New genetic work could help solve Bear Brook murder mystery
New information says unknown girl could be linked to Mississippi
New information says unknown girl could be linked to Mississippi
New information says unknown girl could be linked to Mississippi
Investigators with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office are cautiously optimistic that new information pointing to Mississippi could help them identify the fourth victim in a decades-old murder case in Allenstown.
Two 55-gallon drums containing the bodies of a woman and three girls were discovered separately in Allenstown in 1985 and 2000. Investigators believe they were dumped in the woods near Bear Brook State Park around 1980.
The case remained unsolved until 2017 when investigators linked a genetic genealogist's clues to Terry Rasmussen, also known as Bob Evans, a serial killer who died in a California prison years earlier.
In 2019, genetics helped identify Marlyse Honeychurch and her daughters, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters. The identity of the other girl has remained a mystery.
"That child's father is the murderer, Terry Rasmussen," Associate Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said. "We don't know where that child came from. We don't know where that child's mother is."
Now, there might be a clue.
"The genetic genealogist who's worked on this case has got what I would call some hits down in Mississippi," Strelzin said. "That's an indication that some of this child's mother's relatives could be from that area."
Investigators in that state are posting information about the case.
"The idea is people will start talking about maybe missing relatives or relatives they know, in this case, a woman with a young child during that approximate time frame," Strelzin said. "The second thing is the hope that people will input their genetic material into these genealogical databases."
Investigative work will still need to link everything together.
"They'll figure it out," said Ronda Randall, of Oak Hill Research. "Enough people will upload their DNA to figure this out."
Randall and her brother, Scott Maxwell, have been doing their own research on the case for 10 years. She said they met the genetic genealogist in February.
"I am completely optimistic it will be solved," she said.