VA: Mrs. Lisk Shares Thoughts About Murdered Daughters At Anti-Violence Conference...

[Slimpickins]

Victims' loved ones often re-victimized

BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 12, 2001

Patti Lisk didn't pay much attention to the mass marketing of murder until
the slayings of her two daughters.

"I knew it existed," Lisk said yesterday in an interview at an anti-violence
conference.

Yesterday's conference at John Tyler Community College in Chester was
dedicated to the memory of Kristin and Kati Lisk, 15 and 12, who were
abducted from their Spotsylvania County home and killed nearly four years
ago.

Their May 1997 deaths remain unsolved, and authorities believe their killer
is also responsible for the slaying of another Spotsylvania girl,
16-year-old Sofia Silva, several months earlier.

Much of the conference focused on the oft-forgotten suffering of murder
victims and their survivors and society's re-victimization of loved ones
through television shows, movies, music, games and clothing that glorify
killing.

Nancy Ruhe, executive director of VICTIMSthe Cincinnati-based National
Organization of Parents of Murdered Children, offered myriad examples:
T-shirts sold during the O.J. Simpson trial, Michigan judges participating
in a "host a murder" game, how-to books on killing, video games in which
children pull the trigger.

Ruhe said such items would not be tolerated if they made light of AIDS or
cancer or rape.

"We try to protect our children from drugs, alcohol, pornography, tobacco.
We don't stop to think what it does when we show them murder after murder
after murder," Ruhe told an audience of about 80 people, many of them
relatives of slaying victims.

"And we have the audacity to ask, 'Why are children killing?'"

She added, "Murder as entertainment is insensitive to the lifelong pain and
suffering of those left behind."

Lisk said those who market murder have no idea what victims' friends and
relatives go through. "They are clearly out of touch," she said.

Mark Olshaker, an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and co-author of a
series of books with former FBI serial killer profiler John Douglas, said
his work with victims has changed his perspective over the years.

Olshaker said TV and films often glorify murderers by not showing crimes
from a victim's perspective and by minimizing the damage done to loved ones.

"These people are so much more than what happened to them," he said.

Olshaker added that he initially approached his work on murder cases with
the "liberal, hopeful" idea that many criminals can be rehabilitated.

"Rehabilitation doesn't work well in most cases," he said. "I don't think
it's worth taking the chance" that a violent convict won't hurt someone in
the future.

Of her daughters' deaths, Lisk said she remains hopeful their slayings will
be solved, despite each passing year without an arrest. "I believe it will
be solved when the time is right for my family and me," she said.

The Lisk sisters vanished May 1, 1996, after stepping off separate school
buses in front of their rural home. Their bodies were found five days later
in the South Anna River in Hanover County. Silva's body was also found in
water, in a King George County creek five weeks after her Sept. 9, 1996,
disappearance. Authorities have not said how the girls died, although
sources have confirmed the Lisk sisters were asphyxiated.

Lisk, a nursing professor at Germanna Community College, said authorities
still keep her and her husband, Ron, informed of potential leads they are
following. A task force has probed more than 11,000 leads to date.

These days, though, Lisk said she tries not to get her hopes up with each
new development.

"I try to temper it," she said. "I do hope it happens, but I'm not vengeful
about it."

http://www.timesdispatch.com/vametro/MGBK07VTFLC.html

[JonesieCat]

" Slimpickins" <Sl...@work.com> wrote in message
news:9b4gng$equ$1...@news.fsu.edu...

This is a very thought-provoking article. I don't know how Mrs. Lisk makes
it thru the day. I didn't realize that the day of their abduction, her two
girls got off of two diff school buses. Presumably then they didn't arrive
at exactly the same time. So whoever did it had probably been watching
them, knew their routine. Patti Lisk must have great strength.
JonesieCat

[nancy werle]

the spouse of the killer knew he was evil

[notmyrealname carr]

Glad his last victim yet again a teen girl he abducted and raped in his apt. escaped but before she fled the apt. she looked at the stuff on his fridge and gave that info to the police he fled the apt. when he realized his victim was gone but the police tracked him down and he offed himself saving taxpayers money and the victims a trial.

