They can rest in peace. One of the brothers just pushed the barrel over. The identification of three decomposing corpses discovered in barrels in a New Hampshire state park have led police to believe they've solved a decades-old crime. How investigators had missed it over a decade prior remains unclear, but the second barrel, like the first, contained the mutilated bodies of two young girls, stored in the same manner. 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. "[37], On June 6, 2019, New Hampshire investigators held a press conference regarding the case and revealed the identities of three of the victims. After his release, he assumed the name "Larry Vanner" and began living with chemist Eunsoon Jun in 2001. [6] He was arrested in Cypress, California, in 1985 under the name Curtis Kimball for charges of driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of a child but failed to appear in court. 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. I don't think they're ever going to find her, Beaudins father, Armand Beaudin, said. Honeychurch's body and one of the girl's bodieswerefound in November1985 in a barrel tipped on its side inBear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. After an argument with her family, she left with Rasmussen and her two daughters, six-year-old Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and one-year-old Sarah Lynn McWaters. A search leads authorities to his basement. The family was comprised of Sarah McWaters, an infant, her older sister Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, and their mother Marlyse Honeychurch. Wikimedia CommonsFrom left: Marlyse Honeychurch, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, a still unidentified victim, and Sarah McWaters. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Bear Brook murders - Wikipedia Her hair was wavy and light brown; she had no dental fillings. Big, like 4 or 5 feet around and probably 2 or 3 feet high, she said. Eunsoon Jun, a chemist from California, was the first victim authorities were able to tie to Rasmussen. Bear Brook Murders: Authorities Identify Victims Decades After Slayings Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! [34] Two months later, Robert Evans was confirmed as Terry Peder Rasmussen, through Y-DNA testing from a DNA sample contributed by one of his sons from what is believed to be his first marriage. A dedicated detective refused to stop digging after she solved the brutal murder of a chemist in California. From the creators of the hit podcast Bear Brook comes A True Crime Story. And the last story, the one that would tie them all together: the disappearance of a woman named Denise Beaudin from Manchester, New Hampshire. [2] He grew up in Arizona and attended North High School in Phoenix until dropping out during his sophomore year in 1960. according to a timeline released by the attorney general's office. Bear Brook murder victims remembered. In 2016, this child was determined to be Rasmussens biological daughter. A chameleon is revealed. It was just a situation where, every time we searched, [we] came to a dead end. One of the hunters looked inside the open barrel and saw a skull. He died in prison in 2010 after being convicted of her 2002 murder. The veteran detective on the case develops a theory involving her husband and a teenager. The hunter had been stalking deer on a property adjacent to New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park. And he brings a fresh examination of the evidence to a state that has never exonerated anyone for murder. In the early 1980s, a man who said his name was Gordon Jenson was living in a trailer park in California, with a little girl he called Lisa, who police say was about 4 or 5 years old at the time. The Bear Brook murders: Solved cold case from 1985 - Mary Hallberg Just disappeared.. I was contacted one day by my nephew, and he was working with the sheriff's department out in California, Armand Beaudin told 20/20. They requested for me to do a DNA [test], and they discovered that I was the actual grandfather.. It well could be Terry. Honeychurch was last seen at her mothers house in La Puente, California, around Thanksgiving in 1978. Sarah is believed to have been 2 to 3 years old at the time she was killed, according to authorities. Do groundbreaking techniques come at the cost of genetic privacy? In 1985, there was a grim discovery made in Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire: Two decomposing bodies found in a barrel. The four victims were estimated to have died between 1977 and 1981. The guys jumped on my four-wheeler and we booted out of there and that was the last time that we saw the barrel.. Vanner died in prison in December 2010 of natural causes. It was the first time, researchers claimed, that genetic genealogy had been successfully employed in a murder case. In 1995, scavengers found a refrigerator containing what former San Joaquin County Assistant Sheriff John Huber believes may be another one of Rasmussens victims. Which says, yeah, there's more victims out there, definitely.. [26][27] In 2019, however, it is stated that the nonrelated child most likely originated from Arizona, Texas, California or Oregon, although additional locations cannot be excluded. But what if that story was based on a lie? Anyone who is aware of a missing child or a missing child and her mother from the late 1970s to early 1980s can call New Hampshire State Police at 603-271-2663 or email coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.. Timelines come together. Thanks for your support. [40], Sarah's younger half brother, who had never met her, created a post in 1999 on the Ancestry.com website in efforts to locate her. Bear Brook killings: An old photo raises more questions In November 2019, Honeychurch and her older daughter Marie Vaughn, were laid to rest together with a new headstone bearing their names in Allenstown, New Hampshire. [39] By October 1978, Sarah's father was seeing another woman and Sarah was presumably in the care of her mother. She had been placed in the refrigerator with a pillow, sleeping bag and what appeared to be several blankets, he said. Police later determined the female adult and child, unidentified at the time, had died of blunt force trauma to their heads. Police have not been able to link Rasmussen to other cases, according toStrelzin. 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. 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. [29], Evans died in prison in December 2010. Although the Allenstown barrels were discovered during his lifetime, Rasmussen was not named as the culprit until 2017, when DNA profiling connected him to the crime. 