Shivangi Sinha
In 1986, Dawn Beaudin was living under the name “Lisa” with a man who called himself Bob Evans and claimed to be her father. For years, that identity went unquestioned. Much later, after Evans was convicted in an unrelated murder case, investigators linked his DNA to Beaudin and discovered that he was not her biological parent. Authorities believe he had abducted her as a child. Dawn’s story, and the long-lasting impact of growing up under a false identity, has been explored in ABC’s ’20/20: The Chameleon’ and ’20/20: Badass Detective,’ both of which present her experiences with sensitivity and depth.
Dawn Beaudin Was Abandoned by Terry Rasmussen, Who Claimed to be Her Father
Dawn Beaudin was born in 1981 in Manchester, New Hampshire, to Denise Beaudin. When she was just five months old, Denise was living with a man who introduced himself as Bob Evans. Denise’s father, Armand Beaudin, last saw the three of them around Thanksgiving that year. After that, they vanished, and the family never heard from Denise again. In 1985, a man using the name Curtis Kimball was involved in a car crash in Cypress, California. He had a four- or five-year-old girl with him whom he identified as Lisa. Kimball was charged with driving under the influence and child endangerment, but failed to appear in court, leading to a warrant for his arrest. By 1986, Kimball had adopted yet another alias, Gordon Jensen, and was living with Dawn, whom he introduced as “Lisa” in an RV park in Scotts Valley, California.
Around this time, an older couple, Katherine and Richard Decker, became acquainted with the little girl and quickly noticed that she appeared neglected. Concerned for her well-being, they hoped to have their daughter adopt her and took the child into their care temporarily while exploring the legal process. However, when they returned to move forward, Jensen had vanished. Because he had claimed the girl’s mother was deceased, the adoption could not proceed. As a result, Lisa entered the foster care system and grew up believing Jensen was her father. In 1988, Jensen was arrested on unrelated charges, and fingerprint analysis connected him to the earlier child abandonment case, leading to formal charges.
Years later, in 2003, Jensen, whose identity was traced back to Curtis Kimball, pleaded no contest to the murder of his wife, Eunsoon Jun. The investigators handling the case continued to have lingering suspicions and eventually compared his DNA with Lisa’s from the 1985 warrant. The results confirmed that he was not her biological father. This revelation left Lisa grappling with her identity, uncertain about who her real parents were, what had happened to them, and even what her true name was. In 2014, with support from law enforcement, she submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com. Genetic genealogists began reconstructing her family tree in reverse, later expanding the search to additional databases. Their work ultimately led them to Armand Beaudin, who confirmed that his daughter, Denise, had disappeared in 1981. Through this process, the man long known as Kimball was finally identified as Terry Rasmussen.
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Dawn Beaudin Prefers to Lead a Private Life Today
In 2017, Lisa learned that her true name was Dawn Beaudin and finally discovered the identity of her mother. Gaining clarity about her origins brought long-awaited answers, and since then, she has chosen to live largely out of the public eye. It is believed that she resides in California. A statement attributed to Dawn, which was read aloud by prosecutor Jeffrey Strelzin, expressed that she felt a sense of relief and was able to move forward with her life. The statement also noted that she was the mother of three children. Since that time, Dawn has continued to maintain a low profile.
