Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Rebekah Joy Heath helped solve the infamous Black Brooks murders (the Allenstown Four case) in a way no one could’ve ever imagined. After all, as explored in AMC+’s ‘True Crime Story Citizen Detective: Rebekah,’ she never had any connection with the victims, perpetrator, or officers in charge; she’s just a dedicated web sleuth.
Who is Rebekah Heath?
It was reportedly back when Rebekah was just a young girl growing up in Connecticut that she first developed a deep passion for true crime, only for it to continue expanding as the years passed. The truth is she, unfortunately, didn’t have a good childhood, and it somehow drove her to find solace in the fantasy she was a missing kid whose real, loving family was desperately searching for her. That’s how this Tunxis Community College turned University of Connecticut Communications graduate eventually got into sleuthing, where her niche became connecting people to their loved ones.
However, once Rebekah came across the decades-old Black Brooks murders cold case, her hobby evolved into obsession since she couldn’t fathom why none of the victims had been identified. She actually thought it should’ve been relatively easy because 3 of the four bodies uncovered in 1985 and 2000 were related — mother plus two half-sisters — so someone had to have been looking for this family. She thus dived into platforms focusing on DNA testing, genealogy, as well as message boards, searching either “missing sister” or aspects revolving around then-identified late assailant Terrence “Terry” Rasmussen.
Rebekah subsequently compiled a list of possible leads, just to carefully search them “to see if they had public records, if the person was alive, see if I could find any record for their existence. If not, then I would pursue it a little further and reach out to the person who had originally posted looking for the loved ones.” This is how she came across a post from 1999 from a woman hoping to find her paternal half-sister, who’d disappeared in 1978 alongside her mother plus her elder maternal half-sister. Once the former reached out, it came to light the mother had married a man named Rasmussen by 1979/1980, soon resulting in the identification of victims Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch with her two daughters, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, and Sarah Lynn McWaters.
Rebekah Heath is a Librarian by Day and Web Sleuth by Night
Despite the fact Rebekah’s incredible independent work helped bring closure to an entire family almost four decades after the incident, she still isn’t wholly content since the fourth victim remains unidentified. This little girl, believed to be between the ages of 2 and 4, is confirmed to be serial killer Terry’s daughter through genetic testing, yet no one knows who her biological mother is or if she’s even alive. Therefore, the former maintains her position of research librarian by day and web sleuth by night even today — she genuinely wants to not just solve this particular matter but also assist others in finding peace in a way she has never been able to.
As for Rebekah’s personal standing, this Make-A-Wish Volunteer as well as Outreach Librarian at Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) appears to be doing really well at the moment. That’s because the Windsor, Connecticut, resident got engaged to the love of her life on the 4th of July this year; plus, these days, she’s completely delving into her other interests of cupcakes and home decor, too. In other words, this dog mom of two — Hans and Fernando — seems as intrinsically happy as she can be right now, and we wish her nothing but the same for years to come.
Read More: Christina “Christy” Harris Murder: Where is Jason Harris Now?
