Hes your atypical serial killer, Strelzin said. [6], In 2019, the three biologically related females were identified as a mother, Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, and her two daughters (of different biological fathers) Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters, last seen in November 1978. The conclusion was made after family members of the victims helped with the process ofDNA testing andgenetic genealogy. This isn't the big news we're hoping to break - stay subscribed for another full episode of Bear Brook that we hope to bring you soon. Never contacted nobody. She said that she did, but they died from eating grass mushrooms when they were out camping, Deputy Headley said. The bodies were eventually buried in a nearby cemetery with a tombstone that read: Here lies the mortal remains known only to God of a woman aged 23-33 and a girl child aged 8-10. Together we have been able to uncover the identity of the Allenstown killer, a murderer who tried to erase his victims and hide in the process, tried to hide who he was and what he did, but ultimately he wasnt successful, Strelzin said, according to The Washington Post. Now we need to identify and try to find all of his victims.. When Lisa was taken into protective custody in 1986, police asked her if she had any siblings. Homicide", "Four Unidentified Allenstown Homicide Victims", "Allenstown, NH murder victims identified after nearly 40 years", "New rendering released for unidentified girl found in barrel in Allenstown", Original digital reconstruction of middle child, "3 bodies hidden in barrels remained unidentified for decades. [6] A fingerprint match had confirmed that along with Vanner, he had previously used the aliases Jenson and Kimball,[5] linking him to the child abandonment case. More than 30 years later, is it possible to get to the truth and who gets to tell it? Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesRebekah Becky Heath, the researcher and libararian who obsessively worked to discover Rasmussens victims identities. Rasmussen had been convicted of the murder of aromantic partner in 2003. You know, people ask me why I do these interviews. [11][17], The girl found with the adult female, later identified as Vaughn, was between 5 and 11 years old. One of the hunters looked inside the open barrel and saw a skull. Maricopa County Sheriffs Department, Arizona.A mugshot of Terry Rasmussen from 1973. The children both went through periods where they were in the custody of their fathers, but Marlyse would later regain guardianship. But as it turned out, that person had been several different people throughout his life. Police officials announced on May 6 that three bodies two discovered in 1985 and a third discovered in 2000 were identified asMarlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, 24, and her two daughters, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, 6, and Sarah Lynn McWaters, 1. A child is abandoned. [10] These bodies were also in a metal 55-gallon drum, and police believe that all four murders occurred at roughly the same time, despite investigators inexplicably missing the second drum in 1985. Sarah is believed to have been 2 to 3 years old at the time she was killed, according to authorities. When authorities traced all Rasmussens aliases back to his true name, they found that in the early 1970s, he had been married and fathered four children from that marriage. [12][16] The cause of death for these children was also blunt force trauma. The guys jumped on my four-wheeler and we booted out of there and that was the last time that we saw the barrel.. [3][4][11] This means that the woman could have been the girls' mother, aunt, or older sister. They were buried together at a local Allenstown cemetery with a donated gravestone that read: Here lies the mortal remains known only to God of a woman aged 23-33 and a girl child aged 8-10. Advanced forensic testing showed the 2-to-4-year-old girl (since identified as Rasmussen's daughter) probably spent most of her childhood in either the upper Northeast or upper Midwest, perhaps Wisconsin. The middle child, identified as Rasmussen's daughter, currently remains unidentified. A surprising admission leads to a new break in the case. In the show's second season, host Jason Moon returns with a new, even more complex story: In 1989, New Hampshire police charged three men in the murder of a pregnant woman named Sharon Johnson. There were little fingerprint cards, with these little tiny little hands, and had their little footprints on the back of them and little tiny fingerprints, Gruenheid said. His own taped confession. [10][25] In 2015, the woman was identified as the mother of the two girls. Her hair was wavy and light brown; she had no dental fillings. A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Austin Harvey has also had work published with Discover Magazine, Giddy, and Lucid covering topics on mental health, sexual health, history, and sociology. On June 8, 2000, the remains of Marie and Honeychurch, which were still unidentified at the time, were exhumed from the grave by authorities for DNA testing. A chameleon is revealed. In the show's second season, host Jason Moon returns with a new, even more complex story: In 1989, New Hampshire police charged three men in the murder of a pregnant woman named Sharon Johnson. Then a Conn. librarian listened to a podcast", "Funeral for mother and daughter brings closure to longtime mystery", National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bear_Brook_murders&oldid=1130144089, This page was last edited on 28 December 2022, at 20:07. Rose ultimately went to the Contra Costa County Sheriff, where Roxane Gruenheid was a homicide detective. Honeychurch was 24 at the time, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. When they reached out to Jenson again to finalize the adoption, he had disappeared. It would take 17 years until the killer could be named and another two until his victims would be identified. Thanks for your support. A dedicated detective refused to stop digging after she solved the brutal murder of a chemist in California. Rebekah Heath, a research librarian who said shed become obsessed with the case, helped identify the woman and the two children through her own sleuthing. After