A 17-Year-Old Outsmarted a Serial Killer
When 17-year-old Lisa McVey finished her double shift at a local donut shop in Tampa, Florida, Lisa hopped on her bike and started peddling to her grandma's house, where she lived.
While Lisa was passing by a church on her bike, a man snuck up behind her and yanked her off her bike. As Lisa was screaming, the man lifted the barrel of a firearm right up to her head and threatened to blow her brains out if she didnt do as she was told.
Sadly, that intensity was something Lisa knew all too well. For three years, her grandma's boyfriend had been forcing himself on her, threatening her to submit by putting a glock up to her head.
With the firearm up to her head, the assailant led Lisa into the car. The guy put a blindfold over Lisa's eyes, tied up her limbs and gagged her.
The man assured Lisa that as long as she did everything he wanted, he wouldn't harm her. He got behind the wheel and started to drive. During the car ride, Lisa made a mental note of any identifying features about the man or his vehicle because she was determined to somehow escape and report this man to the police.
While looking around the car through the small gaps in her blindfold, Lisa noted that the seats were white, the carpet was dark red and the word magnum was written on the dash. She could tell they were headed north on the interstate based on the wind velocity and she determined the car needed an oil change based on the way it was rattling.
The drive lasted about 20 minutes, although it felt like ages for Lisa. Once the car came to a stop, Lisa was able to see a few leaves from behind the blindfold, so she assumed they were in the woods.
He grabbed her arm and led her somewhere. She felt a door knob so she knew she was entering an apartment. The carpet was green with yellow and red specks. The man led her up a set of stairs that included 19 steps.
Once Lisa made it inside the apartment, the assailant ordered her to take off her clothes and get in the shower. Lisa pretended to not look at her attacker, but she caught a glimpse of his short brown hair.
The man washed Lisa off, put her blindfold back on, and threw her on the floor where he forced himself on her. The whole time this was happening, Lisa was brainstorming ways to escape.
After some time, the assailant tied up Lisa's arms and legs again and made her get on his bed. As she was lying in the bed, Lisa made a mental note that the apartment smelled like new paint.
Over the next few hours, the assailant continued to force himself on Lisa in between periods of conversation. At one point, he asked Lisa what her name was. She said Carol. He asked what the girls at her school looked like when they changed for gym class. She made something up to please him. At one point, the perp took Lisa into another room, presumably the kitchen, to make her a sandwich and get her a can of soda.
The show Airwolf was playing on the TV, but it was interrupted by an emergency news alert that said a 17 -year -old girl named Lisa was missing. Hearing those words on the TV, Lisa was overcome with emotion and started crying and screaming. In response, the perp put his firearm to her head and told her to stop screaming or he'd be forced to put a bullet in her head. The word forced stuck out to Lisa.
It seemed like he didn't want to kill her and he kept her blindfolded, which probably meant he was trying to separate himself from seeing her as a human being, but instead as an object.
After Lisa ate the sandwich, she was led back to the bedroom where her attacker violated her so many times. As traumatic as the situation was, Lisa knew she had to stay alert. When the man grabbed her hand and put it on his face, Lisa tapped into her sense of touch to sleuth out what he looked like.
He had a snub nose, small ears, pop -marked skin, and aside from his mustache, he was clean cut. He also seemed to be pretty big, but not overweight. The perp slapped and punched Lisa a few times and then told her to go to sleep.
But of course, that wasn't going to happen. Instead of Lisa sleeping, she started talking. Lisa asked the man why he was doing this to her. He responded something about getting back at women in general because of a recent bad breakup.
She decided she would try every tactic to get him to see her as a human instead of another pawn in his sick game of revenge. Lisa first tried to get to the guy's emotions with some made-up story about her dad being super sick.
She told him he couldn't kill her because she was the only person who could take care of her dad. She also told her attacker she would be his girlfriend, and do whatever he wanted despite the unfortunate circumstances as to how they met. To that, he refused.
Shortly after that, the man gave Lisa a shirt and told her to put it on. He asked her where she lived and said he would take her home. Lisa was shocked but went along with it. The man took her down to his car, still in a blindfold. He got in the car and started to drive. At one point, he stopped at an ATM and got out. Through the blindfold, she saw he was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes.