Richard Evonitz


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Evonitz
Richard Evonitz (FBI wanted).png
FBI fugitive mugshot
Born Richard Marc Edward Evonitz
July 29, 1963[1]
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Died June 27, 2002 (aged 38)
Sarasota, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death Suicide by gunshot
Other names The Spotsylvania Serial killer, Lisk/Silva Killer
Occupation(s) Manager of Jiffy Lube, sonar technician in United States Navy, salesman, air compressor company employee
Spouse(s) Bonnie Lou Gower (1988-1996), Hope Marie Crowley (1999-his death)[2]
Conviction(s) Lewd exposure (1987)
Criminal penalty Three years of probation
Details
Victims 3+
Span of crimes 1994–2002
Country United States
State(s) Virginia
Richard Marc Edward Evonitz (July 29, 1963 – June 27, 2002) was an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist responsible for the deaths of at least three teenaged girls in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and the abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl in Richland County, South Carolina. Evonitz has been suspected of other murders, and confessed a number of crimes to his sister shortly before committing suicide.[3]

Early life
Richard Marc Edward Evonitz was born at Providence Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, to Joseph and Tess Ragin Evonitz. He was the first of three children; two sisters, Kristen and Jennifer, followed him in 1968 and 1971. Known as Marc to avoid confusion with a paternal uncle also named Richard, he graduated from Irmo High School in 1980 at age 16.[2]

Career
After high school, Evonitz worked briefly as the manager of a Jiffy Lube, before joining the United States Navy. He served as a sonar technician and received a Good Conduct Medal before being honorably discharged after eight years of service.[4]

Following his stint in the Navy, Evonitz worked steadily at businesses that sold compressors and grinding equipment. He filed for bankruptcy in 1997, unable to keep up with bills following a divorce, and had a house foreclosed in 1999 following a failed business venture, but at the time of his death, Evonitz had been working at an air-compressor company since moving to South Carolina a few years earlier.[4]

Personal life
Evonitz was married twice, first to Bonnie Lou Gower from 1988 to 1996, then to Hope Marie Crowley from 1999 until his death.[2]

Criminal career
In January 1987, Evonitz exposed himself and masturbated in front of a 15-year-old girl in Orange Park, Florida. He was arrested a month later when his ship returned to port. He entered a plea of no contest and was sentenced to three years' probation.[5]

Evonitz is suspected of a 1994 abduction and rape and a 1995 rape in Spotsylvania, Virginia.[4]

On September 9, 1996, Evonitz abducted 16-year-old Sofia Silva from her front yard near Loriella Park in Spotsylvania County. Her decomposed body was found a month later in a creek off State Route 3 in King George County.[6]

On May 1, 1997, Evonitz abducted sisters Kristin, 15, and Kati Lisk, 12, from their front lawn after school. After sexually assaulting them, he strangled the sisters and dumped their bodies in the South Anna River. Their bodies were found five days later.[7]

On June 24, 2002, Evonitz abducted 15-year-old Kara Robinson Chamberlain from a friend's yard in Columbia, South Carolina, after holding a gun to her head and then forcing her into a plastic bin. He took her to his apartment, raped her, forced her to smoke marijuana, and tied her to his bed. Robinson was able to free herself while Evonitz was sound asleep, escape, and identify her abductor to the police using information she was able to find on Evonitz's fridge. Evonitz fled after finding her gone and was tracked by the police to Sarasota, Florida. As they surrounded him, he killed himself with his gun.[8][9]

Adaptation
His Case is featured on the Season 1, Episode 4, titled "Insatiable", from the Show, Deadly Sins.

On February 11, 2023, Lifetime released a television film called The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story. The film starred Katie Douglas as Kara Robinson, Cara Buono as Debra Robinson, and Kristian Bruun as Richard Evonitz. Elizabeth Smart serves as an executive producer.[10]

See also
List of serial killers in the United States
References
Birth date from SSDI as Marc E Evonitz, SSN 251-04-4170.
Hall, Jim, and Kari Pugh (June 14, 2004). "The making of a murderer". Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2008.
"As Police Closed In, Evonitz Admitted Crimes to Sister". The Washington Post. July 3, 2002. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
Hall, Jim, and Kari Pugh (June 13, 2004). "Discovering deadly secrets". Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011.
Gross, Edie (July 2, 2002). "Man flashed Florida girl". Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
"End of Trial Fails To End Uncertainty; Family Seeks Justice in '96 Va. Killings, While Man Wants to Clear His Name" Washington Post, September 4, 2005 Ian Shapira and Maria Glod
"3 Slain Girls' Cases Closed". The Washington Post. March 3, 2019. Archived from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
Glod, Maria (August 14, 2002). "3 Slain Girls' Cases Closed". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
Hall, Jim, and Kari Pugh (June 16, 2004). "End came with love, fear, horror". Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2008.
Rice, Lynnette (January 4, 2023). "Lifetime Partners Again with Elizabeth Smart on "The Kara Robinson Story"". Deadline. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
Further reading

The last victim was given a $150k reward for helping solve the earlier rapes and murders.

