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DOSSIER – In this January 17, 2017 archive photo, a police officer walks the driveway of a house in Manchester, NH, during a search in the case of a police officer. woman who lived there and disappeared more than 35 years ago. Authorities in New Hampshire have identified three victims of Terry Peder Rasmussen, suspected of killing at least six women and children decades ago, including his infant daughter. Rasmussen, who has used several names in many states, died in a California jail in 2010. (AP Photo / Elise Amendola, File)
CONCORD, N.H. – For nearly two decades, four alleged victims of serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen remained unidentified – only decomposed bodies were found in two barrels. But on Thursday, the authorities were able to name three.
The Attorney General's office confirmed that one of the victims was Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, 24 years old. His two daughters, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, 6, and Sarah Lynn McWaters, 1 year old, were also identified.
The body of another girl found in a barrel has not yet been identified and does not seem to be related to them. The authorities estimate that Rasmussen is responsible for the four deaths and that the unidentified body is that of his daughter. Known as the victims of Allenstown, the bodies of one woman and three children were found in two barrels near a state park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, in 1985 and 2000.
Rasmussen, who is believed to have killed at least six women and two children, died in a California jail in 2010. Attempts to reach Rasmussen's relatives were unsuccessful.
"It restores a level of dignity and respect for those who lost their voices 33 years ago and certainly allowed us to understand who they were and how they lived," said Colonel Christopher Wagner of the police. State of New Hampshire, who met with victims before the press conference which included family photos of the three.
Several relatives appeared at the press conference but did not speak publicly.
"The day comes with a heavy heart," they said in a statement. "Marlyse, Marie and Sarah were so loved by our families and we miss them so much and we are reassured that we can finally get the answers we expect."
Honeychurch was last seen in 1978 with Rasmussen, her boyfriend at the time.
This announcement is the latest in the case of Rasmussen, a Navy veteran who has worn five different names and who has spent most of his life working on oil rigs, as a mechanic and on other jobs. He went through Bob Evans in New Hampshire and Lawrence Vanner in California, but the authorities said his real name was Terry Peder Rasmussen.
In 1981, Rasmussen lived with his girlfriend Denise Beaudin and his 6-month-old daughter Dawn in Manchester, New Hampshire. All three disappeared that year, but Beaudin 's family never reported his disappearance, thinking that the couple had left the city because of money problems.
Although his body was not found, the authorities believe that Rasmussen killed Beaudin somewhere between New Hampshire and California.
In 1986, Rasmussen abandoned the baby that he called Lisa and escaped. He then spent about 18 months in prison for abandoning children, but took off after being released on parole in 1990, authorities said.
In 2003, he was convicted of the murder of Eunsoon Jun, whom he had married two years earlier at an unofficial ceremony in Richmond, California. His partially dismembered body was found in their basement, buried under cat litter.
"Together we were able to discover the identity of the murderer of Allenstown, a murderer who tried to wipe out his victims and hide," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin. "He tried to hide who he was and what he did but in the end, he did not succeed.We know what he was.We know what. he did and now we know who his victims are. "
When they were found inside barrels in a forest, authorities said the remains of the four were too decomposed to be identified. All they could say was that the four were murdered.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has produced a facial reconstruction of the four. The authorities then turned to DNA testing, determining that Rasmussen was the father of the unidentified victim, but unrelated to the other three.
The identification prospects of the four people improved greatly in 2017, when the authorities identified the alleged murderer as Rasmussen and the case again attracted attention.
From there, they had the help of a Connecticut librarian who focused on the missing people and who had listened to a podcast on the case at New Hampshire Public Radio. She remembered a previous Sarah McWaters publication missing from an ancestry site and contacted the person who had published it. This led to the confirmation that Honeychurch and her children were last seen with Rasmussen at her mother's house on Thanksgiving Day in 1978.
With information linking Rasmussen to the three, the New Hampshire authorities turned to his friends and family to give them details about the young woman's life. They were also able to use mitochondrial DNA to confirm a family relationship and genealogical research to definitively confirm their identity.
Now that all three bodies have been positively identified, Strelzin said that the focus would be on identifying the fourth body – possibly locating the girl's mother if she is still alive. They also hope to find the body of Beaudin, another victim of the murderous frenzy of Rasmussen.
"The easy answer is that we do not know where it is," Strelzin said. "What we do know is that Terry Rasmussen left four victims behind him in New Hampshire … Denise Beaudin may be somewhere in New Hampshire and we do not have him. Not together, we think it's more likely that he left Hampshire with her. "
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