A woman who was abducted by a serial killer when she was just 15 has revealed how she escaped the predator – stating choosing her to kidnap was his "greatest mistake". 

Kara Robinson Chamberlain, now 35, was watering plants at the front of her best friend's house in 2002 when she was approached by a man handing out "pamphlets". 

She had no idea the stranger was Richard Evonitz, a serial killer who had at that point already abducted and murdered three young women – and planned for Kara to be his next victim. 

Kara recalls how she studied her captor's every move before taking her opportunity to escape when his attention lapsed. 

After a harrowing 18-hour ordeal, Kara not only escaped, but also helped police identify Evonitz as the killer of Sofia Silva, 16, in 1996 and Kristen Lisk, 15, and her sister Kati, 12, in 1997. He was never bought to justice for the crimes as he killed himself after a police chase. 

Brave Kara's incredible story was recently turned into a documentary Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story – and she's now dedicated her life to helping other kidnap survivors and shares videos on TikTok detailing handy tips like "how to escape handcuffs using your bra". 

"My survival mechanism said 'all right, let's gather as much information as we can'," Kara told People of the moment Evonitz placed a gun into her neck and bundled her into a large plastic storage container. 

"Fear barely even kicked in ... the human will to survive and the survival mechanism really just can't be underestimated." 

Evonitz, 38, later handcuffed and gagged Kara, then took her to his apartment, where she began to take mental notes of everything while being continually sexually assaulted. 

Police said she was also able to "manipulate" her attacker in order to obtain more information to identify him, a detail cops said saved her life. 

"She was just putting him at ease and making him feel comfortable, gaining his trust. And that's what police negotiators do," Sheriff Leon Lott told the publication. 

"She controlled her emotions to the point where she was able to develop a plan." 

Kara explained in the 2021 Oxygen doco she did this to make him "believe that I would be compliant". 

"I had to get as much information about this person and my surroundings as I can, so that I can escape and so that I can identify this person when I do escape," she said. 

Details such as a refrigerator magnet with the name of a dentist, small animals in cages and long red hair in a brush in the bathroom were "locked into my brain" she explained. 

Then when Evonitz fell asleep in bed next to her, Kara seized her opportunity. 

She managed to free one hand from the handcuffs and freed the rope from around her ankles, then quietly crept to the door of the apartment. 

"I put my hand on the knob," she said. "This was my moment to escape." 

She flung open the door and dashed for freedom. "I just ran," she said. "I didn't look back for a second." 

She sprinted towards a car in the car park and told the people inside she'd been kidnapped and asked to be taken to a police station. 

By the time police got to Evonitz's apartment, he had fled. 

He was later located in Florida where a high-speed chase to capture him ensued, but after running over spike strips on the motorway and being attacked by a police dog, Evonitz took his own life, People reports. 

Kara said she was left a "little angry" at his taking his own life instead of facing justice, telling Fox News last year: "My feelings have gone back and forth over the years to feeling relief that he killed himself because I never had to go to trial." 

However, she did say she wished Evonitz knew she "outsmarted" him, adding: "I was not going to be his intended victim. 

"He was the kind of offender who would stalk people. I was not in my normal place in my normal time, so I wasn't an intended victim. 

"So I wanted him to know that choosing me, his victim of opportunity, was the biggest mistake that he could have ever made." 

However, Kara's incredible strength did help identify Evonitz as the killer and abductor of Sofia Silva, Kristen Lisk and her sister Kati. 

Inside his abandoned lair, police found a locked foot-locker with newspaper clippings about the unsolved murders of three girls who all went missing in Virginia, more than five years before Kara's abduction. 

For her work solving the murders, Kara received $US150,000 (NZ$224,000) in reward money and met their families. 

"It was one of the most important things that's ever happened to me," she told People. "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.'" 

Kara has since gone on to forge a happy life despite her horrifying experience and became a motivational speaker to "empower others to thrive". 

The mum-of-two also regularly shares lifesaving tips on her social media accounts to educate others in case they are ever abducted. 

Tips she's shared recently include "advice for getting out of restraints", sharing safety gadgets and talking openly and regularly about her experience. 

- By Rebekah Scanlan, news.com.au