Last Updated 3 days by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
BROOK, Ind. (WISH) — A 41-year-old woman missing for six days was found alive Tuesday in a car that has crashed into a farmland drainage ditch off a Newton County road, the sheriff says.
Photos from the scene from scene showed the black 2008 Ford Taurus with its truck in the Battleday Ditch next to a bridge on County Road 600 South just east of County Road 300 East. That’s about 5 miles west of the I-65 interchange for State Road 114 to Morocco and Rensselaer in northwest Indiana.
Brieonna Cassell, of the Jasper County town of Wheatfield, was injured but conscious and speaking. She was airlifted to a Chicago hospital for treatment, the county sheriff says. Social media posts in recent days had urged people to help find the missing woman.
Johnny Martinez of DeYoung Drainage & Excavating found the car, hidden from traffic, while operating equipment for his job, the sheriff says. Martinez contacted his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, who is the chief of Morocco Volunteer Fire Department. Together, they checked the vehicle and found Cassell inside.
The rear of the car was partially submerged in the swallow water of the ditch, while the front of the car was about 12 feet below the top of the ditch.
The crash sits is about a one-hour drive northwest of downtown Lafayette.