Jason Moon, In Cemetery, Reading: “Here lies the mortal remains, known only to God, of a woman, age 23 to 33, and a girl child, aged 8 to 10. Their slain bodies were found on November 10th, 1985 in Bear Brook State Park. May their souls find peace in God’s loving care.”
[MUSIC IN]
Taylor Quimby, Narrating: Previously on Bear Brook…
George Kamenov, On the Phone: What we saw was that the three victims that are related by DNA, they kind of have the same oxygen isotopic signal, which tells us that they were all living together.
Jeff Strelzin, At Press Conference: And in the case involving the four murder victims in Allenstown, we believe we’ve identified their killer.
Ronda Randall: It was fascinating about Lisa, um, and to know his other, his other life, but, but to still not know who they were and know so much was difficult.
Peter Headley: I’ll, I’ll work every lead that I can… until I’ve tapped everything out.
[MUSIC UP AND OUT]
Jason Moon, Narrating: Sometimes, when people go missing, it’s obvious. They didn’t come home from work. Their car is found abandoned on the side of the road. The police are called. The last hours before their disappearance are scrutinized for clues. Who were they talking to? Where were they going?
There’s another way that people go missing, where they fade slowly from the lives of the people around them, where their absence grows until it’s expected, where there are no final moments to pour over – just a sense that you haven’t heard from them in a while.
[LOW TONE IN]
Moon, Narrating: How do you find a relative who’s gone missing like that, someone who you’re not even really sure is missing? You probably wouldn’t call the police, but you might go online to forums and message boards where tens of thousands of other people also come to look for someone.
Woman: Looking for my brothers, Curtis and Dale Prosise. Please reply… [FADE UNDER]
Man 1: I’m looking for Elsa De Jesus… [FADE UNDER]
Man 2: …Looking for half-brother, Jason Wayne Hale. Jason, I’m your brother… [VOICES CONTINUE OVER EACH OTHER, THEN FADE UNDER]
Moon, Narrating: One of the most popular of these forums is Ancestry.com. It’s called simply “Lost Family and Friends.” Scrolling through it can be overwhelming. It’s like looking at a bulletin board for people missing after a natural disaster – only there was no disaster.
[TONE, VOICES BRIEFLY UP AND OUT]
Moon, Narrating: In some ways, these forums are kind of the unofficial version of the missing persons reports that police rely on. The difference is that the posts aren’t standardized. Some have a lot of detail, some have very little. Others are inaccurate and a lot of them are just out of date.
Becky Heath: And that, and that’s kind of the tricky part, is because you could find a listing and when you follow up on it, it could be like, “Oh, no, no. We found them.” Or, there could, a lot of times with the older ones, they’re just broken email addresses.
Moon: It’s messier.
[LOW TONE IN, SOFTLY]
Becky: Mmhmm. It’s like the in-between.
Moon, Narrating: Becky Heath spends a lot of time in these forums, in the in-between. Becky is a research librarian, but in her free time, she becomes what you might call a websleuth. I met with Becky several months ago because of something she found in the in-between.
[TONE OUT, THEME MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Three names. Names that we now know belong to the Bear Brook victims.
On June 6th, 2019, authorities officially announced their identities at a press conference in Concord, New Hampshire. You may have heard about it on the news. We’re gonna take you to that press conference and tell you everything we learned from it.
But first, I want to walk you through how that discovery was made because just like in every other piece of this story, it does not go the way you think it does. Becky Heath solved it, but she wasn’t the only one.
[THEME MUSIC POST]
Moon, Narrating: This is Bear Brook, I’m Jason Moon.
[THEME MUSIC UP AND OUT]
Moon, Narrating: When I met Becky Heath at her home in Connecticut, the first thing I noticed was how well decorated it was. It was like walking into a magazine cover. Everything seemed perfectly in its place, carefully chosen. Becky's the same way with her words. When she speaks, it's almost like she's tiptoeing from one word to the next.
Becky Heath: I… do… love… mysteries. Uh, any type of real life… murder mysteries.
Moon, Narrating: Becky first came across the Bearbrook murders about 10 years ago. Four unidentified victims found in two barrels 15 years apart. She was at work looking through newspaper archives. She saw an article about the case from the ‘80s, and she realized that the first barrel was found just three days before she was born.
