Identified! NH - Allenstown, Adult Female, 23-33, & 3 Children, Marlyse Honeychurch, Marie Vaughn, Sarah McWaters, Rea Rasmussen

[ssarahbg]

I posted this on Pepper Reed’s thread but I found some old yearbook photos of her based on finding her HS info. It was her junior year. I was going to see if she was in any other organizations in that yearbook bout they do not list names, only photos. If someone wants to do some sleuthing on this, here is the link: https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearbooks/55280

 

[SHolm3s]

Motive will always be somewhat unclear in a case like this but if you look at recent pages in the thread I think there are some pretty good explanations that can be inferred from the known facts.

Rasmussen had a family in the late 60s and early 70s. He was abusive, so his wife left him and took the kids. He then had a series of relationships with other women. He seemed to favour single women with young children who appeared vulnerable. He moved frequently and he quickly isolated them from their families, he was known to be sexually abusive to children. Not a lot is known about the relationships, but everything that is known is consistent with patterns of domestic violence.

Why did he kill them? Imo everything about Rasmussen suggests that he was a control freak. He could not stand losing his own family, and he created situations where he was in complete control by isolating women with young kids who were then likely financially and emotionally dependent on him (having been removed from any support networks). Like with other 'family annihilators', a loss of control or a feeling of it could potentially have resulted in him killing them and starting over. I wouldn't be surprised if the mother's discovery of child sexual abuse precipitated one or more murders, as this kind of situation would threaten his control. But it may have been even less... just a feeling that the relationship had failed/was not going the way he wanted, or it was inconvenient somehow.

In a way he was a unique serial killer, but in another way, he's just a family annihilator who managed to do it a bunch of times. He reminds me a bit of Robert Spangler (Robert Spangler - Wikipedia) who killed at least two of his wives (probably three) when the relationships weren't going the way he wanted. Except that Rasmussen somehow managed to be much worse.

Thank you. Isn’t it a bit contradictory that despite not being able to accept losing his own family, he killed his own daughter? Rest aside all the circumstantial evidence, this particular point doesn’t add up properly.

 

[PuzzlinEvidence]

Thank you. Isn’t it a bit contradictory that despite not being able to accept losing his own family, he killed his own daughter? Rest aside all the circumstantial evidence, this particular point doesn’t add up properly.

It would be contradictory for a person who loves their family and loses them to subsequently kill their new child/family. But Rasmussen was not remotely a normal person mourning a family that he had lost. His pattern was child abuse and murder, I think they were all just objects of control for him.

 

[SHolm3s]

It would be contradictory for a person who loves their family and loses them to subsequently kill their new child/family. But Rasmussen was not remotely a normal person mourning a family that he had lost. His pattern was child abuse and murder, I think they were all just objects of control for him.

I am actually talking about her. She seems to be the odd one here. Her being in a drum with another juvenile, with whom she had no biological connection, doesn’t make a proper sense. And I haven’t seen any report stating that she was killed in a different time from them. Don't know if there's one. Please let me know if you know about that.

Since she is the biological daughter of R, and considering that he couldn’t stand losing his family, how come her body end up with another family?

 

[LucyOso]

I am actually talking about her. She seems to be the odd one here. Her being in a drum with another juvenile, with whom she had no biological connection, doesn’t make a proper sense. And I haven’t seen any report stating that she was killed in a different time from them. Don't know if there's one. Please let me know if you know about that.

Since she is the biological daughter of R, and considering that he couldn’t stand losing his family, how come her body end up with another family?

They were are killed together. One barrel was not found until later, but he ended the lives of the blended family at the time. They were a blended family, while maybe not blood related, step-fathers, step-mothers, step-children are fairly common in the world and at that time.

Honestly, he most likely found another target to recreate a family with. Why would he end his biological daughter's life? We can't get into his mind, but he clearly did not value them as human beings in whatever he was driven by. As kids get older they ask questions, they test boundaries, they say things, who knows...perhaps he had concerns questions would be raised about where her mother was? Guessing as well, his repeat patterns or "failures' from his previous marriage-because they were his issues-began to manifest again and the anger, shame, what ever it was was violently projected outwards. Like people who claim at their ex's are crazy, it is usually a them problem.

 

[SHolm3s]

They were are killed together. One barrel was not found until later, but he ended the lives of the blended family at the time. They were a blended family, while maybe not blood related, step-fathers, step-mothers, step-children are fairly common in the world and at that time.

Honestly, he most likely found another target to recreate a family with. Why would he end his biological daughter's life? We can't get into his mind, but he clearly did not value them as human beings in whatever he was driven by. As kids get older they ask questions, they test boundaries, they say things, who knows...perhaps he had concerns questions would be raised about where her mother was? Guessing as well, his repeat patterns or "failures' from his previous marriage-because they were his issues-began to manifest again and the anger, shame, what ever it was was violently projected outwards. Like people who claim at their ex's are crazy, it is usually a them problem.

