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She Found Her Own Kidnapper: The Story of Kara Robinson Chamberlain
It was a warm and sunny day on June 24, 2002. Kara Robinson Chamberlain, 15, was at a friend’s home in Lexington County, South Carolina. Her friend was getting ready while Kara was out watering the front lawn. They were planning to spend the day at the lake.
As she was watering the bushes, a Trans Am pulled into the driveway. In his late 30s, a jovial man wearing a button-down shirt, jeans, and a baseball hat got out with some pamphlets in his hand.
The man asked if her parents were home, and Kara replied, “Well, this isn’t my house. This is my friend’s house.” The man replied, “Okay, well, what about her parents, are her parent’s home?” Kara told him, “No, her mom’s not home right now.”
The man said, “I’ll just leave these with you,” as he walked closer to her.
Suddenly, the man, who would be later identified as serial killer Richard Evonitz, 38, pulled out a gun and stuck it into her neck. Evonitz forced Kara to kneel inside a large storage bin inside the back seat of his car.
Noting Her Surroundings
As the man was driving, Kara began to memorize things around her and started counting the turns he made in his car, hoping she might be able to find her way home. She had also noticed he was smoking Marlboro red cigarettes and listening to classic rock radio. She then memorized the serial number inside the plastic container she was forced to kneel.
“My survival mechanism said, ‘All right, let’s gather as much information as we can,’” Kara told People Magazine. “Fear barely kicked in … the human will to survive, and the survival mechanism really just can’t be underestimated.”
On the way to his apartment, Evonitz pulled over and put a gag in Kara’s mouth, then placed handcuffs on her wrists.
He took her to his messy apartment — where she noticed a lizard, guinea pig, and other…
