And he said the case of the man authorities believe may be a serial killer responsible for the Lisk-Silva slayings in Spotsylvania County highlights the need to keep track of sex offenders.

"A sexual predator is the lowest form of life," the father said in a statement. "We need to come together for tougher laws for these predators."

The father, whose name was not released to protect his daughter's identity, spoke via speakerphone at the Richland County, S.C., Sheriff's Office.

Evonitz was arrested in 1987 on a charge of flashing a teen-age girl in Florida, telling police then that he had uncontrollable urges about teen-age girls.

Evonitz lived in Spotsylvania County when Sofia Silva, 16, was abducted and killed in 1996 and when 15-year-old Kristin Lisk and her 12-year-old sister, Kati, were slain in 1997.

Authorities have sent DNA and other evidence to an FBI lab in an effort to link Evonitz to the local slayings.

Spotsylvania authorities say Evonitz's name came up on a routine list of new county arrivals and business owners they had compiled early in the investigation. However, local authorities didn't know about his Florida conviction because that case occurred before the state began a registry of sex offenders.

--Hank Shaw