake, the wrong turn, and he turned back towards the highway. And for a moment, she believed him. But later that night, he pulled off the road near Del Porto Canyon in California under the pretense of needing to relieve himself. And that's when everything changed.

Lawrence Singleton attacked Mary with a hammer. He then brutally raped her, beat her, and made a choice so horrific it's very hard to comprehend. He severed both of her arms with a hatchet while she was alive, first the left, then the right, just below the elbows. Then he threw her down a 30-foot embankment, leaving her naked, bleeding, and alone in the dark, hoping and assuming that she would die. With unimaginable strength and clarity, Mary pressed the stumps of her arms into the dirt to slow the bleeding. Okay, she basically took the stumps of her arms and packed them with mud so that she wouldn't bleed to death. And then she crawled up that embankment, naked, bleeding, in shock.

And then she walked three miles along a desolate road before a couple driving by spotted her. She was rushed to a hospital, and despite the trauma and blood loss, doctors saved her life. But what's even more incredible is just days later, Mary was able to help law enforcement create a composite sketch of her attacker. And this was an image so accurate that Singleton's neighbors recognized him and called the police. Lawrence Singleton was obviously arrested. He was charged. And in 1979, he was convicted of rape, attempted murder, kidnapping, and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which was the maximum in California at that time.

14 years for what he did to a 15-year-old child. By the way, this is what – it's interesting that we're covering this week because last week you had made a comment and a lot of people agreed with you that why when someone is trying to kill someone, if they're unsuccessful – I was talking about this case. Yeah, I was talking about this case. Yeah, I was talking about this case. If they're unsuccessful, why are they not held to the same standard? They did not accomplish their goal because they stopped. It was because the victim refused to quit. It was because the victim was strong and said, I refuse to die.

How do they get a better deal because the victim was a better, a more strong-minded person than them? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That's exactly why this case is so, so important. And listen, he was sentenced to 14 years, maximum in California. Did he serve 14 years, Derek? Probably not. Nope. He served just eight years before being released. Obviously, this is messed up. Public outrage followed. No one wanted him in

their neighborhood. Cities protested his presence. At one point, he had to live on a trailer on the prison property because no community would accept him, as they should. Thank you, everybody, by the way, because I feel like today things would be different and people would just be like, oh, whatever. But like back then in the 80s and stuff, they were like, absolutely not. We don't want this monster around our children, around us. Now, Mary, in the meantime, she was trying to rebuild her life. She was fitted with prosthetic arms. She testified against Singleton in court, facing him down in an act of courage that most adults couldn't imagine. And she eventually became an artist and a victim's advocate, using her voice to help others, even as she lived with the trauma and the disability of what was done to her.

Now, in 1997, nearly two decades after his release, would you believe it that Larry Singleton committed another horrific crime? Uh-huh. And this time, you know what? His victim didn't survive. Singleton murdered a woman named Roxanne Hayes, a mother of three in Florida. Now, this time he was sentenced to death. I'm glad it took him taking the arms of a 15-year-old girl and taking the life of a mother of three before the justice system was finally like, hmm, maybe this guy's bad news. Maybe we shouldn't be out there. Yeah. And he and not only that, before justice could truly be fully served, Singleton died in prison from cancer in 2001.

An easy way out for a monster like that. Now, Mary Vincent obviously went through something most of us can't even comprehend, but she did not let it break her. She refused to be defined by what happened to her today. Like I said, she's an artist. So she was like, oh, you're going to take my hands. I'm going to do something that, you know, I can show you. I can survive this horrific attack and I can continue to create even though you took the thing from me that most people need to be an artist. And she makes these beautiful sculptures, these moving sculptures, and they focus on survival and strength. It is a raw expression of her pain, but also of her power. And Mary's story, I mean, obviously it stuck with me for a while often hide behind masks of normalcy.