I understand. So let me get that straight. You are saying, he didn’t feel the need to kill his daughter before but felt it at that time? Because, of course, she is from his previous marriage, right?

 

[ssarahbg]

They were are killed together. One barrel was not found until later, but he ended the lives of the blended family at the time. They were a blended family, while maybe not blood related, step-fathers, step-mothers, step-children are fairly common in the world and at that time.

Honestly, he most likely found another target to recreate a family with. Why would he end his biological daughter's life? We can't get into his mind, but he clearly did not value them as human beings in whatever he was driven by. As kids get older they ask questions, they test boundaries, they say things, who knows...perhaps he had concerns questions would be raised about where her mother was? Guessing as well, his repeat patterns or "failures' from his previous marriage-because they were his issues-began to manifest again and the anger, shame, what ever it was was violently projected outwards. Like people who claim at their ex's are crazy, it is usually a them problem.

I always wondered this as well and felt it was out of the pattern and for him to kill his own biological child.

My theory on Rea is that Pepper took off after seeing his violent tendencies sometime shortly after she was born. Just guessing by the isotope traces, they likely ended up in Minnesota or somewhere near there. I think TPR likely tracked down Pepper or maybe she was sucked back into contact with him at some point. I believe that he took Marlyse and children with him to get her on the way out to New Hampshire. I believe without Marlyse’s knowledge, he likely killed her and took Rea with her. He may have set up camp near by for her and then children or stayed with someone then went to find Pepper and Rea. Then likely dispose of her body, like in a concealed container, in a different location on the way to New Hampshire (again unknowingly to Marlyse). I believe that is why we see his first alias appear after that. It’s not like he had much of a criminal record to run from at that point that He was running from . I think he likely convinced Marlyse to believe that Rea’s mother was not a fit mother and they had to hide from her. He probably played the story that it was in the child’s best interest to bring her with them.
This may be why he was able to convince Marlyse to possibly changing her name as well. I do not believe that Pepper’s remains will be found near anywhere that she had lived previously. Again MOO based on study different facts from the case over the years.

Marlyse may have been on to his lies or may have caught him abusing one of the girls which led to him physically lashing out. Or maybe he just lashed out it a drunken rage. I am not totally sure on that one. But during that incident, all 4 ended up as victims and disposed of in the barrels.

Somewhere I remember hearing or reading that his old boss at the mill (or maybe an employee) would hear him sleeping in a locked room there and he would have violent fits in his sleep.

 

[iamshadow21]

Thank you. Isn’t it a bit contradictory that despite not being able to accept losing his own family, he killed his own daughter? Rest aside all the circumstantial evidence, this particular point doesn’t add up properly.

You're presuming he saw them as people he was affectionate for, rather than just objects to be used and discarded.

If there was ever a sociopath, it was Rasmussen. He reminds me a lot of Franklin Delano Floyd, another serial killer who leeched off vulnerable women and abducted their children for sexual purposes. And Floyd, like Rasmussen, deliberately broke his toys when they annoyed him or were taken from him.

MOO

 

[outofthedark]

I always wondered this as well and felt it was out of the pattern and for him to kill his own biological child.

My theory on Rea is that Pepper took off after seeing his violent tendencies sometime shortly after she was born. Just guessing by the isotope traces, they likely ended up in Minnesota or somewhere near there. I think TPR likely tracked down Pepper or maybe she was sucked back into contact with him at some point. I believe that he took Marlyse and children with him to get her on the way out to New Hampshire. I believe without Marlyse’s knowledge, he likely killed her and took Rea with her. He may have set up camp near by for her and then children or stayed with someone then went to find Pepper and Rea. Then likely dispose of her body, like in a concealed container, in a different location on the way to New Hampshire (again unknowingly to Marlyse). I believe that is why we see his first alias appear after that. It’s not like he had much of a criminal record to run from at that point that He was running from . I think he likely convinced Marlyse to believe that Rea’s mother was not a fit mother and they had to hide from her. He probably played the story that it was in the child’s best interest to bring her with them.
This may be why he was able to convince Marlyse to possibly changing her name as well. I do not believe that Pepper’s remains will be found near anywhere that she had lived previously. Again MOO based on study different facts from the case over the years.

Marlyse may have been on to his lies or may have caught him abusing one of the girls which led to him physically lashing out. Or maybe he just lashed out it a drunken rage. I am not totally sure on that one. But during that incident, all 4 ended up as victims and disposed of in the barrels.

Somewhere I remember hearing or reading that his old boss at the mill (or maybe an employee) would hear him sleeping in a locked room there and he would have violent fits in his sleep.

