The Rasmussen case helped change forensic investigations forever with the introduction of the use of genetic genealogy.
Walk through the N.H. state park where police found four bodies inside barrels
Jun was in her mid-40s when she introduced her family to her new boyfriend “Larry Vanner,” whom authorities later identified as Rasmussen, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice. “I think … he believed if he pled guilty ... I would stop investigating that aspect of his past,” Gruenheid said.Roxane Gruenheid was a homicide detective at the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office.She refused to stop pushing for answers. Although she and her fellow investigators knew Kimball had a lengthy criminal record, they wouldn’t know the full scope until years later.
Richard and Katherine Decker, an older couple also living in the park, helped care for Lisa and had concerns about her well-being — so much so that they tried helping their daughter, who lived in San Bernardino, California, adopt the little girl. Authorities believe Lisa was 4 or 5 years old at the time.
“I got the call that he was not biologically related to Lisa, and ... that confirmed a lot of what my suspicions were,” she said. “This guy's a ghost. He doesn't exist prior to his arrest in Cypress.”Lisa’s adoption to the Deckers’ daughter had fallen through in the ‘80s because the adoption papers were never signed. Rasmussen fled before signing them and he claimed her biological mother was deceased. Lisa was placed in child protective services in San Bernardino.
“I had taken a look at using ancestry sites for Lisa's identity. At the time, the database was very small,” Headley said. “Later on, at the end of 2014, Lisa brought it up to me. I said, ‘Let me look at it again.’ The databases had grown tremendously.”San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Headley is still on the Rasmussen case today.Headley said he had Lisa sign up for Ancestry.com first and received two hits on fourth and fifth cousins, which were very distant relatives.
Rae-Venter said she also uploaded Lisa’s DNA profile to two other genealogy databases, FamilyTreeDNA and GEDMatch.com, and asked the cousins Lisa had already matched with to do the same. From there, Rae-Venter said she sculpted various family trees to try to find possible parent or grandparent matches for Lisa.
“I was contacted one day by my nephew, and he was working with the sheriff's department out in California,” Armand Beaudin said. “They requested for me to do a DNA [test] … and they discovered that I was the actual grandfather.” “I called Lisa up to let her know that … we knew who she was. She got very quiet,” Headley said. “I asked her, ‘Do you want to know your name?’ Then she just very quietly said, ‘Yes.’”The last time Armand Beaudin said he saw his daughter and granddaughter was around Thanksgiving 1981, when Denise was with her then-boyfriend -- a man named “Bob Evans.”
Authorities in New Hampshire went to Beaudin to show him Kimball’s mugshot. He identified him as Bob Evans.Terry Rasmussen poses as "Bob Evans" in an arrest photo from 1985.“So our suspect started in 1984 ... as Curtis Kimball,” Headley said. “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.”At this point, investigators had connected three mysteries back to the same person.
A second, similar rusted blue barrel was discovered about 100 yards away in 2000. Police said it contained the remains of two female children, one believed to be 2 to 4 years old and the other between 1 to 3 years old. “They know Bob Evans is Gordon Jenson/Larry Vanner. They have his DNA from California,” said Billy Jensen, an investigative journalist and the author of the book “Chase Darkness With Me.” “So they test the DNA from the bodies in the barrels in New Hampshire against the DNA that he left in California, and they realize that he's actually related to one of the little girls in the barrel.”
At that point, authorities still didn’t know who the barrel victims were, and they wanted to know if “Bob Evans” was yet another false name or a real name for the same killer. “What we learn about this guy is that he had what seems to be a pretty conventional life up to a point. He was born out in Colorado, he got married, had four kids,” said Jason Moon, a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter and host of the popular “Bear Brook” podcast, who has been following the case developments for years.
As she listened to the officers describing what her father had been accused of over the years, Kloepfer said she realized a horrible truth about him.Kloepfer said her father served in the U.S. Navy during the ‘60s and her parents got married in Hawaii in 1968. The family also moved around when she and her three siblings were young, she said.
“It was around mid-October [2017] that I received information that we had a credible tip that may be able to identify at least three of the victims of the barrels,” said Det. Sgt. Matthew Koehler of the New Hampshire State Major Crime Unit. “One of the interesting dynamics of this case as we went along was ... private citizens taking an intense interest in this one case.”
Rebekah Heath, a research librarian who said she’d become “obsessed” with the case, helped identify the woman and the two children through her own sleuthing. Heath also looked for Marlyse’s death certificate, but couldn’t find one, meaning she could still be alive or unidentified. Meanwhile, during the time Heath was pouring over online posts, Rae-Venter had come across an article about a new forensic technique that extracted autosomal DNA from rootless hair.
After she received the DNA profiles from Green’s results, Rae-Venter put DNA profiles for the four victims into genealogy databases and started building family trees for them, just as she had done before for Lisa and Rasmussen. To this day, the identity of the middle child, who was determined to be Rasmussen’s biological daughter, remains unidentified.
Salamon said the family tried to find Honeychurch and her daughters for years, but were unsuccessful. Sarah L. McWaters was 11 months old when she was last seen with her mother and sister around Thanksgiving of 1978.In November 2019, Honeychurch’s family members held a funeral for her and her two daughters. Diane Kloepfer, Rasmussen’s daughter who helped authorities piece together his past, was invited to attend. While there, she met Honeychurch’s family for the first time.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
The True Crime Podcasts We've Been Addicted to This YearFrom serial killers to missing person cases, these are the best true crime podcasts of 2020 — ideal for when you want to feel a little spooked out.
Baca lebih lajut »
Serial killer Terry Rasmussen's victims, known and unknownTerry 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.
Baca lebih lajut »
'The Bachelor' series premiere rewatch: Alex is definitely not a serial killerIn times of crisis, rose lovers, sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back. It’s helpful to remember that life was once…
Baca lebih lajut »
Fla. Inmate Who Killed 2 Is Now Charged in 1995 Rape Case After Alleged DNA MatchOctavio Berrera has been in prison since 2003, when he pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter
Baca lebih lajut »
First cases of coronavirus in the federal prison system identifiedThe novel coronavirus has sent countries worldwide under lockdown, with border closures, school cancelations, and travel restrictions. Follow here for live updates
Baca lebih lajut »