Sept. 10, 2025

"BEAR BROOK MURDER BREAKTHROUGH!: The Middle Child Finally Has a Name After 40 Years"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter dedicates the entire episode to a massive cold case breakthrough. The Bear Brook murders' last unidentified victim - the "middle child" found in a barrel in 2000 - has been identified after 40 years. She was Terry Rasmussen's own biological daughter, murdered by her serial killer father. From the 1985 discovery of the first barrel to cutting-edge forensic genealogy, this is how science finally gave a name to a child who died without one. Four bodies, two barrels, one monster, and decades of detective work. Wednesday proves that sometimes justice takes 40 years, but the dead deserve their names.

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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter. Wednesday, September tenth,

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twenty twenty five. Today we're taking a break from our

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regular trial coverage for something extraordinary, a breakthrough in one

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of America's most haunting cold cases. For forty years, she

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was known only as the Middle Child, a little girl

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somewhere between two and four years old, found murdered and

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stuffed in a barrel in the New Hampshire woods. No name,

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no identity, no one looking for her until now. This week,

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investigators announced they finally identified the last victim of the

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Bearbrook murders, and the answer is more horrifying than anyone imagined.

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She was the killer's own daughter. This is the story

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of four bodies, two barrels, one monster, and how science

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finally gave a name to a child who died without one.

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This is celebrity Trials, and today we're solving a forty

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year old murder. November tenth, nineteen eighty five, bear Brook

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State Park, Allenstown, New Hampshire. A hunter is walking through

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the woods when he notices something odd, A fifty five

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gallon steel drum partially hidden in the underbrush. It's rusted,

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been there a while. He's curious, he opens it. Inside

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are two bodies, a woman aged twenty three to thirty

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three a child aged five to eleven. Both have been

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beaten to death. Both have been in that barrel for years.

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The police arrive, process the scene, take the bodies for autopsy.

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But there's a problem. Nobody knows who they are. No

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missing persons reports match. No one's looking for a woman

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and child who disappeared. They become Jane Doe and child

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dough numbers in a case fire bodies without names. The

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case goes cold. The barrel victims become a local legend.

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Who were they? Who killed them? Why did no one

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report them? Missing? For fifteen years nothing The woman and

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child remain unidentified, their killer unknown, their story untold. Then

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May ninth, two thousand, same state Park, same woods, about

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one hundred yards from the first barrel, Detective John Cody

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is reviewing the cold case, decides to search the area

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again with new technology, ground penetrating radar cadaver dogs. They

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find another barrel. Inside are two more bodies, two young girls,

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one aged two to four, one aged one to three.

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Like the first victims, they've been beaten to death, but

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these bodies are different. They've been in this barrel even

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longer than the first two. Four bodies, two barrels, one location,

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zero so identities. The medical examiner makes a shocking discovery

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through DNA testing. The woman in the first barrel is

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related to the youngest child in the second barrel, mother

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and daughter. But the other two children, not related to

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the woman, not related to each other. So we have

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a woman and her daughter in one barrel, two unrelated

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young girls, and another barrel, all murdered, all dumped in

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the same woods, all forgotten. Who kills four people, including

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three children, and no one notices their missing The case

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explodes nationally, Bearbrook becomes infamous. Four victims without names, a

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killer without a face, a crime without explanation. Investigators try everything,

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facial reconstruction, isotope analysis to determine where they lived, DNA

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comparison to missing persons, databases, age progression photos. Nothing works.

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The victims remain nameless, the killer remains unknown. But technology

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keeps advanced, and in twenty sixteen, a breakthrough changes everything.

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Twenty sixteen, the era of forensic genealogy begins. Doctor Barbara

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ray Venter, the genetic genealogist who would later help identify

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the Golden State Killer. Takes on Bearbrook. She uploads the

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victims DNA to public databases, builds family trees, searches for connections,

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and she finds one. The woman in the first barrel,

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Her name was Marly's Elizabeth Honeychurch born nineteen fifty four,

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last scene at a California shopping mall in nineteen seventy

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eight with her two daughters. The oldest child in the

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first barrel Marie Elizabeth Vaughan Marlesee's daughter. She was six

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when she died. The youngest child in the second barrel,

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Sarah Lynn McWaters, Marlys's younger daughter. She was only one.

