‘Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey’ is a true crime movie with Allentown ties captivating Netflix viewers overseas

A true crime film with Lehigh Valley ties is captivating Netflix viewers overseas and sparking renewed interest in the case it depicts.

The film, “Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey,” was first released in 2018 and premiered on Lifetime in the United States and on Showcase in Canada. It was released on Netflix in the UK this month and is now No. 1 on the streaming platform.

The movie recounts the true story of Lisa McVey (now Lisa Noland), who was abducted and raped for 26 hours by serial killer Bobby Joe Long in Tampa, Florida in 1984. McVey convinced Long to let her go and is known today as the only living survivor after Long began raping and murdering women.

Here’s what to know about the movie:

The Lehigh Valley connection gets a lot of screen time

The movie tells the story of how Lisa McVey was forced to move to Florida as a teen after her mother, Catherine McVey, could no longer care for her.

Prior to moving in with her neglectful grandmother and the grandmother’s abusive boyfriend in Florida, the movie shows Lisa McVey was in and out of foster homes (presumably in the Allentown area).

Lisa McVey’s mother, Catherine, lived in Allentown, and the film features one scene with a direct reference to her location when Lisa’s sister, Lorrie, tells her during a phone call to come home “to Allentown.” Subsequent scenes depict a uniformed Allentown police officer visiting Catherine McVey’s home to inform her of Lisa McVey’s disappearance in Florida.

Scenes cut back and forth to Catherine McVey’s home throughout the movie, mostly depicting her as an unfit, uncaring mother who had trouble with drugs and alcohol.

Lisa McVey’s story was initially dismissed by police

On the night of November 3, 1984, 17-year-old Lisa McVey finished her shift at a Tampa-area doughnut shop and began her bike ride home. She was kidnapped by Long and blindfolded before being taken to his apartment.

Lisa McVey got glimpses of her kidnapper through her blindfold and created and cataloged her own “evidence” by counting the number of steps leading up to Long’s apartment and memorizing the color of the carpet on the stairs. She left her fingerprints on the bathroom mirror, dropped a hair pin in the living room and smeared blood from her finger inside of his car in the hopes it would one day be discovered by police.

When Lisa used reverse psychologically to connect with Long and ultimately convinced him to let her go, police didn’t believe her story. Only one cop — Sgt. Larry Pinkerton — realized her memory and incredible detail of the ordeal meant she had to be telling the truth.

The story is even more harrowing for one reason

Lisa McVey told A&E she’d planned to kill herself prior to being kidnapped. This was also depicted in the film.

“I was living with my grandmother and her boyfriend, who’d been molesting me for three years. I had nowhere else to go. I wrote a suicide note and when I went to work that day, I felt exhilarated. I had a plan. I was going to [kill myself] when I got home.”

When Long put a gun to Lisa McVey’s head during the kidnapping, she says she stopped feeling suicidal. In one scene in the film, when McVey is left alone in the bathroom, she lifts her blindfold and looks at her reflection in the mirror, encouraging herself to survive.

Where are they now?

According to an obituary on Legacy.com, Catherine McVey passed away in early 2018. Four children were listed as survivors, including Lisa McVey (Noland) and four grandchildren.

Lisa McVey went on to become a sheriff’s deputy at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, the same department that worked her case. She is married to a police officer with children of her own.

Long killed at least 10 women and was believed to have committed at least 50 rapes in Florida. In 1985, he was sentenced to death for two of the 10 murders. He was executed in 2019 after spending more than three decades on Florida’s death row. He declined to make a final statement before he was put to death.

More about the film

“Believe Me: The abduction of Lisa McVey” stars Katie Douglas (Abby in the new Netflix drama series “Ginny and Georgia”) Rossif Sutherland (son of Donald Sutherland), and David James Elliott (“JAG”).

The film has won numerous awards, including the Canadian Screen Award for Best TV Movie and Best Writing in a Television Film at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020. It also received three Directors Guild of Canada award nominations.

American viewers can find the movie on Amazon Prime by subscribing to Lifetime Movie Club (free trial for 7 days/$3.99 a month after the trial period).

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