DENVER – Authorities in New Hampshire say they believe a Denver-born man was responsible for the murders of a woman and her three children, and the disappearance and likely murder of another woman, who all either disappeared or were found dead over the past 35 years.
New Hampshire’s attorney general issued a news release Friday morning identifying the suspect as Terry Peder Rasmussen, who was born in Denver in 1943.
They say Rasmussen lived in Denver during his youth before he and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. He never lived in Colorado again, according to authorities.
He had a wife and three children after a stint in the U.S. Navy, but they left him in either 1973 or 1974, according to authorities, and never saw him again. He was last seen by his family in 1974 in Phoenix with an unknown woman. The wife and daughters remain alive today.
At some point in the late ‘70s, Rasmussen started going by the name of Robert “Bob” Evans.
In 1985 and 2000, New Hampshire police found the bodies of a woman and three children inside barrels in Allenstown, New Hampshire. A Manchester, New Hampshire woman, Denise Beaudin disappeared in 1981 and has long been presumed dead. She had been dating Evans at the time and had a 6-month-old daughter. Evans wasn’t the father.
In January of this year, authorities put out photos of a man and details about the deaths of the woman and her children. Tips delivered to investigators were flushed out, and detectives were able to identify “Bob Evans” as the suspect.
They were able to find one of “Evans’” children, and got a DNA sample, which led to the identification of Evans, and the new fact that “Evans” was indeed Terry Peder Rasmussen.
Rasmussen, using various aliases, had been arrested multiple times over the years, and was arrested in 2002 for killing his then-girlfriend, Eunsoon Jun, in California.
He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 15 years-to-life in prison. He died in prison in December 2010.
Last October, DNA analysis showed that one of the girls found dead in one of the barrels in 2000 was indeed Rasmussen’s daughter.
Now, New Hampshire authorities are looking for anyone who can help piece together where Rasmussen was between 1974-78 and to identify some of the people whose bodies were found over the years.
They believe he spent time in New Hampshire, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon and Virginia over that timeframe, and have put together a timeline of his life.
Anyone who has information related to Rasmussen or the case is asked to contact New Hampshire State Police’s Cold Case Unit at 603-223-3856 or coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.
