The harrowing true story behind Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story, explained

Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story debuts June 7, 2025, at 8 pm ET/7 pm CT on Lifetime, depicting Robinson’s forged adoption papers that placed his victim’s baby with his brother.

In 2000, fifteen-year-old Heather Robinson discovered that the uncle she had known since infancy was the serial killer responsible for her mother’s disappearance. As per an ABC News report dated October 2, 2019, the teenager, raised under the name Heather, was born Tiffany Stasi before John Robinson abducted her mother, Lisa Stasi, in 1985.

The truth came out after investigators found human remains on Robinson’s Kansas property and linked them to Lisa Stasi’s case. Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story shows Heather’s journey from shock to discovering her true identity. She had always felt something was off about her uncle, and DNA tests confirmed her real origins. The film follows Heather as she uncovers her family’s dark past and fights for justice for her mother.

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Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story shows how Heather Robinson was taken as an infant and raised by her mother’s killer’s family

In early 1985, teen Lisa Stasi arrived at Overland Park, Kansas, with her four-month-old daughter, Tiffany. Posing as “John Osborne,” John Robinson convinced Lisa that he ran a charitable program for unwed mothers and offered to help place her baby for adoption.

Instead, he strangled Lisa, placed her body out of sight, and forged adoption papers before giving Tiffany, later renamed Heather Robinson, to his brother and sister-in-law in Illinois.

According to an ABC News report dated October 4, 2019, Heather’s adoptive parents believed the adoption was legitimate and had no inkling of Robinson’s crimes. Throughout her childhood, Heather sensed an unsettling energy around “Uncle John,” though she did not understand why.

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Uncovering Heather Robinson’s Origins ahead of Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson

In June 2000, law enforcement executed a search warrant on Robinson’s Kansas property. Cadaver dogs led officers to several barrels containing human remains. Investigators discovered at least five women, including Lisa Stasi, whose body had never been found until then.

When authorities connected DNA from the remains to hospital records, they realized that Tiffany Stasi had survived and was living under the name Heather Robinson. As cited in the ABC news report dated October 2, 2019, Heather recalled that the revelation, she stated,

"[John Robinson] always gave me this really weird, off-putting feeling in the pit of my stomach," she said. "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".

Matching her fingerprints and a subsequent DNA test confirmed her biological link to Carl Stasi, her father.

Upon learning the truth, Heather confronted Don and Frieda Robinson, who had raised her. They admitted they had paid $5,500 to Robinson for what they believed was a lawful adoption.

Heather’s adoptive parents then filed a negligence suit against Truman Medical Center and social worker Karen Gaddis, claiming they should have verified Robinson’s credentials. As per multiple sources, the lawsuit culminated in a confidential settlement in 2007 and a court order barring John Robinson from profiting from media adaptations of his crimes.

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Trials and Aftermath

John Robinson faced charges in both Kansas and Missouri. In October 2002, during the longest criminal trial in Kansas history, he was convicted of murdering Lisa Stasi, Suzette Trouten, and Izabela Lewicka. He was sentenced to death for the two murders and to life for Lisa’s, since Kansas had no death penalty at that time.

Robinson later pleaded guilty in Missouri to five additional murders, resulting in five consecutive life sentences without parole. Two more victims remain unidentified, and their remains unrecovered.

Throughout Heather’s adolescence and early adulthood, she grappled with the knowledge that John Robinson had manipulated countless women and stolen her identity. In the exclusive ABC 20/20 interview, Heather said,

"I want to find out where she is. I want to know who she was, .... She was a scared, abused, 19-year-old girl with a newborn, desperate to keep her child [and] be a mother. That was the whole reason John got her... I know I will. I'll find her."

This drive eventually led her to launch The Lisa Stasi Effect, a podcast exploring her mother’s life and unanswered questions surrounding her disappearance.

Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story would premiere on Lifetime on Saturday, June 7, at 8 pm Eastern / 7 pm Central. Starring Rachel Stubington as Heather and Steve Guttenberg as John Robinson. Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story delves into Heather Robinson’s journey from innocence to awareness of her adoptive “uncle’s” atrocities.

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Heather Robinson’s Continuing Quest ahead of Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson

Following the trials, Heather maintained a complex relationship with both her adoptive family and her biological relatives. She formed a bond with her maternal grandmother, Patricia Sylvester, who encouraged forgiveness yet shared in Heather’s determination to recover Lisa Stasi’s remains.

Heather chose not to pursue a relationship with her biological father, Carl Stasi, feeling that Don Robinson was her true parent. At age 18, she was legally adopted by Don and Frieda Robinson and retained the name Heather Tiffany Robinson, feeling that changing it would erase the life they had provided.

As Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story illustrates, Heather Robinson’s experience underscores the enduring effects of John Robinson’s deceptions, from forging adoption documents to murdering vulnerable women for financial gain.

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Stay tuned for more updates on Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story.