Police are still looking at this case:
http://www.wmur.com/news/19013578/detail.html
There's also a video and a picture of the place they were found. They were indeed found in barrels, first the adult and one child in 1985 and then in 2000 another barrel was found somewhere nearby when the case got assigned to a new trooper who went looking at the crime scene.
"In November 1985, a hunter found a tipped-over, 55-gallon drum near Bear Brook State Park, not far from a burned-down convenience store.
"You could see basically packaging of some type, and as he examined closer, he noticed there was a skull there," [state police Detective John] Sonia said."
It is still unclear what the precise relationship is but two children are related to the adult by DNA. I wish they'd say if it looks like the children have the same father but guess they don't know? What do you reckon are the chances that they have been reported missing separately? That only the children or some of them are on the missing persons lists? Or that only the woman is. If she's a transient she may have gone missing a while before being killed and may not have had the children with her then.
*Snip*
"Sonia said the four could be from Canada or transients. There are no reports of four people missing together from that time.
With a case this cold, investigators said they know forensic science is one way to get answers. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has produced composites of three victims based on their remains, but the descriptions are rather broad with large age ranges and race varying from Caucasian to Native American.
"When you have bodies that are outdoors for a long period of time, they are being exposed to the weather extremes, heat, cold and bacteria,' said Kim Rumrill of the stte police forensics lab. "All these things work against you trying to find a DNA profile."
Investigators are now turning to water. A new technique links isotopes found in drinking water to different regions of the country. Those isotopes are found in human hair, and samples from the adult victim are now being tested.
"If she traveled they can get the travel history because they analyze segments of the hair, each segment separately," Fallon said.
Police said it's the first of three steps -- learn where they're from, discover who they are, and then find the killer.
"There's a lot of, I guess, force involved," Sonia said. "Again, it's pretty brutal. So that shows some kind of level of intimacy to take those, to do that to the bodies and to dispose of them the way they disposed of them."
State police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 603-271-2663 or
nhsp.intel@dos.nh.gov."