Survivor of Tampa serial killer vows to attend execution

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Serial killer Bobby Joe Long was convicted of murdering at least eight women in the Tampa area in the early 1980s, but how many more would he have killed had it not been for the one victim who escaped him?

Her name was Lisa McVey.

"He knew what he was doing. I could have been in a ditch somewhere," McVey told Channel 13's Warren Elly in 1984. 

The details McVey gave detectives about her kidnapping helped them track down the serial killer.

Long was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985. In the decades since, the teenager who escaped Long grew to become a mom, a grandmother, and for the past 25 years, a sheriff's deputy.

Now known as Lisa McVey Noland, she is a master deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office.

She was also among the first to be notified when the governor signed Long's death warrant last week.

"He was a monster. He's still a monster until he takes his last breath," said Noland. "I will be there on May 23, at 6 p.m. I will be witnessing his execution," she said. 

Lisa's story of being kidnapped and then escaping from Long was made into a movie last year. It's called "Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey." It shows how she was able to use her history of being abused at home to deal with Long and escape him after 26 hours gagged and blindfolded.

Noland says she wants people to remember Long's victims who weren't able to escape.

"He has had all these appeals and all of these rights. Where were the rights of the women whose lives he took?" she asks. "What he did was horrendous, how he did it, these girls, these victims, didn't deserve to be killed."