Heath: Like, oh, that's interesting. I've got to check that out later. And little by little, I would look more into it.
Moon, Narrating: Little by little became more and more. And by the time police announced in 2017 that they knew the Killer, Terry Rasmussen, but not the victims, Becky was obsessed with the case.
Heath: [LAUGHS] This is, is kind of embarrassing, but I would go to work and I'd come home, and I would just research and research and research. It's like there's got to be – there's got to be something. There's, there's something here.
Moon, Narrating: Becky was convinced that somewhere in the online forums of people looking for people, someone was looking for the Bear Brook victims, even if they didn't know it. And she tried to imagine who would be searching for them. The parents of the adult victim could be dead or estranged. Maybe it would be a cousin of one of the child victims or a stepsibling. Maybe they weren't searching for the whole family. Maybe they only knew the adult victim or one of the girls.
Heath: There's certain terms that I'll use. Stepdaughter, stepsister, half sister. Uh, nieces.
Moon, Narrating: Casting this wide net, Becky started scanning through the online posts. Each time she came across something that looked like it could possibly match one of the victims, she would see if she could rule it out.
Heath: I'll try and look through, like, public records, um, birth certificates through different websites and see, okay, can I find a record of this person? And is it recent?
Moon, Narrating: If Becky was able to find a record of that person from later than 1985, she moved on. If they were generating records, they probably weren't dead. Becky did this over and over again, ruling out names for months.
Moon: [FADES IN] How, um, how many was it – 82,000 messages?
Heath: Yeah.
Moon: So, how many of these did you look through?
Heath: [BOTH LAUGH] Lots. [BOTH LAUGH] Lots.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Finally, in the fall of 2017, Becky came across a name that she couldn't rule out. It came from a post dated February 11th, 2000. It's written by someone searching for their long lost half-sister. The poster says their half-sister was born in California in the mid-1970s, that both of the half-sister’s parents are dead, and that the mother died in a car accident.
Now, you might not make much of that, and I probably wouldn't have. But this detail triggered something for Becky. She remembered that a car accident was one of the lies Rasmussen had told about one of his other presumed victims – Lisa's mother, Denise Bowden. So, Becky decided to fact check that story of the mother dying in a car accident. She searched the mother's name in California death records.
Heath: I said, “Ok, well, if they passed away, they’re gonna be in the death index.” [TYPING] Hers, there is no– there is none.
Moon, Narrating: Death records are generally pretty easy to find. Pulling up nothing got Becky even more interested. So, she went back to the post and she kept reading.
In 2003, someone replies to the original post. It’s a man who’s looking for his sister and her two kids. He thinks his sister might be the mom who supposedly died in a car accident. So, now we’re talking about three missing people, a mother and her two daughters.
In 2013 – a decade later – someone posts the marriage records of the missing mother. Then, in 2014, there’s another reply. This time, it’s from someone who thinks the missing mother might be her sister. She says she’s been looking for her for years.
Three separate people, rooting around on the internet for someone they’d lost. Each of them helping to outline the silhouette of a missing family.
[MUSIC UP AND OUT]
[LOW TONE IN]
Moon, Narrating: Becky was able to find the dates of birth for each member of the missing family. And they all fit within the estimated age ranges for the three related Bear Brook victims – the adult, the oldest child, and the youngest child.
Becky started to think this really could be something. So, in the fall of 2017 she shared all this with some of her fellow websleuths in a Facebook group. And then…
[LOW TONE QUICKLY UP AND OUT]
Moon, Narrating: …Nothing happened.
Heath: I don’t know why I didn’t pursue it more the first time? Um.... I didn’t really get feedback from anyone, so I didn’t really pursue it more.
Moon, Narrating: The post about the half-sister just kind of fizzled. Either the websleuth community was focused on something else, or maybe they just didn’t think it was a very good lead. So, Becky went back to searching the message boards for other posts that might line up with the Bear Brook case. And for almost a year, she didn’t think too much about it.
Then, late last year, Becky heard about something that got her thinking about that post again. Becky started listening to this podcast.
