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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.
Prince William County police Detective Sam Newsome, an investigator in the "29 Stalker" case, said yesterday authorities plan to look for ties between Evonitz and the unsolved case. Detectives also are looking at former Maryland resident Darrell Rice, indicted earlier this year in the slayings of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park.
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to retrace Evonitz's life between 1996 and his attack on the South Carolina teen last week. They are looking to see if he is responsible for murders in at least three other states, as well.
While Spotsylvania officials are being cautious about tying Evonitz to the local slayings, Sheriff James Metts of Lexington County, S.C.--where the latest abduction occurred--said yesterday he thinks they've found the Lisk-Silva killer.
"If he's not the guy, I'll be shocked," the sheriff said.
Metts said he considers the discovery in Evonitz's Columbia apartment of a copy of the May 2, 1997, Free-Lance Star, which included an article about the Lisk girls' disappearances "a strong indicator" that Evonitz committed the crimes.
"Serial killers hold on to trophies, and newspaper stories are often the souvenirs," Metts said.
Smith wouldn't say exactly what authorities seized in the searches of Evonitz's car and home, but he said some of it "seemed promising."
It's been six long years since Kristin and Kati vanished from their front yard after school. Their bodies were found five days later, tied together and floating in the South Anna River in Hanover County.
DNA evidence later linked their deaths to the September 1996 abduction and slaying of Sofia Silva, who also vanished from her front yard after school. Her body was found in a King George County creek about a month after her disappearance.
The killer had abducted the girls in the same manner and had shaved the pubic hair of Kristin and Sofia. The victim in South Carolina was not shaved, Smith said.
Evonitz moved into a two-story home in South Oak subdivision in Massaponax in 1996. It was not clear when he left, but the lender foreclosed on the home in 1999. A South Carolina native, he returned to his home state two years ago.
Spotsylvania authorities learned of a possible link between Evonitz and the Lisk-Silva cases from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, Smith said. A researcher there was running Evonitz's name through a database at the request of authorities in South Carolina when he learned Wednesday that the suspect had lived in Spotsylvania.
Smith immediately called investigators in Richland County, then gathered the Lisk-Silva Task Force for a meeting.
On Thursday, a Virginia State Police airplane took Smith and King George County sheriff's Capt. Steve Dempsey to South Carolina. The next morning, the two got search warrants for Evonitz's home and his 1992 Ford Taurus, Smith said.
That afternoon, they interviewed Evonitz's 19-year-old wife--his second--for an hour and a half, Smith said. She had been vacationing with Evonitz's mother in Florida last week.
The FBI sent a forensic scientist, a criminal profilclippier and an agent from the Lisk-Silva Task Force to South Carolina on Friday morning, Smith said.
Evonitz had never been questioned about the Lisk and Silva slayings, though his name did come up several years ago when detectives checked records of new businesses and residents in the county, Smith said.
Evonitz was convicted of a 1987 sexual assault in Florida, but never registered as a sex offender in Virginia or South Carolina, as required by law.
"We had no reason to consider him a suspect," Smith said.
"We investigated every registered sex offender in the region. We didn't talk to him because he wasn't on the list."
Smith said Evonitz "sounds like a great suspect," but investigators have been disappointed before.
"We're very excited, but we're in no hurry," he said. "We have got to be methodical. Everyone wants closure, but we've got to be patient. We still have a lot of work to do."
He said his detectives are keeping the Lisk and Silva families up to date on all new developments in the case.
Sheriff Metts believes Evonitz eventually may be linked to murders in other states.
He said the actions of the young victim in South Carolina "saved her own life and probably the lives of many other young girls."
"She was very cool, very observant," Metts said. "It was such a horrifying ordeal."
While she was watering a friend's lawn, the girl was abducted at gunpoint by a man posing as a magazine salesman. She told police Evonitz shoved her into a green plastic storage container in the trunk of his car and drove her to his apartment.
Metts said Evonitz forced his victim to watch TV news reports about her disappearance and pornographic videos. He said Evonitz handcuffed the victim and ordered her to call him "Daddy."
The girl ran screaming from his apartment, still in handcuffs, when she heard him snoring, Metts said.
"This is not the guy's first time and it wouldn't have been his last," Mett said.
Another of the notes in his apartment showed Evonitz had been stalking another teen-age girl in neighboring Lexington County right before Monday's abduction, the sheriff said.
"We feel he had another intended victim," Metts said. "He described her, her house, the garage, everything. He was very organized. I have no doubt he was a serial killer."
EXTERNAL LINKS TO THIS CASE:
Florida's heraldtribune.com coverage
Coverage from Richmond's timesdispatch.com
South Carolina's thestate.com coverage