"Certain Proactive Strategies"
Experts thought Larry Breeden's behavior was typical of a serial attacker, and law enforcement indicated he was likely to strike again. During a November 1996 press conference, the Virginia State Police reported that they used "certain proactive strategies" to lure Breeden, but would not say what these were.
The locations used to film an Unsolved Mysteries episode in September 1996 offer possible clues to their strategy. News outlets reported the filming locations were selected based on areas thought to be relevant to Alicia's murder.
Two of the four filming locations were associated with a possible serial attacker in Fredericksburg; one of these two locations was later tied to a crime associated with Richard Marc Evonitz, a serial killer operating in the area at the time.
The two other filming locations were tied directly to Breeden's suspected and known activities.
Summary Research Findings
Research Summaries & References by Topic
Certain Proactive Strategies/Unsolved Mysteries Episode On Monday, September 9th, 1996 a production crew began filming the Unsolved Mysteries episode in four locations that per the media, were relevant to the crime. The locations included: (1) downtown historic Fredericksburg on Caroline Street, (2) the Massaponax Outlet Center (in the Southpoint Shopping Center), (3) Route 3 between Fredericksburg and Lignum near Lake of the Woods, and (4) the logging tract in Lignum where Alicia’s remains were discovered. The first scene in the episode reenacts Alicia leaving her townhome in Baltimore for the drive to Charlottesville. Filmed on September 11th, 1996, the set location was 518 Caroline Street, a townhome in downtown Fredericksburg that purportedly resembled the one where she lived in Baltimore. The location was within a block of an August 1994 attack on Pitt Street (see "Evonitz & Serial Attackers in Fredericksburg" below). At the time, law enforcement felt that the same offender was responsible for this attack and an attack in May 1994 at a Massaponax McDonalds. It’s possible then that the Caroline Street filming location was specifically selected for its proximity to the Pitt Street attack, a way for law enforcement to let the offender know that they had some idea of who he was. The second filing location (depicting Alicia’s mother calling Alicia’s husband on March 2nd) was filmed within line of site of the Massaponax McDonalds where the May 1994 McDonalds abduction/rape occurred, in the Southpoint Shopping Center. This attack was later attributed to Richard Marc Evonitz. The third filming location was on Route 3 between Fredericksburg and Lignum, just outside Lake of the Woods. This is the location where filmmakers re-enacted Breeden following women on Route 29. The specific location was within a few miles of the sisters’ encounter with Breeden that began at the 7-Eleven on Route 3. The filming occurred outside the Lake of the Woods community, where Anne McDaniels grew up, and where she was living in June 1995. The final filming location was the Lignum logging site just off Dragoon Road where Alicia’s remains were discovered. Law enforcement could not have forgotten that someone matching the description of Breeden and his truck was spotted there on April 24th, 1996, just weeks before her remains were recovered. Returning to the scene of the crime is a behavior characteristic of "Sexual Homicide, Sadistic" in the FBI's crime classification manual ("the offender may return to the scene to determine if the body has been discovered or to check on the progress of the investigation"). Was the strategy then to send a message to the offender, perhaps that law enforcement was not entirely clueless about his prior actions? References: Barr, Derek. “'Unsolved Mysteries' Show to Feature Reynolds' Slaying.” Daily News Record (Harrisonburg, Va.), 10 Sept 1996, p. 13. Hall, Jim. "Student Abduction Tied to Other Cases." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 9 Dec 1994, p. 1+. "Unsolved Mystery." Orange County Review, 12 Sep. 1996, p. 1. Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (1992). Crime Classification Manual. A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Evonitz & Serial Attacks in Fredericksburg In May 1996, behavioral experts and law enforcement indicated the killer was almost certain to strike again and that the Alicia’s case was typical of a serial attacker. In 1994 and 1995 serial attackers were common throughout Virginia, with serial offenders were captured in Manassas, Charlottesville, and Fairfax, to name a few locations. In the Fredericksburg area, several attacks occurred, some thought to be serial in nature, that went unsolved for years: •On May 29th, 1994, an 18-year-old woman who worked at a McDonalds in Massaponax (an area within Fredericksburg) was approached around 9:30 pm by a man who talked her into giving him a ride. She initially said no, but he was persistent, and eventually she relented. The McDonalds was just off Route 1, adjacent to the Southpoint Shopping Mall. Using a knife, he forced her to drive to a nearby secluded area near a rock quarry on Smith Station Road where he raped her. During the attack, he displayed drastic mood swings and showed signs of intoxication. Oddly, while at the quarry, a car approached the secluded area during the incident, left, then returned without taking any action. •A few days later, about two miles away, a 17-year-old girl was approached around 6:40 pm and briefly detained by a man in the Four Mile