[‘80S MUSIC IN, TAPE RECORDING EFFECT]
Jesse Morgan: Ya know, growin’ up, it was probably, ya know what, a good two or three… [FADES DOWN]
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Becky knew most of the twists and turns in the case already. But she listened anyway. Listened closely for any tiny details she didn’t already know about that might help her refine her search. She even kept notes of each episode.
Heath: [PAPERS SHUFFLING] ...This is the last podcast. It’s in here somewhere...
Moon, Narrating: Becky says it was listening to episode three – the one about the isotopic testing and the updated composite images of the victims. It triggered something.
Heath: I remember stopping the podcast, [LAUGHS] going back, listening to what he said again, writing it down again.
Benjamin Agati, At Press Conference: [TAPE RECORDING EFFECT] Our first child victim, also found in the same barrel with her, her age is closer to 9 to 10 years old.
Heath: Stop. Go over it again.
Agati, At Press Conference: [TAPE RECORDING EFFECT] 9 to 10 years old.
Heath: Stop. Go over it again… [FADE OUT]
Moon, Narrating: Her mind went back to the post, the one that had fizzled out. The more she listened, the more she remembered. The ages had lined up. The location had lined up. All the details fit. It was almost like she was getting the feedback she hadn’t gotten when she first found the post and what it was saying was that she just might have a lead.
Heath: After that one, I was like, “You know what? Listening to this podcast makes me think it is this person, this, these, these girls!”
[MUSIC OUT]
Heath: Just… it fits. It just fits!
Moon, Narrating: There was still a small specter of doubt, that it would be another dead end. But eventually, Becky decided she had to do something about it. Becky reached out to the person who was looking for their half-sister. She showed me how the conversation played out on her phone.
Heath: So, here it says, uh, 9-04 p.m. on October 10th. And I said, “I'm trying to track down this post. Could this be you?” And almost instantly, she responded back, and she said that she was the person, and she said, “You have my heart pounding.”
Moon, Narrating: This person tells Becky that the family has wondered for years about what happened to their half-sister, but they've never been able to find any answers. Then, Becky asks if they had any more information about the half-sister's mother.
Heath: And this is where you can see right there. She says she married again to a man with the last name Rasmussen.
[MUSIC IN]
Heath: And, like…
Moon: Oh, my God.
Heath: That right there was like, where they say your stomach just, like, like something just hits. And I was like, “There is no way. There is no way there’s, that's a coincidence.”
Moon: Wow.
Heath: I actually started, I was shaking. It was just like, “Woooow. What?!”
Moon, Narrating: Becky then quickly tracked down some siblings of the missing mother. She asked them if they remembered anything about their sister's husband.
Heath: And one of the sisters was like, “I think his name was Terry.” And it was just like, okay, there's just this, no, there's no way that she remembers Terry. This side remembers Rasmussen. That's too crazy. So, that happened on Wednesday night, and by Friday, I was talking to Detective Hedley from San Bernardino. And as I was talking to him, I said, you know, “I, you probably get this all the time.” I was like, “But I truly think that this is the break.”
Moon, Narrating: What Becky didn't know was that at the same time she was poring over internet message boards, genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-venter was also narrowing in on the identities.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: And by this point, Barbara had been working on this case for four years. She, along with Detective Peter Hedley from San Bernardino, identified Lisa, the girl Rasmussen abandoned at an RV park. Barbara was the one who identified Terry Rasmussen's real name.
Then, she went on to identify the alleged Golden State Killer and has provided breakthroughs in lots of other cases, too. But all the while, she's also been working to identify the Bear Brook victims. But there was a problem.
[MUSIC OUT]
Moon, Narrating: Forensic scientists hadn't been able to get an autosomal DNA sample that was complete enough to be used for genetic genealogy. Remember, the remains of the Bear Brook victims had been exposed to the elements for years.
Barbara Rae-Venter, On the Phone: Yeah, everything was coming back so contaminated. And we're talking 98% bacterial DNA and 2% human.
Moon, Narrating: But then, through pure luck, Barbara gets an idea for how to get around this problem. It happens while she's in the hospital.
Rae-Venter, On the Phone: I'm recovering from open heart surgery. I'm, you know, lying in bed, bored to death and, you know, so scrolling through stuff and and then, see this article.
