New Hampshire authorities announced on Sunday that the fourth and final victim in the long-running Bear Brook murder investigation has been identified as the daughter of the man now believed responsible for the killings.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice said the child has been named Rea Rasmussen. Investigators estimate she was about two to four years old when she died; a medical examiner previously ruled that blunt force trauma was the cause of death for all four victims found in the case.
Three other remains recovered from large steel drums in Bear Brook State Park had already been identified as Marlyse Honeychurch, and her daughters Marie Vaughn, about 11, and Sarah McWaters, a toddler. Those remains were discovered in two 55-gallon industrial steel drums: the first in 1985 and the second about 15 years later in a remote wooded area of the park in Allenstown.
Detectives linked the killings to Terry Rasmussen — a drifter who used aliases including Bob Evans — in 2017 through advances in DNA analysis and genetic genealogy, the department said. Rasmussen died in prison in 2010 while serving a sentence for the 2002 killing of his girlfriend, Eunsoon Jun, who prosecutors say was buried in the basement of the couple’s Richmond, California, home.
"This case has weighed on New Hampshire and the nation for decades. With Rea Rasmussen’s identification, all four victims now have their names back," New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said in a statement. He credited the identification to what he described as "extraordinary perseverance by law enforcement, forensic experts, and our Cold Case Unit."
Cold Case Unit Chief and Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles said the investigation was an early example of the power of genetic genealogy in both identifying victims and solving crimes. Investigators also used facial reconstruction technology to produce an image of what Rea may have looked like, officials said.
Authorities have said Rasmussen, who was born in Denver in 1943, moved frequently and assumed multiple personas as he traveled across the country. Investigators continue to seek answers about where he was between roughly 1974 and 1985, and have placed him in several states, including New Hampshire, California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon and Virginia.
Officials believe Rasmussen is also responsible for the disappearance of at least two other young women. Pepper Reed, identified as Rea’s mother in investigators’ statements, has been missing since the late 1970s. Denise Beaudin, another of Rasmussen’s former girlfriends, disappeared in 1981 and her remains have not been found.
Investigators have also said Rasmussen allegedly raised a daughter named Lisa for about five years before abandoning her at a California mobile home park in 1986. Authorities continue to piece together the full scope of his movements and victims, the department said.
The Bear Brook case drew national attention not only for its brutality but for the forensic techniques that eventually identified the victims and linked them to a suspect who had eluded detection for decades. The initial discoveries in the park prompted long-term missing persons inquiries and years of genealogical and forensic work by numerous agencies and volunteers.
With all four barrel victims now named, prosecutors and investigators said the identification brings a measure of closure for families and the community. The criminal investigation into Rasmussen’s suspected additional victims and the circumstances surrounding the women who remain missing is ongoing, officials added.