(CNN) For decades, the identities of four murder victims, a woman and three girls, whose bodies were discovered in barrels in Allenstown, New Hampshire, remained a mystery.

Authorities on Thursday revealed that they had identified three of the four victims in the chilling cold case known as the Bear Brook murders

The woman, the oldest child and the youngest child are Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters, respectively.

Jeffery Strelzin, associate attorney general of New Hampshire, told reporters at a news conference that in 1978, Honeychurch visited her family in La Puente, California, with her two daughters. Strelzin said one of the daughters was about 6 years old at the time and the other was about 1 year old. They had different fathers.

Artist renderings of three of the four victims found in barrels in New Hampshire.

After an argument with her mother, Honeychurch left. The family never heard from her or the children again.

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