{"id":7158,"date":"2025-08-11T09:47:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/?p=7158"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:00:17","slug":"the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bear Brook Murders: A Chilling Mystery Solved by DNA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Imagine walking through a peaceful forest in New Hampshire. It\u2019s quiet, calm, and full of trees. But in 1985, something terrible was discovered in Bear Brook State Park\u2014a mystery that would take over 30 years to solve.<\/p><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #0c0c0c;color:#0c0c0c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #0c0c0c;color:#0c0c0c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#The_First_Discovery_A_Barrel_in_the_Woods\" >The First Discovery: A Barrel in the Woods<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#A_Family_Connection_But_Still_No_Names\" >A Family Connection, But Still No Names<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#A_Man_with_Many_Names\" >A Man with Many Names<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#Arrest_and_Death\" >Arrest and Death<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#A_Breakthrough_with_DNA\" >A Breakthrough with DNA<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#What_This_Case_Teaches_Us\" >What This Case Teaches Us<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/the-bear-brook-murders-a-chilling-mystery-solved-by-dna\/#Reference\" >Reference:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_First_Discovery_A_Barrel_in_the_Woods\"><\/span>The First Discovery: A Barrel in the Woods<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1985, some hunters were exploring the park when they found a large metal barrel\u2014about the size of a trash can. Inside were the bodies of a woman and a young girl. They had been murdered and left there. No one knew who they were or why they had been killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fifteen years later, in 2000, another barrel was found nearby. This one held the bodies of two more young girls. Now there were four victims. Police called them the \u201cAllenstown Four,\u201d named after the nearby town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Family_Connection_But_Still_No_Names\"><\/span>A Family Connection, But Still No Names<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigators learned that the woman in the first barrel was the mother of two of the girls. But the third girl\u2014the one found in the second barrel\u2014was not related to her. That raised even more questions: Who were these people? Why were they killed? And who did it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years, the case went cold. No one could figure out who the victims were or who had murdered them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Man_with_Many_Names\"><\/span>A Man with Many Names<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, a strange clue came from California. In 1986, a man calling himself \u201c<strong>Gordon Curtis Jensen<\/strong>\u201d abandoned a five-year-old girl named Lisa Jensen at an RV park. Lisa had been abused and didn\u2019t know who her real parents were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Years later, DNA testing revealed that Lisa\u2019s real name was Dawn Beaudin. Her mother was Denise Beaudin, and both had gone missing from Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1981\u2014just a short drive from Bear Brook State Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man who abandoned Lisa wasn\u2019t really Gordon Jensen. He had used many fake names over the years, including Curtis Kimball and Gerry Mockerman. His real name was Terry Peder Rasmussen, a dangerous man with a long history of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Arrest_and_Death\"><\/span>Arrest and Death<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Rasmussen was finally arrested in 2003 for killing his girlfriend, Eunsoon Jun, in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/int_lawyers\/los_angeles.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">California<\/a>. He died in prison in 2010. But police were starting to connect him to more crimes\u2014including the Bear Brook murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Breakthrough_with_DNA\"><\/span>A Breakthrough with DNA<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017, investigators used new <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/legal\/article-20927-how-dependable-are-dna-lineage-tests-in-the-current-era-.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DNA technology<\/a> to make a huge discovery: Rasmussen was the father of the middle girl\u2014the one who wasn\u2019t related to the woman in the barrel. This proved that he had a direct connection to the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, in 2019, a librarian who had been following the case made an amazing find. He saw a post on Ancestry.com from a man looking for his half-sister, Sarah McWaters. That led to finding relatives of the woman in the barrel. Her name was Marlyse Honeychurch, and the two girls who were her daughters were named Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, three of the four victims finally had names. But the middle girl\u2014the daughter of Rasmussen\u2014still hasn\u2019t been identified. And Denise Beaudin, Dawn\u2019s mother, is still missing. Her body has never been found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_This_Case_Teaches_Us\"><\/span>What This Case Teaches Us<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bear Brook murders are one of the most shocking and mysterious cases in American history. But they also show how powerful new tools like DNA testing and genealogy websites can be. These tools helped solve a mystery that had haunted families and investigators for decades. Thanks to science, hard work, and a little help from everyday people, the victims finally got their names back\u2014and their families got some answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Reference\"><\/span>Reference:<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The True Crime File, Kim Daly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine walking through a peaceful forest in New Hampshire. It\u2019s quiet, calm, and full of trees. But in 1985, something terrible was discovered in Bear Brook State Park\u2014a mystery that would take over 30 years to solve. The First Discovery: A Barrel in the Woods In 1985, some hunters were exploring the park when they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"two_page_speed":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,393],"tags":[24],"class_list":{"0":"post-7158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-laws","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-just-in"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legalserviceindia.com\/Legal-Articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}