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TV show nets tips on Lisk-Silva case

Date published: 7/15/2002

By Kari Pugh

Saturday night's "America's Most Wanted" feature about suspected Lisk-Silva killer Richard Marc Evonitz prompted 25 new leads for investigators on the case.

John Walsh, host of the popular Fox Television show, asked the public's help in uncovering other crimes the former Spotsylvania County man might have committed.

"People called," show spokeswoman Kim Newport said yesterday. "We've turned the information over to investigators."

Evonitz, 38, killed himself June 27, three days after abducting a 15-year-old South Carolina girl at gunpoint and torturing her in his apartment for 18 hours.

The girl spoke out for the first time on "America's Most Wanted," saying she kept a level head to survive. She escaped when Evonitz fell asleep.

By the time police arrived at his Richland County, S.C., apartment, Evonitz was gone.

He shot himself in the head when police surrounded him in Sarasota, Fla., three days later.

Local investigators are awaiting the results of DNA tests to determine if Evonitz is the man who killed 16-year-old Sofia Silva in 1996 and 15-year-old Kristin Lisk and her 12-year-old sister, Kati, in 1997.

Evonitz lived in Spotsylvania between 1993 and 1999 and took off work the days the girls vanished.

Circumstantial evidence found in his South Carolina apartment links him to the case.

Local investigators and FBI agents want to speak to anyone who knew Evonitz when he lived here. The Lisk-Silva Hotline is 800/729-1411.

--Kari Pugh

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Date published: 7/15/2002