Katie Zacharia’s tenure as White House press secretary lasted just five days, as new details emerge about the abrupt end of her first week in the role.

Zacharia was thrust into the national spotlight Tuesday morning when she entered the White House briefing room. Her debut was marked by halting delivery, heavily scripted answers and a refusal to take more than three questions.

By Friday, she had been removed from the prestigious position. Earlier that day, Zacharia was speaking with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal in her newly assigned West Wing office.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, interrupted the conversation and tapped Zacharia on the shoulder. “JD wanted to chat with us real quick,” he reportedly told her.

Zacharia excused herself and left for the meeting, but never returned to the interview, according to the Wall Street Journal. Minutes later, Trump answered questions from reporters on the White House helipad before leaving for Joint Base Andrews.

Asked to assess Zacharia’s performance, Trump said: “Well, Katie’s been treated very badly by the media.”

The president also described a conversation with Zacharia earlier that day, saying he had urged her to think carefully about whether she wanted to remain in the job.

“I said, ‘Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don’t need this,’” Trump told reporters.

When asked whether he still had confidence in her, Trump replied: “I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m gonna let her make that decision.”

Trump said he had warned her, “You should reconsider because you don’t wanna go through this,” while accusing the media of treating her “nastily” since her first briefing.

Before reports of her removal surfaced, Zacharia told the Wall Street Journal that there were “no staffing changes that are happening.”

She said she was working to keep the White House communications team “cohesive” and highlighted what she described as a close relationship with the president.

Even as she projected confidence, Zacharia acknowledged that the pace had taken a toll. She said she was surviving on “no sleep and high adrenaline and probably too much caffeine and no food.”

Her brief tenure as press secretary unfolded with remarkable speed. The roughly 14-minute briefing was widely ridiculed online, while hosts on Fox News also questioned her performance.

Zacharia had been an unexpected choice for the post. Her background included six weeks at the Department of Homeland Security, appearances on conservative media, a position at Trump Media and a legal career that had faced scrutiny.

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She had only 24 hours to prepare for her first White House press briefing. In her interview with the Wall Street Journal, she said, “The truth is that I have a hard time saying ‘no’ because I want to be a team player,” while stressing that she was not accusing the White House of forcing her to appear before reporters so quickly.

A former Trump official described Zacharia as an ‘overwhelmed substitute teacher,’ the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Members of the White House communications team told the outlet that she arrived late to a meeting on Friday and stood in the back of the room. 

When invited to address her team, she said she was excited to work at the White House and eager to get to know everyone. 

However, Zacharia’s allies told the Daily Mail that she knew it was over when she met with Trump on Friday. 

White House communications director Steven Cheung later made her departure official, writing that she will be ‘transitioning into a new role that will be announced at a later date.’

The Daily Mail also revealed that Susie Wiles pushed to oust Zacharia after Trump bypassed her during the hiring process.

On Friday night, Zacharia praised Trump in her final act as press secretary, writing in a statement: ‘President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and the most hardworking man.

‘I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to. It was an honor to work for him.’

Despite her short tenure, Zacharia still found controversy during her week in office. After calling herself a lawyer, it was quickly uncovered that she never passed the bar exam. 

When asked by a reporter on Tuesday where she passed the exam, Zacharia replied: ‘When I moved to China.’

She later clarified that she had not heard the question and tried to smooth things over in two interviews with Sean Hannity on Fox News and again on Fox & Friends.

Her appearances failed to save her role. A senior administration official previously told the Daily Mail, ‘If she can’t handle Fox being a little tough, she’s not going to be able to handle CNN.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment on the Wall Street Journal’s reporting.  

Winston Lee, one of seven Cornell University fraternity members accused by a fellow student of gang rape, is the grandson of Lee Hong-koo, a former South Korean prime minister and ambassador to the United States.

In a lawsuit, a Cornell student identified as “Jane Doe” accused the former Chi Phi member of snorting ketamine off her and forcing her to perform oral sex during the alleged assault.

Cornell suspended Lee for two years.

His grandfather, Lee Hong-koo, served as South Korea’s prime minister from 1994 to 1995 and as the country’s ambassador to the US from 1998 to 2000, during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

The two prominent figures crossed paths repeatedly. At a 2000 ceremony at the Korean War Memorial in Washington marking the conflict’s 50th anniversary, they posed for photographs together.

