Four bodies in two steel drums: Who killed young woman and three girls — and who are they?

THE tipped over 200-litre drum looked innocent enough. Children even played with it. But inside, a brutal secret was lurking.

THE tipped-over 200-litre drum looked innocent enough. Children even played with it. But inside was hidden a brutal secret.

The drum, in Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire, was left alone by the children after the top came off and a trash bag spilt out.

It wasn’t until a few days later, on November 10 1985, when a deer hunter came across it, that the shocking secret of the drum’s contents were discovered.

The grubby plastic had the naked bodies of a young woman and a child who had died violent, painful deaths.

Police didn’t know who they were or how they got there — but it was clear the bodies had been beaten to death.

The woman was aged between 23 and 32 and the child found with her was between five and 11. They had been partially dismembered to fit in the drums.

Another two girls, found in 2000, were aged between two and four, and the other, between one and three.

The decomposed state of their bodies meant even post-mortems couldn’t reveal how they died.

Despite a major investigation, the case went nowhere until a “cold case” investigator was assigned to delve into it again in 2000.

But the already unbelievable case took yet another twisted turn.

Sergeant John Cody, of New Hampshire State Police, took a walk through the pine trees of the crime scene and discovered another almost identical steel drum about 90m away. He lifted the lid and found the skeletal remains of two small girls.

The next shock came when mitochondrial DNA tests revealed the older woman was related to the youngest and oldest of the girls. Their relationship however, is not known.

Was she their mother, aunty, cousin or a sister? The tests couldn’t determine if the third girl was any relative at all.

“That leaves you with so many possibilities,” New Hampshire State Police Sgt. Joe Ebert, told CNN in 2013 as 3D facial reconstructions of the four were released in the hope someone would recognise them.

The youngest victim aged between one and three.

Girl aged between 5 and 11. She was found with the woman in a drum in 1985.

So far, despite extensive publicity — no one has identified the victims.

In interviews to mark the 30-year anniversary of the first bodies being found, Sergeant Ebert admitted he couldn’t understand why they were no closer to finding who victims are, how they were killed and by whom.

“I find it bizarre, maybe, but disturbing, I guess, is a better way to describe my feelings,” New Hampshire State Police Lt Joseph Ebert told The Huffington Post.

“Here are four individuals, who disappeared from whatever family nucleus they were in, and we haven’t come to an understanding of who they are, or identified somebody who is looking for them.”

The fact that it could be a whole family, wiped out, troubled him.

“It’s so difficult for me to wrap my mind around the thought that there is a whole family that disappeared ... and nobody reported it,” he told The Boston Globe.

But a breakthrough could be right around the corner.

Police, the FBI, and the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children met recently about the case in a renewed effort to end the mystery

They have studied new data, in particular, the victims’ hair, teeth and bones which they hope could help narrow down where they lived based on the water they drank.

The results of the tests will be unveiled at a media conference tomorrow.

“I think we are going to be able to give the public a much better picture of the relationship between these four victims and where they originated from,” Carol Schweitzer, a senior forensic specialist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told the Globe.

They have their fingers crossed the advances in technology will finally bring and end to the three-decade-long mystery.

THEORIES

Police suspect both steel drums were probably together when the bodies were dumped inside, and believe the second drum was found some distance away because children had been rolling them around.

Investigators are working on the assumption they were all killed between 1977 and 1985 but their inquiry was complicated from the start because there had been a 15 year gap between when they were killed and when the first bodies were found.

Based on their poor dental care, its thought the four may not have been visible members of society in the sense people would notice if they went missing.

“If they interacted with people on a regular basis and suddenly disappeared you would expect somebody to say something,” said Angela Williamson, a forensic scientist.

And they may not have been in a traditional family setting.

The third girl, aged between two and four has not been genetically linked to the other victims.

The woman found in the first drum in 1985.

“I don’t think they were regularly in school and went home and had dinner with mum and dad every night,” Ms Williamson told CNN.

The inquiry spoke to up to 100 people, including the property owner and residents of a nearby mobile home park. But there were no leads and not one suggestion about who the dead females could be.

Every possibility came under scrutiny, from domestic murders to a professional hitman being responsible.

For now Mr Ebert can only hope that sometime soon there will be names given to the four.

“It’s an awful tragedy to lose a person to a homicide. It is terrible miscarriage of justice not to know who carried out the crime against your loved one.”

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Originally published as Four bodies in two steel drums: Who killed young woman and three girls — and who are they?