Every Town - Terry Rasmussen: The Chameleon Killer

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Today we’re going to learn about the wicked ways of Terry Rasmussen. A serial killer who stands in a league of his own. Because unlike most serial killers Terry didn’t pick out strangers. No he killed the ones he was closest with. So lets head over to New Hampshire and a few other spots and learn about Terry a.k.a The Chameleon Killer. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everytown has a dark side. From the years 1985 to 2017, there was a man with no identity who haunted the state of New Hampshire. He tormented the good people of the Granite State by committing a horrible act,

leaving behind a dark mystery, and four bodies stuffed inside two different 55-gallon drums out in the middle of the woods. The person responsible was out there and active, but it was hard to catch because he pretended to be someone he wasn't, over and over again, several different states. And the true extent of what he did on this earth is impossible to know 100%, but what he did get caught for, it's about as bad as it gets. Hey guys, it's Andrew and thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Everytown. But today, we're going to learn about the wicked ways of Terry Rasmussen, a serial killer

who stands in a league of his own. He was unlike most serial killers, well, Terry didn't pick out strangers. No, he killed the ones he was close to. with. So let's head over to New Hampshire and a few other spots, learn about Terry, aka the chameleon killer. And Terry was born in the wonderful city of Denver, Colorado, just before Christmas, December 23rd of 1943. His parents were simple shopkeepers who ran their own shoe store together. While it's not known exactly when the family eventually moved on down to Arizona, when Rasmussen would have been around 10 or 11 years old,

and there he enrolled at Whittier Elementary School in Phoenix. By 1959, Terry had completed just one year over at North High School before dropping out in the 10th grade to serve his country. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and there served six years before being discharged. So a fairly normal life so far. It's interesting because little is known about his true upbringing or adolescent behavior, behavior. There's never been any suspicious reports about his childhood indicating that something was wrong with the boy. He was never in any serious trouble to speak of, which is unique for someone who

grows up to become a serial killer. As a true crime enthusiast, you know that serial killers often have troubled upbringings that affect their psyche. In the case of Terry, nothing points to what exactly shaped him into who he would turn out to be, and that was a very bad individual. After the With the Navy, he returned to Phoenix for a brief time, later moved to Hawaii where he met a woman and got married. He settled down long enough for the two to have two children, so everything on the outside appeared to be going well for him as he seemed to be living a normal American life. After relocating to Redwood, California, the young budding family had another child in 1970, followed by another in 72. And it was around then that Terry's life began to take a slow, dark turn. It was as if he had been hiding something deep within

that he had pushed down in order to create this facade of normalcy for so long. The family and white picket fence and he thought he could keep up the charade forever but the darkness inside him found its way out. And from time to time, Terry would act out against his kids. He was known to berate them, and on one occasion he even put a cigarette butt out on his oldest son's arm.

as though the family ties here are wearing thin. He separated from his wife for a bit because she didn't want him around. And he gave it another go by moving back to Phoenix to be around his family. Maybe they could help take some of the stress off of raising four kids and Terry could calm down, but that never happened. At 31 years old, Rasmussen was arrested for aggravated assault after a fight out of the bar in June of 1975. His wife had decided she had enough and left him. to him after this, taking the kids along with her. The last time he would see any of them again would be around Christmas time that year,

just before the divorce was finalized. And who knows how heartbroken the man was about all this, but soon he saw the good in it, at least for him. Because now, without anyone else around, Terry was finally able to become the person he always wanted to be. Though not even he was really quite sure who that was, and so he said, out on a bit of a journey to find out. He created an entirely different alias. Wherever he went, he would tell people that his name was Bob Evans. And from there, Bob bounced around to many states, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Ohio, and even Hawaii again, along the way picking up jobs as an

electrician or oil man before he finally found his new home. It was a place that called out to him for one reason or another. It was all the way on the East Coast in the Granite State of New Hampshire, and that's when people started going missing. In the fall of 1978 on Thanksgiving Day and the point to California, Marlees Honey Church had flown over from New Hampshire

to visit her mother's house, along with her two daughters, six-year-old Mary Elizabeth Vaughn, and one-year-old Sarah Lynn McWaughters. Marlees had been married twice before and had a child with each one of her husbands, hence the different names. They were there to eat some turkey and give some thanks, but at the end of the night, Marlice and her mother could be heard arguing in a nearby bedroom by some of the guests.

Izzy Marlice had brought her new boyfriend over that day, Bob Evans, and something about him rubbed the mom the wrong way. Marlice's sister, Paula, says she heard Marlice and their mother arguing that night, and that was the last time she would see her sister, and her nieces ever again. And Paula said, She went with Terry, and they left, never called,

never contacted nobody, just disappeared. Three years later in 1981, another Thanksgiving came, and Bob was dating another woman, Denise Bowden, who had a six-month-old daughter. And Denise had a bit of a tough life.

