Naman Shrestha
ABC’s ’20/20: The Chameleon’ delves deep into the crimes committed by Terry Peder Rasmussen, who used multiple aliases across the country, over the course of three decades. Although he was convicted of one murder in California, it is reportedly suspected that he was also involved in the Bear Brook murders of an adult female and three young girls. Besides that, he is also believed to be linked to a few more disappearances and possible murders. The documentary features exclusive interviews with detectives and experts, linked to the investigation surrounding Terry, who died and left behind a series of unanswered questions.
Terry Peder Rasmussen Was Linked to Multiple 1980s Murders
On December 23, 1943, Peder Rasmussen and Anita Berwick gave birth to Terry Peder Rasmussen in Denver, Colorado. He was raised in Arizona, where he attended North High School in Phoenix. However, he dropped out of high school during his sophomore year and joined the US Navy in 1961. For the following six years, he trained as an electrician in the Navy until his discharge in 1967. The following year, he got married in Hawaii and fathered four children. Terry allegedly exhibited physically abusive behavior towards his children. In 1975, after he was charged with aggravated assault, his wife left him and took their children with her. Three years later, their divorce was finalized.
It is reported that Terry lived in various states across the nation, such as California, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and more, before he settled in New Hampshire for a while in the late 1970s. Making the most of his Navy experience, he worked for oil and gas companies as an electrician. Posing as Bob Evans and working at the Waumbec Mill, Terry was reportedly romantically involved with Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, a mother of two daughters from previous relationships — Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters. Marlyse reportedly disappeared after she got into an argument with her family at her mother’s house in La Puente, California, in 1978, after she introduced Terry to them.
According to reports, he was arrested multiple times for theft, diverting electric current, and writing a bad check. Several years later, in November 1985, the remains of Marlyse and her daughter, Marie, were found inside a garbage bag in a metal barrel at Bear Brook State Park. Meanwhile, the remains of Sarah and another girl child were found in another barrel in May 2000, about 100 yards away from the location of the first one. It was later determined that the other remains belonged to Terry’s daughter, Rea Rasmussen. It is suspected that Terry was responsible for all four murders.
Terry Rasmussen Used Numerous Aliases Between the 1970s and 2000s
By 1981, Terry was dating a woman named Denise Beaudin, mother to Dawn Beaudin, while pretending to be Robert T. “Bob” Evans. Denise was last seen around Thanksgiving of that year, while Terry lived with Dawn at an RV park. He met a couple, Katherine and Richard Decker, and told them that she was her daughter, Lisa. In 1986, the girl was taken into protective custody after Terry abandoned her. The authorities believe that Terry had something to do with Denise’s disappearance, too, as she is yet to be found. A couple of years later, he was pulled over for driving a stolen vehicle. When the police realized that Bob Evans was his alias, they charged him with child abandonment. Terry eventually served a year and a half in prison, but was released on parole in 1990.
Upon his parole, he escaped and could not be located for more than a decade. In 2000, he assumed the identity of Larry Vanner and dated Eunsoon Jun in Richmond, California. After she introduced him to her family, the couple left Richmond, and he prevented her from staying in touch with her friends and family. By 2001, they had tied the knot in an unofficial backyard ceremony. When one of her friends, Renee Rose, insisted on speaking to her, he allegedly made excuses like “Well, she’s busy taking care of her mother,” “She was going to get some therapeutic help,” or claimed that she didn’t like her anymore. When Renee’s threats of getting the police involved also didn’t work, she went to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office and explained the situation to the authorities in May 2002.
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Terry Rasmussen Passed Away While Serving Time For Eunsoon Jun’s Murder
Terry Rasmussen was brought in for an interview, during which he kept straying away from the subject of Eunsoon. When he was talking about it, he kept changing his story, which raised the detectives’ suspicions. Thus, they executed a search warrant at his California house and discovered a pile of cat litter in a crawl space inside the garage. Underneath that, they found the remains of Eunsoon, who had died of blunt force trauma to the head. In November, he was arrested for her murder. By then, the police had realized that he had been using a series of aliases over the years, including Godron Jenson, Curtis Kimball, Bob Evans, and Larry Vanner. Thus, he was dubbed “The Chameleon Killer.”
In 2003, Terry pleaded guilty to the charges against him in connection with the murder of Eunsoon Jun, taking the prosecution and his defense counsel by surprise. Consequently, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the same. Meanwhile, the detectives linked him to other murders and crimes, but couldn’t gather enough evidence against him. Finally, on December 28, 2010, 67-year-old Terry died while serving time at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, Nevada. According to reports, he died of a combination of pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. His true identity, Terry Rasmussen, was reportedly revealed to the public in 2017.
