Olathe ? Izabela Lewicka was an independent child, not one to let them know why she was coming to Kansas, her parents testified Tuesday.

All they knew about her plans in 1997 was that she was heading to Kansas for an internship and that she planned to return to West Lafayette, Ind., for her sophomore year at Purdue University.

“She was very vague about that,” said Andrew Lewicki, her father. “All she told us was that it was advertising for a small publisher.”

Her parents tried to see her in August 1999, but the address they drove to in Overland Park was a private mail box company.

A few dozen e-mails during the next two years were all they heard from or about Lewicka until police told them she was dead.

John E. Robinson Sr., 58, of Olathe, is charged with capital murder in the deaths of Lewicka, 21, and Suzette Trouten, 27. Both of the women’s bodies were found in barrels in June 2000 on his Linn County property.

Robinson also is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lisa Stasi, 19, who disappeared in 1985 and whose body has never been found. He also faces three other murder charges in Missouri.

Like her husband, Danuta Lewicka testified she and her husband were not pleased with their daughter’s summer plans. They had hoped she would continue her education in fine arts in September at Purdue.

Lewicki e-mailed his daughter about her well-being. She gave a terse reply to be left alone, which was shown to jurors.

“I have told you, I am happy, I am well, I have a wonderful job and a wonderful man in my life who loves me. … I want to be left alone. I don’t know how I can make it any clearer,” she wrote.

Jennifer Hayes, 29, of West Lafayette, testified that she knew Lewicka from a Purdue social group that was into alternative religions, including Wicca and paganism. Hayes was aware of Lewicka’s interest in bondage, discipline and sadomasochism.

Hayes said she talked with Lewicka before she left for to Kansas about training to become a dominatrix under a man Hayes knew only as “John.” Lewicka said she also would be illustrating a manuscript on bondage and sadomasochism.