Lisa Allen

Lisa Allen was a young runaway whom MacGyver first met on a pier as he returned from a mission to acquire a microfilm list of terrorist names and plans, he noticed her unsuccessfully fishing and stopped to make her a better lure using a shiny gum wrapper. His help was later reciprocated when Lisa helped MacGyver after he was drugged by Kurt Neilson, providing him a safe place to rest and recuperate and later getting a message through to Pete Thornton that MacGyver needed help.

Lisa came from an abusive home where her father would beat her mother, and then both parents would beat her. Lisa made several attempts to run away from home. The first two times she went to the police, who placed her in a juvenile lockup. A social worker checked her story, and a judge issued a warning to her parents before returning her back to their custody where the abuse began again, so she left home for good.

She had made a home for herself in an abandoned building near the pier, using items she had collected and some ingenuity to provide the necessities – a bed, table and chair, electricity from an old car battery found in a wrecking yard, a flame cook stove, a bottle and basin for water, a Styrofoam cooler, a radio, and even a burglar alarm made from clattering silverware against a suspended glass.  Despite her current situation , Lisa was looking to the future and was using a collection of school books to study from with the intentions of getting a diploma and making something of herself.