countless hours of research, genetic genealogist Rae-Venter found Armand Beaudin, Lisas maternal grandfather. We have a few unidentified remains that we are trying to identify in different parts of the country that we think have all of his earmarks, Jensen told Gomulka. [4] The identities of the middle child, who Rasmussen fathered, and her mother remain unknown. Police believe Honeychurch fled to New Hampshire with Rasmussen, who at that point had begun using the name "Bob Evans." [2] All four of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized; they were believed to have died between 1977 and 1981. Vanner fended off her loved ones questions with an array of excuses. In October 2018, the New Hampshire Public Radio released a podcast called Bear Brook, which explored the bizarre, unique case. There is one girl who we don't know who she is. He holds a bachelor's degree in screenwriting (widely considered to be a bad move) from Point Park University. He didn't even look healthy. I don't remember exactly what happened, Paula Hodges, Honeychurchs other sister, told 20/20. I just heard that they had an argument, Marlyse and my mom., My mom might've said something to her as, He's too old for you. We were playing a game of hide and seek, Morgan told 20/20. I was approached by one of the kids in the group that he had come upon a barrel out in the middle of the woods, which was off the trail. Testing his DNA, they also determined that the man had not, in fact, been Lisas father and an investigation began to find out who Lisa really was. [6], Rasmussen lived in a number of states including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Oregon, Hawaii and California. It was very surreal that a mother and daughter were actually inside the barrel itself, disposed of like common trash, John Cody, a former New Hampshire State Police detective, told 20/20.. And for years, no one could put a name to them, instead referring to the Bear Brook murders.. One of the victims had been his daughter. These are the stories of the women and children he is suspected of killing, one he confessed to murdering and those whose lives he changed forever: Honeychurch, who was born in Connecticut in 1954, was married twice and had a daughter with each husband. She left the group home after receiving a furlough, so she was not reported missing until police were seeking more information on Rasmussen in 2017. She had blunt force trauma to the head, and then she was put in a container and the container was tied off and he dumped it, he said. DNA evidence then connected the man officially identified as Terry Rasmussen to the bodies found in Bear Brook. I remember seeing an ax leaned up there.. [4], While using the pseudonym Bob Evans, Rasmussen dated Denise Beaudin, who disappeared from Manchester, New Hampshire, after Thanksgiving of 1981 with her six-month-old daughter. Click here to donate $20. Rebekah Heath, a librarian and true crime enthusiast from Connecticut, was ultimately the one who made the link between "Bob Evans," Rasmussen, and the missing women, leading to a round of DNA tests which ultimately confirmed the identityof the victims thus solving the crime. Since 2017, he has been named as a suspect in several other crimes. He had been convicted and sentenced as Evans for the 2002 murder and dismemberment of his wife at the time, Eunsoon Jun, a chemist in California. Honeychurch may have adopted the alias name "Elizabeth Evans" to use in legal documents during May 1980. Wikimedia CommonsFrom left: Marlyse Honeychurch, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, a still unidentified victim, and Sarah McWaters. Want to make sure that NHPR continues creating projects like Bear Brook? A conversation with one of Terry Rasmussen's surviving children. Police question a man with multiple identities. Years later, when Gruenheid took on the Eunsoon Jun missing-person case in 2002, she became determined to find out more about Rasmussens supposed daughter Lisa, who had been mentioned in his criminal history, including prior booking records. [33] They also said that "Robert Evans" was a pseudonym and that the man's legal identity was unknown. "[37], On June 6, 2019, New Hampshire investigators held a press conference regarding the case and revealed the identities of three of the victims. One of his sons from this marriage provided the DNA sample that confirmed Rasmussen as Evans in June 2017. When somebody's story keeps changing, it means that they [have] either made something up, can't remember what they told you the first time or that they're lying to you, she added. Thanks for your support. In 1985 and then again in 2000, police discovered the dismembered. Click here to donate $20. He faces 30 years to life for each murder conviction and up to five years for the weapons charges. Like Rasmussen's confirmed victims, she had died of blunt force trauma to the head. It can conquer death." +4. According to investigators, the reason that it took so long for the second drum to be recovered is that it was located outside the proximity of the initial crime scene. He later abandoned that child, whom he had pretended to father and called Lisa, in a trailer park. Evans was listed as married to a woman named Elizabeth, according to documents from 1980. Lisa was born Dawn Beaudin in 1981, Armand Beaudin said. Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch (b. Want to make sure that NHPR continues creating projects like Bear Brook? Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin explained the discovery at a press conference on June 6. [6] They last saw Rasmussen around December 1975 or 1976, when he showed up with an unidentified woman. [35] He married in 1969, had four children, and lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and Redwood City, California. At the same time, Barbara Rae-Venter, a genetic genealogist, independently used the victims DNA to identify them in a cutting-edge technique that required using autosomal DNA, which is found inside the cell nucleus. The case stumped investigators for years: four bodies, found dismembered, skeletonized, wrapped in plastic bags, and stuffed in two 55-gallon steel drums in the Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire.
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