Their relationship appeared to continue after Clinton left office. In 2005, while the former president was in Seoul promoting his autobiography, Lee invited him to a hotel for bibimbap, a Korean dish Clinton was reportedly a “huge fan” of.

Lee Hong-koo died in May, and Winston acted as chief mourner at the high-profile funeral in Seoul. He oversaw key rites, welcomed guests and accepted condolences on behalf of the family, which traces its lineage to Korea’s former royal family.

Photographs from the funeral prominently show Winston wearing white gloves and holding a portrait of his grandfather.

Lee Hong-koo’s only son, Winston’s father, is Barton Lee, a Yale-educated investment banker who serves as managing director and head of Asia at EIG in Hong Kong.

The family is considered one of the most prominent in South Korea’s expatriate community in Hong Kong. Sources said it has faced intense scrutiny and shame since Jane Doe filed a lawsuit alleging that seven men, including Winston, gang raped her at Cornell.

Winston’s mother, Ji Young Hwang, is president of the Korean Women’s Association of Hong Kong, a nonprofit officially recognized by the South Korean government. Its stated mission includes “supporting women’s integration and personal growth.”

The association removed its Instagram page after the allegations emerged, drawing further criticism.

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“Shutting down their Instagram account feels like a move to protect one of their own rather than stand by their mission,” Hong Kong-based Instagram account Cantonese Lesson Daily wrote.

“It is especially troubling given that the person involved is the president of the organization. The behavior her son is accused of is fundamentally antithetical to the core principles of any group dedicated to supporting, protecting, and empowering women.”

Winston attended the United World College of the Atlantic, an elite boarding school in Wales with annual tuition of $150,000. He later hired the prominent law firm that represented Sean “Diddy” Combs and Harvey Weinstein in their sex-related cases.

According to Doe’s lawsuit, the alleged assault lasted for hours. After Jonathan Newell posted a “free p—y” message in the “Chi Phi Actives” Snapchat group, Winston replied, “CHI PHIII.” He then went upstairs, where he and Matthew Ingalls allegedly took Doe to another room for the night’s final threesome, which ended at about 5:45 a.m.

Cornell’s directory shows that Lee remains enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences this semester.

All of the men named in Doe’s allegations have denied wrongdoing, and none has been criminally charged.

In interviews with Cornell investigators, Winston said his sexual contact with Doe was consensual.

The day after the alleged incident, Doe texted Newell: “I don’t think we should feel any shame. . . . Our body our choice.”

Doe’s lawyer attributed the message to “part of the processing that she was going through” from denial to acceptance.

Winston Lee is one of two accused men, along with Gillio Lopes, who has called on the judge to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case after James called Jane Doe a “survivor” on social media and said, “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”

“It is the height of unfairness that an uncharged person like Mr. Lee, presumed to be innocent, should be investigated by anyone — much less the AG — who has already publicly endorsed the purported victim and concluded the accused are guilty,” his attorney, Teny Geragos, wrote in her Oct. 9 filing to have James removed.

After more than 65 years, Chicago police say they have identified the person responsible for killing 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz as she walked to church.

The suspect was a police officer.

Investigators say Chicago police officer Thomas F. McInerney Jr. abducted, shot and killed Kowalewicz on Nov. 12, 1960.

McInerney was still relatively new to the department at the time. He worked as a Chicago police violent-crimes detective and died in 2006.

Although investigators had evidence connected to the crime, the case remained unsolved for decades. Advances in forensic technology eventually helped reveal the answer.

Shortly before 8 a.m. that day, Kowalewicz left home and started walking several blocks to St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Church. She never made it to mass.

Roughly four hours later, authorities discovered her body in a ditch at a forest preserve southwest of Chicago. Investigators also found evidence at the scene and along the highway leading back toward the city.

Among the items recovered were a bullet, Kowalewicz’s coat, her shoes and a small white communion purse containing her prayer book. Despite the evidence, the killer’s identity remained unknown.

A renewed examination of the case ultimately focused on a fingerprint found on the strap of Kowalewicz’s purse. With the help of modern technology, investigators linked the print to McInerney more than six decades after the crime.

Rogue cop

Chicago police created a special task force during the original investigation. Officers went door to door and interviewed more than 1,300 people in an effort to identify the child’s killer.

More than a dozen individuals also underwent polygraph examinations. Meanwhile, the person investigators now identify as responsible continued working within the police department.

Michael Gould, a founding member of the New York Police Department’s K-9 unit, said the investigators of that era were limited by the tools available to them.

