Kriti Mehrotra
With Lifetime’s ‘No One Believed Me’ chronicling the tale of a woman who manages to escape the clutches of a dark, dangerous man, we get a drama that can only be described as haunting. That’s because not only is she not believed by her peers or local law enforcement, but she also has to face her attacker again when he returns years later to finish what he had started long ago. This entire original is bone-chilling and poignant, considering the way it covers topics such as stalking, violence, as well as victim disbelief, making us wonder if it’s actually based on true events.
No One Believed Me Likely Takes Inspiration From Several Real Cases
Lifetime’s ‘No One Believed Me’ is a film that undeniably revolves around the experiences of a woman as she navigates trauma, the pain of disbelief, and the fear of being a target of a vicious man. After all, the lead has to live with no one in her small town trusting her words following her ordeal, only for her attacker to return and drag her away to the woods when no one can hear her anyway. Therefore, unfortunately, there are several real-life cases from which this original could have taken inspiration and then blended different aspects of them together to have a full story.
The first and arguably the most similar case is that of Samantha Stites, who was stalked by a man 7 years older than her, Christopher Thomas, for nearly 13 years. The duo first met at a college Christian group in 2011, within days of which the latter started messaging her on Facebook to ask her on dates. She repeatedly declined, but he continued to message her before moving on to following her around at her university, to her job, and while she was with loved ones. She was eventually granted a protective order against him in 2014, only for him to go back to his ways as soon as it expired in 2020. The then-30-year-old petitioned for another protective order in July 2022, but it was denied. What ensued was him breaking into her home on October 7, attacking her, and kidnapping her to a bunker in the woods, where he raped her. Thankfully, Samantha soon figured out how to escape, and that’s when actions were taken against Christopher – he was arrested and later sentenced to 40-60 years in prison.
It’s likely filmmakers also looked at the abduction of Lisa McVey, a Tampa, Florida, native who was abducted at the age of 17 on November 3, 1984, by serial killer Bobby Joe Long. She was blindfolded, held at gunpoint, sexually assaulted, and tortured for around 26 hours before she managed to elicit such sympathy from her attacker that he eventually let her go. Sadly, upon returning home, she wasn’t believed by her grandmother, her grandmother’s boyfriend, or the police, that is, until a detective finally realized her accounts had never waivered. In the end, thanks to her, the serial killer was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for not only his crimes against her but also an additional 8 counts of first-degree murder, 8 counts of kidnapping, and 7 counts of sexual battery.
Another significant case of disbelief with the added aspect of the attacker returning is the 2016 murder of Shana Gracie inside her home in Sussex, England. The young woman had first come across Michael Lane at work in 2015, shortly following which they began a relationship, only for her to call it quits within a few weeks. However, what followed was Michael stalking his ex-lover by following her around, putting a tracking device on her car, and much more. When Shana went to the police with her complaints and worries, she was not taken seriously and was later given a penalty notice for “wasting police time.” Ultimately, on August 25, 2016, 27-year-old Michael broke into the 19-year-old’s home while she was alone, killed her, and set fire to her bedroom with her in it.
There is a similar case from Haryana, India, too, wherein 20-year-old Nikita Tomar was stalked, shot, and killed by a man named Tausif on October 26, 2020. He had allegedly abducted her two years prior after her refusal to get romantically involved with him, but she managed to escape and file a police report. However, both she as well as her family were reportedly pressured from the outside to withdraw the official complaint, which they eventually did in fear. This inadvertently enabled Tausif to return close to Nikita, ask her to marry him right outside her college, and then fatally shoot her when she refused. In other words, there are sadly many cases from which Lifetime’s ‘No One Believed Me’ could have taken inspiration to depict the way victim blaming and disbelief do more harm than anyone can ever imagine.
Read More: Lifetime’s The Killer With No Name: Is the Movie Based on a True Story?
