OVER 20 years ago, Kara Robinson Chamberlain was abducted by serial killer Richard Evonitz at only 15 years of age.
Lifetime is now set to premiere a movie that features interviews with Chamberlain, who survived the encounter, and several others.
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The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story will premiere this Sunday, February 11, at 8.00 pm, according to KGET.
Chamberlain was taken in 2002 on the afternoon of June 24 in West Columbia, South Carolina.
She was watering plants and bushes outside a friend’s house when a Pontiac TransAm pulled up a nearby driveway.
The middle-aged man, who wore a baseball cap, button-down shirt, and some jeans, explained to Chamberlain that he was selling “pamphlets,” per People.
After asking if her parents were home or if the neighbors were home and confirming that they weren’t, Chamberlain told the publication that the man approached.
“I’ll just leave these with you,” the man, who was later confirmed to be Richard Evonitz, said before putting a gun to Chamberlain’s neck and forcing her to get into a storage bin packed inside the TransAm.
Despite the situation’s intensity, Chamberlain said that her survival mode kicked in, and she began trying to remember as many details about her surroundings as possible.
She noticed the classic rock music playing on the radio, the Marlboro brand of cigarettes Evonitz was smoking, and even the serial number on the plastic bin she was placed inside.
“My survival mechanism said, ‘All right, let’s gather as much information as we can,'” Chamberlain, now in her mid-30s, explained.
“Fear barely even kicked in … the human will to survive and the survival mechanism really just can’t be underestimated.”
As they neared Evonitz’s apartment, Chamberlain said he stopped the car and placed her in handcuffs and a gag.
He then proceeded to assault her for 18 hours after getting to the apartment.
DARING ESCAPE
Despite suffering the abuse and terror, Chamberlain maintained an ability to look for information, and even use manipulation techniques to calm Evonitz.
After memorizing the names of the kidnapper’s doctor and dentist from his kitchen fridge, Chamberlain offered to help him instead of eating food.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to eat right now, but is there anything I can do for you?'” she noted to People.
“I actually ended up sweeping his kitchen.”
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told the publication that Chamberlain’s ability to calm and manipulate Evonitz may have been the determining factor that allowed her to make a daring escape later on.
“She was just putting him at ease and making him feel comfortable, gaining his trust. And that’s what police negotiators do,” he explained.
“She controlled her emotions to the point where she was able to develop a plan.”
During the early hours of the following morning, she managed to free herself of one handcuff and one leg restraint.
This allowed her to sneak to the front door and leave the apartment.
Chamberlain immediately ran to a nearby parking lot where two people were sitting in their car and pleaded with them to take her to the local police station.
The then 15-year-old was able to retrace her steps using the observation skills from before and take officers to Evonitz’s exact apartment with the help of one of the complex’s maintenance employees.
Evonitz was gone, but law enforcement reportedly found newspaper clippings detailing the unsolved murders of three girls — Sofia Silva and sisters Kati and Kristin Lisk.
They had gone missing in Virginia about five years before Chamberlain’s abduction.
Ultimately, police found Evonitz in Sarasota, Florida, and engaged in a high-speed chase with him before he shot himself.
MOVING FORWARD
Chamberlain said she was awarded $150,000 for helping solve the murders of the girls from Virginia and was even able to meet their families, per People.
“It was one of the most important things that’s ever happened to me,” she said.
“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 daughter’s death is no longer here.”
Over the following years, and due to encouragement from Lott, Chamberlain took a part-time job with the Sheriff’s office during high school and college.
She went on to work as a school resource officer and an investigator on child abuse and sexual assault cases.
Chamberlain said she left law enforcement after having two sons with her husband, Joe.
In 2019, Chamberlain also participated in an interview with kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart.
She was then involved in a 90-minute Lifetime special, Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case, where Chamberlain and five other survivors lent support to Closs, a Wisconsin teenager who escaped her captor that year.
Smart is the executive producer for Sunday’s Lifetime special, The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story.
For more crime content, check out The U.S. Sun’s coverage of the story behind The Railway Killers — aka, John Francis Duffy and David Mulcahy.
The U.S. Sun also has the story of what to know about Moe Gibbs and where he is now.