Her family wasn't supportive in the most ideal of ways. But that day at dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, That would be the last time that she would be seen alive as well. Though she was never reported missing, because her family thought she had moved as she had been talking about it for quite some time. As for the little girl,

and Terry would go on to call her his own. Either he had a little bit of sympathy in him and decided that rather than end such an innocent baby's life, he should do the right thing and at least provide for her. Neither that, or he figured it could be easier to get away with things. various petty crimes and what have you, if they look like a dad and a daughter. He named her Lisa, but eventually his whole plan of looking more innocent would backfire. When Terry, who at this moment in time, was using the alias Curtis Kimball, was pulled over in Cyprus, California for driving under the influence.

His dating court was set up, but the chameleon killer wasn't going to just show up and face the music. He skipped town and just created another name and persona for himself. This was his M.O. Just commit whatever crimes he wanted and then switch up his identity, and he could start fresh. Only before he would start this next chapter as somebody else, he made sure to punish Lisa for causing him so much trouble. He abandoned the five-year-old at an RV park. She will never get to know her mom. Police believe Terry killed her, though her body's never been found. Whatever she knew of this father figure that Terry pretended to be,

Well, chances are those memories aren't all that positive. Towards the end of 1985, actually pretty close to Thanksgiving once again on November 10th, a hunter enjoying the crisp northeast air in Allenstown, New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park, stumbled upon a tipped over a 55-gallon drum out in the middle of the woods. There appeared to be some trash around it as well, so he went over to investigate. That's when he discovered something he didn't want to. There were two bodies inside that drum, though, They were in rough shape.

They had been dismembered, wrapped in plastic bags, and were skeletonized at that point, so they weren't recognizable at all. The authorities would hold a press conference, calling out to the public to come forward with any information they had about this. They explained that the remains were from an adult woman, estimated to be between 23 and 33 years old, and a young girl, estimated to be between 5 and 11 years old. Both have been killed by Blunt Forrest Trump, to the head, as their skulls indicated. The New Hampshire State Police investigated many missing

persons cases from the 1970s and 80s right away, but were unable to identify the bodies. For a brief moment, I thought it might be two missing people named Grace Reap and her five-year-old daughter who had gone missing years back, but dental records proved that this wasn't the case. The authorities received hundreds of leads over the years, and composite drawings of the victims were distributed throughout the northeast all the way up to Quebec, Canada. Several people in Allen's town said the unidentified adult woman looked like someone who had left town with a few of her children years before, but this was unfortunately a dead end when the woman was found to be alive in Arizona with her children.

New Hampshire State Police received another tip about a missing mother and daughter from a Maine Indian reservation. The descriptions in time of their disappearance seemed to match perfectly, but the mother and daughter were also found alive and well. In this case went on to be known as the Bear Brook murders. They went on Saul for many years. The bodies of the pair went on to be buried in a nearby cemetery with a tombstone 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. Their slain bodies were found on November 10, 1985, in Bear Brook State Park, may their souls find peace in God's loving care. This case was a dark chapter for those living in New Hampshire. It's a dirty deed to put a woman and child into a drum and leave it out in the woods, so to not find out who did it, the war on the police and the community. As it turns out, if they did a little bit more of a broader search of the area, well, it might have solved this case a whole lot sooner.

15 years later on May 9th of 2000, the now cold case was handed over to a state trooper to take another look at the evidence. He familiarized himself with the case files and then went out to Bearbrook State Park to take a look at the crime scene himself, see if he could piece something together. As he walked around those woods, and there not more than 100 yards from where the first barrel was found, there was yet another 55-gallon drum. Inside this one, two more bodies were discovered, and this time both of them were young female children. The remains of one of the young girls discovered in 2000 was linked by DNA to the remains of the adult woman, discovered in the first barrel back in 1985. But without knowing her identity, there was no way of knowing who her children were.

But now, it was pressure more than ever to solve the case. All four victims were killed around the same time, and it's believed the police were. overlooked the second barrel simply because they weren't looking for it. They didn't expect it would be more than two bodies, but now it was looking like they had a serial killer on their hands. Because this dumping ground was away from any major highway, and people felt like there was a good chance it was a local who did this. But once again, over time, the case slowly went cold. By 2001, Terry Rasmuson was on to another alias of his. He was going by the name Lawrence Vanner, and he was performing odd jobs out in California. Even though no marriage certificate

was ever filed, he and 41-year-old Yunsun June had an unofficial backyard wedding ceremony in Richmond that same year. Yun-soon June was a chemist from California, and in Terry, or Lawrence, she found the love of her life. June was quiet and kind. She loved the idea of advancing science to help people. She worked for City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles. And so when she abruptly vanished in June of 2002, well, people took notice. Lawrence was brought in to be questioned as police had heard some strange story about this man. For starters, when June introduced Lawrence to her family, just like Marle's Honeychurch's mom. They told her they thought her new boyfriend was strange and weird.