Fork shopping center, who prevented her from entering her car and made sexual remarks before fleeing when someone else approached. At the time, law enforcement indicated that they did not know if this incident and the McDonalds attack were related. •In late September 1994, a 20-year-old woman was awakened in her home on Pitt Street (in downtown Fredericksburg) at 6:30 am by a man described as “a very brazen individual.” Armed with a knife, he climbed on her back and threatened to cut her. Luckily, an alarm in another room went off and scared him away. •In June 1995, two neighbors, ages 11 and 13 were watching videos in a Massaponax home in the Stoney Brooke neighborhood. A masked intruder with a gun cut up bed sheets and tied the girls up. The younger girl was locked in a bathroom while the older girl was raped. •On September 15th, 1995, a woman was attacked around 7:30 pm near a 7-Eleven just off State Route 3. A “well-groomed” stranger in an adjacent blue pick-up truck jumped on her as she exited her car, forced her back in her vehicle and fondled her. She tripped the car alarm, causing him to exit her car and back in his truck. He followed her for a few blocks when she drove away. In 2002, the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office attributed the 1994 McDonalds abduction/rape and the 1995 attack/rape on two neighbor girls in Massaponax to Richard Marc Evonitz. It’s unclear if law enforcement still felt that the offender responsible for the 1994 Pitt Street attack was the same individual responsible for the McDonalds attack (i.e., Richard Marc Evonitz). References: Hall, Charles W. "Experts Say Killer May Strike Again: Pattern of Route 29 Encounters Called Typical of Serial Attackers." The Washington Post, 10 May 1996, p. 1. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/experts-say-killer-may-strike-again/docview/1030600891/se-2. “Spotsylvania Rape Investigated.” Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 4 June 1994, p. 18 Epps, Keith. "Ride Turns Into Rape." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 1 Jun. 1994, pp. B2. Epps, Keith. “Alarmed Attacker Runs Off.” Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 28 Sep 1994. Pugh, Kari and Hall, Jim. "Discovering Deadly Secrets." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 13 Jun. 2004. Epps, Keith and Pugh, Kari. "Evonitz also suspect in 1995 rape of girl." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 14 Aug. 2002, p. A7. Epps, Keith. “Woman Eludes Attacker Who Jumped in Car.” Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 25 Sep 1995. Hall, Jim. "Student Abduction Tied to Other Cases." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 9 Dec 1994, p. 1+.
September 1996 Murders The September 12th edition of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star recapped the filming of the Unsolved Mysteries episode. Near the back of the paper was the first of many stories to follow about a missing 16-year-old girl named Sophia Silva. Sophia lived on Bounds Street in Oak Grove Terrace, a community in the Fredericksburg area about 3 miles south of Route 3 and 21 miles east of Lignum. Amply loved and happy at home, she was last seen on her front porch doing her homework. Her brazen kidnapping on the sunny afternoon of Monday, September 9th, 1996 was so brazen that it took time for authorities to confirm she had been abducted. Her 21-year-old sister was inside the house and did not hear or see anything, and there was no evidence of anything amiss on the porch. Days later, on September 18th, 1996, a woman driving in Madison County on a rural road near Route 29 reported being followed. The woman stopped to call for help on her cellular phone, but the vehicle didn't pull over. That night Anne McDaniel went missing, after leaving her residence on Caroline Street in the Town of Orange. Both Sophia and Anne were missing between Wednesday, September 18th and the morning of Sunday, September 22nd. On that Sunday, Anne McDaniel's body was found around 9:15 am by a hunter and his bloodhound near Lignum, about 70 feet off the side of Stringfellow Road (Route 723), a rural, narrow unpaved road with few homes nearby and close to a hunting cabin. On October 14th, Sophia’s remains were discovered on a 35-acre industrial flower greenhouse on Route 3 in Kings George County (just west of Fredericksburg). It was noted that the company owned another site three miles west of Lignum. Almost immediately, police announced that there was no indication of any link between Sophia’s case and the Lignum cases. Within a day, they acknowledged that they would keep an open mind about the issue. In 2002, the murder of Sophia Silva was forensically linked to Richard Marc Evonitz. Anne's murder remains unsolved. References: Mead, Eileen. "Re-creating a Crime." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 12 September 1996, pp. C1+. Hall, Jim. "Searches Fail to Find Missing Girl." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 12 Sept. 1996, p. C11. Neuberger, Christine. "Reports of Driver Following Women Probed." Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11 Oct 1996, pp. 1+. Hall, Jim. "Grisly Find Still a Mystery." Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 24 Sep. 1996, p. 1. O'Brien, Kimberly. "Search for Teen Ends with Body Discovery." Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA), 16 Oct. 1996, p. 1+. "Neighbors Mourn as Silva Investigation Edges Forward." Media General News Service, 17 Oct. 1996