Pepper Reed

• Missing Since 12/12/1975
• Missing From Anaheim, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 09/06/1952 (73)
• Age 23 years old
• Height and Weight 5'4, 125 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Reed was last seen in Houston, Texas on December 12, 1975. At the time of her disappearance she was pregnant with a daughter by Terrance Peder Rasmussen. After Christmas, Rasmussen and Reed moved to Anaheim, California. It is known that she did give birth in 1976 and their child was named Rea Rasmussen, but afterwards Reed disappeared from the public record and has never been heard from again.

Authorities believe Rasmussen was a serial killer. He was born in Colorado in 1943. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, dropped out of high school after his sophomore year, and enlisted in the Navy in 1961. During his time in service he worked as an electrician on naval bases across the western U.S., as well as in Okinawa, Japan.

After his discharge in 1967, Rasmussen moved to Hawaii, married and had four children. His wife took the children and left him in 1973, and he dropped out of their lives; they last saw him in Payson, Arizona in 1975 or 1976 when he unexpectedly arrived at their home. Rasmussen's family never heard from him again after this visit.

Investigators know he was working in Houston, Texas in June 1978, and that same year he called a friend in Arizona and asked to borrow some money. He said he was working on a Texas oil rig at the time.

He surfaced in New Hampshire in 1978 or 1979, using the alias Bob Evans and working as an electrician at the Waumbec Mills in Manchester. He was a skilled electrician and mechanic, but became violent under the influence of alcohol. In 1980, he was arrested in New Hampshire and listed his spouse as Elizabeth Evans.

During his time in New Hampshire, Rasmussen lived just a few doors down from Denise Daneault, who disappeared in June 1980. Investigators don't know whether he was involved in her case, but are investigating a possible connection.

Authorities believe Rasmussen was responsible for the disappearance of his live-in girlfriend, Denise Beaudin. She and her six-month-old daughter, Dawn, who both went missing from New Hampshire in 1981.

Later in the 1980s he is known to have been in California with a five-year-old girl he called Lisa. He said her mother was dead, but gave different accounts as to how she had died. In the summer of 1985, Rasmussen left Lisa in the care of a married couple he knew and dropped out of sight. She was placed in foster care and adopted a short time later.

In 1986, felony arrest warrants were issued for Rasmussen under the alias name Gordon Curtis Jenson. He was living in a trailer park in Scotts Valley, California at the time. In 1988, Rasmussen was arrested in San Luis Obispo, California, under the name Gerald E. Mockerman; police caught him driving a car that had been stolen from Preston, Idaho. Fingerprints identified him as Gordon Jenson and he was charged with child abandonment and child molestation; the victim in both instances was Lisa.

Rasmussen pleaded guilty to abandonment and was sentenced to three years in prison; the molestation charge was dropped because Lisa's adoptive parents didn't want her to have to testify against him in court. He was paroled in 1990 after serving one year, and immediately disappeared again. Investigators have little knowledge of his actions over the next twelve years.

In 2001, Rasmussen married Eunsoon Jun, a Korean immigrant, in Richmond, California, under the name Lawrence William "Larry" Vanner. The marriage was not legally binding. A photograph of Jun is posted with this case summary. Within a year he had killed her, partially dismembered her body and buried it under the basement of her home. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. He died there in 2010.

Beginning in 2003, authorities began trying to identify Lisa; they had determined Rasmussen was not her father. In 2014, they entered her DNA into an online database to connect her with her biological relatives. In 2016, the database linked her to a cousin of Denise Beaudin's, and Lisa was able to confirm that she was Denise's daughter and her real name was Dawn. She has no memories of her mother.

It was only after Lisa's identity was confirmed that authorities made the connection between Rasmussen and an unidentified woman and three young girls whose bodies were found in a wooded area near Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. A hunter found the bodies of the adult woman and one of the children in a 55-gallon metal barrel in 1985. In 2000, authorities found a second barrel nearby with the other two children inside it.

All the bodies were wrapped in plastic and electrical wiring. They all died at the same time, probably between 1977 and 1981. DNA proved two of the girls, the oldest and the youngest, were maternally related to the woman, and isotope tests showed they had all probably had been living in New Hampshire or a nearby state for several years prior to their murders. DNA showed the other girl was Rasmussen's biological daughter, but was unrelated to the woman and the other two girls.

The bodies were all unidentified until 2019, when investigators announced they'd discovered the identity of the woman and her two daughters. The woman was Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, age 24. Her daughters were Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters.

They disappeared from Los Angeles County, California in November 1978, at age 24, 7, and 11 months respectively. At the time, Honeychurch was dating Rasmussen. Investigators believe she was the "Elizabeth Evans" who lived with him in New Hampshire at the time of his arrest in 1980; Elizabeth was Honeychurch's middle name. In September 2025, the remains of the third child, Rasmussen's daughter, were identified. She was Reed's daughter, Rea. It was only then that Reed was reported missing.

Photos of Rasmussen, Jun, and Marlyse Honeychurch and her children, as well as a sketch of Rea, are posted with this case summary. Investigators believe Reed may have also been murdered by Rasmussen as well, but her remains have never been located.