Decades-old mystery solved: girl identified in New Hampshire serial killer case

This 1973 booking photo, originally made by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix and released Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, by the New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General, shows Terry Peder Rasmussen. (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office/New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General via AP, file)

Warning: The following story contains graphic details.

CONCORD, N.H. — The recent identification of a little girl found dead in a New Hampshire state park nearly 25 years ago both closed a key chapter in an investigation spanning four decades and opened a new search for another likely victim of her serial killer father, authorities said Monday.

The mystery, one of the first major cases to highlight genetic genealogy in solving crimes, began in 1985 when a hunter discovered the bodies of a woman and 9-year-old girl in a barrel at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown. In 2000, an investigator found another barrel nearby containing the body of two more girls estimated to be ages 2 and 3.

Authorities determined that all four had been killed in the late 1970s or early 1980s and placed in the park. By 2019, they had identified all but the “middle child” and concluded based on DNA analysis that the killer was her father, Terry Rasmussen, who died in prison in 2010 after being convicted of killing another woman in California. But for years, they didn’t know the name of the girl.

That changed after the New Hampshire State Police’s cold case unit partnered with the DNA Doe Project, which used extensive DNA analysis and genealogical research to identify her as Rea Rasmussen.

“Today, we’re no longer frustrated,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said at a news conference. “We can find ourselves, for once -- just today -- fulfilled, because we have that name, and it feels like a promise kept. It renews everybody up here to go on and continue to seek the truth.”

Building on the work of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the DNA Doe Project compiled a family tree with roughly 25,000 names. Investigators traced the descendants of a couple born in the 1780s to a woman who died in 2005, leaving a daughter named Pepper Reed. They also found a 1976 birth certificate for Rea Rasmussen listing her parents as Pepper Reed and Terry Rasmussen.

Reed has not been seen since the late 1970s in California, authorities said. Authorities on Monday urged the public to come forward with any information about Reed or Denise Beaudin, another likely victim.

“Our work is not done,” New Hampshire State Police Det. Sgt. Christopher Elphick said. “If you have any information, no matter how small it may seem, we urge you to come forward. After more than four decades, your piece of the puzzle could be the one that finally brings justice.”

Rasmussen had been living with Beaudin and her infant daughter in New Hampshire when they disappeared in 1981. By 1985, he was living with the girl in California, portraying himself as a grieving widow and father, a neighbor recalled. The girl was later adopted after being abandoned.

Elphick said Rasmussen appears to have targeted vulnerable women he could alienate from their families so they wouldn’t be reported missing. He used multiple aliases including Bob Evans, Curtis Kimball and Gordon Jenson and lived in multiple states, including California, New Hampshire, Texas, Arizona, Oregon and Virginia.

Rasmussen was sent to prison for the 2001 killing of his girlfriend, whose partially dismembered body was found in their California basement. But there are large gaps of time during which he is unaccounted for, investigators said.

“It’s highly unlikely that he stopped doing what he was doing,” Elphick said. “It’s certainly possible we’re going to make some more discoveries, not just about the whereabouts of Pepper Reed and Denise Beaudin, but additional victims as well.”

On Monday, a victim witness specialist read a statement from Pepper Reed’s family thanking those involved in the investigation.

“First and foremost, we want to express that Pepper is deeply loved and missed every single day,” the family said. “Though we did not have an opportunity to meet Rea, she is cherished just as much in our hearts. Our family kindly asks for privacy as we grieve.”

Holly Ramer, The Associated Press