He was dirty and looked unkempt. They felt like he was taking advantage of June's kindness. Now with her missing, June's friends and family were very suspicious of Lawrence, and they made sure to let the police know that. So detectives went over to her house to see what they could find, and sure enough, in the corner of the garage, behind some boxes was an unusually large pile of kitty litter on a closer inspection, and they sought, a human foot, the flip-flop, still on it sticking out. And it was June.

Rasmussen was detained in November of 2002 on suspicion of killing her, and ultimately he received 15 years to life in prison. While all this was going on, the police had no idea they were actually dealing with a certified serial killer. That is, until the mystery. surrounding the unidentified remains from Bearbrook started to slowly come to line. Erasmussen's fingerprints were taken and were compared to those of a man named Curtis Mayo Kimball. You might remember that Curtis was the name he was using in 86, when he was caught for drunk driving with little Lisa in the back seat. Because of this crime had also happened in California, it wasn't hard to connect the two. But now, they had to wonder just how many times the

chameleon had changed his name, and what else he had done? Well, it took some time, but in 2019, the mystery of the old cold case of the Bear Brook murders were unravel. And it happened with citizen detectives, taking up the case, passing on whatever they discovered to cold case investigators. Rebecca Heath, a librarian, dug deep into the message boards of genealogy websites, dating back decades. Rhonda Randall, a woman who grew up in the Allentown area, conducted interviews with residents of a nearby trailer park. Eventually, the owner of an abandoned store near the barrels revealed the investigator that he suspected the murderer was a man named Bob Evans.

He said Bob had done some electrical work for him in the late 1970s. In 2019, Heath, re-discovered a 1999 Ancestry.com message board where a woman was looking for Sarah McWaters, a toddler who had been missing since 1978. And they were able to trace the missing person's poster to the disappearance of Marlis, Sarah's mother, and Sarah's older sister, Marie. So they connected the pieces of the puzzle together,

investigators got what they needed to name the unidentified bodies and the barrels of Allentown. The mother and her two daughters were connected, but the other child was still unidentified. Now believing that Terry was the prime suspect, They used his DNA and were able to confirm that the fourth body was Terry Rasmussen's biological daughter. A pattern appeared to be forming. Rasmussen's victims were his girlfriends and their children, not strangers.

And criminologist Jack Levine has stated that Rasmussen is unlike any serial killer he has ever studied, stating, What distinguishes Rasmussen from most serial killers is that he targeted people with whom he had a relationship. Most serial killers would never do that. It's the last thing they would do. Instead, they focus on complete strangers. They could never find any trace of the little girl's mother, and so it's assumed that Terry murdered her too, and she likely has never been found. And with this, the cases were finally brought to light. And Terry, at the age of 67, die while imprisoned at high desert state prison in December of 2010 from lung cancer. And although we never had to face justice, for the Bear Brook crimes, families of his missing and murdered victims were relieved.

The family member of Marlis said in 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. Marlis, Marie, and Sarah were so loved by our families, and they are greatly missed. We take solace and finally having the answers we've longed for. But that's not the end of it, because Terry is believed to be connected to several other cases, such as 14-year-old Lorraine Ron disappeared from Manchester, New Hampshire, in April of 1980. Rasmussen lived only a mile and a half away from her.

Another is of 25-year-old Denise Denault, who went missing from a bar in 1980. And Denault lived on the same street as Rasmussen. In November of 2017, after Terrienne, was identified as the Bear Brook murderer. Police and FBI agents looked into this angle. By 2020, the New Hampshire Senior Assistant stated that there was no obvious connection between Denalt and Rasmussen, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. For what reason, Terry murdered, abducted, and deceived his way through several states

under a number of aliases over three decades, we'll never really know for sure. But the chameleon killer, likely had many other victims, some of which may come the light someday, and others that could remain a mystery forever. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you all enjoyed it. If you liked this, and there's a lot more content we have for you guys to check out. You can always watch this episode over on our YouTube channel called Scary Mysteries or go listen to our podcast, Scary Mysteries.

For even darker content, go check us out at patreon.com slash Scary Mysteries. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.