At 15, Kara Robinson Chamberlain Was Kidnapped by a Serial Killer. She Not Only Escaped — She Helped Catch Him
Now 35, Kara is dedicated to spreading hope and strength to other survivors

By Christine Pelisek Published on February 17, 2022 12:00 PM
Share
Tweet
Pin
Email

You might like×
At 15, Kara Robinson Chamberlain Was Kidnapped by a Serial Killer. She Not Only Escaped — She Helped Catch Him
At 15, Kara Robinson Chamberlain Was Kidnapped by a Serial Killer. She Not Only Escaped — She Helped Catch Him
World's Only Nonuplets — 5 Girls, 4 Boys — Celebrate Second Birthday at Home: 'A Gift,' Says Mom
World's Only Nonuplets — 5 Girls, 4 Boys — Celebrate Second Birthday at Home: 'A Gift,' Says Mom
0At Least 12 Killed, 31 Injured in Multi-Vehicle Crash in Turkey
At Least 12 Killed, 31 Injured in Multi-Vehicle Crash in Turkey
Remains of 19th Century Hospital and Cemetery Found Submerged Underwater in Florida
Remains of 19th Century Hospital and Cemetery Found Submerged Underwater in Florida
8 People Believed to Be Migrants Killed After Being Struck by Vehicle at Texas Bus Stop
8 People Believed to Be Migrants Killed After Being Struck by Vehicle at Texas Bus Stop
Chrissy Teigen Posts C-Section Photo to Refute Online Claims She Used Surrogate for Baby Esti
Chrissy Teigen Posts C-Section Photo to Refute Online Claims She Used Surrogate for Baby Esti
4 Workers Injured, 1 Missing After Chemical Explosion at Mass. Plant
4 Workers Injured, 1 Missing After Chemical Explosion at Mass. Plant
A Utah Mom Wrote a Children's Book on Grief After Her Husband Died. Now, She's Accused of Murdering Him
A Utah Mom Wrote a Children's Book on Grief After Her Husband Died. Now, She's Accused of Murdering Him
Florida Deputy Helps Mom of 6 Deliver Baby on Side of Highway: 'Not the Original Birth Plan'
Florida Deputy Helps Mom of 6 Deliver Baby on Side of Highway: 'Not the Original Birth Plan'
Man Saves Baby in Stroller from Rolling into Traffic After Woman Falls and Can’t Get Up — See Video
Man Saves Baby in Stroller from Rolling into Traffic After Woman Falls and Can’t Get Up — See Video
Hawaii Tourists Following GPS Directions Rescued After Driving Car ‘Straight into the Harbor’
Hawaii Tourists Following GPS Directions Rescued After Driving Car ‘Straight into the Harbor’
Va. Officer Making Traffic Stop ‘Glad to Be Alive’ After Barely Avoiding Out-of-Control Car — See Video
Va. Officer Making Traffic Stop ‘Glad to Be Alive’ After Barely Avoiding Out-of-Control Car — See Video
At Least 8 People Killed in Texas Mall Shooting: 'Senseless Act of Violence'
At Least 8 People Killed in Texas Mall Shooting: 'Senseless Act of Violence'
All About Princess Anne's Hat, 'Feathergate' and Why She Wore a Uniform to King Charles' Coronation
All About Princess Anne's Hat, 'Feathergate' and Why She Wore a Uniform to King Charles' Coronation
Prince Harry's Ghostwriter Recalls Their Biggest Fight — and How Meghan Markle Made Him Feel at Home
Prince Harry's Ghostwriter Recalls Their Biggest Fight — and How Meghan Markle Made Him Feel at Home
6 Dead, More Than 30 Injured After Dust Storm Causes Major Dozens of Cars to Crash on Illinois Highway
6 Dead, More Than 30 Injured After Dust Storm Causes Major Dozens of Cars to Crash on Illinois Highway
14 People Injured as ‘Overloaded’ Roof Collapses at Off-Campus Party Near Ohio State University
14 People Injured as ‘Overloaded’ Roof Collapses at Off-Campus Party Near Ohio State University
Jennifer Lopez Reveals the Reason She Walks a Step Behind Ben Affleck While Holding Hands
Jennifer Lopez Reveals the Reason She Walks a Step Behind Ben Affleck While Holding Hands
Married at First Sight's Nicole and Chris Talk Decision Day
Married at First Sight's Nicole and Chris Talk Decision Day
College Senior 'Drew Her Last Breath' Holding Brother's Hand After Brain Hemorrhage on Spring Break, Says Mom
College Senior 'Drew Her Last Breath' Holding Brother's Hand After Brain Hemorrhage on Spring Break, Says Mom
A Side-by-Side Look at the Coronations of King Charles and Queen Elizabeth
A Side-by-Side Look at the Coronations of King Charles and Queen Elizabeth
Robert De Niro Reveals He 'Just Had a Baby' at 79, Now Is a Dad of 7
Robert De Niro Reveals He 'Just Had a Baby' at 79, Now Is a Dad of 7
1 Killed, 4 Wounded in Shooting at Atlanta Hospital, as 'Armed and Dangerous' Suspect Remains at Large
1 Killed, 4 Wounded in Shooting at Atlanta Hospital, as 'Armed and Dangerous' Suspect Remains at Large
Critically Endangered Orangutan Gives Birth at California Zoo
Critically Endangered Orangutan Gives Birth at California Zoo
'Devoted' Dad, 49, Dies from Injuries 8 Days After Getting Stuck in Cave at Indoor Rock Climbing Center
'Devoted' Dad, 49, Dies from Injuries 8 Days After Getting Stuck in Cave at Indoor Rock Climbing Center
Smokey Robinson Reveals He Had an Affair with Diana Ross: 'She's a Beautiful Lady'
