Because of his horrible deeds, the infamous criminal Richard Evonitz is still viewed negatively in the annals of criminal history. Evonitz, who was born on July 29, 1963, rose to fame as a serial killer and kidnapper.
In the late 1990s, he abducted and killed teenage girls, mainly in Virginia, as part of his reign of terror. Communities were shaken by the unsettling acts committed by Evonitz, which left a horrific legacy.
But in 2002, in an attempt to avoid justice, he committed suicide, ending his rule. Richard Evonitz’s sinister legacy lingers in the minds of people he wronged even after he passed away.
Is Richard Evonitz Still Alive?
At the age of 38, Richard Evonitz passed away in Sarasota, Florida, on June 27, 2002. The cause of Richard Evonitz’s death was firearm suicide.
Who Was Richard Marc Evonitz?
Joe and Tess Evonitz welcomed Richard into the world on July 29, 1963, in Columbia, South Carolina. Evonitz showed indications of violent temperament even as a small boy. Psychological research from Radford University claims that Evonitz choked his younger sister till she passed out when he was eight years old. He later broke into neighbors’ homes in his early 20s and made fictitious cheques.
Jennifer, Evonitz’s younger sister, claimed in an interview that their father was a strict and easily agitated guy.
“We lived in a prison, Joe was a very controlling person. He wanted us to make straight A’s. If we didn’t we were stupid. It was all about power and control. ‘You’ll get an A or you’ll get a beating.’ I see him as a sadistic man who got pleasure — I know I saw the pleasure in his face — out of making us miserable.”
At some point, Evonitz left his difficult home and enlisted in the US Navy. At the age of 23, Evonitz exposed himself to a 15-year-old and her 3-year-old sister in 1987, marking his first documented sexual offense.
Soon after, Evonitz was taken into custody by the authorities, and according to the Washington Post, he “confessed both orally and written to his guilt.” The report also states that the suspect “said he has a problem with masturbating in front of girls.”
“When he gets the urge, he drives around looking for a short, brunette girl who is between the ages of eighteen and nineteen.” However, Evonitz only received a fine and was placed on probation for this offense. Evonitz left the Navy with honors in 1992 and relocated to Virginia. He started his vicious campaign of crimes there.
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The Crimes of Richard Evonitz
Richard Evonitz moved to Pennsylvania and started working as a salesman. It was alleged that because of his misogynistic remarks and a short fuse, women avoided him at work.
He committed his first known violent crime around that time, in June 1995, when he broke into a house and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl while holding a gun.
Subsequently, Sofia Silva, then sixteen, was kidnapped by Evonitz in 1996 from her front yard. The New York Daily News reported that Silva had gone outside to complete his homework on the porch.
The only things Silva’s sister discovered when she walked outside to see how she was doing were Silva’s class notes and an empty grape drink can. The police eventually found Sofia Silva’s decaying body in a marsh. Investigators saw that she had shaved her pubic region.
Evonitz kidnapped the Lisk sisters on May 1, 1997, from their front yard. The deaths of Kati Lisk, 12, and Kristen Lisk, 15, were later discovered in the South Anna River by authorities. The girls’ pubic regions were shaved. Fibers from both crime scenes would forensically connect the crimes, per the Radford University study.
