For the full story on what this means — and how the people closest to this case are making sense of this news — listen to the latest episode of our Bear Brook podcast.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office says it has identified the last unknown victim in the high-profile cold case commonly known as the Bear Brook murders.
Rea Rasmussen was just a few years old when she was murdered by her father and then discarded in a barrel near Bear Brook State Park, likely between 1978 and 1981, authorities believe. Previously referred to by investigators as “the middle child,” she was one of four victims found in barrels near the state park.
The discovery has also led investigators to a missing woman — Rea’s mother, Pepper Reed, who has not been seen for decades — believed to have been murdered by the same man.
“Pepper is deeply loved and missed every single day,” Reed’s family said in a statement shared by the New Hampshire Office of Victim Assistance. “Though we did not have an opportunity to meet Rhea, she is cherished just as much in our hearts. Our family kindly ask for privacy as we grieve.”
Two of Rea’s paternal half-siblings echoed that request for privacy, saying they are “navigating a deeply traumatic and personal matter.”
The case baffled investigators since the discovery of the first barrel 40 years ago and drew national attention as one of the first to be solved using a new technique called genetic genealogy, marking a turning point in how many cold cases are now investigated.
This technique was used to identify the suspected killer, Terry Peder Rasmussen, and the four victims: first, Marlyse Honeychurch and her daughters, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters, and now, Rea.
“This case has weighed on New Hampshire and the nation for decades,” Attorney General John Formella said in a statement announcing the news on Sunday afternoon. “With Rea Rasmussen’s identification, all four victims now have their names back.”
In 2024, the New Hampshire State Police Cold Case Unit partnered with a group called the DNA Doe Project, which helped to identify Rea using extensive DNA analysis and genealogical research.
In an interview with NHPR ahead of the state announcement Sunday, New Hampshire State Police Detective Sergeant Chris Elphick said the state finally “got lucky” in June of this year. Investigators and the DNA Doe Project compiled a family tree with about 25,000 people in it, but Elphick said this summer, they finally found a key DNA match in the family tree that led them to Rea’s mother.
According to the DNA Doe Project, the match was a couple born in the 1870s. Next, the team says they found a 2005 obituary for one of the couple’s great-great-great-granddaughters, which said she was survived by a daughter named Pepper Reed.
The team could find no records for Reed after the 1970s, but the DNA Doe Project says once they had her name, they found a birth record for her daughter, Rea Rasmussen, within 30 minutes.
"To figure out the identity of our Jane Doe, we first had to find her mother”, the DNA Doe Project’s Matthew Waterfield said in a press release. “It took us almost 18 months to identify Pepper Reed, but once we knew her name, it led us right to her daughter."
From there, Elphick and the DNA Doe project staff tracked down Rea’s birth certificate, and through that, found and DNA tested a family member. They officially confirmed Rea’s identity on Friday, Sept. 5.
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Authorities now know that Rea was born in 1976 in Orange County, California, and was the biological daughter of Terry Rasmussen and Pepper Reed. Reed was born in 1952, is originally from Texas, and has not been seen since the late 1970s, authorities said.
Rea Rasmussen and the three other victims were found inside two barrels on a wooded property just outside Bear Brook State Park. The first barrel was discovered in 1985. Police did not discover the second barrel, which was only 300 feet away, until 2000.
The three other victims, Marlyse Honeychurch and her daughters, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters, were identified in 2019, thanks to genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter and volunteer investigator Becky Heath. Marie was estimated to be about 9 years old, and Sarah, about 2. Authorities referred to Rea as “the middle child” because she was estimated to be about 3 years old.
Authorities believe all four were murdered by Rasmussen, Rea’s biological father. Terry Rasmussen died in 2010 while serving a prison sentence for another murder. Terry Rasmussen is not biologically related to the other three victims.
Although all four victims found in the barrels have now been identified, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office said the investigation into the disappearance of Pepper Reed, Rea’s mother, “remains active.”
Authorities believe Reed is likely another of Rasmussen’s victims.
Denise Beaudin, a woman last seen with Terry Rasmussen in Manchester in 1981, has also never been accounted for and is presumed to be another of Rasmussen’s victims.
Investigators are also interested in any information about what Rasmussen was doing between 1974 and 1985, particularly in New Hampshire, California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon and Virginia.
“I fear that he continued the pattern of killing people,” Elphick told NHPR. “He's one of the only serial offenders that killed victims he actually knew and had relationships with, which is certainly unique. And he – I do not mean this [in] any way, shape or form as a compliment – but he was extremely skilled.”
NHPR’s Lauren Chooljian contributed reporting.
This reporting was produced by NHPR’s Document team. This longform narrative reporting initiative is driven by the idea that taking the time to tell the whole story leads to bigger impact – opened minds, changed policies – and a more nuanced understanding of the people at the heart of important issues affecting many of us every day. Learn more about Document's work here.
