Woman found on roadside with 30 stab wounds, clutching her throat and intestines. Doctors are amazed how she survived

On December 18, 1994, 27-year-old Alison Botha came back to her apartment in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, after hanging out with friends. When she parked her car, a man with a knife got inside. He told her to switch seats and then drove to get another man. The two men were Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger.

The men took Botha to an empty area outside the city. They raped her and cut her throat 16 times. The cuts were so deep her head was almost completely off. They also stabbed her body 30 times. Before they left, one man asked if she was dead. The other one said nobody could live through that. Then they drove away.

But Botha was still awake. She was lying on sand and broken glass. According to Mandela, first, she wrote down the names of the men who hurt her in the sand. Then she noticed car lights far away. She thought if she could get to the road, someone might help her. She held her head on with one hand and kept her insides from falling out with her other hand. Then she pulled herself to the road. A vet student named Tiaan Eilerd saw her there and called for help.

Doctors couldn’t believe she lived

When Botha got to the hospital, doctors were shocked. One doctor named Alexander Angelov said he had never seen anyone hurt this badly in his 16 years as a doctor. Everyone thought she would die. But she didn’t. She also remembered what the men looked like and picked them out from photos while she was still in bed at the hospital.

Police caught du Toit and Kruger quickly. People started calling them the “Ripper Rapists” in the news. Both men said they were guilty of kidnapping, rape, and trying to kill Botha. A judge sent them to prison for life in August 1995. He said they should never be let out. Like the Appalachian woman who discovered an intruder in her basement, Botha’s scary night became a story about staying alive when it seemed impossible.

Botha got better and did something brave. She became one of the first women in South Africa to say her name publicly after being raped. She went to at least 35 countries to tell people what happened to her. Other women who had been raped felt stronger after hearing her story. In 1995, she got an award for being so brave. She wrote two books about what happened. In 2016, people made a movie about her called Alison. She also had two sons.

In July 2023, du Toit and Kruger got out of prison after 28 years. But in February 2025, the government changed its mind and put them back in jail. Lately, Botha has had new health problems because of her injuries. She had a brain aneurysm. But she still talks to people around the world about being strong. While some people face shocking and unexpected situations, not many have been as brave as Botha after going through something so terrible.