MANCHESTER, NH – Curtis Kimball died in a California prison in 2010, before anyone knew the worst of him. Convicted of the 2002 murder and dismemberment of his wife, Eunsoon Jun, Kimball is now at the center of what has become a national hunt for his victims, including at least four known in New Hampshire.
Authorities suspect there could be many more.
Investigators, using DNA samples, have determined that Kimball is one-in-the-same as Bob Evans, last known companion of Denise Beaudin. Through the investigation, it is now known that Evans is responsible for the murder of four people – a yet to be identified woman and three children – whose bodies were found stuffed into industrial drums in the Allenstown woods.
He is also linked to the disappearance of Beaudin, last seen in New Hampshire in 1981.
The key that has unlocked all of this information is a daughter, “Lisa,” born Dawn Beaudin, to Denise Beaudin six months before she disappeared. She survived the ordeal, and is alive and well, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.
Although Lisa has only shadowy memories of her childhood, she remembers Evans as her abuser and sole guardian. Strelzin is protecting her full identity and whereabouts, at her request.
Lisa was interested in knowing more about her early years. All she knew is that she was abandoned by Evans who gave her to strangers.
That is where the unraveling begins.
Manchester Connection
Denise Beaudin had never been officially reported as missing – at the time of her disappearance, her family assumed she had just run off with Evans, as they were in financial straits, and decided that she had chosen to cut off ties with the family.
However, the NH case was revived when the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office, working with a genetic genealogist, were led to Beaudin’s family in New Hampshire. They were working on a case of a 5-year-old girl, known as “Lisa Jenson,” who had been abandoned in 1986 by a man thought to be her father, who had given her to strangers. That girl was eventually adopted into a loving family, and is now married with three children.
That girl was Denise Beaudin’s daughter, Dawn Beaudin.
Authorities say Evans is the man who abandoned her in the summer of 1986 while operating under the alias Gordon Jenson. He claimed falsely to be her father, and he and the child were living in a Holiday Host RV Park in Santa Cruz County, where he was working as a handyman.
After he gave the child up, he disappeared, although he was later arrested and charged with child abandonment.
Fingerprints from the trailer where he lived with the little girl came up as a match in the FBI database with a man named Curtis Kimball.
An arrest warrant was issued for Kimball for charges related to the abandonment of the child. A booking photo from 1985 of Kimball/Jenson was shown to Beaudin’s family, and they confirmed that Kimball/Jenson was the man they knew as Evans.
New Hampshire investigators during the Jan. 26 news conference said they are now working diligently to solve the 30-year-old mystery of the “Allenstown four,” as well as the case of Beaudin. Although hopeful they would find evidence, Beaudin’s remains were not recovered last week in an FBI search of the Hayward Street home they last shared, before her sudden disappearance in 1981.
Strelzin called the case “unusual” based primarily on the “twist” of identifying a killer before knowing the names of the victims.
Facts of the case were outlined during an hour-long press conference Thursday in Concord, connecting the dots between the Allenstown murder mystery; the disappearance of Denise Beaudin, of Manchester; Jun in California, who was briefly married to Evans when he went by the alias of Kimball; and Beaudin’s surviving daughter, Lisa.
The hope is that by disseminating everything they know about Evans – where he worked, where he lived, the aliases he used – more facts will come to light.
Strelzin said that Evans was “careful and calculating,” and good at covering his tracks. They have evidence that Evans abused his victims, although Strelzin would not elaborate, and said that he also may have used children as bait to target their mothers.
Here is what authorities do know, about Bob Evans and related cases (note: the full Powerpoint of evidence and information presented during the news conference is embedded below:
- Evans was born between 1936 and 1952
- He had five confirmed aliases: Robert Evans, Curtis Mayor Kimball, Gerald Mockerman, Gordon Curtis Jenson (Jensen) and Lawrence William Vanner
- He may have worked as an electrician or mechanic at the Manchester VA hospital
- He may have been in the military, possibly the Navy
- He was an alcoholic and a transient, living in campgrounds, trailer parks and motels
- He worked in Manchester at Waumbec Mills as an electrician between the 1970s and 1981, was employed by the owner of the property in Allenstown, Bear Brook Store, 245 Deerfield Road, where the barrels containing four bodies were found separately, in 1985 and 2000.
- The adult female and oldest child found in Allenstown were wrapped in plastic bags and electrical wire, known as Carol Cable, a common electrical wire.
