Bear Brook Remains

• Original reconstruction of the youngest victim
• Original reconstruction of the middle victim
• Original reconstruction of the oldest child
• Original reconstruction of the adult
• Latest reconstruction of the adult
• Latest reconstruction of the oldest child
• Latest reconstruction of the middle child
• Latest reconstruction of the youngest child

1/8

Real Names: Unknown
Nicknames: Allenstown Four
Location: Allenstown, New Hampshire
Date: November 1985; May 2000

Allenstown, New Hampshire

Case

Details: On November 10, 1985, a hunter came across a tipped-over 55-gallon drum and trash near Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. Inside the drum, he found the remains of an adult woman (twenty-three to thirty-three years old) and a little girl (five to eleven years old) wrapped in plastic.
The New Hampshire State Police immediately checked missing people cases from the 1970s and 1980s but were unable to identify the bodies. In 1986, the New Hampshire State Police believed the case would finally be solved when they suspected two missing people named Grace Reapp and her five-year-old daughter Gracie as the unidentified bodies found a year earlier, but dental records proved the unidentified remains found in the 55-gallon drum were not those of Grace or her daughter Gracie Reapp.
Over the years New Hampshire State Police received hundreds of leads and distributed composite drawings of the victims throughout the Northeast and Quebec, Canada. Several people in the town of Allenstown said the unidentified adult woman resembled someone who had left town with several children a few years earlier, but this proved to be a dead end once again when the woman was found alive in Arizona with the children.
New Hampshire State Police received yet another lead about a mother and daughter who had vanished from a Maine Indian reservation. The descriptions and time of their disappearance seemed a perfect match, but the mother and daughter were quickly located alive in another town in Maine.
Without any solid leads, investigators started to check several of the elementary schools in the state of New Hampshire and almost every medical record of missing persons from Cape Cod, New Hampshire to California. Their efforts proved futile in the end.
In 2000, the case took another turn when it was assigned to a New Hampshire state trooper. The officer returned to the area where the bodies were discovered in the 55-gallon drum and stumbled upon yet another 55-gallon drum. Two bodies were found inside that drum; both of them were young female children. DNA determined that the remains of the two little girls found in 2000 were linked to the adult woman found in 1985. The remains found in 2000 were that of a white female child (one-to-three years old) and another white female child (two-to-four years old).
The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit is still trying to identify the remains found in 1985 and 2000. There are no current suspects in this case and the identification of all the female victims is still unknown.
Suspects: In 2000, New Hampshire State Police looked at serial killer John Edward Robinson as a suspect in this case; his M.O. matched, but he was ruled out.
There have been theories that this crime was the work of a serial killer or an organized crime member. Some believe the killer was someone local or who knew the area well because it was not close to any main highways. One possible theory is that the victims could have been killed by a boyfriend or husband.
Extra Notes: This case has not to be featured on Unsolved Mysteries. The case has been documented on the two part series The Chameleon Killer, on Investigation Discovery in 2021.

Terry Rasmussen

Results: Unresolved. In 2013, DNA tests revealed that the middle child was not biologically related to any of the others in this case. In January 2017, it was announced that murders were believed to have been committed by a man named "Robert Evans"; he was positively identified later that year as Terrance Peder "Terry" Rasmussen. DNA testing confirmed that he was the father of the middle child.
Rasmussen is the prime suspect in this case and the disappearance of Denise Beaudin. Denise vanished with him and her infant daughter in 1981, but her disappearance was not reported until 2016, when her daughter was found alive. He and Denise lived in New Hampshire in the early 1980s, and he worked near the area where the Bear Brook Remains were later found. After Denise's disappearance, he traveled to California where he abandoned her daughter. In 2002, he was arrested for murdering his new wife, Eunsoon Jun. He pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He died in prison in 2010.
Authorities now believe that Rasmussen killed Denise, the Bear Brook victims and the middle child's mother. On June 6, 2019, it was announced that the adult and two of the children were identified as Marlyse Honeychurch and her daughters, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters. The family disappeared during November 1978 after Marlyse had reportedly had an argument with her mother. They reportedly left with Rasmussen, Marlyse's boyfriend.
Investigators are still searching for the identity of the middle child and her unknown mother. New genealogical research suggests that she may have relatives in Pearl River County, Louisiana.
Links:

• The Bear Brook Remains on Wikipedia
• The Bear Brook Remains on the New Hampshire Department of Justice
• Doe Network on the Adult Victim
• Authorities hope new 3D images will help ID victims in New Hampshire cold case - June 16, 2013
• New Hampshire Serial Killer Revealed After 40 Years: How Police Linked Six Cold Case Murders to a Drifter - January 26, 2017
• Authorities reveal actual identity of killer known as ‘Bob Evans’ - August 18, 2017
• Three Bear Brook Victims Identified; Citizen Sleuth, Genetic Genealogy Provide Key Clues - June 5, 2019
• NH Authorities ID 3 of 4 Victims in 'Bear Brook' Murders - June 6, 2019
• Serial killer Terry Rasmussen's victims, known and unknown - January 18, 2021
• Authorities believe unidentified Bear Brook victim has relatives from Mississippi - January 22, 2021

---