And that survival is not just about living through something. It's about fighting back. And Mary did. She's not just a survivor. She is a warrior. Okay? It is absolutely the most inspiring, tragic yet inspiring at the same time. I just, I find so much emotion in this case. And this does bring us

back to the last several cases that we've covered and many cases that we've covered where it was Singleton's intention for her to die. And not only did he not just kill her so that he could be sure of it, it's like he wanted her to suffer. No, he tortured her. The intent was to torture her and then kill her or put her in a position where it was impossible for her to survive. So he thought. He didn't realize who he was dealing with. Because he's a coward because he's a weak man and weak people can never understand or comprehend what actual mental strength looks like and how it feels because they've never had it and they never will. The story's even more impressive when you consider the fact that obviously Mary's a

lot older now, but she was 15 years old at the time, which you said. I mean, that is just, it's incredible. It's incredible to think that a 15 year old at that time would not only have that type of will to live but also the thought the thought at that moment when you're basically in a moment of shock right you're realizing your limbs are missing but to to basically i don't want to say cauterize the wounds because you're not doing that but like find a way to stop the bleeding or impede the bleeding enough to get up the hill to get back out of there to survive long enough to be found i hill, to get back out of there, to survive long enough to be found. I also want to mention, it's kind of shocking to me how much his second victim, Roxanne, resembled Mary. And the fact that he pulled up in this van with the door handle

removed, I have to wonder if there's more victims out there that just have not been attributed to him yet, because this is an MO to me. The fact that these two victims resemble each other so much, the fact that he had his van fitted so that the handle wouldn't open from the inside passenger door, he wouldn't do that for just one victim, I don't think. What do you think? Yeah, no, I completely agree. It does raise some questions. Were there victims before Mary? Were there victims in between that we just haven't tied to him? And I do think there's a bigger message to take away from this. I could beat a dead horse with the whole, the justice system not doing the right thing

here and it resulted in a person dying because of it. Yeah. Captain obvious. We've all established that, right? And we're going to continue to fight for it. We're going to continue to talk about it because regardless of how many times we have to do it, if we stop talking about it, nothing will change. So we're going to continue to scream from the rooftops about that. But what can we do as individuals to help ourselves when the government

isn't helping us? And the one thing I would say, and I know it sounds commonsensical, but it is important to always remind everyone, especially when we have stories like this as proof of it being the case. To your point, this guy who I'm not even going to say his name, you know, fuck him. I don't even care to acknowledge him, but he had a plan to do this and he probably comes off as someone who is, you know, not a danger, someone who's good. It seems polite and friendly and willing to help guys. You just have to, in the world we live in now, I know I've said it a million times over the last five years. You just got to assume the worst. I know that's a terrible outlook on things,

but it's what I tell my family members and friends. It might be a little inconvenient at times, but unless you're in an emergency situation, a dire situation where you have to take someone's offering or you could be in severe danger. Don't do it. Don't do it because there are people out there that are looking for someone like you who's in a tough situation, a difficult scenario, and you're looking for help to get out of it. And this person conveniently is there. And it may not be a coincidence. So take this story. take Mary's story, take all these other stories we talk about and don't think that it can't happen to you because

it can. Yeah. But nobody's really, I think we are, we're so much like we've seen, you know, back then in the seventies, she's 15. It wasn't, there wasn't like this 24 hour news cycle talking about everybody that's going missing. And now people don't hitchhike anymore because of this, right? We're very wary of strangers. We have a more impeccable radar for stranger danger, but what, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't really help. No. And I'm not, and by the way, I'm not just talking to women because I haven't even told

you this story. This is God's honest, true story. And maybe I'm overreacting here, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. And this is what I'm preaching to you guys. So I'm in Canada and this woman picks me up for an Uber. I'm going from the hospital to the airport. And I always, I don't know why it's a weird OCD thing, but even when the Uber driver's taking me, I always put it in my phone as well on like Waze or Google Maps. I don't know why. I just want to have an idea of how long till we get there. And it's tough to see their phone. I know you can look at it on the Uber map, but I like Google or Waze better. Right?

