SURVIVOR
I was kidnapped at gunpoint at 15 by a serial killer rapist, I was gagged & tortured but still managed to flee
Kara's kidnapper had already murdered three times when he targeted the teen - how she survived is truly remarkable
GAGGED, handcuffed and her legs bound with rope, tears sprang to 15-year-old Kara Robinson’s eyes as she desperately scoured her captor’s flat trying to figure out an escape plan.
The school girl had endured unimaginable suffering - forced into a car at gunpoint, then sexually assaulted and tortured for 18 hours by evil rapist and kidnapper Richard Evonitz, 38.
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If that wasn’t bad enough, she would have been even more petrified if she’d known Evonitz was already a serial killer - responsible for the rape and murder of at least three other young innocent girls previously.
The odds were undoubtedly stacked against her.
However abducting brave Kara, now 38, would prove to be Evonitz's downfall, as she would miraculously escape and consequently bring an end to the monster’s reign of terror.
And how she did it was also remarkable.
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Putting aside her terror and panic, Kara memorised even the tiniest details to help identify her attacker, even remembering the serial number on the inside of the plastic container he had forced her into.
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‘I just knew something bad had happened’
For Kara it was a chance encounter on June 24 2002 that changed her life as she knew it.
She'd spent the night at her best friend Heather’s house, and they had plans to go to the lake that day after completing some chores.
Kara started to water the garden while Heather took a shower.
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However when going out into the garden Heather discovered the hosepipe was still running - but there was no sign of Kara.
Speaking on Hayu documentary, Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story, Kara's mum Debra says: “I was at lunch and I got a call from Heather and she told me Kara was missing. She said she was in the front yard and [then was] gone.
"Heather was completely hysterical. She knew Kara would not just walk away.
“When I was driving to Heather’s house I just really knew something bad had happened. I could feel it in my heart.”
Recalling the events of that morning, Kara says: “I was outside watering the flowers and I noticed a car on the way out of the neighbourhood.
“It was a green trans am - such a cool car. I kept watering the flowers and I saw the car come back into the neighbourhood.
“A guy gets out of the car. He said ‘hey, how are you doing? I have these magazines’ and then he asked if my parents were home.
“I told him this was my friend’s house… and said her mum’s not home right now.
“At that point the man asked if he could give me the magazines.
“When I said yes he leaned in to give them to me and as he was leaning in I felt a red flag somewhere in my head.
“At the same time… I felt a gun press to the side of my neck.
“He said 'if you scream I’ll shoot you. You’re going to come with me'. I think I felt a moment of terror but I knew I just needed to do what he told me to do.
“I looked in the back seat and there’s a giant plastic storage container. He said ‘get in the container’.
“At that point my brain shut off my emotions. I just went into survival mode.”
Heather called her mother, who reported Kara, who lived in Lexington County, South Carolina, missing to the local police.
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‘I knew I had to be my own victor’
Once in the car, Kara was trapped inside the storage container, unable to see where she was being taken - but she knew her life was in danger.
Kara says: “I thought he was going to assault me and that my life could possibly be at risk if I did not take action.
“I knew I had to be my own victor and that I had to save myself.
“I had to get as much information about this person and my surroundings as I can so that I can escape and so that I can identify this person when I do.
“One of the first things I locked into my brain was a serial number on the container itself.
“We drove for a little while [then] he took the lid off the container and he told me that he was going to restrain me and he put a gag in my mouth… handcuffs around my wrists and rope on my feet.”
Evonitz' reign of terror - A timeline
September 9 1996: Evonitz abducted Sofia Silva, 16, from the porch of her home.
Her body was found a month later.
May 1 1997: Evonitz abducted sisters Kristin Michelle Lisk, 15, and Kathryn Nicole Lisk, 12, from their front garden.
Their bodies were found five days later.
June 24 2002: Kara is kidnapped and held captive and repeatedly assaulted for 18 hours by Evonitz, but miraculously escapes.
June 27 2002: After a high-speed chase Evonitz shoots himself, dying immediately.
August 2002: Spotsylvania County Sheriff Ronald Knight announces that Evonitz was responsible for the crimes.
‘I had to call him daddy’
Once they arrived at Evonitz’s flat, he snuck Kara in under the cover of darkness.
Kara recalls: "He opened the container and told me if I promised not to scream or yell he would take the gag out of my mouth.
“I looked around and noticed we were in a living room.
"There was a wall with some small animal cages, fish, lizards. There was a guinea pig, there was at least one bird.
‘He told me to come with him and we went through a door. Inside the bedroom there was a big blanket hanging above the bed with a wolf on it.
While I was being assaulted it felt like something that happened to someone else. I shut off my brain and left my body.
Kara Robinson
"He told me he was going to tell me what the rules were going to be while I was there.
