AT just 17, Lisa McVey managed to convince a sadistic serial killer to set her free.
Lisa, now a police officer, is the only victim to survive serial killer and rapist Bobby Joe Long.
Who is Lisa McVey?
McVey had a difficult childhood. Her mother was an alcoholic and drug addict and she grew up in the care of her grandmother.
But Lisa was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend in her care.
In 1984, she became the last victim of serial killer Long, and provided evidence that enabled his arrest.
Nowadays, she works as Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy and says that her ordeal motivated her.
“That was my motivation to become a police officer,” Lisa has said. “I’m no longer a victim.”
What happened to Lisa McVey?
On the night of November 3, 1984, 17-year-old Lisa finished her shift at a local donut shop, and began her cycle home.
She noticed a car was following her and suddenly a man, later discovered to be Bobby Joe Long, knocked her off her bike and pulled her into his car at gunpoint.
He drove McVey to his apartment, where he treated her as his sex slave for over a day.
McVey got glimpses of her abductor through her blindfold, and was able to provide the police with details of his appearance and his apartment.
She later said: “At one time he placed my hands on his face. There were pockmarks, a small mustache, small ears, short hair, clean-cut, kind of stout, but not overweight; a big guy.”
It was McVey’s testimony that finally led police to Long.
How long was Lisa McVey held captive?
He released McVey after raping her over a period of 26 hours.
McVey, knowing that escaping the apartment was her only chance of survival, told Long that she was an only child and she needed to care for her sick father.
Lisa later said her experience of child sexual abuse helped her talk Long out of killing her.
She recalls: “I said, ‘Listen, it’s unfortunate how we met, but I can be your girlfriend. I could take care of you, and no one ever has to know.'”
McVey says: “It really helped me to survive that attack, to use it psychologically to get inside his head and actually try and get him to see that I was a compassionate person.”
Her captor made the decision to release McVey who, until the ordeal, had been considering taking her own life.
McVey later said: “When he released me and drove off, I took off my blindfold and saw this amazing oak tree. I had wanted to die before and now I wanted to live,
“I got a second chance at life.”
McVey was able to recall the amount of time she spent in Long’s car after being abducted, and gave the police details of an ATM that he had used during the journey.
Police checked ATM transactions in the same time frame and area, which ultimately clinched the killer.
What happened to Bobby Joe Long?
It was deduced that Long was responsible for the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of at least 10 women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida during an eight-month period in 1984.
Police had collected firm forensic evidence linking him to the murders, and he later pled guilty to all 10 of them.
Long was sentenced to death for two of the ten murders.
He was executed by lethal injection on May 23, 2019.
McVey, sat in the front row to watch his execution. “I wanted to be the first person he saw,” she said.