So I put it in my phone and it said 22 minutes. And I was kind of on a, part of the reason I was doing it is because I was kind of on a time crunch. My flight was leaving at two and it was like 1230 and I was doing international. So she starts driving in the opposite direction. And she asked me and people from Canada will know what I'm talking about, but she says, do you care about taking the four Oh seven there's tolls. So it's going to be more money. Now I didn't know what the four Oh seven was. You guys from Canada will. And I'm like, sure, whatever's the fastest route. So I'm looking at my phone and the fastest route is on the four Oh seven. So all of a sudden she asks me that. And then she stops, she starts going in the opposite direction. It's going a estimated

time, 22 minutes, 24 minutes, 27 minutes. And I'm like, excuse me, ma'am, where are you going? And she's like, I'm going to the airport. I'm like, yeah, but the way you're going, it's, you're going like around to get there. And she's like, no, this is the quickest way. And I'm like, ma'am, I want you to go based on this. This is telling me 22 minutes the other way. Oh, I didn't know you wanted to go on 407. You just asked me and I told you that. Now, why do I say all this? It was obviously just a misunderstanding. There was nothing there, but there was a small part of me that's like, I don't know her. I don't assume that she's automatically a good person because she's driving an Uber. I'm not saying that Uber drivers are bad. What I'm saying is bad people are

everywhere. And I don't ever assume that someone's got the right intention. So even though this is a woman who I could physically overpower, I don't know where she's bringing me or who's going to be there or what she has on her. So I'm dotting my I's and crosses my T's and staying aware of my surroundings, even with all the background and experience that I have. Because, again, I'd rather come off as an asshole and be safe than just assume that this person's got to be a good person. Right. They're working. They're trying to make a living. They got to be they got to know more than me. And so, again, in the moment, it almost looks like I'm just like, you know, being a little pushy.

But the reality is I just want to be safe. Of course. And I mean, you're, you're obviously stronger and bigger and everything, but I guess what, you know what the equalizer is a gun. Yeah. And I know in Canada, that's hard, but it's, it's one of those things where you just never know. And I'm not, I'm not taking the chance. I'm not taking the chance. Nor should you. And I mean, like I said, I think that the incidence of violence is even more now than it was in the 70s, possibly. I don't know. We could just be hearing about it more. And I think people are much better at protecting themselves. But this dude intended for her to die and he intended for her to die in the most slow and torturous way possible. And he didn't even get two decades in prison.

And he didn't even serve one decade in prison. This is a miscarriage of justice. He went on to kill another person. And we could say, oh, it's the 70s. It's not like that anymore. It still is like that. We've seen it. We have seen it dozens and dozens of times.

Attempted murder does not get you the same sentence as murder. But if you intended, there should be some attempted intended murder where the sentence is the same as if that person had actually died, because that's what you wanted. And if you'd had it your way, that's what you would have gotten. So you should get a life sentence. Completely agree. I completely agree with you. And we're going to keep preaching preaching it and hopefully something happens. And I think with bigger platforms, if we continue to talk about it, public figures and people in legislative positions, they do listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos too. So I think more people that are aware of it and we bring up scenarios like this change, change is going to come.

Change is going to come. And thank you all for, thank you all for giving us her name. I had watched it like a year ago, so I couldn't, but I couldn't remember the details, but I just remembered how horrified I was by it. And I'm glad that I was finally able to get in there and look into her a little bit more and see that she's doing great now. She's still creating art. She's still kicking ass and taking names. Yeah, there's a bunch of photos out there. Google, you can see what she's thriving.

Yeah, she's beautiful. She's happy and if you're listening mary or you know anyone can get you this message we are so proud of you thank you so much for being an inspiration to so many guys we appreciate you being here we'll be back later this week with let's let's change it up a little bit we're starting a series that is heavily requested heavily it's going to be controversial maybe why don't you tell them? It's Darlie Routier. You guys might've heard that name before.

I've been putting it off because I know that it's, for some reason, I know how I feel about it. I have no, I'm going in, I know this is a shocker. You're going in blind. Yeah.

So we're looking forward to it. Join us later this week. Audio on Friday, YouTube on Sunday. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Thank you guys.

Bye.