SURVIVING ABDUCTION: Lisa McVey

Lisa McVey was a 17 year old girl who was abducted and raped by a serial killer in 1984. This woman is one of the smartest survivors I’ve ever learned about, as she was able to manipulate her captor into setting her free. I strongly recommend watching the movie based on this case, called “Believe Me.”

Who Is Lisa McVey?

Lisa was born in March of 1967, in Tampa, Florida. She had a really hard time growing up, as her mother, who was addicted to drugs and alcohol, forced her to move in with her grandmother and grandmother’s boyfriend at 14. Prior to this, she was in and out of foster homes. Her grandmother’s boyfriend would molest her often for three years straight, while holding a gun to her head, and her grandmother never did anything to stop it. It’s because of this abuse that helped aid in her survival when she met serial killer and rapist, Bobby Joe Young. She knew how to handle herself in those situations, and she knew how to keep herself alive. Due to her abuse at home, she had planned to commit suicide after work that very same night she was abducted. Ironically, once she was in that life or death situation, she suddenly had the will to live, and decided it wasn’t time for her to die.

Who Was Bobby Joe Long?

Bobby was born on October 14th, 1953, in Kenova, West Virginia, and moved to Tampa in 1983. He was a serial killer and rapist who targeted women in the Tampa Bay area, and killed at least 10 women. He was born with an extra X chromosome, also known as 47,XXY, a specific variant of Klinefelter syndrome. This condition results in excessive estrogen production, causing some female traits such as breast development. Due to this condition, he was teased as a child for his large breasts and underwent breast reduction surgery when he was a teenager. He had also suffered multiple head injuries as a child resulting from diverse accidents. He married his high school girlfriend in 1974 and had two kids with her before she filed for divorce in 1980. Bobby Joe committed at least 50 rapes in Miami. Whenever he was with a woman alone, he’d go to the bathroom to take out his “rape kit,” come back, and rape and rob the woman. He was convicted of rape in 1981 but requested a new trial and somehow the charges were dropped. After moving to Tampa in 1984, he spent eight months on a murder spree.

Lisa McVey’s Abduction

On November 3rd, 1984, Lisa was riding home from work on her bicycle when she was found and snatched by Bobby Joe. She was thrown into the backseat of his car, held at gunpoint, blindfolded, bound, and raped. She was then brought to his apartment and repeatedly raped and tortured for the next 26 hours. Due to her experience with abuse, Bobby noticed that she wasn’t like the others. She didn’t try to run, she didn’t scream, she didn’t cry, and she obeyed. Later he would say that Lisa was “different.” Lisa relied on her memory and her ability to keep an eye out on specific details. How many turns were made from her abduction point, what she was able to see under her blindfold, the kind of car, the color of the cars interior, how many steps were taken up to his apartment, how his face felt, what his dominant hand was, that he was extremely clean (he made her shower once she was in his apartment), where his boots were placed, etc. Additionally, as part of her manipulation tactic, she tried to sympathize with him by telling him that he wasn’t really such a bad person, that she saw good in him and that he deserved to be loved, and even offered to be his secret girlfriend. Then, she tried to gain sympathy from him by telling him that she really needed to survive, as she is her fathers sole caregiver, and he was very sick and needed her. This was the final straw that persuaded him to let her go. He drove her to a remote location while blindfolded and told her to keep the blindfold on for 5 minutes so he could get away.

When she returned home, she was scolded and beaten by her grandmother’s boyfriend, and neither of them initially believed her story. It took them 5 hours before finally calling the police. What makes matters worse, most of the officers didn’t believe her story either for some reason, besides one officer in particular. She told the police all the information she had, and even made sure she left fingerprints in multiple areas of the bathroom to prove that she was really there. Through her description of the man and the details of the route they took, they were able to find Bobby Joe’s apartment, and went to hunt him down. He was found on November 16th, 1984, at a movie theater looking for a sex worker. He killed two more women before he was caught. He said that the police never would’ve found him if he didn’t let her live. On September 23rd, 1985, he pleaded guilty to his kidnapping and assault of Lisa McVey, and to an additional eight counts of first degree murder, eight counts of kidnapping, and seven counts of sexual battery. He received life sentences on every count in Hillsborough County. Additionally, he received two death sentences for the murders of Michelle Denise Simms and Virginia Johnson.

He was executed by lethal injection on May 23rd, 2019, and Lisa and the one other survivor were present at his execution. Lisa later became a sheriff, and also works at a middle school as a resource officer, teaching students how to handle potentially dangerous situations.

THE KNOWN VICTIMS

• Artiss “Ann” Wick, 20 — killed on March 27, 1984
• Nguyen Thi Long, 19 — killed on May 13, 1984
• Michelle Denise Simms, 22 — killed on May 27, 1984
• Linda Nuttall, 33 — assaulted in May 1984; survived
• Elizabeth Loudenback, 22 — killed on June 8, 1984
• Vicky Marie Elliott, 21 — killed on September 7, 1984
• Chanel Devoun Williams, 18 — killed on October 7, 1984
• Karen Beth Dinsfriend, 28 — killed on October 14, 1984
• Kimberly Kyle Hopps, 22 — killed on October 31, 1984
• Lisa McVey, 17 — assaulted, raped on November 3, 1984; survived
• Virginia Lee Johnson, 18 — killed on November 6, 1984
• Kim Marie Swann, 21 — killed on November 11, 1984