On June 24, 2002, Kara Robinson was abducted by Richard Evonitz, who had already murdered at least three other girls — but she escaped 18 hours later, then helped police take the killer down.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain/FacebookA photo of 15-year-old Kara Robinson in the hospital immediately following her escape from Richard Evonitz.
On June 24, 2002, Kara Robinson was helping a friend with chores outside a South Carolina home when a strange man approached her. After making small talk for a few moments, he pulled out a gun and forced the 15-year-old girl into a storage bin in the back seat of his car.
He took Robinson to his apartment, where she endured 18 hours of assault. However, early the next morning, the teen managed to sneak out while her attacker slept and contact the police.
Later, Robinson would discover that she’d had a near-fatal run-in with Richard Evonitz. He’d previously murdered at least three other girls — and had Robinson not escaped, she likely would have been next.
This is Kara Robinson’s unbelievable story of bravery that brought down a serial killer.
The Abduction Of Kara Robinson By Serial Killer Richard Evonitz
In the summer of 2002, Kara Robinson of Richland County, South Carolina, was 15 years old. While school was out, she was spending her days with her friends and boyfriend, and on June 24, she made plans to hang out at a nearby lake.
Robinson first went to her friend Heather’s house in West Columbia, where she offered to help with chores so they could leave for the lake sooner. She was watering plants on the front lawn while Heather showered when a dark green Pontiac Trans Am drove past the home before turning around and pulling into the driveway.
Public DomainRichard Evonitz, the man who kidnapped and sexually abused Kara Robinson in 2002.
At first, Robinson suspected that the driver was coming to visit Heather’s mother. A man wearing a baseball cap, button-up shirt, and jeans got out of the car holding a binder full of magazines. He asked her who owned the home.
“This is my friend’s house actually,” she told him, according to a 2022 article she wrote for Newsweek. “What about her parents, are they home?” the stranger asked.
Robinson said that her friend’s mom was not home, so the man offered to leave the magazines with the teen. However, when Robinson approached him to grab them, she felt something press into her neck: the cold metal of a gun.
“Why don’t you come with me?” the man asked her before walking her to his car and forcing her into a plastic container in the back seat. Robinson complied without complaint, and when the car pulled out of the driveway, she immediately went into planning mode, telling herself: “Stay calm, gather information, escape.”
At the time, she did not know that she had just been kidnapped by serial killer Richard Evonitz, who had already killed at least three young girls. Regardless of who her captor was, however, Kara Robinson wasn’t planning to go down without a fight.
Inside Kara Robinson’s Daring Escape
After Richard Evonitz forced Robinson into his vehicle, he started driving toward his apartment. In the back seat, Robinson memorized the serial number on the container she was in, as well as the type of cigarettes her abductor smoked and the music he listened to. She hoped any bit of information she could collect would eventually help her.
When they arrived at Evonitz’s complex, he quickly gagged and restrained Robinson before carrying her inside, still in the storage bin. “In that apartment, I knew what this man’s intentions were for me,” Robinson said in the Oxygen special Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story. Over the next 18 hours, Evonitz drugged and sexually assaulted the teenager.
Public DomainObjects police found in Richard Evonitz’s apartment while searching it on June 25, 2002.
“I decided sometime during those 18 hours: that I would never just be the girl who was raped, and that I also wasn’t willing to let this man decide my fate. I continued to remain calm and gather information about my captor,” Robinson wrote for Newsweek.
She memorized magnets on his fridge and even read his mail in between assaults. She asked him questions and offered to help clean the apartment. During these interactions, Robinson discovered that Evonitz had been in the U.S. Navy.
Eventually, Evonitz gave her more drugs and restrained her with handcuffs and rope in his bed. She fell asleep beside him.
In the early morning hours of June 25, Robinson awoke to find Evonitz sleeping. Using her teeth, she was able to free herself from the restraints and quietly slip out of the room and through the front door.
She quickly flagged down a car in the parking lot of the apartment complex and asked the men inside to drive her to the police station. “My name is Kara Robinson. I was kidnapped and just escaped from that apartment,” she told them.
Robinson had bravely freed herself from the clutches of a murderer.
How A 15-Year-Old Girl Brought Down A Serial Killer
At the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, Kara Robinson relayed her horrifying experience to the police. She gave them enough information to allow them to create a photo lineup, which included Evonitz. While receiving treatment in the hospital, Robinson identified him as her attacker.
Officers immediately rushed to his apartment to make an arrest — but by the time they arrived, he was long gone.
The authorities ultimately tracked Evonitz down in Florida, where he led them on a high-speed chase. He shot himself after wrecking his car, leaving Robinson and the loved ones of his previous victims without justice.
Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s OfficeSofia Silva was 16 years old when she was kidnapped and murdered by Richard Evonitz in 1996.
“My immediate reaction was anger,” Robinson wrote. “I wanted him to see me across a courtroom and know that I was his downfall. That the girl he took as a victim of opportunity was his biggest mistake. I wanted redemption.”
However, Robinson’s escape allowed the authorities to connect Evonitz to the deaths of three girls in Virginia: Sofia Silva and young sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk. Without Robinson’s bold actions, their murders may have forever remained unsolved.
Kara Robinson also channeled her anger into a career helping other victims of traumatic crimes.
Kara Robinson Becomes An Advocate For Victims
Following her attack, Robinson returned home to her family and tried to put the events behind her. But the trauma she experienced ultimately took a toll on her and her parents.
“Kara used to be very affectionate. The child I got back was not huggy, not kissy,” said Robinson’s mom, Debra Johnson. “That was her coping mechanism. But it was beyond devastating.”
Although Robinson rarely discussed her experience, she ultimately decided to pursue a career in law enforcement and victim advocacy. During college, she began working in the DNA lab at the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and later attended the police academy. As an officer, Robinson often worked on sexual assault and child abuse cases.
She eventually got married and had children, which changed the course of her life forever.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain/FacebookToday, Kara Robinson Chamberlain is a victims’ advocate and keynote speaker.
“When I became a mother, all of that changed,” Robinson wrote. “My strength reached its limit and I could no longer compartmentalize and shut down my emotions. I had to begin learning how I was impacted and how I could heal. I started using exercise and other somatic processing tools to process my emotions and heal my trauma.”
Robinson then decided to meet with other victims of kidnapping and sexual assault, including Elizabeth Smart, who had been abducted by Brian David Mitchell when she was 14 years old — just weeks before Robinson’s ordeal.
“I sat down on a couch with Elizabeth and five other women who had survived kidnappings and sexual assaults. And that was the moment that I realized that I really had a bigger purpose,” Robinson said.
Today, Robinson is a motivational speaker and the host of a successful podcast titled Survivor’s Guide to True Crime, which delves into stories told by survivors of violent crimes.
“I knew that I could find a reason for what happened,” said Robinson. “And I always knew that what happened to me was something that happened so that I could help other people.”
After reading the shocking story of Kara Robinson, dive into the story of Jordan Turpin, the young woman who escaped her hellish home life in 2018. Then, read the incredible story of Lisa McVey and how she outsmarted serial killer Bobby Joe Long.
