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

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter. Wednesday, September tenth, twenty twenty five. Today we're taking a break from our regular trial coverage for something extraordinary, a breakthrough in one of America's most haunting cold cases. For forty years, she was known only as the Middle Child, a little girl somewhere between two and four years old, found murdered and stuffed in a barrel in the New Hampshire woods. No name, no identity, no one looking for her until now. This week, investigators announced they finally identified the last victim of the Bearbrook murders, and the answer is more horrifying than anyone imagined.

0:47 She was the killer's own daughter. This is the story of four bodies, two barrels, one monster, and how science finally gave a name to a child who died without one. This is celebrity Trials, and today we're solving a forty year old murder. November tenth, nineteen eighty five, bear Brook State Park, Allenstown, New Hampshire. A hunter is walking through the woods when he notices something odd, A fifty five gallon steel drum partially hidden in the underbrush. It's rusted, been there a while. He's curious, he opens it. Inside are two bodies, a woman aged twenty three to thirty three a child aged five to eleven. Both have been beaten to death. Both have been in that barrel for years.

1:40 The police arrive, process the scene, take the bodies for autopsy. But there's a problem. Nobody knows who they are. No missing persons reports match. No one's looking for a woman and child who disappeared. They become Jane Doe and child dough numbers in a case fire bodies without names. The case goes cold. The barrel victims become a local legend. Who were they? Who killed them? Why did no one report them? Missing? For fifteen years nothing The woman and child remain unidentified, their killer unknown, their story untold. Then May ninth, two thousand, same state Park, same woods, about one hundred yards from the first barrel, Detective John Cody is reviewing the cold case, decides to search the area again with new technology, ground penetrating radar cadaver dogs. They find another barrel. Inside are two more bodies, two young girls, one aged two to four, one aged one to three.

2:47 Like the first victims, they've been beaten to death, but these bodies are different. They've been in this barrel even longer than the first two. Four bodies, two barrels, one location, zero so identities. The medical examiner makes a shocking discovery through DNA testing. The woman in the first barrel is related to the youngest child in the second barrel, mother and daughter. But the other two children, not related to the woman, not related to each other. So we have a woman and her daughter in one barrel, two unrelated young girls, and another barrel, all murdered, all dumped in the same woods, all forgotten. Who kills four people, including three children, and no one notices their missing The case explodes nationally, Bearbrook becomes infamous. Four victims without names, a killer without a face, a crime without explanation. Investigators try everything, facial reconstruction, isotope analysis to determine where they lived, DNA comparison to missing persons, databases, age progression photos. Nothing works.

3:54 The victims remain nameless, the killer remains unknown. But technology keeps advanced, and in twenty sixteen, a breakthrough changes everything. Twenty sixteen, the era of forensic genealogy begins. Doctor Barbara ray Venter, the genetic genealogist who would later help identify the Golden State Killer. Takes on Bearbrook. She uploads the victims DNA to public databases, builds family trees, searches for connections, and she finds one. The woman in the first barrel, Her name was Marly's Elizabeth Honeychurch born nineteen fifty four, last scene at a California shopping mall in nineteen seventy eight with her two daughters. The oldest child in the first barrel Marie Elizabeth Vaughan Marlesee's daughter. She was six when she died. The youngest child in the second barrel, Sarah Lynn McWaters, Marlys's younger daughter. She was only one.

4:56 Three of the four victims now have names, a mother and her two daughters, But who killed them and who was the middle child the unrelated girl in the second barrel with Sarah. The answer comes through the same DNA that identified the victims. The middle child's DNA shows she's not related to Marlace or her daughter's, but she is related to someone in the database. A man who'd been arrested in California in two thousand and two for killing his girlfriend. A man who died in prison in twenty ten. His name at death was Gordon Jensen, but that wasn't his real name. His real name was Terry Peter Rasmussen, and Gordon Jensen was just one of at least twelve identities he used over forty years. Born nineteen forty three in Colorado, married in nineteen sixty nine, had four children, abandoned them in nineteen seventy four, then disappeared into a maze of fake identities Bob Evans, Curtis Mayo Kimball, Larry Vanner, Gordon Jensen, Jerry Mockerman. Each identity came with new victims.

5:59 As Bob Evans, he lived with Marlay's Honeychurch and her daughters in California. They vanished in nineteen seventy eight. He showed up in New Hampshire alone as Curtis Kimball. He was arrested in nineteen eighty five for drunk driving with a young girl in his car. He claimed she was his daughter, did six months in jail, then abandoned her at a California r V park. That girl was later identified as Lisa, who we now know survived whatever happened to her mother and siblings. As Larry Vanner, he married Yunsun jun in California in two thousand and one. She disappeared in two thousand and two. He was caught with her mummified body in their home. That's what finally put him in prison, where he died in twenty ten. But here's the revelation that changed everything. The middle child in the second barrel. DNA proved she was Terry Rasmussen's biological daughter.