Gould told News Media that trained police dogs might have offered investigators a stronger way to follow the killer’s trail.

However, Gould noted that police departments did not widely adopt dogs for criminal investigations until the mid-1980s. Today, K-9 teams are routinely used and have helped solve numerous missing-person cases.

“Dogs could have traced where the suspect lived and the direction he took while fleeing,” Gould said.

“They give us X-ray vision. They help reveal evidence that cannot be seen with the naked eye. For law enforcement, police K-9s should be the primary tool for locating people.”

According to a statement Chicago police sent to News Media, detectives never abandoned the search for Kowalewicz’s killer. Over the years, the department continued working with Illinois State Police and the FBI in pursuit of answers.

The DNA and fingerprint evidence was preserved for decades until, finally, technology advanced enough to bring answers.

It’s rare for law enforcement to maintain records and keep evidence that long, Gould said.

He expects the DNA connection may lead to solving more cold cases.

“My prediction there are going to be other victims [linked to McInerney]. I don’t think this was a sole act.”

“This, in my view, would have been a planned and intentional act. It’s rare that this happens once in a serial murderer’s life,” he said. “They don’t do it one time. In fact, it usually escalates when they’re successful.”

What makes it “even more horrific,” Gould said, is that McInerney may have used his influence as an officer to lure her into his car.

“We teach our children that you should trust law enforcement, and when they leverage that against innocent people, particularly children, it’s horrendous.”

After working in the Chicago Police Department for 28 years, McInerney retired and moved to Las Vegas. He died 20 years ago at age 70.

“His abhorrent actions not only took the life of an 8-year-old child, but left her parents and all who knew and loved her shattered as they searched for answers,” the Chicago Police Department said in a prepared statement.

“McInerney should never have worn the CPD star, and it is devastating to accept that he was never identified and held accountable while he was alive. Though her parents have since passed away and were not able to receive justice in their daughter’s murder, we hope that this news brings a measure of closure to all who knew Gloria and her story.”

The Kowalewicz family’s spokeswoman, their attorney, did not respond to requests for comment from News Media.

A newly released cache of aerial photographs showing a remote South Pacific island may provide fresh leads in the enduring mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.

The pioneering aviator was 39 when she vanished in July 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world.

After almost 90 years, investigators remain without a definitive answer. However, many believe Earhart may have crash-landed her Lockheed Electra on Nikumaroro, a remote island in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

In 1938, a year after her disappearance, an aerial survey of the atoll—then known as Gardner Island—produced nearly 50 high-resolution black-and-white photographs.

The Air Force Museum of New Zealand has now published the complete set of 47 images, taken on December 1, 1938, hoping online investigators may spot evidence that could help resolve the mystery.

Matthew O’Sullivan, the Christchurch museum’s keeper of photographs, discovered the negatives more than a decade ago.

Several of the pictures have previously been shared online, but the entire collection has never been made public until now.

The release comes as a renewed expedition searches for Earhart’s missing aircraft. 

A research team from Purdue University in Indianapolis, Earhart’s former benefactor, is investigating a ‘visual anomaly’ in Nikumaroro’s lagoon identified in 2020 satellite imagery.

Researchers have named the feature the ‘Tararia Object’. They believe it could be the wreckage of an aircraft matching Earhart’s plane, supporting the theory that she came down on the remote island.

Archaeologist Dr Richard Pettigrew, executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute, is leading a 17-person team on Nikumaroro, part of the archipelago nation of Kiribati.

The team arrived on Tuesday and has begun using a magnetometer to search for metal from the aircraft, along with sonar technology to locate objects concealed beneath the lagoon’s surface.

Any compelling evidence that Earhart reached the island could finally resolve a mystery that has frustrated investigators for most of a century.

It could also confirm a grim explanation for what happened to the celebrated, tousled-haired aviator.

Pettigrew has previously theorised that Earhart became lost during her round-the-world flight, ran out of fuel and landed on a small, isolated island, where she eventually died from hunger and thirst before her remains were consumed by giant crabs.

‘The very idea that she wasted away on the island and eventually died and got eaten by coconut crabs—that’s a horrible, horrible vision,’ Pettigrew told the Daily Mail in 2025.

‘I don’t like thinking about it, but it’s inevitable.’

It would be a macabre end to the puzzle of Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, who disappeared in the Pacific on July 2, 1937, en route from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island.

Earhart’s bid to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe ran into strong headwinds, and she radioed that she was running low on fuel.

