On June 24, 2002, Kara Robinson was kidnapped by Richard Evonitz, who had already murdered at the least three different ladies — however she escaped 18 hours later, then helped police take the killer down.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain/FbA photograph of 15-year-old Kara Robinson within the hospital instantly following her escape from Richard Evonitz.
On June 24, 2002, Kara Robinson was serving to a good friend with chores outdoors a South Carolina dwelling when an odd man approached her. After making small speak for a number of moments, he pulled out a gun and compelled the 15-year-old lady right into a storage bin within the again seat of his automobile.
He took Robinson to his house, the place she endured 18 hours of assault. Nevertheless, early the following morning, the teenager managed to sneak out whereas her attacker slept and make contact with the police.
Later, Robinson would uncover that she’d had a near-fatal run-in with Richard Evonitz. He’d beforehand murdered at the least three different ladies — and had Robinson not escaped, she seemingly would have been subsequent.
That is Kara Robinson’s unbelievable story of bravery that introduced down a serial killer.
The Abduction Of Kara Robinson By Serial Killer Richard Evonitz
In the summertime of 2002, Kara Robinson of Richland County, South Carolina, was 15 years previous. Whereas faculty was out, she was spending her days together with her pals and boyfriend, and on June 24, she made plans to hang around at a close-by lake.
Robinson first went to her good friend Heather’s home in West Columbia, the place she supplied to assist with chores so they may go away for the lake sooner. She was watering vegetation on the entrance garden whereas Heather showered when a darkish inexperienced Pontiac Trans Am drove previous the house earlier than turning round and pulling into the driveway.
Public AreaRichard Evonitz, the person who kidnapped and sexually abused Kara Robinson in 2002.
At first, Robinson suspected that the motive force was coming to go to Heather’s mom. A person carrying a baseball cap, button-up shirt, and denims bought out of the automobile holding a binder filled with magazines. He requested her who owned the house.
“That is my good friend’s home truly,” she informed him, in keeping with a 2022 article she wrote for Newsweek. “What about her dad and mom, are they dwelling?” the stranger requested.
Robinson mentioned that her good friend’s mother was not dwelling, so the person supplied to go away the magazines with the teenager. Nevertheless, when Robinson approached him to seize them, she felt one thing press into her neck: the chilly metallic of a gun.
“Why don’t you include me?” the person requested her earlier than strolling her to his automobile and forcing her right into a plastic container within the again seat. Robinson complied with out grievance, and when the automobile pulled out of the driveway, she instantly went into planning mode, telling herself: “Keep calm, collect info, escape.”
On the time, she didn’t know that she had simply been kidnapped by serial killer Richard Evonitz, who had already killed at the least three younger ladies. No matter who her captor was, nonetheless, Kara Robinson wasn’t planning to go down with out a combat.
Inside Kara Robinson’s Daring Escape
After Richard Evonitz pressured Robinson into his automobile, he began driving towards his house. Within the again seat, Robinson memorized the serial quantity on the container she was in, in addition to the kind of cigarettes her abductor smoked and the music he listened to. She hoped any bit of knowledge she may accumulate would finally assist her.
Once they arrived at Evonitz’s complicated, he shortly gagged and restrained Robinson earlier than carrying her inside, nonetheless within the storage bin. “In that house, I knew what this man’s intentions have been for me,” Robinson mentioned within the Oxygen particular Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story. Over the following 18 hours, Evonitz drugged and sexually assaulted {the teenager}.
Public AreaObjects police present in Richard Evonitz’s house whereas looking out it on June 25, 2002.
“I made a decision someday throughout these 18 hours: that I might by no means simply be the lady who was raped, and that I additionally wasn’t prepared to let this man determine my destiny. I continued to stay calm and collect details about my captor,” Robinson wrote for Newsweek.
She memorized magnets on his fridge and even learn his mail in between assaults. She requested him questions and supplied to assist clear the house. Throughout these interactions, Robinson found that Evonitz had been within the U.S. Navy.
