A decades-long mystery haunting the forests of New Hampshire has finally been unraveled, revealing a depraved serial killer who operated under a dizzying array of false identities for more than 30 years, preying on the very people who trusted him most. The case of Terry Peder Rasmussen, known as the Chameleon Killer, has culminated in a chilling conclusion that law enforcement officials say is unlike any other in American criminal history. Rasmussen, who died in prison in 2010 at the age of 67 from lung cancer, has been posthumously linked to the notorious Bear Brook murders, a cold case that baffled investigators for over three decades.
The gruesome discovery that set this investigation into motion occurred on a crisp November day in 1985. A hunter walking through the serene Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, stumbled upon a tipped-over 55-gallon drum deep in the woods. Inside, wrapped in plastic bags and reduced to skeletons, were the remains of an adult woman and a young girl.
Both had been killed by blunt force trauma to the head. For years, the identities of these victims remained unknown, their bodies buried in a local cemetery under a headstone that read, Here lies the mortal remains known only to God, of a woman aged 23 to 33 and a girl child aged 8 to 10.
Fifteen years later, in May of 2000, a state trooper assigned to revisit the cold case decided to reexamine the original crime scene. Walking just 100 yards from where the first barrel was found, he made a horrifying discovery. A second 55-gallon drum, hidden in plain sight, contained two more bodies.
This time, both were young female children. DNA analysis later linked one of the girls to the adult woman found in the first barrel, confirming they were mother and daughter. But the adult woman’s identity remained a ghost, and the second child was a complete enigma.
The case went cold again, leaving four unidentified victims and a growing sense of dread in the community.
The key to unlocking this mystery lay in the life of a man who seemed to have no fixed identity. Terry Peder Rasmussen was born in Denver, Colorado, on December 23, 1943, to simple shopkeepers who ran a shoe store. His early life appeared unremarkable.
He attended Whittier Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona, after his family moved there when he was about 10 or 11 years old. He completed just one year at North High School before dropping out in the 10th grade to enlist in the U. S.
Navy. He served for six years and received an honorable discharge. There were no suspicious reports from his childhood, no early signs of the monster he would become.
This absence of a troubled upbringing sets him apart from most serial killers, whose histories are often marked by 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 or trauma.
After his discharge, Rasmussen returned to Phoenix briefly before moving to Hawaii, where he married a woman and had two children. The family relocated to Redwood City, California, where they had two more children in 1970 and 1972. On the surface, Rasmussen was living the American dream.
But beneath this facade, a darkness was brewing. He began to berate his children, and on one occasion, he reportedly put a cigarette butt out on his oldest son’s arm. The family ties began to fray.
In June 1975, at the age of 31, Rasmussen was arrested for aggravated assault after a bar fight. His wife had enough. She left him, taking the children with her.
He saw them one last time around Christmas of that year before the divorce was finalized. It was the last time he would ever see his family.
With his family gone, Rasmussen embarked on a sinister journey of self-reinvention. He began using the alias Bob Evans and bounced between states, including Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Ohio, and even Hawaii again. He worked as an electrician and an oilman, always moving, always hiding.
Eventually, he found his way to New Hampshire, a state that would become the stage for his worst atrocities. In the fall of 1978, on Thanksgiving Day, Marlene Hightree Church flew from New Hampshire to Los Angeles, California, to visit her mother. She brought along her two daughters, 6-year-old Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and 1-year-old Sarah Lyn McWaters.
Marlene had been married twice before, hence the different last names. She had also brought her new boyfriend, Bob Evans. That night, Marlene’s mother argued with her daughter in a nearby bedroom.
The grandmother found Bob Evans strange and unsettling. It was the last time anyone in the family saw Marlene, Marie, or Sarah alive. They simply vanished.
Three years later, in 1981, another Thanksgiving came and went. Bob Evans was now dating Denise Beaudin, who had a six-month-old daughter. Denise’s family was not supportive, and she had been talking about moving away.
That Thanksgiving, at a dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, she was seen alive for the last time. Her family never reported her missing, believing she had simply moved. The child, however, survived.
Evans, using another alias, Curtis Mayo Kimble, kept the baby and named her Lisa. He reasoned that appearing as a single father might make him look more innocent, helping him evade suspicion for various petty crimes. This plan backfired when he was pulled over in Cypress, California, for driving under the influence.
He skipped his court date and abandoned five-year-old Lisa at an RV park. Police believe he killed Denise, though her body has never been found.
The trail of bodies continued. In November 2002, Rasmussen, now using the alias Lawrence Vanner, was living with 41-year-old Eun Soon Jun in Richmond, California. Jun was a quiet, kind chemist who worked for the City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles.
Her family found Lawrence strange and unkempt, but she seemed to love him. In June 2002, she vanished. When police questioned Rasmussen, he spun a strange story.
A search of their home revealed a large pile of kitty litter in the garage. Inside, detectives found a human foot, still wearing a flip-flop. It was Jun.
Rasmussen was arrested and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for her murder. At the time, no one knew they were dealing with a serial killer.
The connection to the Bear Brook murders came through a routine fingerprint check. Rasmussen’s prints matched those of Curtis Mayo Kimble, the alias he used in the 1986 DUI case with little Lisa. From there, a web of deception began to unravel.
It took years, but in 2019, citizen detectives broke the case wide open. Rebecca Heath, a librarian, dug through genealogy website message boards dating back decades. She rediscovered a 1999 post on Ancestry.
com from a woman looking for Sarah McWaters, a toddler missing since 1978. The post traced back to the disappearance of Marlene Hightree Church and her two daughters. Ronda Randall, a woman who grew up near Allenstown, conducted interviews with residents of a nearby trailer park.
She found the owner of an abandoned store who remembered a man named Bob Evans. He had done electrical work for him in the late 1970s. The pieces fell into place.
The adult woman in the first barrel was identified as Marlene Hightree Church. The two girls were her daughters, Marie and Sarah. But the fourth body, the unidentified child found in the second barrel, remained a mystery.
DNA testing revealed the 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 truth. The girl was Terry Rasmussen’s biological daughter, born to one of his girlfriends who is also presumed murdered and whose body has never been found.
Criminologist Jack Levin has stated that Rasmussen stands alone among serial killers. Most serial killers target strangers to avoid detection. Rasmussen targeted the people closest to him, his girlfriends and their children.
This intimate form of predation made him nearly impossible to catch. He could change his identity at will, moving from state to state, leaving behind a trail of missing persons that no one connected until it was too late. The true extent of his crimes may never be known.
Investigators believe he may be linked to the disappearance of 14-year-old Lorraine Rondeau from Manchester, New Hampshire, in April 1980. Rasmussen lived only a mile and a half from her home. Another possible victim is 25-year-old Diane Denat, who vanished from a bar in 1980 and lived on the same street as Rasmussen.
While the New Hampshire senior assistant attorney general stated in 2020 that there was no obvious connection, the investigation remains open.
Rasmussen died in December 2010 at High Desert State Prison in California, never having faced justice for the Bear Brook murders. But for the families of his victims, closure has come at last. A family member of Marlene Hightree Church released a statement.
On behalf of our families, we would like to thank everyone who has spent decades tirelessly working to identify our loved ones. This day comes with heavy hearts. Marlene, 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. The Chameleon Killer’s reign of terror may be over, but the echoes of his crimes will haunt the granite state and beyond for generations to come. Law enforcement agencies across the country are now reviewing cold cases, searching for any other victims who may have crossed paths with the man who was nobody and everybody at the same time.