- The four Allenstown victims, and Eunsoon Jun, the California victim, all died of blunt-force trauma.
- Two of the three children found in Allenstown, the oldest and youngest, were related to the adult female
- The third child was Evans’ biological daughter
Above: Facebook Live video of Jan. 26 Press Conference
After abandoning Lisa in 1986, Evans remained on the run until November of 1988, when he was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle in San Luis Obispo. The vehicle had been stolen from Franklin County, Idaho. The theft victims knew Evans as Gerald Mockerman.
At that time, Evans was turned over to Santa Cruz County on the outstanding warrant related to the abandonment of Lisa. He was released on parole in 1990 and remained a fugitive until 2002.
That is when he was arrested for the murder of Eunsoon Jun. At that time, he had assimilated himself into the Korean community near Richmond, CA, and was living under the alias of Lawrence Vanner. He and Jun were married in an unofficial ceremony in 2001. Jun was reported missing in Sept. of 2002. Her body was found buried under a large amount of cat litter in the basement of the home where the two had lived. Evans was questioned about her disappearance, and his fingerprints connected him to the active parole warrant for Curtis Kimball.
DNA samples from Evans were compared to samples from Beaudin’s daughter, Lisa, and testing confirmed Evans was not her biological father, a previous assumption in the case. Evans refused to disclose where he had taken Lisa from. He was sentenced to 15 years to life for killing Jun, and died of natural causes on Dec. 28, 2010.
Authorities believe it’s likely Evans killed Beaudin and disposed of her body somewhere between New Hampshire and California. They fear there may be more Jane Does – unidentified murder victims, or victims yet to be found who died at the hands of Evans.
And then there’s the ongoing mystery of the Allenstown Four.
Two barrels, four bodies found 15 years apart
Chemical isotope testing showed that the adult and two of the three children were related to each other and from the New England region. The third child was not born and raised with the other victims, but came from the western United States and joined them months before their deaths; that child was fathered by Evans. There was no DNA evidence linking Evans to the other two children.
Authorities have concerns for the welfare of the mother of the child fathered by Evans.
There is also evidence that Evans lived at the 925 Hayward St. address prior to Beaudin moving into the home, possibly as early as 1977. There are some records indicating that a woman by the name of Elizabeth lived with Evans during that time. She has not been identified or located, but her name is listed as his wife in a 1980 arrest report.
Authorities believe Evans may also have lived in Texas and Georgia, as well having links to Arizona, Oregon, Wyoming, Louisiana, Hawaii and Colorado.
They are seeking the public’s help in identifying all four Allenstown victims, the whereabouts of Beaudin, the identity and whereabouts of the child fathered by Evans, and any other cases that may be connected to Evans, who also may have gone by the names Jerry Edwards Gorman, Ulos Jenson, Curtis Rollin Kimball and Don Vannerson.
Other facts
- Evans may have driven a late 1960s-model red Dodge pick-up truck with a light-colored camper; a White 1978 Ford van; a Volkswagen van, two-toned, white and blue or white and green.
- He possibly attended Lowell Elementary and North High School; Devry Institution of Technology (electrical engineering and design) all in Phoenix, AZ.
- He may have been born in Evanstown, WY as Ulos Jensen; or San Pedro, CA; he claimed to have been married to Denise LaPorte in Roanoke, VA (authorities can’t identify or locate her). Evans claimed that LaPorte died in Houston, TX; was murdered in Corpus Christi, TX.
Finally, Denise Beaudin’s daughter submitted the following statement to authorities after learning the results of her DNA testing, and the fact that Evans was the man who abandoned her:
I am so thankful to be reunited with my grandfather and cousins after all these years!! I want to send out a heartfelt “Thank You” to all the organizations and tireless individuals who made this possible.
As a victim in this incredulous story, I would like to ask that the media respects my privacy.
Currently I have three beautiful children and a loving husband, and would like our presently happy and secure life to remain in tact and protected through the release of this story. Please turn your attention toward the unidentified victims, and other potentially unknown victims in this case, and hopefully their families will also be offered some closure as this investigation continues.
Thank you,
Lisa
Anyone with information about this case should contact any of the following:
- NH State Police Cold Case Unit, 603-223-3856 or coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov
- Manchester Police Department, 603-668-8711, or MPDcoldcase@manchersternh.gov
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1-800-THE-LOST, ncmectips@ncmec.org
Complete Powerpoint presentation from Senior Asst. attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, Chief, Homicide Unit