6:54 He murdered his own child, beat her to death, stuffed her in a barrel with Sarah McWaters, and for forty years she remained nameless until this week, Monday, September eighth, two thy twenty five, New Hampshire Attorney General's Office holds a press conference. After forty years, the middle child has a name through advanced forensic genealogy comparing DNA to distant relatives building family trees. Investigators identified her, but they're not releasing her name publicly yet. The family. Rasmussen's surviving children from his first marriage, requested privacy while they process this nightmare.

7:38 Think about that, you're living your life knowing your father abandoned you in nineteen seventy four. Maybe you've made peace with it. Then police call and say we found your half sister. She's been dead for forty years. Your father murdered her. This little girl, aged two to four, was Rasmussen's biological daughter from an unknown relationship. We don't know who her mother was. We don't know her birth name. We only know she died at her father's hands and spent forty years as the middle child. Detective Peter Hedley, who's worked this case for years, said at the press conference, she's not the middle child anymore. She's somebody's daughter, somebody's sister.

8:19 She has a name, she has a story, she matters. The forensic genealogy that identified her is remarkable. They had degraded DNA from remains that spent decades in a barrel. They built family trees with thousands of people. They contacted distant cousins who'd never heard of Terry Rasmussen. One relative said, we did our DNA for fun to find our ancestry. We never imagined we'd help identify a murdered child. But here's what haunts me. How many victims did Terry Rasmussen have that we don't know about. He operated for at least forty years, had at least twelve identities, lived in at least ten states eightes. Every woman who got close to him disappeared or died. Every child in his care was abused or murdered. Investigators believe there are more victims, more Beryls, more women and children who trusted Bob Evans or Curtis Kimball or Larry Vanner and paid with their lives.

9:17 Rasmussen died in twenty ten, taking his secrets with him. He never confessed, never showed remorse, never gave up his victim's names. He was serving fifteen to life for Yunsoon June's murder. Died of lung cancer at sixty seven. Got to live a full life while his victims rotted in Beryls. The middle child was two to four years old. She liked stuffed animals. One was found with her remains. She had slightly curly hair, She was wearing hand me down clothes. She was murdered by her father and erased from existence for four decades. Now she has her name back, her family knows she existed. She's not just the middle child anymore.

10:00 We're back with more in just a moment. The identification of the middle child isn't just about one victim. It's about what's possible now in cold case investigation. Forensic genealogy has revolutionized murder investigation. The same databases people use to find out if they're two percent Norwegian are solving forty year old murders. Since twenty eighteen, this technology has identified the Golden State killer, solved the Colonial Parkway murders, named over three hundred Jane and John does resolved hundreds of cold cases every day. Murderers who thought they got away with it are being identified through their third cousins twenty three in me test. But the bear brookcase also shows the dark reality of American violence. Four people, a mother and three young children, disappeared and nobody reported it. But he looked for them, nobody missed them enough to call police.

11:03 How does that happen? Because Terry Rasmussen chose vulnerable victims, women without strong family ties, children who weren't in school yet, people living on the margins, who could vanish without questions. He was a chameleon, changed names, states, jobs, identities, created fake histories, told elaborate lies, and every time someone got suspicious, he vanished and became someone else. The Bearbrook murders show us patterns we see over and over family, Annihilators who kill everyone who depends on them, Predators who target vulnerable women and children, the missing, missing people who disappear and no one reports it. There are more Terry Rasmussens out there right now, using fake names, dating single mothers, isolating families, planning murders. The difference is now we can catch them, even after they're dead, even after forty years. Child waited four decades for her name, four decades in a barrel, four decades as a number in a case file. But she got her name back. Science gave her that dignity.

12:10 And somewhere Terry Rasmussen is burning in hell, knowing that his last secret has been revealed. His biological daughter, who he murdered and tried to erase, has been found and named and claimed by family. You can't hide from DNA, you can't run from science. You can change your name a dozen times, but your genetics will find you that. Celebrity Trials for Wednesday, September tenth one, Episode one, Case four Victims who waited decades for justice. Marli's Honeychurch murdered at around twenty eight, dumped in a barrel with her daughter, Marie. Marie Vaughan murdered at six, never got to finish elementary school, Sarah McWaters murdered at one, never got to say her first words. And the Middle Child, Rasmussen's own daughter murdered at two to four, finally has her name back after forty years. Their killer, Terry Rasmusen died thinking he'd gotten away with it, but forensic genealogy had other plans. Tomorrow we return to our regular trial coverage. The Kiss and Kill Verdict Watch begins updates on Ryan Ruth's pro seed disaster and whatever fresh horrors emerged while we spent today in the New Hampshire Woods. But today was about remembering that justice doesn't have an expiration date, that science keeps advancing, that the dead deserve their names. If you have DNA results sitting in a database somewhere, you're not just finding out about your ancestors. You're potentially solving murders, identifying victims,

13:45 bringing closure to families. The middle Child isn't the middle child anymore. She has a name, she has a family who knows she existed. She matters. I'm reed, Carter. Terry Rasmussen thought he could erase four people from existence. He was wrong. Their names will outlive his, their stories will be told. Their killer will be remembered only as the monster who died in prison while his victims finally found peace. Rest in peace, Marlce, Marie, Sarah, and especially to the little girl who just got her name back. You're not forgotten anymore. See you tomorrow.