Smokey Robinson Reveals He Had an Affair with Diana Ross: 'She's a Beautiful Lady'
New Jersey Woman Arrives in Jamaica Without a Passport Following Travel Mishap
New Jersey Woman Arrives in Jamaica Without a Passport Following Travel Mishap
Kate Middleton Calls Prince Louis a Sweet Nickname During His First Royal Engagement
Kate Middleton Calls Prince Louis a Sweet Nickname During His First Royal Engagement
Maria Menounos Reveals She Survived Pancreatic Cancer - with a Baby on the Way
Maria Menounos Reveals She Survived Pancreatic Cancer - with a Baby on the Way
Buddy Holly the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Wins Best in Show at the 2023 Westminster Dog Show
Buddy Holly the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Wins Best in Show at the 2023 Westminster Dog Show
Kourtney Kardashian Shares Photo of Her 'IVF Body' as She Lounges Outside in Bikini
Kourtney Kardashian Shares Photo of Her 'IVF Body' as She Lounges Outside in Bikini
Meg Ryan Makes Rare Appearance as She Steps Out to Support Michael J. Fox and His New Documentary
Meg Ryan Makes Rare Appearance as She Steps Out to Support Michael J. Fox and His New Documentary
Derek Jeter Reveals He and Wife Hannah Have Welcomed a Baby Boy: 'Welcome to the World Lil' Man'
Derek Jeter Reveals He and Wife Hannah Have Welcomed a Baby Boy: 'Welcome to the World Lil' Man'
Suspected Gunman Who Left 1 Woman Dead and 4 Others Injured is Captured After Manhunt in Atlanta
Suspected Gunman Who Left 1 Woman Dead and 4 Others Injured is Captured After Manhunt in Atlanta
Kate Middleton and Prince William Surprise Fans at a Coronation Big Lunch in Windsor
Kate Middleton and Prince William Surprise Fans at a Coronation Big Lunch in Windsor
Stepmother Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Killing Colo. Boy Gannon Stauch
Stepmother Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Killing Colo. Boy Gannon Stauch
Ed Sheeran Found Not Liable in Copyright Lawsuit: ‘I Feel the Truth Was Heard’
Ed Sheeran Found Not Liable in Copyright Lawsuit: ‘I Feel the Truth Was Heard’
King Charles Steps Out for First Royal Engagement Following Coronation Celebrations — at His Alma Mater!
King Charles Steps Out for First Royal Engagement Following Coronation Celebrations — at His Alma Mater!
5 Dead, Including 8-Year-Old, in Texas ‘Execution Style’ Shooting by Alleged Drunk AR-15 Gunman
5 Dead, Including 8-Year-Old, in Texas ‘Execution Style’ Shooting by Alleged Drunk AR-15 Gunman
At Least 22 Dead, Including Children, After Tourist Boat Capsizes in India
At Least 22 Dead, Including Children, After Tourist Boat Capsizes in India
King Charles Is Anointed Behind Screen in Only Moment You Won't See of Coronation
King Charles Is Anointed Behind Screen in Only Moment You Won't See of Coronation
Kylie Jenner's Met Gala Dress Designer Asked Her Not to Sit Down or Move One Arm in Her Skin-Tight Gown
Kylie Jenner's Met Gala Dress Designer Asked Her Not to Sit Down or Move One Arm in Her Skin-Tight Gown
Ding-Dong-Ditch Horror: Calif. Man Convicted of Murdering 3 Teens After Becoming Enraged by Doorbell Prank
Ding-Dong-Ditch Horror: Calif. Man Convicted of Murdering 3 Teens After Becoming Enraged by Doorbell Prank
Kylie Jenner Rocks Edgy Red Gown at 2023 Met Gala as She Says She's 'Here for a Good Time'
Kylie Jenner Rocks Edgy Red Gown at 2023 Met Gala as She Says She's 'Here for a Good Time'
Amber Heard Spotted on a Run in Spain 1 Year After Johnny Depp Trial: Photos
Amber Heard Spotted on a Run in Spain 1 Year After Johnny Depp Trial: Photos
Louisiana Homeowner Accused of Shooting 14-Year-Old Girl Playing Hide-and-Seek in His Backyard
Louisiana Homeowner Accused of Shooting 14-Year-Old Girl Playing Hide-and-Seek in His Backyard
'A Million Little Things': Emotional Series Finale Sees Gary Take Control of His Fate After Cancer Recurrence
'A Million Little Things': Emotional Series Finale Sees Gary Take Control of His Fate After Cancer Recurrence
3 Things to Know About Lionel Richie's Kids
3 Things to Know About Lionel Richie's Kids
Married at First Sight's Kirsten Confides in Brother About Marriage
Married at First Sight's Kirsten Confides in Brother About Marriage
Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra's Relationship Timeline
Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra's Relationship Timeline
TikTok Dad Bobby Moudy Dies at 46: 'He Will Forever Be Remembered' as 'Most Amazing' Father
TikTok Dad Bobby Moudy Dies at 46: 'He Will Forever Be Remembered' as 'Most Amazing' Father
Kara Robinson Chamberlain, 15, was watering plants and bushes in the front yard of a friend's house in West Columbia, S.C, in the early afternoon of June 24, 2002, when a Trans Am pulled in the driveway and an affable guy in his late 30s, wearing jeans, a button-down shirt and a baseball cap, got out to offer some "pamphlets."