Moon, Narrating: The article she sees is about a new technique for extracting autosomal DNA from rootless hair. It caught her eye because that's supposed to be impossible. But a scientist named Richard Green at the University of California at Santa Cruz had apparently found a way. And Barbara realized this could be the key to getting a good DNA sample from the Bear Brook victims.
Rae-Venter, On the Phone: If I had not been confined to my bed at that time, I would have been up in his lab instantly. As it was, I had to, you know, phone him and, um, you know, have lunch later on.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Richard Green's new technique is a very complex process that reassembles broken shards of autosomal DNA that exist in rootless hair. Now, Barbara and Richard knew it could work, but it wouldn't be easy.
For months, the two of them worked together to try and get a DNA profile that could be used in genetic genealogy. There were many false starts and failed attempts, but finally last fall, they succeeded. They had genetic profiles for the three related victims that could be uploaded to GEDmatch.
The same week Barbara uploaded the DNA to GEDmatch, Becky sent in her tip. Barbara hadn't even had a chance to look over their matches when the names Becky submitted were passed along to her.
Rae-Venter, On the Phone: Uh, since we already had stuff uploaded, it was just easy enough then to really quickly do a family tree and sure enough, just confirmed that yeah, this is who we had. That was who the adult female was.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: The final twist in the Bear Brook case is that after 34 years of dead ends, it was solved by two different people using two different techniques at almost exactly the same time.
[MUSIC POST]
Moon, Narrating: And now, we can confirm the identities of the three related Bear Brook victims.
[MUSIC OUT]
Moon, Narrating: The adult was Marlyse Honeychurch. The oldest child was Marie Vaughn. The youngest child was Sarah McWaters.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: In the days after she submitted the tip, Becky stayed in touch with the family of the victims. She got to know them a little bit. And if she had any doubts about whether these were the correct identities, she says they disappeared once the family sent her some photos.
Heath: It's [SIGHS] it's… I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't ready for that. It's really, it's really heartbreaking. And seeing pictures of the girls and how, like, how they look. Like, that's… You just know. It's, it's, it's insane how how close the composites were.
Moon, Narrating: Becky's right. The photos of Marlyse and her two daughters bear a stunning resemblance to the composite images released in 2015. And she's also right about how heartbreaking it is to see those photos, to see Marie at her birthday party, ready to blow out candles on the cake. To see Sarah as a baby in a diaper and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt. To see their mom, Marlyse with a big smile as she gets ready to lick batter off a mixer.
Heath: It makes it really real.
Moon: “Really real” is a really good way to put it. I didn't, I'd never imagined – I'd never thought about the day that like, “Oh, one day I might see actual photos of them.” And now seeing them, it's, like, a lot.
Heath: It's real, it's really heartbreaking. I've, you know, had, like, this high feeling of, “Oh my goodness, this is going to get solved. There's going to be closure.” And it's, like, the reality is, like, what the family is going to have to endure. That's really… it's, it's not going to be easy. It's not a happy ending.
[MUSIC POST]
Moon, Narrating: Becky and Barbara both discovered the identities in October of last year. I interviewed Becky at her home just a few weeks later.
I left the interview that day personally convinced that Becky had it right, but we didn't report any of this until now because there was a chance she was wrong, or that police could have found out more after the tip came in. Until the identities could be totally confirmed with DNA testing, we couldn't risk publishing the story. And more importantly, if it was true, then the family of the victims deserved to know before anyone else. And so we waited.
[MUSIC UP AND OUT]
Moon, Narrating: On June 5th, 2019, something happened that I'd been waiting for for seven months. I was sitting in the New Hampshire Public Radio newsroom when I got an email from the state Attorney General's office announcing that there would be a press conference the next day to discuss new information in the Bear Brook case.
[PRESS CONFERENCE SOUND FADES IN, PEOPLE TALKING]
Moon, Narrating: It was held at the same place where I had learned about Terry Rasmussen in 2017, in an auditorium at the main offices of the New Hampshire DMV. I got there early, just like before. And just outside the auditorium, it was a normal day. People were waiting in line to take driving tests or renew their licenses. But inside, there was a nervous energy. Like, everybody knew what was about to happen. And for at least some of the people there, like Becky Heath, they did.
Moon, At Press Conference: Um, can I ask how, how you're feeling right now?