The loss of an aviation pioneer who had inspired women to chase their dreams sent shockwaves around the world.

The US Navy scoured the area for 16 days, but found no trace of her or her plane.

The longstanding official theory is that the plane ran out of fuel, crashed and sank into deep ocean waters off Howland Island.

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But the absence of a wreckage has spawned a slew of alternate explanations about her fate.

Theories have veered into the absurd, including abduction by aliens or Earhart living in New Jersey under an alias.

Some speculate Earhart and Noonan crash-landed on Mili Atoll, 800 miles northwest of Howland, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese and transported to Saipan, where they died in captivity.

Various teams have tried to pinpoint the crash location by scanning the ocean floor or using computer models based on Earhart’s radio transmissions.

But no one has yet found a verified plane part or bone fragment.

In 2024, explorers at South Carolina firm Deep Sea Vision discovered an ‘aircraft-shaped object’ in the area of the Pacific where the legendary aviator vanished.

However, a second expedition dashed hopes, revealing the object was not an aircraft but simply rocks. 

Since the late 1980s, many investigators have probed another theory: that Earhart made an emergency landing on a dry flat stretch of coral reef off what was then known as Gardner Island, southwest of Howland.

Researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (Tighar), point to Earhart’s last in-flight radio message heard by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which put her on course for Gardner. 

A series of distress calls in the days after the disappearance, apparently made by Earhart from a safely-landed Electra, also point to her having landed on Gardner, though these may have been hoaxes.

However previous attempts to scour Nikumaroro Island have drawn a blank.

A multi-million-dollar search of waters off the island in August 2019, spearheaded by ocean explorer Robert Ballard, found no trace of Earhart’s twin-tailed monoplane there.

The current expedition has been hampered by severe weather, but the team is expected to release an update in the coming days. 

Pettigrew said in an update on Thursday: ‘We understand the tremendous interest in what we’re doing at Nikumaroro, and we appreciate everyone’s patience. 

‘This is a complex scientific process. You don’t simply arrive at a site and immediately identify what’s there. 

‘We have to carefully collect the data, analyse it and reach sound conclusions.’ 

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She was alone in the concrete jungle, far from home and pursuing her dreams.

Fashion Institute of Technology student Annabel Richter had moved thousands of miles away to New York City, determined to build a life on her own, according to a family friend. But prosecutors say her journey ended in tragedy when a predator allegedly drugged her and sexually assaulted her as she suffered a fatal fentanyl overdose.

Prosecutors allege that Moises Freire, 19, gave fentanyl to Richter, 21, and her roommate inside their Chelsea dorm room in March.

Both women lost consciousness and were taken to a hospital. Only Richter’s roommate survived.

“She struck me as very sweet and kind,” Christina Perez, a longtime friend of Richter’s grandmother, told The Post Friday. “She was very bright.”

Perez said Richter’s family was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, while her grandmother was based in Washington state when Richter left for college.

“She wanted to go to New York,” Perez said. “The idea worried me a bit because she didn’t have anyone there — her family was still in Brazil.”

Richter’s grandmother, Virginia “Gini” Richter, has been devastated by the death and is “suffering a great deal,” Perez said.

Richter’s extended family traveled to the United States for her memorial service in Portland, Ore., Perez said.

“I can only imagine what it’s like for her parents. It’s a terrible situation. Very, very sad,” Perez said.

Richter’s mother, Flavia Rocha, a Brazilian poet and journalist, posted an emotional tribute to her daughter on Instagram days after her death.

“It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of our daughter Annabel, so dearly loved by all of us. Her light remains alive in our hearts. Forever,” Rocha wrote.

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Rocha also shared a poem Richter wrote at age 10, titled “What is Red?” The post included an angelic photograph of Richter wearing a light pink top.

“Bel and I would often discuss how women who suffered violence would rarely have a voice. I hope that Annabel’s story brings awareness, and meets justice,” Rocha, who was heartbroken, previously told The Post.

According to court documents unsealed Thursday, Freire allegedly told the women he was bringing cocaine from Mexico, despite having tried fentanyl a week earlier and describing it in a text to a friend as “poison.”

Freire, who was not an FIT student, allegedly gave both women the drug in their dorm room on March 18. It remains unclear how Richter and her roommate knew him.

Prosecutors say Freire then sexually assaulted Richter while she was unconscious and waited about 45 minutes before contacting campus security. First responders administered Narcan to both women before taking them to the hospital.