"He said, 'Are your parent's home?' and I said, 'Well, this isn't my house. This is my friend's house,'" Kara, now 35, tells PEOPLE. "And he said, 'OK, well what about her parents, are her parent's home?' And I said, 'No, her mom's not home right now.'"

For more on Kara Robinson Chamberlain, listen below to our daily podcast on PEOPLE Every Day.


"I'll just leave these with you," he told her as he approached.

Suddenly, the man, who was later identified as serial killer Richard Evonitz, pulled out a gun, pressed it to her neck and forced her into a large storage bin that was stowed on the back seat of the car.

As he drove towards his apartment, Kara began counting the turns he made, in hopes of later finding her way home again.

She noticed details: He was listening to a classic rock station and smoking Marlboro red cigarettes. She even memorized the serial number on the inside of the plastic container that he had forced her to kneel inside.

"My survival mechanism said, 'All right, let's gather as much information as we can,'" she says. "Fear barely even kicked in ... the human will to survive and the survival mechanism really just can't be underestimated."

On his way to his apartment, he pulled over and restrained her with handcuffs and put a gag in her mouth. He then took her to his cluttered apartment — also home to a guinea pig, a lizard and other small animals — and assaulted her for 18 hours.

Kara Robinson Chamberlain
Young Kara Robinson Chamberlain. COURTESY KARA ROBINSON CHAMBERLAIN
Despite being terrorized, she tried to find ways to identify him — the names of his doctor and dentist were on his fridge — and to keep him calm. When he wanted her to have some food, "I said, 'Well, I'm not going to eat right now, but is there anything I can do for you?'" she says. "I actually ended up sweeping his kitchen."

That kind of manipulation, says Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, S.C., may have helped save her life. "She was just putting him at ease and making him feel comfortable, gaining his trust. And that's what police negotiators do," explains Lott in this week's issue of PEOPLE. "She controlled her emotions to the point where she was able to develop a plan."

