It's the 29th of September 1978.

15 year old Mary Vincent is hitching a lift to her grandfather's house in LA. A van pulls up

and Mary is offered a lift by a 51 year old guy with a beer gut wearing overalls.

Two other hitchhikers she's standing with warn her not to accept the lift, but she ignores them.

She would soon find out this decision would be a deck chair.

This is True Crime Island, another true crime podcast. So, 10. So tonight I have a listener request from Daniel Grull.

Hi Danielle.

It's an amazing story of survival under the most grueling of circumstances

it's also a story of how the justice system can be so broken and how some victims will fall between the cracks and that they

themselves endure a life sentence. It's also a story that has a tragic end and it also has an inspirational ending.

So who's Mary Vincent?

Mary was born in 1963 to strict parents Lucy and Herb Vincent.

Lucy was a dealer in a casino and herb fixed poker machines.

She was the middle kid of seven kids, a little rebellious, like to wear makeup and jig or skip school.

She was a great dancer and Mary herself says,

I'd have been a lead dancer at the Lido de Paris in Las Vegas, then Hawaii and Australia. I'm serious.

I was really good on my feet and my dance instructor had it all worked out.

One day her sister warned her that her father was on his way home.

He had a migraine and was angry at her. Mary decided to run away and stay with her boyfriend in Salcalito, California.

She was doing it rough, sleeping with the boyfriend in unlocked cars and behind dumpsters, until

he was arrested for allegedly raping a high school girl.

So Mary was still homeless, sleeping rough, but sometimes she'd stay with an uncle in Soil, California.

...