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The Chameleon Killer · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. In nineteen seventy eight, Mary
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Lee's Honeychurch and her two young daughters vanished into thin air. The last person
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to see Mary Lese was her boyfriend Terry Rasmussen, who spent time with her
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and her family on Thanksgiving. During the holiday, Mary's got into a disagreement
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with some of her relatives. She and Terry decided to leave early, bringing
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her two daughters with them. There was no sign of Merrile's or her children
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until nineteen eighty five, when two men out hunting bear Brook State Park noticed
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an overturned oil barrel that had been left in the forest, with the skeletal
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remains of a human foot visible in the opening. The men called the police,
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who searched the barrel, finding two complete human skeletons inside. One belonged
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to an adult woman, but the other belonged to a young girl. The
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cause of death were both victims was blunt force trauma, and for years neither
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of them were positively identified. The search of the area around the oil barrel
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had been patchy at best, and two more skeletons were eventually found inside a
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second oil barrel. Only one hundred yards away from the first. After Merilees's
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disappearance, Terry started dating again quickly. His His new girlfriend was another young
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mother, Denise Boden. However, Denise didn't know that her boyfriend's real name
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was Terry. He introduced himself to her using the pseudonym Bob Evans. In
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nineteen eighty one, Denise disappeared, and to this day, her remains have
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not been found. The investigation into her disappearance was delayed because her family believed
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she'd left town because of money troubles, so they never reported her missing.
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Terry kidnapped Denise's baby, calling the child Lisa, and cared for her for
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several years. He claimed to be Lisa's biological father and repeatedly molested her throughout
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her early childhood. Immediately after kidnapping Lisa, he took on a new pseudonym,
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one that wasn't connected with Denise Boden, calling himself Curtis Kimball. He
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was arrested for drunk driving and child endangerment in nineteen eighty five, but never
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showed up for his court date. Instead, he changed his name once again,
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becoming Gordon Jensen, and he got rid of Lisa by leaving her alone
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at a California RV park. Two years later, he was arrested for stealing
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a car. By now his name was Jerry Mockerman, but his past still
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managed to catch up with him and he was eventually imprisoned for child abandonment.
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After his release, he vanished for almost a decade. In late nineteen ninety
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nine, Terry reappeared. Now he was calling himself Larry Vanner, and once
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again he had a new girlfriend. Two years after he and Yun Soon June
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started dating, they got married, and the following year, Yun Soon also
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vanished. Her dismembered remains were found shortly afterwards, covered with cat litter to
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hide the smell of decomposition. Just like the bodies and the barrels, the
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cause of death was blunt forced trauma to the head. Terry was arrested in
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two thousand and two and received a minimum sentence of fifteen years for Eun Sun's
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murder. Initially, the police thought they were just dealing with a guy who
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had murdered and dismembered his wife. During the investigation, Terry's past lives began
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to resurface, and the officers discovered that Larry Vanner had also been Curtis Kimball
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and Gordon Jensen. Fingerprints connected him to Curtis Kimball's arrest for child endangerment and
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revealed that he had once been the guardian of a young child. Later on,
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a detective revealed that she believed Terry had only decided to plead guilty for
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Eun Sun's murder after he found out that there were plans to order a paternity
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test for Lisa, the girl Terry claimed was his biological daughter. After Lisa's
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paternity tests came back negative, the mystery of Lisa's biological parents continued, but
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Terry did not live to see the crimes become public knowledge. In twenty ten,
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at the age of sixty seven, he died from lung disease in jail.
