Silva/Lisk Monument - Spotsylvania VA
N 38° 11.746 W 077° 35.251
18S E 273409 N 4230701
A memorial was dedicated to three missing girls from Spotsylvania County, VA who were found murdered.
Waymark Code: WMEJZ3
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 06/06/2012
Views: 4
On September 9, 1996, Sofia Silva, 16 years old, disappeared without a trace from the front step of her home in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Five weeks later, a decomposed body was found in a creek in the nearby county of King George. An autopsy identified the body as Sofia. She had been murdered.
On May 1, 1997, two sisters, Kristin and Kati Lisk, 15 and 12 respectively, disappeared after getting off their school bus near their home in Spotsylvania County. The girls' bodies were found in the South Anna River six days later.
The disappearances and murders of Sofia Silva and the Lisk sisters were eerily similar, but investigators discounted any connection since a suspect had been arrested and charged with the murder of Sofia. However, in June, that suspect was cleared.
The investigation continued and both cases were profiled on 'America's Most Wanted' on several occasions.
A monument was dedicated to the missing girls at a memorial service in November 1997¹. The monument is a marble leaf with a ladybug.
Inscription below leaf:
Forever young,
Forever in our hearts
Inscription on base:
In Memory Of
Sophia M. Silva 1980 - 1996
Kathryn "Kati" N. Lisk 1984 - 1997
Kristin M. Lisk 1982 - 1997
they were taken from us too soon.
In June 2002, a teenager in South Carolina was abducted by Richard M. Evonitz, a registered sex offender. She escaped and a national lookout was issued for Evonitz. He shot himself to death after a police chase in Florida. Evonitz had lived in Spotsylvania during the late 1990s and had emerged as a possible suspect in the Virginia killings. DNA and other forensic evidence conclusively linked Evonitz to the Silva-Lisk abductions and murders.
The monument currently stands in a garden at the end of a brick walkway outside the entrance of the C. Melvin Snow Memorial Library
. Some of the bricks are engraved with Girl Scouts troop numbers and individuals who contributed to the memorial.
¹ 
The Free-Lance Star (11/17/1997): A lasting tribute
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