Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office(DENVER) — Terry Rasmussen was born in Colorado on Dec. 23, 1943. He attended high school in Arizona but dropped out to join the Navy in 1961.
Rasmussen was trained as an electrician and served for six years at bases around the West Coast and Okinawa. He married in Hawaii in 1968 and a year later, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where the couple would go on to have four children. In 1975, he and his wife separated and it’s believed that in 1975 or 1976, his family saw him for the last time.
Before Rasmussen died in a California state prison of natural causes in 2010 while serving time for the murder of his girlfriend, authorities in California and New Hampshire had yet to identify Rasmussen as responsible for killing at least four more people.
After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were thrown into the sea. He is suspected in the slayings of more victims.
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Here is a detailed timeline highlighting not only Rasmussen’s deadly past but the police investigation and evidence that led up to their calling him “the Chameleon Killer.”
November 1978
Marylse Honeychurch is last seen around Thanksgiving in La Puente, California, with Terry Rasmussen. Her exit with Rasmussen and her two daughters, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters, comes after an apparent family argument.
1978-79 (approximately)
Terry Rasmussen works under the name of “Bob Evans” as an electrician in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is working with a man who also owns property in Allenstown.
Nov. 26, 1981
Denise Beaudin, 23, of Manchester, New Hampshire, her 6-month-old daughter, Dawn and boyfriend Bob Evans pack up and leave New Hampshire.
May 1985
Terry Rasmussen is arrested for drunk driving in Orange County California. He identifies himself as “Curtis Kimball” and the child in his car as “Lisa.” He is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Nov. 10, 1985
The slain, unidentified bodies of a woman age 22-23 and a child at first believed to be age 5-11 are found by a hunter in a barrel in Bear Brook State Park, Allenstown, New Hampshire. He reports it to police.
January 1986
Terry Rasmussen — going by the name of “Gordon Jenson” — is living in California’s Santa Cruz County and working as a handyman at Holiday Host RV Park. He also has a 5-year-old girl he calls “Lisa” with him. He tells people she is his daughter.
June 1986
Terry Rasmussen, known as “Gordon Jenson,” leaves Lisa in Scotts Valley, California, with a couple who think that their daughter in Southern California might be interested in adopting Lisa. Later, the family turns to the police after Jenson disappears and before the family can have him sign the final adoption papers. Lisa is placed into foster care and a warrant is issued for Jenson’s arrest for child abandonment. Authorities learn that Jenson was previously arrested under the name Curtis Kimball after pulling a fingerprint from the RV park. He is nowhere to be found.
1987
The unidentified remains of the woman and child found in a barrel in New Hampshire are buried.
March 1989
Terry Rasmussen is arrested as “Gordon Jenson,” believed by authorities to be Curtis Kimball, and booked for child desertion. In May of that year, he pleads guilty to child abandonment and is convicted and sentenced to three years. He is released about a year and a half after that in 1990.
October 1990
Terry Rasmussen, known at that time as Curtis Kimball, is paroled. He fails to report to his Nov. 2 parole date in California and disappears, according to a California Supreme Court review of his case.
December 1999
Chemist Eunsoon Jun, 42, of Richmond, California, introduces Terry Rasmussen to friends at a party. Rasmussen identifies himself as “Larry Vanner.”
May 2000
A second barrel containing the bodies of two unidentified girls is found at New Hampshire’s Bear Brook State Park. One child is believed to be 1-3 years old; the other child appears to be 2-4 years old.
June 2002
Eunsoon Jun — who has married Vanner in a backyard wedding although it is not official in the state of California — but later vanishes. Her friend reports her missing to police.
September 2002
Terry Rasmussen, going by the name of Larry Vanner, is brought in for questioning and gives his fingerprints voluntarily. When his fingerprints come back as “Curtis Kimball” and authorities learn he is wanted for violating parole in Lisa’s abandonment case, he is arrested. Police search his home and find Jun’s body under a large pile of kitty litter. Rasmussen is then held under the alias “Curtis Kimball” in Eunsoon Jun’s murder in California’s Contra Costa County. In November 2002, Rasmussen is formally charged with the murder of Eunsoon Jun.
June 2003
Terry Rasmussen pleads guilty to Jun’s murder as “Curtis Kimball” and gets 15 years to life in prison.
August 2003
Contra Costa County authorities learn, through DNA testing, that Lisa, the 5-year-old who was abandoned by Gordon Jenson in 1986, is not his biological daughter; Lisa’s case is reopened to find out who she is.
December 2010
Terry Rasmussen dies in a California state prison of a combination of pulmonary emphysema, pneumonia and lung cancer.
Summer 2016
Lisa learns she is Dawn Beaudin, thanks to the help of genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter; relatives tell investigators that Lisa’s mother, Denise Beaudin, moved away and was never heard from again. Authorities in San Bernardino County in California connect with their counterparts in New Hampshire regarding “Bob Evans.”
October 2016
DNA confirms that Bob Evans fathered the still-unidentified little girl, age 2-4, found in a barrel with another child in 2000.
January 2017
New Hampshire authorities hold a news conference to discuss Bob Evans and the disappearance of Denise Beaudin. During the news conference, investigators detail the Bear Brook State Park murders; the killing of Eunsoon Jun in California; Lisa’s abandonment; and Lisa’s link to the still-missing Denise Beaudin, her mother.
July 2017
Authorities identify Bob Evans as the killer of the victims in the barrels. Later that summer, genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter identifies Evans as Terry Rasmussen.
October 2018
Jason Moon, a reporter with New Hampshire Public Radio, launches a seven-episode podcast about the Bear Brook case, seeking to untangle the case and its various angles. The podcast, which will be downloaded 11 million times, is heard by amateur sleuth Rebekah Heath.
Heath, scouring online message boards of relatives looking for missing family members, and Rae-Venter, using a DNA profile provided by new technology, separately identify the woman and two of the girls found in the barrels in New Hampshire.
June 6, 2019
Authorities announce at a news conference that three of the bodies found in barrels in New Hampshire have been identified as Marlyse Honeychurch, and her two children, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters.
Nov. 4, 2019
The family and friends of Marlyse Honeychurch and her daughters gather for a funeral for the trio after their identities are finally uncovered.
Feb. 20, 2020
A new sketch of the final unidentified child found in the second barrel is released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and New Hampshire authorities.
If you have any information about these missing cases or others, please call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or visit its website at www.missingkids.org
For any tips concerning Terry Rasmussen and any unknown victims, please contact Deputy Peter Headley with San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at pheadley@sbcsd.org
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