He also stopped at a gas station during their drive where he got out again and warned Lisa that if she screamed, he'd whack the cashier inside and then come for her. So Lisa remained quiet until he got back in the car.
After driving a little bit further, the man pulled over again. That's when he told Lisa, ‘tell your father he's the reason why I didn't kill you. Give me five minutes and you can take the blindfold off.’
The perp led Lisa outside of his car and drove off. After 26 brutal hours of being held hostage and harmed by this sicko, Lisa was free.
Lisa was dropped off sometime around four in the morning. Once she thought the coast was clear, she began running towards her grandma's house. But every time a car drove past her, she freaked out thinking it was her attacker coming back for her. The whole idea that he just dropped her off seemed too good to be true. Lisa eventually made it to her grandma's house and started banging on the door for someone to let her in.
Her grandma's boyfriend opened the door. The boyfriend grabbed Lisa by the hair, threw her on the floor, and began hitting her to scold her for cheating on him. Lisa's grandma woke up from the commotion and then called the police. But instead of reporting her boyfriend's behavior or Lisa's abduction, she told the cops not to worry about her granddaughter as she had returned home and was lying about being kidnapped.
Even though grandma said everything was okay, the cops didn’t believe her. Lisa was brought into the local police station to give her account of events to a female detective. She went over everything in detail, but the detective thought Lisa seemed way too calm to be telling the truth. This detective was convinced Lisa was lying, so she kept asking Lisa to repeat her story.
Lisa asked to speak to someone more intelligent. Thankfully, another detective agreed to speak with Lisa the following day. His name was Sergeant Larry Pinkerton, and he was a specialist in intimate crimes like this one. When he came out of the interrogation room after speaking with Lisa, he said, I believe her.
A few days later, Lisa was at home when she heard something concerning on the TV in the background. It was the story of a body that had been found in the Tampa area. At the time, there was a serial killer out on the loose who was suspected to have killed several women. As Lisa listened to the report, she started to speculate that this mass executioner was the same guy who abducted her and let her go. She called Sergeant Larry and said she knew that man was her attacker.
Larry brought Lisa back in and asked her if she'd be down for hypnosis to hopefully find out more about the perp. But since Lisa was under 18, that was a decision that had to be made by her guardians. Larry asked Lisa's grandma's boyfriend, but he said no. Frustrated and defeated, Lisa broke down crying. She told the sergeant about what her grandma's boyfriend had been doing to her the past few years.
Larry then arrested the boyfriend and put Lisa in a housing facility for runaway teenagers. Larry showed Lisa some pictures of potential suspects and she pointed out one photo that fit the features of the face she felt.
She went over all of the details that she remembered. They were able to find that specific ATM and look through the transactions from that day. Lisa also told detectives about the word magnum on his car, so they looked at the names of everyone who owned a Dodge Magnum in Florida.
Between those two records was one name in common, Robert Joseph Long, also known as Bobby Joe Long. Shortly thereafter, Bobby was arrested and positively linked to Lisa's case as her attacker through red carpet fibers from his car that were found on her clothes.
Bobby was later linked to 10 other cases that involved women being attacked and killed within eight months. He pleaded guilty to all 10 and in 2019 was given capital punishment. Lisa sat in the front row to watch his execution. She wanted to be the first person he saw.
After aging out of the Runaway Center, getting tossed around between relatives, and working a few odd jobs here and there, Lisa landed a position at the Hillsborough County Department of Parks and Recreation.
One day a break-in occurred at the office that Lisa reported, and the deputy told her, ‘you've got the attitude to be a cop. Ever thought of that?’ Lisa had actually been thinking about it very seriously since her attack in 74.
A few years later, she went through the police academy and became an officer in the same department that caught her attacker specializing in sex crimes. Lisa has now been on the force for almost 20 years. And for the past eight or so years, she's worked as a resource officer at a middle school.
There, she is very open about her experiences and uses her stories to educate the kids. In an interview, Lisa said, ‘I tell kids if somebody tries to grab them, scream as loud as you can. And if they get taken away, they should mind their ps and qs, and do whatever they can to survive.’
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