How Did a Teenage Kidnapping Survivor Catch Serial Killer Bobby Joe Long?

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews · Jun 15, 2026 · 14m

Bobby Joe Long killed at least eight women in Tampa Bay in 1984. He was caught because a seventeen-year-old girl he kidnapped was smarter than he was. Lisa McVey spent twenty-six hours in Long's apartment — blindfolded, bound, enduring the unimaginable — and used every one of those hours to build a case against him. She loosened her blindfold to see his car interior. She left fingerprints deliberately. She planted a barrette with her hair attached. She invented a story about a dying father that convinced Long to let her go.The first detective who interviewed her didn't believe her. Her own…