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SU's case was passed on to Detective Peter Hedley of the San Bernardino Police
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Department. In twenty thirteen, genetic testing had advanced and genealogy databases could now
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be used to trace family trees. With the help of a genetic genealogist,
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Lisa discovered that her mother was missing, woman Denise Boden. When Denise's father
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was shown one of Terry's mugshots from the time that he had been arrested under
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the name Curtis Kimball, he identified him as Bob Evans, his daughter's boyfriend
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at the time of her disappearance. In August twenty seventeen, investigators were finally
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able to reveal the real name of the killer to the public. They had
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confirmed Terry's real identity by matching his DNA to a sample of one of his
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living biological children. Two years later, testing of the four skeletons in the
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oil barrels was completed and revealed their connection to Terry. The adult skeleton in
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the first barrel was identified as marylyn Les Honeychurch, Terry's missing girlfriend from nineteen
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seventy eight. The juvenile skeleton was her oldest daughter, six year old Mary
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Elizabeth. Her baby daughter, one year old Sarah Lynn, had been disposed
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of in the second barrel, along with another unidentified female toddler. Although the
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toddler wasn't related to Mary Leise or her daughter's she was related to Marilese's boyfriend
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and the last person who had seen the family alive. In the barrel next
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to Sarah Lynne was the biological daughter of Terry Rasmussen. It appeared that Terry
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had killed one of his own children and disposed of the body along with his
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other victims. While the identity of the third child in the barrels has never
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been discovered, detectives believed that Terry also killed the child's biological mother and disposed
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of her remains in another location. In the years that Lisa was under Terry's
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care, he had no confirmed victims, but shortly after Lisa was abandoned in
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nineteen eighty six, she told detectives that she had several siblings. When asked
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where her siblings were now, she told them quote they died eating grass mushrooms
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when they were out camping. At the time, the detectives didn't realize the
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sinister implications of Lisa's answer. Now, with the knowledge that Lisa's guardian was
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a serial killer who murdered her mother, police believe that Terry had murdered several
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other people throughout the nineteen eighties. Because of his numerous aliases, Terry became
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known as the Chameleon Killer. Doctor Jack Levin, a criminologist to analyze Terry's
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crimes, acknowledged that Terry had been very different from most other serial killers he
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had studied. Quote. What distinguishes Terry Rasmussen from most serial killers, doctor
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Levin said, is that he targeted people with whom he had a relationship.
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Most serial killers would never do that, It's the last thing they would do.
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Instead, they focus on complete strangers. Terry had repeatedly done the one
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thing that most serial killers tried to avoid, choosing victims where he could be
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easily connected to them. One of the most alarming things about Terry's case was
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the amount of time that he was unaccounted for and the number of potential identities
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he may have gone by during those periods of time. Throughout his adult life,
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he spent time living in at least nine different states before he settled in
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New Hampshire and killed Merrily's Honeychurch. Although he only ever had six confirmed victims,
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he was suspected of killing several more. In nineteen eighty, Terry had
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lived only a few miles away from Loreen Ron, a fourteen year old girl
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that went missing in April of that year. Her body was never found.
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Only a few months after Loreen's disappearance, twenty five year old Denise Denaut was
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reported missing after leaving a bar in the area, and Denise didn't just live
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close to Terry, she lived on the same street as Terry. San Joaquin
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County law enforcement believed that Terry might have been the murderer of Amanda Deza,
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whose body was found in a California canal in nineteen ninety five. Her remains
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had been shut inside an old refrigerator, and she had died the same way
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as all of Terry's victims, severe blunt forced trauma to the head. After
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more than two decades, as Jane Doe, who was called the Lady in
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the Fridge, Amanda's real identity was confirmed in twenty twenty three, but the
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identity of her killer has never been discovered. There were multiple factors that allowed
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Terry to continue his crime spree and make his aliases convincing to other people.
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He committed his crimes in different states, traveling the country, and changing his
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identity every time he had a brush with the law or killed another victim.
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His commitment to other identities was so polished that it took the authorities decades to
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connect several of his aliases together and reveal his real name. Investigation into the
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rest of Terry's victims, including the unidentified child in the oil barrel, is
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still underway. That's ten minute Murder for today brief and bingeable true crime.
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I'm Joe, the host, and I really appreciate you listening. If you're
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mention something I have not mentioned in a really long time. Where do I
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get these stories? Where do I find the different topics that I talk about
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here on ten minute Murder. Answer. If you're an og listener, you
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know it's from you. I use submissions from you that listen. You can
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do that by emailing me Joe at ten minute Murder dot com. And ninety
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nine point nine percent of the time, if you hear me talking about a
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me. Every once in a while, I will find one that I think
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is cool. So I'll drop it into the mix of different stories to talk
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depends on how much information is available, how difficult of a case. If
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All Right, that's it. Thank you for listening to another Ten Minute
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