Heath, At Press Conference: Uh, overwhelmed. It's… emotional, but… good, but bad, ya know? [TALKING FADES UNDER]
Moo, Narrating: When I'd been here in 2017, I'd been working on the Bear Brook story by myself. And now, there were three other producers from NHPR there with me. And like Becky, we all had a pretty good idea of what was coming.
[TALKING FADES BACK UP]
Taylor Quimby, At Press Conference: Hey. Is this, uh, is this a lot busier than the last time?
Moon, At Press Conference: It's, um. It's. Yeah, it is a little busier, actually. We've got, um, Becky Heath is here. Ronda Randall should be here any second. Uh, I can see Jeff Strelzin up at the podium. Um, it's a little bit of a reunion, yeah. All here to see the next chapter.
[TALKING FADES OUT, MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Ronda Randall, the amateur sleuth who's been following the Bear Brook case longer than most of the people in this room, got to the briefing just a few minutes before it started. Next to her was Andrea Rasmussen, one of Terry Rasmussen's living daughters.
Ronda brought with her some stones from Bear Brook State Park. She's had them for years in hopes of one day writing down the names of the victims as a sort of memorial.
Moon: Ronda, did you, did you bring the rocks?
Ronda Randall: I did, they're in my bag. [LAUGHS] Yeah.
Moon: Do you have, like, the Sharpie ready to go?
Randall: I think so.
[TALKING FADES DOWN, MUSIC OUT]
Moon, Narrating: After a few more minutes, the crowd instinctively hushed. And then, just like before, Jeff Strelzin with the New Hampshire Attorney General's office, walked up to the podium.
Moon, Whispering: Okay, here we go.
Jeff Strelzin, At Podium: Good afternoon again. We've called this press briefing today because we have additional information regarding the Allenstown, New Hampshire murder case.
In 2017, we knew the identity of the Allenstown killer, but his victims’ identities remained a mystery. We're here to report that for three of the four Allenstown victims, that's now changed. [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTERS]
The mother has been identified as Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch. [FAINT SOUND OF PHONE RINGING] The photo on the left is her high school photo from 1970. Marlyse was born in Connecticut in 1954. At the time this picture was taken, we estimate she was about 16 years old. [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTERS]
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Up on the screen were some of the same photos that I'd seen in Becky's living room in October. A blurry yearbook photo of Marlyse smiling at the camera. Little Sarah, just a baby, sleeping in someone's arms.
Strelzin: The oldest Allenstown child victim has been identified as her oldest daughter. And here she is. Marie Elizabeth Vaughn. This is Sarah Lynn McWaters. Her life photo is on the left and her facial reconstruction is on the right.
Moon, Narrating: For so long, police were only able to call them by their age. The adult victim. The middle child. But now, these… baby pictures and birthday photos.
Since Becky's tip and Barbara Rae Venter's DNA work, police had been interviewing family members, collecting stories and establishing timelines. And what they learned was that Marlyse has always had a complicated family history.
Matthew Kohler: She was the second oldest of five girls. In approximately 1961, Marlyse’s parents separated. Her mother took the three younger girls to the state of California, while Marlyse and her older sister remained in the state of Connecticut with their father.
Moon, Narrating: Marlyse moved around a lot. In 1969, when she was 15, she moved back in with her mom in California and enrolled in a local high school. She married young, at 17, and had Marie not long after. Later, there were custody battles. Another marriage, and then, baby Sarah.
Matthew Kohler: In the summer of 1973, Marlyse traveled to Lakewood, California and took, took custody of Marie… [FADES UNDER]
Moon, Narrating: Sergeant Matthew Kohler from the state Cold Case Unit outlined Marlyse’s life and the lives of her two kids, Marie and Sarah. It was like a memorial service led by someone who only knew the deceased from pictures and second-hand stories.
Kohler: This is a photograph of Marlyse and Marie Vaughn. We believe it was taken around the holidays.
[MUSIC OUT]
Moon, Narrating: And then, the last detail in her timeline. A scene that, after all that had come before, sounded eerily familiar.