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Three of the four victims now have names, a mother

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and her two daughters, But who killed them and who

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was the middle child the unrelated girl in the second

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barrel with Sarah. The answer comes through the same DNA

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that identified the victims. The middle child's DNA shows she's

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not related to Marlace or her daughter's, but she is

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related to someone in the database. A man who'd been

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arrested in California in two thousand and two for killing

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his girlfriend. A man who died in prison in twenty ten.

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His name at death was Gordon Jensen, but that wasn't

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his real name. His real name was Terry Peter Rasmussen,

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and Gordon Jensen was just one of at least twelve

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identities he used over forty years. Born nineteen forty three

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in Colorado, married in nineteen sixty nine, had four children,

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abandoned them in nineteen seventy four, then disappeared into a

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maze of fake identities Bob Evans, Curtis Mayo Kimball, Larry Vanner,

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Gordon Jensen, Jerry Mockerman. Each identity came with new victims.

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As Bob Evans, he lived with Marlay's Honeychurch and her

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daughters in California. They vanished in nineteen seventy eight. He

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showed up in New Hampshire alone as Curtis Kimball. He

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was arrested in nineteen eighty five for drunk driving with

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a young girl in his car. He claimed she was

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his daughter, did six months in jail, then abandoned her

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at a California r V park. That girl was later

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identified as Lisa, who we now know survived whatever happened

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to her mother and siblings. As Larry Vanner, he married

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Yunsun jun in California in two thousand and one. She

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disappeared in two thousand and two. He was caught with

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her mummified body in their home. That's what finally put

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him in prison, where he died in twenty ten. But

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here's the revelation that changed everything. The middle child in

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the second barrel. DNA proved she was Terry Rasmussen's biological daughter.

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He murdered his own child, beat her to death, stuffed

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her in a barrel with Sarah McWaters, and for forty

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years she remained nameless until this week, Monday, September eighth,

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two thy twenty five, New Hampshire Attorney General's Office holds

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a press conference. After forty years, the middle child has

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a name through advanced forensic genealogy comparing DNA to distant

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relatives building family trees. Investigators identified her, but they're not

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releasing her name publicly yet. The family. Rasmussen's surviving children

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from his first marriage, requested privacy while they process this nightmare.

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Think about that, you're living your life knowing your father

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abandoned you in nineteen seventy four. Maybe you've made peace

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with it. Then police call and say we found your

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half sister. She's been dead for forty years. Your father

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murdered her. This little girl, aged two to four, was

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Rasmussen's biological daughter from an unknown relationship. We don't know

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who her mother was. We don't know her birth name.

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We only know she died at her father's hands and

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spent forty years as the middle child. Detective Peter Hedley,

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who's worked this case for years, said at the press conference,

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she's not the middle child anymore. She's somebody's daughter, somebody's sister.

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She has a name, she has a story, she matters.

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The forensic genealogy that identified her is remarkable. They had

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degraded DNA from remains that spent decades in a barrel.

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They built family trees with thousands of people. They contacted

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distant cousins who'd never heard of Terry Rasmussen. One relative said,

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we did our DNA for fun to find our ancestry.

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We never imagined we'd help identify a murdered child. But

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here's what haunts me. How many victims did Terry Rasmussen

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have that we don't know about. He operated for at

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least forty years, had at least twelve identities, lived in

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at least ten states eightes. Every woman who got close

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to him disappeared or died. Every child in his care

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was abused or murdered. Investigators believe there are more victims,

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more Beryls, more women and children who trusted Bob Evans

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or Curtis Kimball or Larry Vanner and paid with their lives.

