The identities of four murder victims remained a mystery for decades. Now authorities have some answers

For decades, the identities of four murder victims, a woman and three girls, whose bodies were discovered in barrels in Allenstown, New Hampshire, remained a mystery.

Authorities on Thursday revealed that they had identified three of the four victims in the chilling cold case known as the Bear Brook murders.

The woman, the oldest child and the youngest child are Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters, respectively.

Jeffery Strelzin, associate attorney general of New Hampshire, told reporters at a news conference that in 1978, Honeychurch visited her family in La Puente, California, with her two daughters. Strelzin said one of the daughters was about 6 years old at the time and the other was about 1 year old. They had different fathers.

After an argument with her mother, Honeychurch left. The family never heard from her or the children again.

At the time she and her children went missing, she had a boyfriend named Terry Rasmussen — a man known in New Hampshire as “Bob Evans,” who authorities believe killed the four victims before moving to California and killing his wife decades later.

Evans died of natural causes in 2010 while he was serving time in California for his wife’s murder.

Grisly discoveries, 15 years apart

During deer season in November 1985, a hunter in Allenstown discovered a steel drum with the remains of a woman and a young girl just inside Bear Brook State Park, known for its bogs, lakes and trails. The woman was thought to be about 23 to 33 years old, while the girl was estimated to be about 9 or 10.

Investigators looked into the case but were unable to crack it.

Then in 2000, a trooper looking into the cold case came across another barrel with two more bodies — a girl believed to be 3 or 4 years old and another believed to be about 2 or 3.

Authorities determined that the woman, the oldest child and the youngest child were related.

DNA testing confirmed that Rasmussen is the biological father of the middle child, who had no biological ties with the other three victims. The identity of her mother is still unknown, and investigators say they are continuing to seek answers about her.