THE woman who was kidnapped by a serial killer and sold to his family is having her story retold in a new movie.
At just five months old, Tiffany Stasi was snatched from her mother Lisa, by killer John Robinson in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1985.
ABC 20/20Heather Robinson was 15 years old when she discovered the dark truth about her uncle and her true identity[/caption]
John Edward Robinson has been linked to the murders of eight women
ABC 20/20Police found the bodies of Robinson’s victims in barrels on his property in 2000[/caption]
She would not find out the dark truth about her life and her sick uncle for another 15 years when he was revealed to be a serial killer whose victims included her own mother.
It is the focus of a new film Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story that airs tonight.
Tiffany was brought up as Heather Robinson by her adoptive parents Don and Frieda Robinson.
But in 2000, her uncle John Robinson, Don’s brother, was arrested after bodies of multiple women were discovered in barrels on his property as part of an investigation into missing people.
It was then, when she was 15 years old, that Heather learned Robinson had kidnapped her and handed her to his family for an illegal adoption for which he got $5,500.
Her biological mother, Lisa, met Robinson after she went to a woman’s shelter following a split with Heather’s dad.
Robinson said he would help the pair find a home but instead he brutally killed her mother and sold the baby to his brother and sister-in-law who thought they were legally adopting her.
He had claimed 19-year-old Lisa committed suicide in a hotel room.
By the time of his arrest in 2000, the then 56-year-old had been linked to the murders of eight women.
He had a lengthy criminal record that included fraud and embezzlement and had tricked people with the alias of John Osbourne.
The depths of his depravity were not uncovered until a woman came forward accusing him of sexual assault and theft which led to a police search at his home near La Cygne, Kansas.
He had already been named as a person of interest in a number of cases across Missouri and Kansas of missing women.
HOUSE OF HORRORS
When cops scoured his farmland, they found barrels containing the decomposing bodies of Izabela Lewicka and Suzette Trouten.
Lewicka was reported missing in 1999 and Trouten in 2000.
The bodies of Beverly Bonner, Sheila Faith, and her daughter, Debbie Faith were later found at two storage units he rented in Missouri.
After his arrest, Heather’s DNA was tested which confirmed the truth about her adoption and the forged certificates.
In 2002, Robinson went on trial for the murders of Trouten, Lewicka, and Lisa Stasi, though her body was never recovered.
He was found guilty of all counts and handed two death sentences and a life sentence as well as convicted for the kidnap and false adoption of Heather.
A year later, he received more life sentences after pleading guilty to the murders of Paula Godfrey, Catherine Clampitt, Beverly Bonner, and Sheila and Debbie Faith.
GettyAerial view of serial killer John Robinson’s home in Linn County, Kansas[/caption]
ABC 20/20Lisa Stasi’s remains have never been recovered but Robinson was found guilty of her murder[/caption]
ABC 20/20Heather, then Tiffany Stasi, before being snatched by Robinson[/caption]
Heather’s story plays out in a brand new movie on Lifetime
Despite two life sentences being overturned in 2015, Robinson remains on death row at the age of 81.
He was found to have been one of the first killers to use the internet to lure in victims, speaking to women in online chat rooms under the username “slavemaster”.
I’d be dead. I would be in that barrel.
Heather Robinson
Authorities discovered that with some of his victims, Robinson engaged in sadomasochistic sex and master-slave relationships before killing them, per Biography.
In a rare interview with ABC News in 2019, Heather said she believes she witnessed her mother’s murder but does not remember it.
She said that while she was growing up, Uncle John “gave me this really weird, off-putting feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
“It’s like walking down a dark alley in the middle of the night while you know someone is behind you, approaching you closer and closer.”
Heather also claimed that just months before Robinson’s arrest, she nearly ended up as one of his murder victims.
At a wedding in Florida, she said he asked her sexual questions and offered to pay for a plane ticket so she could stay with him.
Had she said yes, Heather said: “I’d be dead. I would be in that barrel”.
Lisa’s remains have still not been recovered with Heather continuing efforts to try to find her biological mother to have her buried on a family plot.
Heather Tiffany Robinson was eventually legally adopted by Don and Frieda at the age of 18.
Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story airs on June 7 on Lifetime at 8/7c.
LifetimeKidnapped by a killer: The Heather Robinson Story airs on June 7[/caption]
LifetimeDepiction of Heather and Uncle John in Kidnapped by a killer[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
