The story of Lisa McVey, the survivor who outsmarted a serial killer

It was about 2:00 a.m. on November 3, 1984, when 17-year-old Lisa McVey was kidnapped on her bike ride home after a double shift at a Krispy Kreme in Tampa, Florida. The culprit was Robert Joseph “Bobby Joe” Long, “The Classified Ad Rapist,” turned serial killer. For 26 hours, McVey was repeatedly abused, until she convinced him to let her go.

November 3, 1984 was not only the day that Lisa McVey was kidnapped, but it was the day that she had decided to take her own life after years of enduring mental and sexual abuse from her grandmother’s boyfriend. McVey had a plan to use a gun to unalive herself and had already written a suicide note. All she had to do to carry out her plan was to arrive home, but Bobby Long changed her plans.

McVey was riding her bike down a dark street, passing a church, when Long grabbed her and put a gun to her head. At that moment, all of her suicidal thoughts vanished, and her survival instincts took over. McVey decided to fight for her life.

The abuse began shortly after Bobby Long dragged McVey to his car and tied her up with ligatures.

For the next 26 hours, Lisa McVey was repeatedly raped, tortured, and physically and psychologically abused by Long.   

During the time that Lisa McVey was with Long, she used the information she learned from watching crime shows to look out for details that could help police catch her abductor. McVey used her skills and counted how long the car ride was to the second location, what direction the car drove, the color of the seats of the car, and read the word “Magnum” on the car’s dashboard. In the case of her death, McVey left fingerprints behind in as many places as she could in Long’s apartment and car.

Bobby Long had a few conversations with McVey during her kidnapping, and in one of those conversations he shared that he was abusing her to get back at women. After that conversation, Lisa McVey knew the only way she could talk him out of killing her was to humanize herself to him — to let him see her as a person instead of an object. McVey decides to make up a story and says her father is very ill and that she’s his only caregiver.

After 26 hours of torture, Long takes McVey for a drive, and at about 4:30 a.m., he drops her off behind a business. Before Long lets her go, he apologizes to McVey and makes sure she knows the only reason she’s still alive is because of her father.  

Once McVey removes her blindfold, the first thing she notices is the beautiful oak tree in front of her, and she takes it as a sign that her new life has begun.

Lisa McVey runs all the way to her grandmother’s house and is immediately beaten by the grandmother’s boyfriend. The grandmother calls the police to cancel the search for her granddaughter and lets them know that she has made up a story about being kidnapped. Even though the grandmother was against the police moving forward with the investigation, the police continued and Sergeant Larry Pinkerton was able to speak to McVey.

12 days after McVey’s kidnapping, Robert Joseph Long was identified and arrested outside a movie theater. On May 23, 2019, he was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Michelle Simms. Bobby Long confessed to committing 10 murders and to the rape and kidnapping of Lisa McVey.

Following the arrest of Long and the grandmother’s boyfriend, McVey was moved to a center for runaway teens until she found a home with her Aunt Carol and Uncle Charlie.

In 2004, Lisa McVey paid her way through the police academy and by 2020 she had been a part of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for over 15 years.