In the dawn hours, while Evonitz was asleep, Kara was able to free one hand from a pair of handcuffs and unclip a leg restraint. She quietly tiptoed to the front door and made her escape.

She ran towards a car in the parking lot and asked the two people inside to take her to the police station, where she recounted her ordeal. She was asked by the officers to take them back to Evonitz's apartment, and because of her keen powers of observation and the help of the apartment maintenance man, they found his lair.

However, by the time authorities got there, Evonitz had fled.

Inside his apartment they found a locked foot-locker with newspaper clippings about the unsolved murders of three girls: Sofia Silva and sisters Kati and Kristin Lisk. They had all gone missing in Spotsylvania County, Va., more than five years before Kara's abduction.

Police tracked Evonitz to Sarasota, Fla., and a high speed chase there ended when he ran over spike strips on the highway and was attacked by a police dog. Evonitz then shot himself.

Richard Marc Evonitz
Richard Evonitz. FBI
For her help in solving the murders of Sofia and the Lisk sisters, Kara received $150,000 in reward money and was able to meet their families.

"It was one of the most important things that's ever happened to me," she says. "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 daughters' death is no longer here."

Encouraged by Sheriff Lott, Kara took a part-time job in the summer during high school and college doing administrative work with the sheriff's department. She later became a school resource officer and an investigator on child abuse and sexual assault cases.

She left her job in law enforcement after her two boys, whom she had with husband Joe Chamberlain, were born.

In 2019, after participating in an interview with kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, she took part in a 90-minute Lifetime special, Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case, with five other survivors to lend support to Closs, a Wisconsin teen who escaped her captor in 2019.

"I sat down on a couch with Elizabeth and five other women who had survived kidnappings and sexual assaults. And that was the moment that I realized that I really had a bigger purpose. I knew that I could find a reason for what happened. And I always knew that what happened to me was something that happened so that I could help other people," she says.

"I was healed on that couch, sitting there talking to those women, in a way that I didn't even realize I was hurting," Kara says. "Just to sit down and talk to women who really understood the heart of what I had been through."

She continues: "If you look at what our statistics say, which is probably a conservative estimate, that one in three women experience sexual assault in their lifetime. I realized that up to maybe more than a third of our population of women are experiencing something. And they may never get the opportunity to sit down and to talk to someone who really understands what they went through. And I thought, if I can do that, if I can bring that to other women in some way, shape or form, that would just be the epitome of my purpose, if I could just help other people."

Kara Robinson Chamberlain
Kara Robinson Chamberlain.
Kara began working with Smart to make the documentary, Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story, for Oxygen, released last year.

"I knew that if I wanted to help people, I needed to tell my story on a way that I was proud of," she says.

Kara set up a website, where she shares her story and spreads "hope and encouragement to other survivors."

She also uses social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to help spread the word and "provides advice on how to heal, how to support, how to speak to victims of crime, and how to embrace a survivor mentality."

"One of the things is helping women to see themselves in others, because I think that it can be so empowering when we just speak to someone who understands what we've been through," Kara says. "I would love to help them tell their stories in a way that really lets them take ownership of the story and really empowers them to take back the power."

For more on Kara Robinson Chamberlain, subscribe now to PEOPLE, or pick up this week's issue, on newsstands now.

Kara says she is also passionate about helping people find tools for healing. "I think that therapy for so many is such a great resource, but I think that, one, it's not accessible to every person. I think that it's also not a good fit for every person and there are so many great healing tools that we can utilize on our own."

For Kara, it's exercise.

"Exercise is a huge thing for me, as far as my mental and physical wellness. It keeps me very centered and grounded, but there's also a lot of other tools, whether it be meditation or breathwork or tapping emotional freedom therapy. There's just so many tools that we can use to release those more subconscious ideas that we have about ourselves and our trauma or our body, how our body remembers that trauma."

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

She is also working with a consultant to try and overhaul victim representation in the media.

"In the same way there would be an intimacy coordinator on a set. Someone that is checking in with everyone and making sure, if there's a scene where there's intimacy, they're checking in with the actors and they're making sure they're comfortable at every point of the game," she says. "There should be someone who's doing that when someone is working with victims. There is no media standard for how victim's stories are told, how they're represented, how they're treated."

She also hopes one day to investigate other possible unknown victims connected to Evonitz. "It is my gut belief that he was responsible for more than the three murders we know about."

She is also in the process of writing a book.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.