The friendship between a serial killer survivor and his ex-wife

Published: 10:30 EDT, 14 October 2026 | Updated: 10:30 EDT, 14 October 2026

For years, Bonnie Lou had tried to make sense of the man she thought she had known.

Richard Marc Evonitz was once her husband. After their marriage ended, the FBI knocked at her front door and exposed him as a serial killer responsible for the murders of three teenage girls in Virginia.

But there was at least one other victim, too: a 15-year-old girl he had abducted from a front lawn in South Carolina, held captive for 18 hours and sexually assaulted before she managed to escape.

Kara Robinson Chamberlain grew up to become a victim advocate and a woman still driven by the belief that the predator had left many more lives damaged in his wake than the ones already known.

Bonnie watched from afar. She knew Kara’s story, knew what Evonitz had done to her and had even wondered whether she should reach out.

But what do you say to the woman your ex-husband kidnapped, [punished] and [sexually assaulted]?

Then, in 2024, Chamberlain made the first move, sending an unexpected note on Instagram.

Get the Crime Desk US newsletter to find out what that message said – and how it sparked an extraordinary alliance between two women bound by the same predator.

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