“The first rule was that he would always have a gun nearby and I had to listen to what he said or there would be consequences.
“He also told me while I was there I was going to have to call him daddy.
“He started asking me questions… When he asked me about my boyfriend and about my family and my friends… I kinda broke down a little bit into tears.
“It was very real for me in that moment I may never get to see them again.”
'I shut off my brain & left my body'
Over the course of 18 hours, Kara was held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted at the hands of her captor.
She says: “When I started crying my abductor told me to lay down in the bed and I could just feel panic in my whole body.
“I knew what was coming next. I knew what this man’s intentions were for me.
“While I was being assaulted it felt like something that happened to someone else. I shut off my brain and left my body.
“After that we went into the bathroom and he made me take a shower.
“That’s when I noticed some hairspray, I noticed feminine hygiene products. I noticed a hairbrush with long red hair in it. I just remember thinking there was a woman that lived here.”
She was right - however at that time his wife was on holiday at Disneyland with his mother - and had no idea the man she married was a monster.
Kara knew she had to play a strategic game if she was to get out of this alive, saying: “I knew that if I was easy to get along with he would be more likely to let his guard down at some point.
“When it was time for dinner… I said ‘is there anything I can do while you’re making your food?’ and I swept his kitchen.
“I used that as an opportunity to get close to his refrigerator where there were magnets that had his dentist information.
“Gather information, wait for him to be complacent, escape. I said it over and over again."
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Assaulted & forced to watch explicit sexual content
Later that night he took Kara into the bedroom, and made her get back into the container while he made a call.
She says: “When I got out the container he told me he was going to give me a pill for my anxiety.
"I was assaulted multiple times but there were a lot of things that happened during that time.
"He made me sit down in front of the TV and watch a tape [with explicit sexual content] and describe what was happening.
“I was 15 years old. I was seeing things I didn’t really know how to describe. There were things he asked me to do I didn’t know how to do.
“The things that were happening to me were any person's worst nightmare.”
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A daring escape... & horrifying discovery
Early the next morning, Kara was finally gifted her chance, and was able to free herself from the restraints used to tie her to the bed.
She says: “I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was there was just a sliver of early morning light. I just instantly was hit with this thought - this is it, this is your time, lets go.’
“My biggest fear was I was going to wake up my captor.
“I slowly just slid out of the bed to the side. I put my shorts on, and went to the front door. My heart was beating so fast. I put my hand on the knob and I [knew] this is my moment to escape.
“I just ran. I saw a car driving across the parking lot and I just ran straight for the car. There were two men… I said I was kidnapped by the man in that apartment [and] I said take me to the police station.”
Arriving at the police station, Kara says: “I held my arm up to show him my handcuffs and I said ‘my name is Kara Robinson, I was kidnapped and I escaped my captor.”
The police took Kara back to the apartment complex, and based on all the information she had gathered, the block’s maintenance manager was able to help identify which flat she’d escaped from.
However, by the time authorities arrived, Evonitz had fled to Florida, calling his sister and confessing to killing someone and committing "more crimes than he can remember.”
I was really, really angry. I just wanted him to sit in a court room across from me and look in my eyes and know that picking me was the greatest mistake he ever made.
Kara Robinson
Inside his apartment, police found sex toys, a revolver and a locked chest containing underwear and newspaper clippings about the unsolved murders of three girls.
Sofia Silva, who disappeared from her front porch in September 1996 aged 16, and sisters Kati, 12, and Kristin Lisk, 15, who were abducted from their home.
Sofia’s remains were found a month later in a creek, while sisters Kati and Kristin’s bodies were found in a nearby river.
They’d been raped then murdered, each missing their shoes and underwear and neither case was solved - until Kara’s abduction.
'Greatest mistake he ever made'
Forensic evidence found at the crime scenes matched evidence found inside Evonitz's home, and two of Kristin's fingerprints were also discovered inside the trunk of Evonitz's car.
Police tracked Evonitz and after a high-speed chase Evonitz then shot himself, dying immediately on June 27 2002.
Upon hearing about his death, Kara says: “I was really, really angry. I just wanted him to sit in a court room across from me and look in my eyes and know that picking me was the greatest mistake he ever made.”
Finally, in August 2002, Spotsylvania County Sheriff Ronald Knight announced that Evonitz was responsible for the other murders.
One officer recalls: “We recovered homemade tapes where he filmed himself masturbating and fantasising at the same time talking about the crimes he committed.”
For her help in solving Silva and the Lisk sisters' murders, Kara received $150,000 in reward money, and met the families of the victims.
"It was one of the most important things that's ever happened to me," she previously told magazine.
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"Because it brought home the importance of what I did. Because I felt like, 'Wow, I'm actually giving these families something that they never would've gotten without me.'
"Just the closure of knowing that the person responsible for their daughters' [deaths] is no longer here."
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