These are my thoughts, too.
I think Rea was a witness to the murders and it's likely why her father killed her. I think Pepper could have been living under an assumed name, hence why she hasn't appeared on any public records after 1976.

 

[forthevictims]

I had a forensic psychologist profile him. He sat down for a couple of days with the whole case file. His summary-Rasmussen started killing at a young age, most likely tortured animals to start. ( A girl that went to his high school that was murdered was most likely his first victim.) He would mix the truth amongst the lies and get gratification from you not being able to pick out the bits of truth. (I found numerous examples of this as more layers were peeled back.) He would pick a vicim and dominate them mentally and physically, to the point of literal torture. He was good at seperating the victims from their families and set them up as a voluntary missing-so no missing person reports. (Remember he burned his own children with cigarettes.) When he got bored with that he would kill them. People were just things for his amusement.
He also "overlapped" with grooming victims. It looks like he had met Denise while he was still with Marlyse. When he was living in the Bay area with his family he had an affair with a woman-convinced her to move to Colorado and set her up in an apartment, then went back to his family in California and kept calling her. She ran out of money and moved and got a job, he kept calling her, but at that point the influence he had over her had weakened. She got a call one day from him telling her she was going to move-she said no, I have a job. When she went home all her personal belongings were gone. He had convinced her landlord he was helping her move and let him into her apartment. She reported the theft of her belongings to the police and he left back to California and never bothered her again. In talking to her she kept saying " How did he talk me into that?!"
"Why did I agree to do that?!"

 

[summergirl1]

His girlfriends like Marlyse, Denise, and Pepper certainly didn't seem to be in contact with their families after a certain point. Some Jane Does were like this anyway, which, (among other reasons sometimes), is why they ended up being Jane Does for decades, never reported missing. But it's certainly a pattern with him and women. Interestingly, with Eunsoon Jun, it was her friend that finally called the police about where she was, something that should have been done in the cases of other women decades before. In that case, he had stayed in the same area as where she was from and where he killed her, and also had hidden her body in his (her former) house. Those things made him easier to catch than in the older cases, as well as policing being different in some ways by the early 2000s, as technology had advanced, etc.

I do wonder, though, if maybe Denise or Pepper's remains were left on some rented? property somewhere and that's why they haven't turned up (unless they have, but they just haven't been identified). That might be too obvious, however, particularly as his cover up of Eunsoon Jun's body wasn't the best. I'm assuming Rea's birth record would have the address they were living at the time, although I doubt that's the last place they lived. Transcript of Episode 4: Eunsoon Jun — Bear Brook

 

[MarziPanda]

I understand. So let me get that straight. You are saying, he didn’t feel the need to kill his daughter before but felt it at that time? Because, of course, she is from his previous marriage, right?

From a previous relationship. But Rasmussen moved through women quickly, so that's part of his pattern. There's no contradiction in him not killing Rea sooner. He killed the whole blended family at the same time. If he'd killed Rea sooner, the others would have noticed. He probably got bored of the whole family and wanted to move on. I don't see too much point in trying to rationalise the mind of a serial killer. Why does any killer kill when they do, and not sooner? Only they can answer that question for sure. Personally I think he was angry at losing his first family, so he wanted to destroy other families... like how (to him) his ex wife destroyed his family. Even if he first had to create a family so he could then destroy it.

 

[SHolm3s]

I always wondered this as well and felt it was out of the pattern and for him to kill his own biological child.

My theory on Rea is that Pepper took off after seeing his violent tendencies sometime shortly after she was born. Just guessing by the isotope traces, they likely ended up in Minnesota or somewhere near there. I think TPR likely tracked down Pepper or maybe she was sucked back into contact with him at some point. I believe that he took Marlyse and children with him to get her on the way out to New Hampshire. I believe without Marlyse’s knowledge, he likely killed her and took Rea with her. He may have set up camp near by for her and then children or stayed with someone then went to find Pepper and Rea. Then likely dispose of her body, like in a concealed container, in a different location on the way to New Hampshire (again unknowingly to Marlyse). I believe that is why we see his first alias appear after that. It’s not like he had much of a criminal record to run from at that point that He was running from . I think he likely convinced Marlyse to believe that Rea’s mother was not a fit mother and they had to hide from her. He probably played the story that it was in the child’s best interest to bring her with them.
This may be why he was able to convince Marlyse to possibly changing her name as well. I do not believe that Pepper’s remains will be found near anywhere that she had lived previously. Again MOO based on study different facts from the case over the years.

Marlyse may have been on to his lies or may have caught him abusing one of the girls which led to him physically lashing out. Or maybe he just lashed out it a drunken rage. I am not totally sure on that one. But during that incident, all 4 ended up as victims and disposed of in the barrels.