1977),[38] all of whom went missing from La Puente, California, around Thanksgiving 1978, while she was dating Rasmussen. It was determined that they had been killed sometime between 1977 and 1985. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in jail. In 2003, when the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department opened a new case aimed at finding Lisas biological family, she was approximately 22 years old. Well it is Wednesday! To make a donation in support of Bear Brook, click here. 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. DNA is wrestled from rootless hair. May their souls find peace in Gods loving care.. I stood there for just a few seconds There was no odor. Their hard work, along with that of a dogged researcher, ultimately unraveled a long trail of missing and murdered women and children all leading back, police say, to a serial killer. At the time, Morgan and his friends didnt know there were remains inside the barrel. 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. That's the only reason.. [4][14] The two were buried in an Allenstown 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. [3] He married in 1969, had four children and lived with his family in Phoenix and Redwood City, California. But only 19-year-old Jason Carroll was convicted. With the confirmation, police believe theycan officially implicate serial killerTerry Peder Rasmussen, who had passed away while in prison in 2010, in their deaths. We're here today to bury my sister and my nieces, Salamon said at Honeychurch and Maries funeral. 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. Timeline of serial killer Terry Rasmussen's terror in New Hampshire His own taped confession. 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. We have his eyes. It can conquer death." +4. [31], The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children subsequently announced that an unidentified man, known by the alias "Robert Evans," was found through DNA to be the father of the middle child (who was not related to the three other victims). Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! [8], San Joaquin County, California Assistant Sheriff John Huber speculated that Rasmussen may have been responsible for killing Amanda Schumann Deza, In 1995, her body was discovered by scavengers inside of a refrigerator which had been dumped in a canal. We do regrettably fear that his daughter's mother is probably another victim somewhere, Carol Schweitzer, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said. It had previously been thought impossible to recover autosomal DNA from hair strands that were no longer attached to the root, but a forensic lab in California had been working on a new method to reassemble the broken autosomal DNA found in rootless hair. An estranged cousin goes missing. Authorities were able to link him then, using his fingerprints, to the earlier child abandonment case. By 2001, Rasmussen was working odd jobs in California under yet another alias, Lawrence Vanner. In her free time, Heath began scouring the internet for any clues she could find. Esther Elliott, eight, (left) dressed as . Police believe she died one to two years later, making her 26 to 27 when she died. After countless hours of research, genetic genealogist Rae-Venter found Armand Beaudin, Lisas maternal grandfather. [6] He was paroled in 1990 and subsequently absconded. Then, 15 years later on May 9, 2000, a second 55-gallon drum was discovered in the same area. [2][3][4], In 2017, investigators named Terry Peder Rasmussen as the most likely suspect. She married Sarah's father in September 1974, and the two were separated by the time she was known to be dating Rasmussen. [33] They also said that "Robert Evans" was a pseudonym and that the man's legal identity was unknown. She went with Terry. The mother of the middle child, the unidentified girl in the second barrel found at Bear Brook in 2000, who was determined to be Rasmussens biological daughter, has also never been found nor identified. May their souls find peace in Gods loving care.. February 20, 2023 Sharon Johnson's family and friends have spent the last 35 years coping with her brutal murder. [6] The two were married in an unofficial ceremony in 2001. Lisa sent a sample of her DNA to an ancestry website and learned her mothers name: Denise Beaudin. He had an unofficial backyard marriage ceremony to Eunsoon Jun in Richmond that same year, though no marriage certificates were ever filed. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.. When alternate versions are told by lawyers and podcasters as part of a mounting effort to free Jason Carroll from prison and clear his name. After Years of Investigation, New Hampshire Police Officially Identify His face was gray. 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. 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. 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. In 1981, Denise Beaudin went missing shortly after Thanksgiving with her 6-month-old daughter and her boyfriend, Rasmussen, who she knew as Robert T. Evans, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice. About a year later, Heath, who lives in Connecticut, was listening to a New Hampshire Public Radio podcast about the Bear Brook murders when information about the victims reminded her again of the . She was previously known as San Joaquin Jane Doe and the Lady in the Fridge.[8][19]. On Nov. 10, 1985, a hunter trekking through Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire came across a large, industrial steel drum. Thanks for your support. By 1981, Evans was romantically linked to a woman namedDenise Beaudin who also went missing with her daughter shortly thereafter. Want to make sure that NHPR continues creating projects like Bear Brook? In 2000, 15 years after the first barrel was discovered, Sarahs body was found inside a separate barrel at Bear Brook State Park along with the body of an unknown child. [3] Moon began covering the cold case in 2015, and later started the podcast. The Family in Barrels. A child is abandoned. The poster claimed to be McWaters half-sister. Subsequent investigations led to Honeychurch and her daughters being identified as three of the four victims found in Allenstown; the identity of the fourth victim, his daughter, remains unknown. A second search was conducted in May 2018. Bear Brook : NPR I do, my sister does, and my brother does., I do know that my mother tells me All that I can get from her is that he was the great love of her life, she said.