Freire also allegedly photographed Richter while she was unconscious and nude from the waist down, intending to share the images with friends.

Prosecutors further allege that he told campus security the women had passed out after drinking too much. He also reportedly claimed he did not realize Richter was unconscious until after he had finished having sex with her.

“It is truly hard to believe that the defendant, who seemed entirely coherent and sober at the time, who didn’t have any of the substance, who is captured on the security guard’s body-worn camera seeming coherent and sober, didn’t know what was going on when he was having sex with the victim who was completely unconscious,” prosecutor Ariana Bloom said during an April court hearing.

Freire’s friend, Brian Peralta Cabrera, 18, of Queens, was separately hit with narcotics conspiracy charges for alleging helping Freire get the lethal fentanyl.

Freire and Peralta Cabrera were first arrested in March. They pleaded not guilty to an initial set of charges that did not include the rape allegation and remain in custody.

Freire is due back in court Oct. 28 to be arraigned on upgraded charges of distributing a controlled substance with the intent to commit rape, along with other narcotics charges. He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, and a maximum of life if convicted.

A third man, Harry Rosales Pino, has pleaded guilty to narcotics distribution resulting in death.

This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

For years, Bonnie Lou Gower shared her life and a bed with a man she believed she knew completely. She never imagined that her husband was capable of murder.

Richard “Marc” Evonitz was living a hidden double life—one that eventually revealed him as a serial killer who targeted young girls.

One of his victims was a 16-year-old girl who was killed while Evonitz was still married to Gower.

Decades after Evonitz’s crimes were exposed, Gower is looking back at the warning signs she missed. She is doing so alongside a young woman who survived an encounter with him.

In Investigation Discovery’s true-crime docuseries “The Serial Killer Connection,” Gower meets Kara Robinson Chamberlain, who survived 18 hours of captivity and torture before escaping Evonitz. Together, they examine whether he could be connected to additional unsolved cases.

Since discovering the truth about her former husband, Gower has been haunted by one central question.

“When I initially learned about [his crimes] and told people, honestly, their first response was, ‘Well, obviously you knew. How could you not have known?’” Gower told News Media.

“That was my very first question to the FBI: ‘How could I not know this? How could I not know I was sleeping next to somebody for eight and a half years who was doing this?’ And, of course, they assured me there was no way I could have known.”

With the perspective of time, Gower said there were details she now realizes she never questioned.

Whenever Gower left town to see relatives, Evonitz told her he had to remain behind for work. She later learned that he had actually taken time off during those same days.

“One of the reasons he never came with me was because he said he was working,” Gower said.

“Then I found out he had actually taken off work on the days I was out of town. But at the time, I wasn’t concerned at all about leaving him behind. I was simply going to visit my family. It definitely makes you reconsider everyone and everything, and whether you can trust what people say or do.”

Gower met Evonitz in South Carolina. Eight years older than her, he was the older brother of one of her friends and returned home whenever he was on leave from the U.S. Navy. As she got to know him, Gower developed a crush on him. When she was 16, Evonitz asked her on a date.

They married in August 1988, when Gower was 17 and Evonitz was 25.

“You think you know who you are when you’re 17, but I really don’t think I did,” said Gower. “I don’t think I had a handle on that. And I was relatively sheltered. I was very naïve, very trusting, taking everything at face value. I think he knew that.”

During the marriage, there were moments when Gower suspected Evonitz was being unfaithful. Whenever she questioned him, Evonitz told her it was all in her head. She believed him. But as the relationship progressed, Evonitz began isolating her from friends and family as they moved around the country, from Maine to San Diego to Virginia.

“No one ever thinks that their significant other is going to be a serial killer,” Chamberlain told News Media. “I think worst case, and this is something that she expressed to me, he was having an affair. No one ever thinks your spouse is out murdering someone.”

“He kept that part of himself very tightly controlled and didn’t show it to the people he was closest to.”

The marriage began to unravel after Evonitz left the Navy. Gower said financial pressures fueled growing tensions between the couple, while Evonitz became prone to mood swings and what she described as “rages.” He also frequently criticized her weight. Behind closed doors, Gower was also uncomfortable with his interest in bondage, according to the docuseries.

Even as the marriage reached its breaking point, Gower said she still didn’t see Evonitz as someone capable of hurting her. Walking away, she said, was a decision that came after years of mounting unhappiness.

