Alison Botha was just 27 when she endured a horrific ordeal of being abducted, violated, disembowelled and having her throat slashed 16 times – yet, thanks to her courage and quick thinking, she miraculously survived.

She was returning home from a visit with friends in her native Port Elizabeth, South Africa in December 1994, when an unknown man suddenly leapt into her car as she arrived outside her home.

“You live in number one, don’t you?”, he chillingly enquired.

The intruder was Frans du Toit, a serial rapist who was out on bail after previously abducting and brutally attacking two other women. Du Toit had also been diagnosed as a psychopath and narcissist, and had admitted to devil worship.

Du Toit seized control of the vehicle and threatened Botha’s life, introducing himself as “Clinton”. When she suggested that du Toit simply take the car and leave her be, he informed her that he “wanted company”, reports the Mirror.

Taking over Botha’s car and driving them both around the local area, du Toit encountered his friend and previous crime partner, Theuns Krugeras, who was waiting for them by the roadside. Du Toit slowed the car and allowed Krugeras to join them, telling Botha, “Theuns doesn’t speak good English.”

Subsequently, Du Toit drove the trio to a secluded, wooded nature reserve and halted the car on a sandy bank. He yanked Botha from the car and flung her to the ground before savagely raping her.

Krugeras began attacking her as well, but suddenly exclaimed, “No, I can’t do this,” and called out the name “Frans”. Botha, realising “Clinton” had been an alias, was resolute about remembering this name.

After the assault concluded, du Toit said to Botha, “If we take you into town now, you’ll go to the police.”

He then asked Krugeras, “What do you think Oom Nick would want us to do with her?”.

“Oom Nick” is the Afrikaans term for Satan. Krugeras responded: “I think he wants us to kill her.”

The duo then brutally attacked Botha. Du Toit strangled her until she lost consciousness, apologising whilst carrying out his assault.

When Botha came round, she felt a man’s arm around her face and a burning, pulling sensation across her neck. Du Toit was slashing her throat.

He would inflict 16 cuts in total, nearly severing Botha’s head from her body.

Botha horrifically recalled: “I tried to hold my breath, but I realised I had no control over my breathing. I moved my hand to cover my neck [and] my whole hand disappeared into it.”

The violence, after a brief period, ceased. One of her attackers asked the other if he thought Botha, lying face down on the ground, was still alive.

“No one can survive that,” the other replied.

The pair abandoned Botha, still conscious of everything happening to her. Remembering the names she had heard, she scratched the words “Theuns” and “Frans” into the sandy earth, along with the words “I love mum”.

She remembers seeing herself from an out-of-body vantage point: “It was as if I’d cut moorings. As I hovered there, I recognised the person down below. I knew it was me, and I felt such a strong connection to that bleeding, mangled girl lying on her stomach.”

Botha spotted lights in the distance – a neighbouring road, which was nearer than she had initially thought.

Understanding this represented her opportunity for survival, she forced herself onto her knees but felt something “tepid, wet and slimy” slip from her abdomen.

She glanced down and discovered her attackers had also sliced her stomach so profoundly that her intestines were spilling from her body.

“It was horrifying,” she said, “there was just so much of me on the outside. I tried to scoop it all up with my hands but everything just slithered away again.”

Naked, with her half-severed head drooping almost to her shoulder blades and holding her intestines barely contained with a piece of fabric, Botha dragged herself towards the light.

She frantically waved, and a car mercifully stopped. She heard a woman shriek in terror as a young man, Tiaan Eilerd, knelt beside her.

Eilerd was a vet and had been travelling home from seeing friends, just as Botha had been just hours earlier.

Drawing upon his medical expertise, he assessed Botha’s vital signs and assisted in stemming the bleeding. He described Botha as resembling “a creature straight out of a Dickens novel”.

Incredibly, Botha survived the ordeal. Du Toit and Krugeras were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995, but were released on parole in 2023.

This decision sparked such outrage in South Africa that both individuals were swiftly re-arrested and had their parole rescinded, marking a first in the nation’s history.

Du Toit expressed frustration about Botha’s refusal to forgive her assailants and claimed that the incident had left him traumatised.

Botha, who wrote a memoir and inspired a film about her experience, hoped her narrative would serve as an inspiration to others.

“I have always hoped that by sharing my own journey with others, it would give them hope and courage for their own,” she stated.

“To have my story and ultimate triumph shared means that so many more people can see the power of choice that we each have; and might also choose to triumph over life’s hardships.”