These Are The Other Murders The Chameleon Killer Was Suspected Of
Terry Peder Rasmussen, "The Chameleon Killer," was a serial killer straight out of the wildest fiction. The murderer earned his name through his MO. He didn't undergo plastic surgery to physically change his appearance, but he did have an uncanny ability to assume new identities whenever it suited him. Rasmussen is suspected of using his false personas to infiltrate the lives of single women with children and gain their trust before murdering them and moving on to somewhere new.
Luckily, The Chameleon Killer isn't someone we have to worry about claiming new victims anytime soon. Rasmussen was put behind bars for the murder of his common-law wife, Eunsoon Jun, in 2002, and was sentenced to serve 15 years to life in prison. Rasmussen died there from a series of lung issues in 2010. With Rasmussen finally out of the picture, it would be safe to assume that The Chameleon Killer is now just a part of the dark history of serial killers past, but you'd be wrong. Since his death, evidence has surfaced that ties Rasmussen to a number of other murders and disappearances with which he was never charged while he was still alive. Here are the other murder cases in which Rasmussen is a suspect.
The Allenstown Four barrels
In 1985, a barrel was discovered in Bear Brooks State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. In 2000, a second barrel was found, nearly identical to the first. Pure tragedy was hidden beneath the cold steel lids. The bodies of four people, one woman and three children, were stuffed inside the barrels. According to AP News, their identities wouldn't be discovered for decades, but the four mostly skeletal sets of remains were believed to be Rasmussen's victims. Since the identities of the bodies weren't discovered until just a few years ago, long after The Chameleon Killer's death in 2010, there was no way to charge the killer for the murders.
Three of the victims have been identified as Marlyse Honeychurch and her two children. Rasmussen is known to have dated Honeychurch in the late 1970s, before the four of them disappeared, according to ABC. The fourth victim within the Allenstown barrels is even more disturbing than the others: Investigators discovered in 2019 that the final set of bones belonged to Rasmussen's own daughter. The girl was only between two and four years old at the time of her death, which is believed to have occurred around the same time as that of Honeychurch and her children. DNA evidence has proved that this child had no relation to Honeychurch, and the mother is unknown. There's a good chance she's an unfound victim of Rasmussen's.
The disappearance of Denise Beaudin
Falling for The Chameleon Killer's charms was the beginning of the end for his victims. As NBC points out, he was convicted of killing Eunsoon Jun, common-law wife to Rasmussen's "Larry Vanner" alias, in 2002, and evidence shows that he killed Marlyse Honeychurch, who he supposedly married under his real name. Between these two victims was the disappearance of Denise Beaudin.
It's unclear if Beaudin succumbed to Rasmussen's serial killer tendencies or if her disappearance was unrelated, but, according to AP News, authorities fear she's among The Chameleon's unknown body count. As far as Beaudin's family knows, as told by the New Hampshire Union Leader, the two started dating in 1981 when Rasmussen was living under the name "Bob Evans." She'd brought him home that year for the Thanksgiving holidays along with her infant daughter (not Rasmussen's child). This was the last time Beaudin's parents would ever see their daughter.
Rasmussen resurfaced in California in 1986, living with Beaudin's child in a trailer park under assumed identities. He was "Gordon Jensen," and Beaudin's child was his "daughter" Lisa. The young girl lost the memory of who she was through this confusing situation, but she had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to her past than she could recall. She enlisted a genetic genealogist to help her uncover the truth, and they discovered she was Beaudin's daughter. She now has contact with Beaudin's family, even though Beaudin is still missing.
An infant spotted with The Chameleon in 1985
By the time The Chameleon Killer moved to a trailer park with Beaudin's daughter, Dawn, and changed her name to "Lisa," it was only the two of them living alone. Because of that, authorities are worried there's at least one more of Rasmussen's infant victims somewhere out in the world waiting to be tragically discovered. According to People, Rasmussen was spotted in Orange County, California, in the company of Beaudin's daughter, sans Beaudin, and an unidentified infant in 1985. A year later, Rasmussen and "Lisa" were on their own. Given The Chameleon Killer's record of convicted and suspected murders, authorities are worried about what this means for the missing young child.
As of 2019, after the final victim of the Allenstown murders was identified as Rasmussen's child, the mystery infant was still unidentified. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department has made statements about their fears and frustrations over the situation. "It looks like he groomed [the infant's] mother and started a relationship with her somewhere between leaving New Hampshire and when he showed up in Southern California," Sheriff Deputy Peter Headley told the publication.
Perhaps the trail of bodies left by this identity-changing killer began and ended with the victims already identified, and perhaps the unidentified child from 1985 will be found living a normal life somewhere, unaware of the killer she once accompanied. Historically, optimism hasn't been rewarded in terms of The Chameleon Killer.