Back then, the downtown area in the Sunshine State had a reputation for coming alive at night with strip bars. But as the killer left a trail of bodies in his wake, locals became nervous about going out after dark.
On the night of 3 November 1984, Lisa McVey, then 17, was riding her bike home after a double shift at a doughnut shop.
"I always took the same route home," she explains. Suddenly, Lisa was violently yanked off her bike. "I felt the cold steel of a gun on my left temple," she recalls. "A man dragged me across the street. I couldn’t see his face, but he got me to his car… he threw me in the driver’s side."
Lisa saw a knife before she was blindfolded and tied up. Then her attacker drove away with her. "I’m like, this is it," Lisa says. "He’s going to kill me."
But because she survived the abduction, her case became a crucial turning point in the capture of serial killer Bobby Joe Long.
Creating a monster
Over 30 years earlier, single mum Louella Long was bringing up her son Bobby Joe. Attractive Louella ended up working in a downtown bar, entertaining the locals, but Bobby didn’t like the way his mum dressed or the attention she got from men. They shared a bedroom and he hated that she brought men back.
Bobby suffered from a rare medical condition. He had been born with an extra chromosome, which resulted in him growing breasts at 13, which he had surgery for. But he was still bullied at school. He also suffered a few head injuries growing up, including a fall from a swing.
Bobby married his childhood sweetheart Cindy Gutherie Brown in 1974. They met as kids in a local park.
"We just hit it off right away," says Cindy. "We dated for years and had a lot of fun together. We’d go to the movies, go spear fishing down on the quays and run around the neighbourhood as younger kids. We weren’t bad kids, but we were mischievous. He was a very caring person… we were best friends."
But a few months after marrying Cindy, Bobby was knocked off his bike. He landed on his head and his personality changed. "It was pretty much right away," Cindy explains. "He started becoming physical with me, you know, if he didn’t like what I cooked he’d have a fit and we’d end up in an argument."
The couple went on to have two children, but when Cindy was hospitalised after a beating from Bobby, she feared she might not survive the next. They divorced in 1980. Four years later, the killings began.
The murders
Eight months before Lisa McVey was abducted, two young boys had stumbled across the body of a woman. She was lying face down, with her hands bound behind her back and a rope around her neck. Investigators found tyre tracks and red nylon fibre at the scene, but back then DNA hadn’t progressed enough to help.
The victim was 20-year-old exotic dancer Lana Long. She’d been brutally raped and strangled.
Then the body of working girl Michelle Simms, 22, was discovered in a secluded ‘lover’s lane’ east of Tampa City. At the scene, officers found tyre tracks that matched the ones near Lana Long’s body.
Police knew they had a serial killer on their hands. After victims Lana and Michelle, another two bodies were found, but there were differences in the details.
Elizabeth Loudenback, 22, was fully clothed and not bound, and Chanel Williams, 18, had been shot in the neck. But they were both prostitutes working on the Tampa strip, and again red fibres were found at the scenes.
The killer was gaining pace, with a murder every two weeks. Karen Dinsfriend, 28, and Kimberly Hoops, 22, were both strangled to death.
Then came Lisa McVey’s ordeal. When she found herself at Bobby’s apartment, she was forced into his shower and sexually assaulted.
"It was like one minute he was as calm as a child and the next he was a raging bull," she explained. "He said he was doing this to me because he was getting back at women in general for a really bad break up with another girl."
Incredibly, Lisa gained her attacker’s sympathy and managed to persuade him to release her after 26 hours. She went to the police, but they didn’t connect the attack with the multiple murders.
Three days later, working girl Virginia Johnson, 18, was found dead, and the body of dancer Kim Swann, 21, was also discovered. But when police realised the same red fibres that were present at the crime scenes were also found on Lisa, there was finally a breakthrough.
Lisa was able to describe her abductor, his apartment and the vehicle she was forced into – a red Dodge Magnum. When police stopped a car matching the description, Lisa identified the driver: Bobby Joe Long. At his home, police found a red carpet that matched the red fibres.
Ex-wife Cindy admits she was deeply shocked. "We were all in total disbelief," she reveals. "I would have never believed it. Never in a million years."
Bobby confessed to the murder of the eight victims police knew about, then confessed to two more – Vicky Elliott, 21, and Artis Wick, 20. He showed no remorse and admitted he just killed when he got the urge.
He confessed to a spate of over 50 rapes across the state of Florida. He’d reply to classified ads, and if he arrived and found a woman alone, he’d attack her.
"If I didn’t do it, if I tried not to do it, I’d be OK for a day or two days, but it wouldn’t stop. This would go on until I did it," Bobby told police. "Then when I would do it, I’d be OK for a month, two months, three months, sometimes longer… sometimes a couple of weeks… sometimes a week. And then it would hit again."
Bobby was sentenced to death for his crimes and is currently on death row
in Florida. Did his head injuries or his awkward relationship with his mother trigger his crimes? Experts are still debating it to this day. But one woman survived his twisted clutches.
in Florida. Did his head injuries or his awkward relationship with his mother trigger his crimes? Experts are still debating it to this day. But one woman survived his twisted clutches.
Today, Lisa McVey is a sheriff’s deputy.
"I wasn’t going to allow anybody to hurt me again and the only way I knew how to do that was to get into law enforcement," she explains. "My empowerment comes from being so helpless and lost, that feeling I had when I was 17 years old. I’m not lost any more. I’m on top of my mountain and it feels pretty good."
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