Agreed. If it was hooked to the axle, the axle wouldn't have slid in the rearward direction of the jeep when it tore off. Looks like they were just pulling at a terrible angle, and that passenger front wheel was wedged in there and not moving.

Pulling from the front axle in that situation may have caused less damage, because the rear did not appear to be stuck. The front was wedged in the mud fierce. (I do not recommend pulling from the axle, in this situation something was bound to break the way they were doing it. Looked like they couldn't get a better angle, so it had to be done from that way. So either rip the axle out from underneath the body or risk bending an axle tube.)