Kristen and Kati Lisk (above) and Sofia Silva (right)

A REGISTERED SEX offender who shot himself to death following a high-speed chase in Florida has emerged as a suspect in the unsolved slayings of three Spotsylvania County girls.

Richard M. Evonitz, 38, of Columbia, S.C., died outside a restau rant in Sarasota late Thursday, police said. He was surrounded by officers and being bitten by a police dog when he fired a bullet into his head. Evonitz was wanted in connection with the Monday afternoon gunpoint abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl in Richland County, S.C. The teen-ager was held for more than 18 hours before she managed to escape.

Evonitz was also wanted for ques tioning in the widely publicized serial killings of Spotsylvania girls Sofia Silva, 16, and Kristin and Kati Lisk, ages 15 and 12, police said. Unlike the girls here, the South Carolina teen got away. She then provided enough information for police to obtain warrants for Evonitz’s arrest.

Several members of the Lisk–Silva Task Force rushed to South Carolina yesterday after hearing about the case.

Spotsylvania sheriff’s Capt. Mike Timm said police have already learned that Evonitz was living in the Fredericksburg area in 1996 and 1997, the years of the slayings. Timm said that as of this point, Evonitz is simply one of many leads investigators have looked into over the past six years.

But he acknowledged there are similarities between the South Carolina case and the ones here that have especially piqued inves tigators’ interest.

“This is one lucky, lucky 15-year- old girl,” Timm said of the South Carolina victim. “Thank God she got away.”

DNA tests are expected to be performed soon, to prove whether or not Evonitz is the man authori ties have been looking for for years.