Spotsylvania authorities say evidence indicates suspect in Lisk-Silva slayings stalked other girls in Fredericksburg area.

By KARI PUGH
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 7/1/2002

Local detectives trying to link Richard Marc Evonitz to the slayings of three Spotsylvania County girls found handwritten notes in his apartment indicating he stalked at least four other girls in the area.

Investigators and FBI agents on the Lisk-Silva Task Force searched Evonitz's home and one of his vehicles during their three-day trip to South Carolina last week.

They collected 150 to 200 pieces of evidence they hope will tie the former Spotsylvania resident to the 1996 killing of Sofia Silva and 1997 slayings of 15-year-old Kristin Lisk and her 12-year-old sister, Kati, sheriff's Maj. Howard Smith said yesterday.

Evonitz, 38, shot himself to death Thursday night after a 100 mph police chase through Sarasota, Fla. He was wanted in Richland County, S.C., for the gunpoint abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl last Monday. The victim was held in his apartment for 18 hours before she managed to get away.

Several boxes of evidence, along with samples of Evonitz's DNA, are being shipped from South Carolina and Florida to the FBI lab in Washington and should arrive today, Smith said.

The DNA tests will prove whether Evonitz is the Lisk-Silva killer, but Smith said it probably will be weeks before authorities get definitive results.

"We've collected so much evidence, it will take a while to sort it all out," Smith said.

In the notes found in his Columbia, S.C., apartment, Evonitz wrote down details about the girls he was watching, where they lived and how old he thought they were.

One note made reference to Block House Road, where the Lisk sisters lived, but did not specifically name the girls, Smith said.

"There was mention of numerous girls he was watching, at least four or five girls on one sheet of paper," Smith said.

On another note, Evonitz had scribbled "29 north," and "Germanna Road," a name for State Route 3 in the Lignum area--the spot where another murder victim's body was found in 1995.

Alicia Showalter Reynolds, 25, vanished along U.S. 29 in Culpeper as she drove from Baltimore to Charlottesville. Her body was found in a Lignum logging camp two months later.

Date published: 7/1/2002