Missing woman found alive, “trapped and alone,” 6 days after crashing car near Indiana landfill

A missing woman was found and rescued Tuesday after surviving six days in her crashed car in Newton County, Indiana.

Brieonna Cassell, 41, of Wheatfield, was reported missing six days ago, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.

Police said Johnny Martinez – who was working for Deyoung Drainage on County Road 600S near County Road 300E near the Newton County Landfill – saw a car crashed in a ditch by the side of the road. He contacted his supervisor, Morocco Fire Chief Jeremy Vanderwall, who joined him to investigate the crash.

Vanderwall said at first, Martinez did not think anyone was in the car.  When Martinez took him to the scene, Vanderwall said he did not see anyone in the car at first either.

“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 turned out there was indeed someone in the car.

“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 they checked the car, police said they found Cassell inside alone, conscious and able to speak. They discovered she had been injured and trapped in her crashed car for nearly a week.

“When I got down to her, she had some dry blood on her forehead. And I said, ‘How long have you been down here?'” he said. “And she said, ‘Since Wednesday.’ I said, ‘Ma’am, it’s Tuesday…. I think maybe you’re confused… it’s only Tuesday. Tomorrow’s Wednesday.'”

Cassell meant Wednesday of the previous week.

“I said, ‘Oh my God…. That’s who you are. I said, ‘Your family’s been looking for you… it’s been all over social media…. I can’t believe you’ve been here this long,” said Vanderwall.

Vanderwall said Cassell did not think she was going to make it out, and had expected to die in the ditch. He said he told her he would not allow that to happen.

I said: ‘The police, fire, ambulance, everybody is on their way. I said, I’ve notified everyone,'” Vanderwall said.

Vanderwall said Cassell told him she had been dipping a green cardigan sweater into the ditch to get water.

“You know, it picked up the water into the shirt, and she would suck the water out of her shirt,” Vanderwall said. “Her survival mode just was uncanny, you know, her will to live.”

Cassell was flown to a Chicago hospital for treatment. Police did not say how severe her injuries were.

It was also in Northwest Indiana back in December 2023 that Matt Reum went through a very similar experience. Reum survived for six days at in a ravine along Salt Creek in Portage, Indiana, after his pickup truck fell off an overpass on Interstate 94.

The pickup truck was smashed and mangled, and he couldn’t get out – nor reach his phone to call for help. So he just remained there, surviving on rainwater and using his airbag as a blanket when it got cold out, for six days.

On Boxing Day 2023, two fishermen who had come to scout out a spot along the creek just happened across Reum—and called 911 for first responders to come to his rescue. Reum had to have his leg amputated, but survived, and was expressing his perspective and gratitude a year later.