When Gower made the decision to leave the marriage, Gower said her fear was for him, not herself.

“I was concerned for his safety when he said he was going to take the gun and kill himself,” Gower recalled. “I never feared for my own life.”

Even after she finally walked away, Gower said Evonitz had left her questioning whether she had any justification for doing so.

“When I left, I felt like I was leaving for no real good reason,” she said. “[But] I wasn’t happy.”

According to Gower’s TikTok, she and Evonitz were married from August 1988 until January 1997. Multiple reports indicate that their divorce was finalized in 1998. Years later, Gower would learn just how much she hadn’t known about the man she left behind.

On June 24, 2002, 15-year-old Chamberlain was at a friend’s home in South Carolina when Evonitz pulled into the driveway. The stranger approached her with pamphlets and asked if her parents were home. Then, he held a gun to her neck and threatened to shoot her if she screamed. He forced Chamberlain into a dark storage container in his car.

At Evonitz’s apartment, Chamberlain was repeatedly sexually assaulted. He restrained her to a bed. After hours of torture, Chamberlain managed to free one of her hands from a pair of handcuffs with her teeth, unclip a leather leg restraint and quietly bolt out the door as Evonitz slept. As she took off, Chamberlain encountered two men who took her to a police station.

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Chamberlain led officers back to her captor’s apartment. But when investigators arrived, Evonitz had escaped. Police tracked Evonitz to Sarasota, Florida, but as they closed in on him, Evonitz died by suicide. He was 38.

Once investigators began digging into Evonitz’s past, Chamberlain’s abduction proved to be only part of the story. Evidence recovered from Evonitz’s South Carolina apartment, former Virginia residence and vehicle linked him to three unsolved murders.

On Sept. 9, 1996, Evonitz abducted 16-year-old Sofia Silva from the front steps of her home in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where he and Gower had been living. Her body was discovered about five weeks later in neighboring King George County.

Then, on May 1, 1997, sisters Kristin “Kristi” Lisk, 15, and Kathryn “Kati” Lisk, 12, vanished after returning home from school. Both girls had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Their bodies were discovered five days later in the South Anna River.

Notes discovered by investigators indicated that Evonitz already had his eye on other potential victims, News Media previously reported.

It would be months after Chamberlain’s abduction that Gower learned of her ex-husband’s other victims.

“It felt like it wasn’t real at all,” Gower admitted. “It felt like this was something that happens in the movies. This wasn’t real life. It was very hard to believe that he could hurt anybody. He had never hit me or physically abused me.”

Now, Gower and Chamberlain are looking to Evonitz’s past for answers about whether there could be other victims.

Gower has helped piece together a timeline of Evonitz’s movements during their marriage, providing investigators with dates, locations and old calendars as potential cold cases are examined.

“Of course, he wasn’t always where I thought he was,” said Gower.

Chamberlain, meanwhile, has been investigating whether Evonitz could be responsible for other unsolved crimes, examining cases dating back to the 1980s and tracing his movements during his years in the Navy and in the decades before her own abduction.

“I genuinely think that there is a level of escalation that we see between an indecent exposure [incident] and then three homicides in approximately nine months and then a break before me that is unexplainable to me,” she said.

“Everything’s possible and nothing has been confirmed,” Chamberlain stressed. “It’s a frustrating place to be, but I will not stop searching.”

One potential key to finding answers is DNA.

While investigating cases for the docuseries, Chamberlain said she learned that Evonitz’s DNA profile was not in CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database. However, she said authorities in Spotsylvania County still have a blood sample that can be provided to law enforcement agencies seeking to compare his DNA with evidence from other cases.

Chamberlain said she hopes Evonitz’s DNA can ultimately be entered into CODIS, allowing for broader comparisons with evidence from unsolved crimes.

“I genuinely believe that there’s no way he only murdered three girls and kidnapped me,” she said. “I don’t think that there’s a world in which that’s true.”

While making the docuseries, Gower learned that Evonitz had kept a photograph of her when she was just 11 years old — years before they began dating — hidden behind another framed picture of her. Gower said it was not a photograph she had taken with her when she left home and that she never knew Evonitz possessed it.

“It’s disturbing enough that he would have 11-year-old me in a picture behind something,” she said.

Decades after learning the truth about the man she married, Gower said she is still trying to make sense of it.

“I don’t think you ever make sense of it,” she said. “There’s no tidy little box to put it in to make it make sense.”

“I’m still grappling with it. I’m still processing.”