This week on 20/20 on ID, the team is examining the case of the Chameleon Killer, otherwise known as Terry Peder Rasmussen, who the police believe is responsible for at least six murders on opposite sides of the country.
Rasmussen was known as the Chameleon Killer due to the many different identities that he assumed. In the 1970s, while living in New Hampshire, he called himself Bob Evans, but when in California in the 80s, he was known as Curtis Kimball, Gordon Jenson, and Larry Vanner.
Rasmussen married in 1969 and had four children in Arizona, but he was divorced by the mid-’70s and on the move.
In 1978, he was dating Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch in Redwood, California. After an argument with her family, the pair left town with Honeychurch’s two children, six-year-old Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, and one-year-old Sarah Lynn McWaters.
Honeychurch’s family never saw her alive again. In 1985, a barrel was discovered in Allenstown, New Hampshire, that contained the remains of Honeychurch and her daughter Vaughn. And 15 years later, a second barrel was discovered, only 100 yards away from the first, which contained the remains of McWaters and another unidentified child.
None of the bodies were identified until DNA profiling confirmed who they were in 2019. At this time, Rasmussen was identified as the biological father of the third child, but their identity remains a mystery.
Meanwhile, in 1981, Rasmussen was living in Manchester, NH., he went under the name of Bob Evans and was dating Denise Beaudin.
The police now believe that Rasmussen and Beaudin moved to California with her 1-month-old daughter Lisa. At some point, Rasmussen killed Beaudin (her body has not been found) but decided to raise Lisa as his own child.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelTerry Rasmussen regularly changed name to avoid police
In 1985 he was arrested on a DUI charge in Cypress, Ca. when he was using the name, Curtis Kimball. Instead of answering for the charge, he vanished again and changed his name to Gordon Jenson.
A year later, Jenson was arrested after he abandoned a young child (Lisa) at an RV park in Scotts Valley, Ca. In 1989 he received a 3-year sentence for child abandonment; however, he was paroled in 1990 and promptly vanished again.
Rasmussen resurfaced again in California in 1999, this time, he was called Larry Vanner, and he was dating a chemist called Eunsoon Jun. The pair married in an unofficial ceremony in 2001. However, a year later, Eunsoon disappeared.
Eunsoon’s friends and family refused to accept Rasmussen’s vague excuses for where his wife had gone, so they contacted the police. When Rasmussen’s home was searched, the cops discovered Eunsoon’s dismembered body hidden in a large pile of catnip.
Rasmussen was arrested and charged with her murder. He actually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years to life. He died in prison in 2010.
Since Rasmussen’s imprisonment, the police have begun unraveling his complicated and murderous life. They learned that Evans, Kimball, Jenson, and all the aliases were, in fact, one person. And he is assumed to have murdered the people found in the barrels in Allenstown, NH.
He has been linked to six definite murders and is suspected of being involved in several other disappearances.
More from Investigation Discovery.
Follow the links to read about more serial killers profiled on ID.
Dennis Rader, aka The BTK Killer, liked to taunt the police after he murdered ten people in Kansas. He bragged about his murders and viewed his pursuit by the cops as a game. It took 30 years for law enforcement to bring him to justice.
Edmund Kemper, aka The Co-Ed Killer, murdered and dismembered at least ten people in the 1960s and 1970s. He received his nickname after mostly targeting young student women; however, he also murdered his mother and his grandparents.
20/20 on ID airs at 9/10c on Investigation Discovery.