Somewhere I remember hearing or reading that his old boss at the mill (or maybe an employee) would hear him sleeping in a locked room there and he would have violent fits in his slee

These are my thoughts, too.
I think Rea was a witness to the murders and it's likely why her father killed her. I think Pepper could have been living under an assumed name, hence why she hasn't appeared on any public records after 1976.

While there are some really good points, murdered because of being witness doesn’t seem plausible enough. She was killed in age 2-4. So her memory is not fully developed by then and also she would not be a reliable witness for that. Someone like R, or the killer, who had a good understanding on how the system worked and who was cunning, would not be concerned about a 2-4 year old child being a witness, I think.

 

[LucyOso]

I understand. So let me get that straight. You are saying, he didn’t feel the need to kill his daughter before but felt it at that time? Because, of course, she is from his previous marriage, right?

So this man quite possibly used babies, kids, as a way to make himself more trustworthy to women. He is not viewing these children and women as humans, a means to an end, something to use, objects.

I am sure he did not plot and scheme or entirely loathe this child from the moment she was born. People snap, they become unhinged, and do horrible things. I am sure he killed others before, so killing is not out of character, and a familiar way to resolve conflict/tension/etc. Cleary, by bashing in their heads this was not methodical, but more a moment of rage.

Honestly, maybe I don't understand your question. Sometimes we can make sense of the illogical, like serial killers.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

A girl that went to his high school that was murdered was most likely his first victim

Can you expand on this?

 

[Angelcat13]

They were are killed together. One barrel was not found until later, but he ended the lives of the blended family at the time. They were a blended family, while maybe not blood related, step-fathers, step-mothers, step-children are fairly common in the world and at that time.

Honestly, he most likely found another target to recreate a family with. Why would he end his biological daughter's life? We can't get into his mind, but he clearly did not value them as human beings in whatever he was driven by. As kids get older they ask questions, they test boundaries, they say things, who knows...perhaps he had concerns questions would be raised about where her mother was? Guessing as well, his repeat patterns or "failures' from his previous marriage-because they were his issues-began to manifest again and the anger, shame, what ever it was was violently projected outwards. Like people who claim at their ex's are crazy, it is usually a them problem.

I also think that being a single dad (or mom) is very difficult and I feel like he viewed women & children (and people, in general) as objects. As “objects”, I don’t think he ever had any feelings or concern for them so when they became “inconvenient” and were no longer of any benefit to him he got rid of them.

 

[LizzieParker]

Thank you. Isn’t it a bit contradictory that despite not being able to accept losing his own family, he killed his own daughter? Rest aside all the circumstantial evidence, this particular point doesn’t add up properly.

I don't think it's necessarily a contradictory point; it wouldn't be the first time someone with a pathological need for control and an inability to see partners and children as actual people rather than things that are owned ultimately murdered their own family if they felt they were losing control or there was a threat of the relationship ending.

Personally, I think it goes deeper than that and that there was a premeditated element here, but it's certainly not contradictory or out of bounds.

 

[forthevictims]

Can you expand on this?

In 1960 a girl that went to High School with him was found strangled to death in her mother's car in a parking lot across the street from the school. She was supposed to pick her mother up from shopping and never showed up. Unfortunately there is no evidence still retained in the case for DNA or other to be able to prove it was him. In reviewing the case file the forensic psychologist had a high degree of certainty that was his first kill. Myself I still look at the difference in high school pics, one year apart and would not be able to see it was the same kid-there is so much difference and personally I think that is when he "graduated" from animals to people. With Lisa she was starting to talk about being molested and he would have killed her but for the Deckers offering their daugter to adopt her. Mr. Decker had passed away, but I was able to tell Mrs. Decker about the case and let her know they had no doubt saved Lisa's life.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

In 1960 a girl that went to High School with him was found strangled to death in her mother's car in a parking lot across the street from the school. She was supposed to pick her mother up from shopping and never showed up. Unfortunately there is no evidence still retained in the case for DNA or other to be able to prove it was him. In reviewing the case file the forensic psychologist had a high degree of certainty that was his first kill. Myself I still look at the difference in high school pics, one year apart and would not be able to see it was the same kid-there is so much difference and personally I think that is when he "graduated" from animals to people. With Lisa she was starting to talk about being molested and he would have killed her but for the Deckers offering their daugter to adopt her. Mr. Decker had passed away, but I was able to tell Mrs. Decker about the case and let her know they had no doubt saved Lisa's life.

Interesting! Do you have any articles on the case you could share, or the girl's name? I'd love to read more about it

 

[forthevictims]

Interesting! Do you have any articles on the case you could share, or the girl's name? I'd love to read more about it

At this time I don't. We are not allowed to take case files when you retire.