Finally, Evonitz gave her extra medicine and restrained her with handcuffs and twine in his mattress. She fell asleep beside him.
Within the early morning hours of June 25, Robinson awoke to search out Evonitz sleeping. Utilizing her enamel, she was in a position to free herself from the restraints and quietly slip out of the room and thru the entrance door.
She shortly flagged down a automobile within the parking zone of the house complicated and requested the boys inside to drive her to the police station. “My title is Kara Robinson. I used to be kidnapped and simply escaped from that house,” she informed them.
Robinson had bravely freed herself from the clutches of a assassin.
How A 15-Yr-Previous Woman Introduced Down A Serial Killer
On the Richland County Sheriff’s Division, Kara Robinson relayed her horrifying expertise to the police. She gave them sufficient info to permit them to create a photograph lineup, which included Evonitz. Whereas receiving therapy within the hospital, Robinson recognized him as her attacker.
Officers instantly rushed to his house to make an arrest — however by the point they arrived, he was lengthy gone.
The authorities in the end tracked Evonitz down in Florida, the place he led them on a high-speed chase. He shot himself after wrecking his automobile, leaving Robinson and the family members of his earlier victims with out justice.
Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s WorkplaceSofia Silva was 16 years previous when she was kidnapped and murdered by Richard Evonitz in 1996.
“My quick response was anger,” Robinson wrote. “I wished him to see me throughout a courtroom and know that I used to be his downfall. That the lady he took as a sufferer of alternative was his largest mistake. I wished redemption.”
Nevertheless, Robinson’s escape allowed the authorities to attach Evonitz to the deaths of three ladies in Virginia: Sofia Silva and younger sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk. With out Robinson’s daring actions, their murders could have eternally remained unsolved.
Kara Robinson additionally channeled her anger right into a profession serving to different victims of traumatic crimes.
Kara Robinson Turns into An Advocate For Victims
Following her assault, Robinson returned dwelling to her household and tried to place the occasions behind her. However the trauma she skilled in the end took a toll on her and her dad and mom.
“Kara was very affectionate. The kid I bought again was not huggy, not kissy,” mentioned Robinson’s mother, Debra Johnson. “That was her coping mechanism. However it was past devastating.”
Though Robinson hardly ever mentioned her expertise, she in the end determined to pursue a profession in regulation enforcement and sufferer advocacy. Throughout school, she started working within the DNA lab on the Richland County Sheriff’s Division and later attended the police academy. As an officer, Robinson typically labored on sexual assault and youngster abuse instances.
She finally bought married and had youngsters, which modified the course of her life eternally.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain/FbAs we speak, Kara Robinson Chamberlain is a victims’ advocate and keynote speaker.
“After I turned a mom, all of that modified,” Robinson wrote. “My power reached its restrict and I may now not compartmentalize and shut down my feelings. I needed to start studying how I used to be impacted and the way I may heal. I began utilizing train and different somatic processing instruments to course of my feelings and heal my trauma.”
Robinson then determined to fulfill with different victims of kidnapping and sexual assault, together with Elizabeth Good, who had been kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell when she was 14 years previous — simply weeks earlier than Robinson’s ordeal.
“I sat down on a sofa with Elizabeth and 5 different girls who had survived kidnappings and sexual assaults. And that was the second that I noticed that I actually had a much bigger function,” Robinson mentioned.
As we speak, Robinson is a motivational speaker and the host of a profitable podcast titled Survivor’s Information to True Crime, which delves into tales informed by survivors of violent crimes.
“I knew that I may discover a purpose for what occurred,” mentioned Robinson. “And I at all times knew that what occurred to me was one thing that occurred in order that I may assist different individuals.”
After studying the surprising story of Kara Robinson, dive into the story of Jordan Turpin, the younger lady who escaped her hellish dwelling life in 2018. Then, learn the unimaginable story of Lisa McVey and the way she outsmarted serial killer Bobby Joe Lengthy.
