'After I left my husband, police knocked on my door and his secret life unravelled.'

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of sexual assault/domestic violence that may be distressing to some readers.

Imagine that you fell madly in love with your neighbour and got married at 17, only to divorce at 25.

You move on and remarry, have two kids, but then the police arrive at your doorstep, claiming that your first husband is a serial killer who murdered three women.

Not only that, but he was allegedly actively killing people while you were still married to him.

This is the story of Bonnie Lou Garver.

The ex-wife of convicted American serial killer Richard Evonitz is telling her story on TikTok, and it is riveting, albeit disturbing stuff.

If you're thinking to yourself, that is a tale to fill a book, you'd be right.

Garver has actually written one and, in 2025, secured a publisher for it.

In the meantime, she is answering the many questions her story elicits on TikTok. This is what we know so far.

Bonnie Lou on her relationship with serial killer Richard Evonitz.

@bonnielouwriter Who else can relate? #truecrime #author #foryoupage ♬ original sound - Bonnie Lou

In sixth grade, Bonnie Lou was a normal American school kid. Bonnie would often play at her friend's house, which was three doors down from her own.

Bonnie's friend's brother, Richard Evonitz — whom she has now officially named on her TikTok — was in the navy and rarely around.

However, when he was back on leave, Bonnie got to know him. As her friend's older brother, she naturally had a crush on him.

When she turned 16, Richard started flirting with Bonnie, eventually asking her out.

The family wasn't in favour of it, due to their age gap, but they knew the Evonitz family and let Bonnie move ahead with the relationship.

Bonnie and Richard got married within the year, when Bonnie was just 17 and Richard was 25.

"Honestly, that sounds crazy, except that my life was, like, really chaotic at the time," she said on social media.

"When he asked me to marry him, I just jumped on it, because it was really the best thing I had going for me."

The pair tied the knot, and in 1988, they moved to Maine. From Bonnie's account, everything was fine at first, and she was in a love bubble of married life.

Richard was firm with Bonnie about her responsibilities, including cooking, cleaning and correctly laundering his navy uniforms.

"I took all of this in and just worked really hard to please him. And I was happy to do that because I loved him and wanted to make him happy," she said.

However, within the first month of moving away, things started to turn. Bonnie gained some weight and Richard picked at her, telling her to do Weight Watchers and that she would end up 'fat like her mother'.

"As time was going on, I was regretting my choice of getting married, but I had made a commitment," Bonnie said.

"I believed in that commitment, in marriage, and that it's forever, and that you have to work on it.

"I also had a lot of people tell me that I was too young to get married at the time. "I was pretty determined at the time to prove everybody wrong."

Bonnie was married to Evonitz from 1988 to 1996, and he received his first conviction during their first year of marriage.

Washington Post reports that the conviction was for exposing himself to a teenager and toddler in Florida, with Evonitz confessing his guilt both orally and in writing.

The police write-up reportedly said, "Suspect stated he has a problem with masturbating in front of girls.

"When he feels the urge he drives around looking for a girl 18-19 years old, short in height, and has brunette hair."

Bonnie said she never knew what this conviction truly was. He said to her that he had been drunk and driving around naked and a passerby had seen him.

This was far from the truth.

But having seen her husband reform his drinking and embark on a more sober lifestyle, Bonnie was proud of his progress and didn't want to leave him.

With no friends, no job and limited money, Bonnie wasn't aware of how different her marriage was to others.

Soon Richard tried to get out of the military, an exit which came alongside big mood swings.

One day he came home in a complete panic, asking Bonnie, "If I asked you to fly out of the country with me, would you do it?"

Bonnie asked him what he meant and why he was asking, but he never elaborated. They eventually moved to Virginia and both got jobs.

But when they finally were able to buy a house together, his behaviour worsened.

"He began having what I tend to refer to as 'rages'. One minute we'd be sitting there having a normal conversation and the next minute he's shouting at me and cursing," she told TikTok.

It all came to a head when Bonnie got home late one night from ballet class.

He went from yelling at her and accusing her of cheating to completely calm and happy when the phone rang and he answered it.

The immediate switch in him was chilling.

While he was on the phone, Bonnie was overcome with the feeling that she needed to leave. So she grabbed a few things and slipped out of the house, staying with a friend before flying to see her parents.

"Certainly, looking back I think, shoot, I wonder if I hadn't left, what would have happened that night?" she said.

Bonnie ended up moving to Northern California, falling in love and welcoming children with her new partner.

When her second child was three months old, the FBI showed up on her doorstep.

They told her that Richard was dead, and that during the time they were married he had been killing women.

It unravelled a whole secret life she never knew she had.

Everything to know about American serial killer Richard Evonitz.

Richard Evonitz. Image: FBI

Richard Evonitz is an American serial killer who murdered at least three teenage girls in Virginia.

In 2003, he abducted 15-year-old Kara Robinson from a friend's front yard where she was watering plants.

Robinson told People that a man pulled up with 'pamphlets' asking if the girl's parents were home. When she said her friend's parents weren't, he pulled out a gun and forced her into a storage bin in the back of a car. Gagged and handcuffed, she was driven to his apartment where she was sexually assaulted for 18 hours.

Per Washington Post, it was the same apartment that he shared with his second wife, Hope Marie Crowley (married 1999-2002), who was just 19, and on holiday at Walt Disney World at the time.

Robinson said she appeased Evonitz while she was in captivity, so that he would feel comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Managing to slip out of the handcuffs while he slept, she ran out of the house and was taken to the police station by two men who found her.

Kara Robinson. Image: Oxygen

When police went to the home where Robinson was kept, they found newspaper clippings of two other unsolved cases: the murders of Sofia Silva (16) in September 1996 and sisters Kati Lisk (12) and Kristin Lisk (15) in May 1997, per People.

Police tracked Evonitz down in Sarasota, Florida, but after a car chase he took his own life at 38 years old.

While his name is officially tied to the Silva and Lisk murders, The Mirror reports that investigators also found other addresses and descriptions of young girls in Evonitz's apartment.

Per Washington Post, Evonitz told his family that he committed "more crimes than he can remember" while driving south to Florida.

Bonnie's TikTok suggests there could be more female victims.

She said her first husband was a "serial killer who murdered three girls, one of which, while [we] were still married.

Adding, "20 years later [I] found out that he was actually murdering people before [we] were married and throughout [our] entire marriage."

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

Featured Image: TikTok: bonnielouwriter/Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story.

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