Ex-wife and Survivor Revisit Richard Evonitz Case as They Examine Possible Links to Other Crimes

Bonnie Lou Gower says she did not suspect that her former husband, Richard “Marc” Evonitz, was a serial killer during their marriage. Decades after learning about his crimes, she is revisiting the relationship and helping examine whether he may have been connected to other unsolved cases.

Gower and Kara Robinson Chamberlain discuss the case in Investigation Discovery’s docuseries “The Serial Killer Connection.” Chamberlain survived an abduction by Evonitz in 2002. The two women are now reviewing his movements and other records, but Chamberlain emphasized that possible links to additional crimes remain unconfirmed.

Gower told Fox News Digital that people have asked how she could have lived with Evonitz without knowing what he was doing. She said FBI agents assured her there was no way she could have known. Looking back, she recalled that Evonitz would stay behind when she traveled to visit family, saying he had to work. She later learned he had taken time off on at least those occasions.

The couple met in South Carolina. Gower said she was 16 when Evonitz asked her on a date; they married in August 1988, when she was 17 and he was 25. During their marriage, they moved from Maine to San Diego and then Virginia. Gower said Evonitz isolated her from friends and family, dismissed her concerns about possible infidelity, and developed mood swings and rages after leaving the Navy. She also described financial strain and criticism of her weight as sources of tension.

Gower said she did not fear that Evonitz would harm her, even as the marriage broke down. When she decided to leave, she recalled being concerned about his safety after he said he would take a gun and kill himself. According to the account, the marriage ended in January 1997, with the divorce finalized in 1998.

The crimes that later came to light included the 1996 abduction and murder of 16-year-old Sofia Silva in Virginia. Her body was found about five weeks after she disappeared. In May 1997, sisters Kristin “Kristi” Lisk, 15, and Kathryn “Kati” Lisk, 12, disappeared after returning home from school. Their bodies were found in the South Anna River five days later. Investigators linked Evonitz to the three killings through evidence recovered from his South Carolina apartment, a former Virginia residence and his vehicle.

On June 24, 2002, Evonitz abducted 15-year-old Chamberlain from a friend’s home in South Carolina. She later escaped from his apartment while he slept and reached police with help from two men she encountered. By the time investigators went to the apartment, Evonitz had fled. Police tracked him to Sarasota, Florida, where he died by suicide as authorities closed in. He was 38.

Chamberlain told Fox News Digital that Evonitz kept his criminal behavior hidden from those closest to him. Gower said she learned about his other victims months after Chamberlain’s abduction and initially struggled to accept that the crimes were real. She noted that Evonitz had never hit or physically abused her.

For the docuseries investigation, Gower has supplied dates, locations and old calendars to help reconstruct Evonitz’s movements during their marriage. Chamberlain said she is reviewing cases dating back to the 1980s, including the periods when Evonitz served in the Navy. She described a progression from an indecent-exposure incident to three killings over roughly nine months, followed by a gap before her abduction, but said the broader questions remain unresolved.

Chamberlain said Evonitz’s DNA profile was not in the FBI’s CODIS national database. She said Spotsylvania County authorities still have a blood sample that could be shared with agencies seeking comparisons, and she hopes the profile can eventually be entered into CODIS. The source material does not establish that the sample has been added or that DNA has connected Evonitz to other cases.

Gower also said she discovered during the series that Evonitz had kept a photograph of her at age 11 behind another framed picture. She said she had not known he possessed it. Both women continue to examine the case, while Chamberlain cautioned that any additional victims or crimes attributed to Evonitz have not been confirmed.