Kriti Mehrotra
Teenage siblings Lisa Gilbert and Randy Gilbert were alone in their Canal Road home in Lansing, Michigan, on August 16, 1978, when they came face to face with Donald “Don” Gene Miller. It wasn’t unusual for them to be without supervision in the afternoons because they not only followed a routine but were also responsible, yet they had no idea it would change and save their lives. After all, as explored in A&E’s ‘I Survived a Serial Killer: The Mid-Michigan Killer,’ Don turned out to be a heinous murderer who had taken 4 lives before his attack on the siblings led to his arrest.
Lisa Gilbert Was Brutally Attacked and Assaulted
Lisa Gilbert was a typical midwestern 14-year-old in 1978, often enjoying her own space in the recently built home she shared with her younger brother, their father, and their stepmother. So, that’s precisely what she was doing on the afternoon of August 16 while 13-year-old Randy Gilbert was making the most of their summer break by playing outside before she went to call for him. It was getting close to 3 pm, and she didn’t want to delay their daily check-in with their stepmother, but all she saw outside was a brown-tan car in their driveway with a stranger standing by their door.
The man seemed rather confident in the way he looked at the house, so Lisa assumed he was a former contractor or a construction worker who had come over to fix/update something. Her mind doubled down on it when he asked if her dad was home, and then asked for a pencil and paper to note down the number he could call to reach the man of the house at work. However, he unexpectedly followed her inside in the moments to follow before suddenly placing his left arm around her neck and bringing his knife-holding right hand to her throat.
According to Lisa’s account, the stranger told her, “Don’t say anything. Don’t scream. If you don’t say anything, you won’t get hurt,” but then he dragged her to her dad’s first-floor bedroom. There, as per court records, he forced her to lie face down on the floor, bound her hands, gagged her, stripped her naked, and raped her before using her own belt to strangle her. He reportedly applied such force that the belt snapped, following which he continued with his hands until all the blood vessels in her eyes had popped and she was losing consciousness.
Lisa and Randy Gilbert Helped Save Each Other’s Lives
Lisa has always maintained her belief that she was maybe 20 or 30 seconds away from being strangled to death, but her brother’s coming home saved her because it distracted the attacker. Thus, it’s also imperative to note that Randy, who had ventured to a nearby pond, claims it was a gut feeling telling him “it was time to go” back that made him rush down their area. According to his account, the house was “really, really quiet” when he returned through the garage door, so he didn’t even know if his sister was there, and then he saw the strange man.
Randy can still recall the stranger coming out of his father’s bedroom, closing the door behind him, and trying to make casual conversation until he realized the youngster had clocked something was amiss. Therefore, the moment the 13-year-old tried to turn away, as per records, the man grabbed him from behind, put a knife to his throat, and promised not to hurt him before doing exactly that. The teenager was asked where his bedroom was, dragged up the stairs until they had reached that point, and then overpowered. Randy claims the attacker then used his knife to essentially saw his neck, and then used his hands to choke him after he managed to free himself.
As he struggled, he was stabbed once in the neck before being turned around and stabbed twice in the chest, unaware of his sister’s situation or that she had managed to recover a bit. Lisa knew the stranger was still in the home, so she rushed out to call for help – she was still naked, and her hands were bound. Thankfully, a local worker, a fire chief, and a mother-daughter duo were all driving by at that point, and they all stopped the moment they saw Lisa. They contacted 911, and while the mother-daughter duo got Lisa into their car and gave her something to cover up, the two men saw the attacker step out of the house, get into his car, and flee the scene. They managed to note down his license plate, resulting in his identification as Don Miller and his arrest later the same day.
Lisa and Randy Gilbert Prefer to Remain Well Away From the Limelight Today
Don’s arrest after Lisa and Randy’s attack also blew open the fact that he was a serial killer who had taken the lives of 4 women in the two years prior. However, initially, he was still only charged in Eaton County with one count of rape and two counts of attempted murder, for which he was convicted in May 1979 and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. The conviction later led to an agreement to a plea deal for the homicides, which also involved his confession and leading officials to the remains of three women. Since Don had pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of manslaughter, he was sentenced based on the same, enabling him to be eligible for parole every few years since the late 2010s. So, since then, Lisa and Randy Gilbert, along with the loved ones of his murder victims, have always testified against him in front of the parole board. Over the years, they have helped in assuring he doesn’t get early release three times.
Lisa and Randy have made it clear they will continue to fight against his release until they just can’t anymore because they believe he deserves to remain behind bars. After all, the attack on them is still something that continues to hang over them like a dark cloud. They were teenagers at the time, so they were able to make a quick physical recovery, but they still have trauma from it. Their father’s belief that the ordeal was happening to them because God knew they were strong enough to survive it did help them a lot, though, so it’s something they try to remember every step of the way. On a more personal level, from what we can tell, Lisa now goes by Lisa Gilbert-Asher since she is a happily married mother of two whose priority has long been her family. On the other hand, Randy has made the most of his experiences and turned them into something positive by evolving into a police officer. It appears as if they both continue to reside in Lansing, Michigan.
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