New Hampshire Public Radio today released a new episode of its critically-acclaimed true crime podcast Bear Brook as the cold case that changed how murders are solved comes to a close – and a new mystery emerges.

The episode, titled The Middle Child, details how investigators solved the final mystery surrounding four bodies discovered in barrels near New Hampshire’s Bear Brook State Park.

Named one of  Time magazine’s 100 best podcasts of all time and featured in Apple Podcasts’ Series Essentials collection,Bear Brook has been downloaded more than 37 million times and recognized as one of the most influential true crime podcasts ever produced. Author Stephen King praised both seasons of the series as “the best true crime podcasts… Brilliant. Involving. Hypnotic.”

Host  Jason Moon has followed the story of the Bear Brook murders for the last decade. In 1985, the first barrel was found with two sets of human remains inside. Police found a second barrel with two more bodies in 2000. The victims were a woman and three children. The mystery of who they were and who killed them baffled investigators until 2017, when a new forensic technique known as genetic genealogy identified the culprit: a serial killer named Terry Peder Rasmussen.

Then, in 2019, an amateur investigator heard  Bear Brook and discovered three of the victims’ identities – just as a genetic genealogist was closing in on the identifications as well. But the fourth victim, known as “the middle child,” remained a mystery.

Now, six years later, that  mystery has finally been solved. Four decades after the first barrel was discovered, all four victims’ names have been revealed. But this new discovery has raised new questions. 

Since  Bear Brook first debuted in 2018, NHPR created the  Document team, which is dedicated to making more longform investigative and narrative podcast series. The team’s work also includes The 13th Step, which was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the duPont-Columbia Award.

The new episode of Bear Brook is available now at  NHPR.org and wherever you listen to podcasts.