Woman’s first date in 15 years ends in broken neck, back, and soul

An Oklahoma woman who went on her first date in more than a decade was hospitalized this past weekend after that date ended in a car crash.

Jo Salazar had just gotten out of a 15-year relationship when she met a man in a bar in Lawton, Ok. “A friend of friend,” her family told KWTV. They set something up for July 4—a truly symbolic day to go on a first date.

That date apparently went well: The two were driving back to his home Saturday night.

Then their car crashed into a tree.

After the crash, Salazar’s sister Chess claims, he climbed out from the wreckage, said “I’m not going to catch a charge for this,” and left Jo “for dead.”

“She managed to get back in the vehicle, find her phone, call 911, and then, I think the most gut-wrenching thing that she’s told me is that she laid on her belly in the dirt in pain, broken neck, broken back, being eaten by bugs,” her sister Chess told the TV station. “She could feel them on her. She couldn’t move.”

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol confirmed to KWTV that they have apprehended a suspect; Jo Salazar is reportedly recovering at OU Medical Center.

Jo: You did not deserve this and I hope you can find some relief from this hell we call life.