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Rasmussen died in twenty ten, taking his secrets with him.

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He never confessed, never showed remorse, never gave up his

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victim's names. He was serving fifteen to life for Yunsoon

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June's murder. Died of lung cancer at sixty seven. Got

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to live a full life while his victims rotted in Beryls.

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The middle child was two to four years old. She

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liked stuffed animals. One was found with her remains. She

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had slightly curly hair, She was wearing hand me down clothes.

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She was murdered by her father and erased from existence

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for four decades. Now she has her name back, her

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family knows she existed. She's not just the middle child anymore.

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We're back with more in just a moment. The identification

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of the middle child isn't just about one victim. It's

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about what's possible now in cold case investigation. Forensic genealogy

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has revolutionized murder investigation. The same databases people use to

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find out if they're two percent Norwegian are solving forty

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year old murders. Since twenty eighteen, this technology has identified

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the Golden State killer, solved the Colonial Parkway murders, named

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over three hundred Jane and John does resolved hundreds of

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cold cases every day. Murderers who thought they got away

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with it are being identified through their third cousins twenty

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three in me test. But the bear brookcase also shows

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the dark reality of American violence. Four people, a mother

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and three young children, disappeared and nobody reported it. But

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he looked for them, nobody missed them enough to call police.

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How does that happen? Because Terry Rasmussen chose vulnerable victims,

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women without strong family ties, children who weren't in school yet,

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people living on the margins, who could vanish without questions.

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He was a chameleon, changed names, states, jobs, identities, created

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fake histories, told elaborate lies, and every time someone got suspicious,

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he vanished and became someone else. The Bearbrook murders show

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us patterns we see over and over family, Annihilators who

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kill everyone who depends on them, Predators who target vulnerable

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women and children, the missing, missing people who disappear and

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no one reports it. There are more Terry Rasmussens out

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there right now, using fake names, dating single mothers, isolating families,

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planning murders. The difference is now we can catch them,

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even after they're dead, even after forty years. Child waited

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four decades for her name, four decades in a barrel,

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four decades as a number in a case file. But

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she got her name back. Science gave her that dignity.

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And somewhere Terry Rasmussen is burning in hell, knowing that

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his last secret has been revealed. His biological daughter, who

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he murdered and tried to erase, has been found and

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named and claimed by family. You can't hide from DNA,

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you can't run from science. You can change your name

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a dozen times, but your genetics will find you that.

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Celebrity Trials for Wednesday, September tenth one, Episode one, Case

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four Victims who waited decades for justice. Marli's Honeychurch murdered

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at around twenty eight, dumped in a barrel with her daughter, Marie.

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Marie Vaughan murdered at six, never got to finish elementary school,

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Sarah McWaters murdered at one, never got to say her

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first words. And the Middle Child, Rasmussen's own daughter murdered

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at two to four, finally has her name back after

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forty years. Their killer, Terry Rasmusen died thinking he'd gotten

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away with it, but forensic genealogy had other plans. Tomorrow

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we return to our regular trial coverage. The Kiss and

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Kill Verdict Watch begins updates on Ryan Ruth's pro seed

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disaster and whatever fresh horrors emerged while we spent today

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in the New Hampshire Woods. But today was about remembering

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that justice doesn't have an expiration date, that science keeps advancing,

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that the dead deserve their names. If you have DNA

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results sitting in a database somewhere, you're not just finding

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out about your ancestors. You're potentially solving murders, identifying victims,

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bringing closure to families. The middle Child isn't the middle

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child anymore. She has a name, she has a family

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who knows she existed. She matters. I'm reed, Carter. Terry

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Rasmussen thought he could erase four people from existence. He

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was wrong. Their names will outlive his, their stories will

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be told. Their killer will be remembered only as the

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monster who died in prison while his victims finally found peace.

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Rest in peace, Marlce, Marie, Sarah, and especially to the

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little girl who just got her name back. You're not

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forgotten anymore. See you tomorrow.