"CONCORD, N.H. - The recent identification of a little girl found dead in a New Hampshire state park nearly 25 years ago both closed a key chapter in an investigation spanning four decades and opened a new search for another likely victim of her serial killer father, authorities said Monday. The mystery, one of the first major cases to highlight genetic genealogy in solving crimes, began in 1985 when a hunter discovered the bodies of a woman and 9-year-old girl in a barrel at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown. In 2000, an investigator found another barrel nearby containing the body of two more girls estimated to be ages 2 and 3."
"By 2019, they had identified all but the "middle child" and concluded based on DNA analysis that the killer was her father, Terry Rasmussen, who died in prison in 2010 after being convicted of killing another woman in California. But for years, they didn't know the name of the girl. That changed after the New Hampshire State Police's cold case unit partnered with the DNA Doe Project, which used extensive DNA analysis and genealogical research to identify her as Rea Rasmussen."
""Today, we're no longer frustrated," Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said at a news conference. "We can find ourselves, for once - just today - fulfilled, because we have that name, and it feels like a promise kept. It renews everybody up here to go on and continue to seek the truth.""
Four victims were found in barrels at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, discovered in 1985 and 2000, killed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Investigators identified three of the children and a woman by 2019 and determined DNA linked the remaining unidentified "middle child" to her father, serial killer Terry Rasmussen, who died in prison in 2010. The New Hampshire State Police cold case unit partnered with the DNA Doe Project, which used extensive DNA analysis and genealogical research to identify the girl as Rea Rasmussen. The identification closes a key chapter and prompts searches for other possible victims.
Read at The Mercury News
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