About This Episode
In 1985, authorities in New Hampshire made a grim discovery near Bear Brook State Park: a barrel containing two sets of human remains. Fifteen years later, a second barrel surfaced at the same location, yielding two more bodies. The victims—one woman and three children—would remain unidentified for decades, their case growing colder with each passing year.
Then came *Bear Brook*, a podcast that would fundamentally change how the world investigates cold cases.
Hosted by Jason Moon of New Hampshire Public Radio, *Bear Brook* debuted in 2018 and has since accumulated over 37 million downloads. The podcast's first season chronicles the discovery, investigation, and eventual solving of the barrel murders—a breakthrough made possible by genetic genealogy, a forensic technique that was virtually unknown to the general public at the time.
In 2017, genetic genealogy identified the killer as Terry Peder Rasmussen, a man who had used multiple aliases including Bob Evans, Curtis, and Larry. Investigators would eventually connect him to the murder of Eunsoon Jun and the kidnapping of a child known as Lisa—whose real identity was revealed to be Dawn Beaudin, a girl who had disappeared from New Hampshire in 1981 along with her mother Denise. One of the barrel victims was Rasmussen's biological daughter. The podcast's meticulous reconstruction of these connections introduced millions of listeners to a investigative method that would go on to solve numerous other cold cases across North America.
But *Bear Brook* is far more than a true crime success story. The podcast's second season, titled "A True Crime Story," shifts focus to the murder of Sharon Johnson—a case that raises profound questions about the reliability of confessions and the machinery of justice itself.
Sharon Johnson was brutally murdered, leaving her family and friends to cope with unanswered questions for over 35 years. A veteran detective developed a theory implicating Sharon's husband and a teenager. Through interrogations involving a second teenager named Jason Carroll—conducted with his mother present—confessions were obtained from three men, leading to their arrests.
Yet the trial outcomes proved startlingly different. The story presented in court shifted. The lead detective made a significant error. And through it all, Jason Carroll maintained his innocence from behind bars, where he serves a life sentence with nothing but a taped confession as evidence against him.
This is where *Bear Brook* becomes something rarer and more important than entertainment: an examination of how the criminal justice system can fail, even when everyone believes they are pursuing truth. The podcast doesn't claim to provide easy answers. Instead, it documents the interrogations, the confessions, the trials, and the aftermath—inviting listeners to grapple with uncomfortable questions about coercion, memory, and what we demand as proof.
The cultural impact has been substantial. Praised by Stephen King and featured in *The New Yorker*, *Bear Brook* demonstrated that podcasting could be a legitimate investigative medium, not merely a vehicle for entertainment. Its success has inspired other journalists and amateur investigators to revisit cold cases with fresh eyes and new technology.
In 2020, the podcast released a new episode titled "The Middle Child," providing an update on the identification of the final unidentified Bear Brook victim—a revelation that underscored the ongoing power of genetic genealogy and persistent investigative work.
*Bear Brook* ultimately tells us something uncomfortable: that justice delayed is not always justice served, and that the tools we use to solve crimes are only as reliable as the people wielding them. For an international audience fascinated by true crime, it represents both the promise and the peril of modern forensics—and the irreplaceable value of asking hard questions when the stakes are lives.
Sources: - https://podcasts.apple.com/pk/podcast/bear-brook/id1423306695 - https://www.bearbrookpodcast.com - https://podnews.net/press-release/bear-brook-solved - https://bellocollective.com/the-making-of-bear-brook-f3627664c2bf - https://www.bearbrookpodcast.com/season-one