Kohler: Thanksgiving time of 1978, in La Puente, California. Marlyse and her children went to a family event at Marlyse’s mother's house with a man she identified as Terry Rasmussen. She identified him as Terry Rasmussen to multiple people at that event. An argument ensued between Marlyse and her mother over a trivial matter. Marlyse left that event with her children and Terry Rasmussen and was never seen by her family again. [SOUND OF CAMERA SHUTTERS]
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: In 2000, Eunsoon Jun had taken Rasmussen under a different pseudonym then to a New Year's party. It was the last time her family ever talked to her too. And Denise Bowden, another Thanksgiving party. The last time she would ever have contact with her family.
We don't know what the argument was that Marlyse had with her mother in 1978, but in each of the other cases, Rasmussen found a way to separate his victims from the people who loved them. And it's hard to imagine he wasn't taking advantage of the same situation with Marlyse.
[MUSIC POST, PRESS CONFERENCE AUDIO FADES BACK IN]
Unidentified Male Official, Low Volume: …The last contact with him occurred around Christmastime of either 1975 or 1976. The family was residing… [FADES UNDER]
Moon, Narrating: After that, the rest of the press conference sort of blurred into the ones that had been held before. A parade of different officials, describing all the twists and turns that had gotten us to this point, and all the loose ends that are yet to be tied up.
Unidentified Male Official: …February 11th, 1980. At the time of his arrest, he wrote down Elizabeth as a spouse. Again, it could be Marlyse.
Moon, Narrating: They credited various agencies and individuals that had taken part in the investigation, amateur and professionals alike.
Unidentified Female Official: They never stopped trying to identify the four victims in these barrels… [FADES UNDER]
Moon, Narrating: And then, towards the end. FBI Agent Phil Christiano acknowledged that all the work done could never undo the reasons we were all there.
Phil Christiano: But make no mistake, today is bittersweet. While we're proud to be here, to stand before you to announce that this decade old homicide has been solved, we also recognize the pain and anguish that the subject of this investigation has caused to the family and friends.
Moon, Narrating: In the hushed moment just before the press conference began, a line of seven people had walked from the back of the room and quickly taken seats in the front row of the auditorium.
Christiano: Several of those family members have come to New Hampshire today and are here. They've asked us to read a statement on their behalf. “On behalf of our families, we would like to thank everyone who has spent decades working tirelessly to identify our loved ones. This day comes with heavy hearts. Marlyse, Marie, and Sarah were so loved by our families and they are greatly missed. We take solace in finally having the answers we have longed for. Thank you to everyone who never gave up on the Allenstown victims. During this difficult time, we are asking for privacy as we process the events that have unfolded over this week.” That concludes our presentation, and at this point, we'd be happy to take any questions that people have.
[MUSIC IN]
Christiano: Yes, sir.
Moon: Can you talk about the role of genetic genealogy since… [PRESS CONFERENCE AUDIENCE FADES OUT]
Moon, Narrating: Despite all the information police shared at the press conference, there is so much we don't know about Marlyse, Marie, and Sarah. Sure, we know where they lived and when. Some of the details that might get listed on court records or in City Hall. But we don't know what kind of movies Marlyse liked to watch. What Sarah's laugh sounded like. Or whether Marie struggled with her math homework.
But that's okay. They deserve the dignity of being buried with a name. But I'm not sure we've earned the right to know everything about them. Those decisions are up to their families.
[MUSIC POST, LOW SOUND OF PEOPLE TALKING IN]
Moon, Narrating: After the press conference ended, the family got up silently and filed out of the room. After the crowd thinned, I was left standing with Ronda Randall and Becky Heath.
[MUSIC OUT, LOW SOUND OF PEOPLE TALKING UP]
Moon, Narrating: Rhonda got out the rocks, the ones she'd been saving for just this occasion, and put them down on the empty auditorium stage. [LOW THUMPING SOUNDS]
Moon: Yeah. So, what's it been, eight years, right?
Randall: Eight years, yeah. Memorial Day weekend was eight years.
Moon, Narrating: She handed the Sharpie to Becky, who wrote a name on each stone. [SOUND OF SHARPIE WRITING ON STONES]
Heath: That was kind of emotional. [SIGHS] Sarah. [SOUND OF SHARPIE WRITING] Thanks. I appreciate that. Where are they goin’?
