Woman trapped in crashed car survives on creek water for 6 days until rescue

This March 11, 2025 photo provided by the Newton County Sheriff's Office shows first responders after finding an Indiana woman who was trapped in her car with severe leg injuries for six days near the town of Brook, Ind. (Newton County Sheriff's Office via AP)

BROOK, IND. — An Indiana woman who was trapped in her car with severe leg injuries survived for nearly a week by sucking water from a sweatshirt that she dipped into a small creek, authorities said.

A man operating drainage equipment saw Brieonna Cassell’s car off a road Tuesday near the town of Brook, Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a post on social media.

The man told his supervisor, who is also a fire chief, and they found Cassell inside the car, conscious and able to speak, according to the sheriff. Multiple agencies responded, and the 41-year-old Wheatfield woman was extricated and flown to a Chicago hospital, he said.

Cassell had been reported missing by family members days before she was found, the sheriff said. She had been trapped since Thursday night when she fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road into a ditch, her father, Delmar Caldwell, told ABC News. Her vehicle wasn’t visible from the road.

Caldwell told the news outlet that Cassell had injuries to her legs and wrist and that her phone was found under the passenger seat.

“She was stuck in the car and could not get out,” Caldwell said. “But she was able to reach the water from the car,” Caldwell said.

She was able to dip her hooded sweatshirt into the water and get it to her mouth that way, he said.

On Wednesday, Cassell was in stable condition at the hospital and was scheduled to have surgery “as there is some concern with the healing of her legs,” according to Cassell’s mother, who told Cothran, the sheriff, that he could share her status on social media.

Both of her legs are broken and so is her wrist, according to a post on a GoFundMe fundraising site set up to help pay her medical bills. Family members spent the days in which she was missing searching for her, walking for miles along roads and ditches, the post said.

“Her outlook for recovery is good but it will be a long road to recovery,” the sheriff said.