Serial killer Terry Rasmussen's victims, known and unknown

Serial killer Terry Rasmussen's victims, known and unknown

Barrel with human remains found in Bear Brook State Park launches mystery: Part 1In 1985, police were alerted to a suspicious barrel in some New Hampshire woods. 

Inside, they found the decomposing unidentified bodies of a female adult and child who had died of blunt force trauma.Obtained by ABC News

A dedicated detective refused to stop digging after she solved the brutal murder of a chemist in California. Then, by reopening an earlier case, she helped a genetic genealogist to discover the identity of a girl the killer claimed was his daughter, and then, the killer’s true identity.

Their hard work, along with that of a dogged researcher, ultimately unraveled a long trail of missing and murdered women and children all leading back, police say, to a serial killer

Known by a lengthy list of aliases, Terry Peder Rasmussen has been dubbed “The Chameleon Killer” for assuming so many different identities as he infiltrated families and destroyed lives in New Hampshire and California.

“So our suspect started in 1984 as ‘Curtis Kimball.’ Then we had ‘Gordon Jenson.’ Then he was using ‘Larry Vanner.’ And now, it turns out, in the early 1980s back in New Hampshire, he was using ‘Bob Evans,’” San Bernardino County, California, Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Headley explained. “All the same guy.”

Rasmussen has been linked to five horrific murders and authorities fear there are more.

These are the stories of the women and children he is suspected of killing, one he confessed to murdering and those whose lives he changed forever:

Honeychurch, who was born in Connecticut in 1954, was married twice and had a daughter with each husband. Marie E. Vaughn was first, born in 1971, then Sarah L. McWaters was born in 1977, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

Honeychurch’s sisters, Roxanne Barrows and Michelle Chagaris, remember her as “bubbly” and “quirky,” and said she had “a good sense of humor.”

“Marlyse was excited to be a mom. She loved her kids dearly,” Chagaris said.

Honeychurch was last seen at her mother’s house in La Puente, California, around Thanksgiving in 1978. It was there that she introduced her family to her boyfriend, Terry Rasmussen, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

“I don't remember exactly what happened,” Paula Hodges, Honeychurch’s other sister, told “20/20.” “I just heard that they had an argument, Marlyse and my mom.”

“My mom might've said something to her as, ‘He's too old for you. Why are you with him?’” Hodges said. “She went with Terry. And they left… never called. Never contacted nobody. Just disappeared.”

Honeychurch was 24 at the time, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Police believe she died one to two years later, making her 26 to 27 when she died.

David Salamon, Honeychurch’s brother, remembered the lengths to which their family went to find Honeychurch and her daughters.

“It was just a situation where, every time we searched, [we] came to a dead end. Came to a dead end. Came to a dead end,” Salamon said.

“Through the years my mother always said, ‘You know, something's not right. Where is she?’” Hodges remembered.

“It was sad,” Salamon said. “We had a sister that was gone. A sister and two nieces.”

Marie E. Vaughn

The remains of Marie and her mother, Honeychurch, were found in the first of two barrels that were discovered at Bear Brook State Park in November 1985.

 They weren’t identified until 2019; at that time, authorities believed Marie was 8 to 10 years old at the time of her death.

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