Randall: They're going to go back, back to Allenstown. And, um, we'll hold on to the last rock until, until that little girl has her name back, too.
Heath: I hope, I actually hope to visit Allenstown before I leave.
Moon: Mmm.
Heath: I've never…
Randall: …Been out there?
Heath: Mmm.
[THEME MUSIC IN]
Jesse Morgan, On the Phone: I mean, I was just a young kid that, you know, stumbled upon a barrel. You know, I don't, and I'm, I’m speechless to the fact of, you know, how sad and crazy that this, that it is, you know?
Moon: Yeah, you can't make this stuff up, um…
Morgan: No, no.
Ron Montplaisir, On the Phone: It's been a long, long time. I can picture that first, that day when I, when I responded to that, that call and, uh, um, I, I guess that'll take me to my grave. I'll never forget that.
Moon: Would you like to hear their names?
Montplaisir: Yeah, sure. Yes, yes. [SOUND OF PHONE CRACKLING]
Moon: So, the adult was Marlyse Honeychurch.
Montplaisir: Oh, wow!
[MUSIC POST]
Anne Morgan, On the Phone: It's a sad… It's a sad day, Jason. The day they were found was sad and all the, all the in-between. But when it's all said and done, it's very sad. I haven't talked to Jesse, um, because I know once I do, I'm going to cry. [HER VOICE BREAKS] She does have a family. She did have a family that were looking for her, that missed her, that loved her.
Moon: Yeah, it's not a happy ending. No. No.
Anne Morgan: Good luck to you, and we'll be in touch.
Moon: Yeah, that'd be great.
Anne Morgan: We'll be in touch.
[MUSIC UP AND OUT]
Moon, Narrating: This news was a huge leap forward in the Bear Brook case, but it was also a painful reminder of the many unanswered questions that still remain. The middle child victim is still unidentified. The middle child's mother. Another presumed victim is still unidentified. Denise Beauden's body has never been recovered. Rasmussen may have had other victims.
[RONDA RANDALL TALKING FADES IN]
But the mysteries of the Bear Brook case have attracted some tenacious investigators. And they're the sort of people who I don't think will ever give up trying.
Ronda Randall, In Bear Brook State Park: … in the house right there. You've got a path coming through the woods here, from the mobile home park, where the kids would walk up to the store and get cigarettes for their parents and buy candy and soda. And the barrel was right there, tipped over on its side.
Becky Heath: So, it was this close to the road!
Moon, Narrating: Just a couple of hours after the press conference, Ronda Randall and Becky Heath, along with Andrea Rasmussen, Terry Rasmussen's daughter, took a walk out near Bear Brook State Park about a 20 minute drive away.
Randall: This is the blueberry patch with some birch trees growing there. Really serene spot. You know, when I came in and saw it, it just looked so peaceful and hard to kind of equate it with its history.
Heath: I feel like there's still answers here.
Randall: Yeah.
Heath: You know. I don't feel, like, really done with this property.
[MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Meanwhile, genealogist Barbara Rae-venter continues her work on the unidentified middle child. Barbara has already uploaded the middle child's DNA to GEDmatch, but unfortunately, she found only extremely distant relatives – not enough to get a foothold on a family tree.
But in the time since we released the last episode, there's a new genetic database available to law enforcement. It's called Family Tree DNA. Barbara says they'll be uploading the middle child's DNA there as early as next week.
If Barbara is lucky, some of the middle child's family is already there, waiting for her.
[MUSIC UP AND OUT, THEME MUSIC IN]
Moon, Narrating: Bear Brook is reported and produced by me, Jason Moon.
Additional reporting in this episode by Todd Bookman.
Taylor Quimby is senior producer.
Editing help for this episode came from Cori Princell, Dan Barrick, and Maureen McMurray.
The executive producer is Erika Janik.
Dan Barrick is NPR's news director.
Director of Content is Maureen McMurray.
Photos for this episode were taken by Allie Oshinsky.
Additional photography and video for this series by Allie Gutierrez.
Interactives and graphics by Sarah Plourde.
Original music for this show was composed by me, Jason Moon, and Taylor Quimby. Additional music in this episode by Blue Dot sessions and Lee Rosevere.
Bear Brook is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
[THEME MUSIC UP AND OUT]