The murder of Sherri Rasmussen
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California · 1986
Overview
Sherri Rae Rasmussen, a 29-year-old registered nurse and director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was beaten and shot three times in the chest inside the Van Nuys condominium she shared with her new husband, John Ruetten, on February 24, 1986, just months after their wedding. The Los Angeles Police Department treated the killing as a botched burglary and the case went cold for more than two decades, even though Sherri's father, Nels Rasmussen, repeatedly told detectives that an LAPD officer named Stephanie Lazarus, a former girlfriend of Ruetten, had threatened and confronted his daughter. The case turned on a saliva swab taken from a bite mark on Sherri's arm and preserved since 1986. When that swab was tested years later it revealed female DNA, contradicting the male-burglar theory. In 2009 cold-case detectives covertly collected DNA from a cup and straw Lazarus discarded at a Costco in Simi Valley; it matched the bite-mark saliva. Lazarus, by then a veteran LAPD detective, was arrested on June 5, 2009, convicted of first-degree murder on March 8, 2012, and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
How it was solved
The evidence that ultimately solved the case had existed since the night of the murder: a swab taken from a bite mark on Sherri Rasmussen's arm, sealed in a vial and an envelope by the coroner in 1986. At the time, DNA fingerprinting did not exist, and the LAPD pursued a burglary theory pointing at two male suspects. Years later, as forensic science advanced, criminalists tested the preserved bite-mark swab and found that the saliva contained female DNA distinct from the victim's, undermining the idea of a male intruder. In 2008 LAPD cold-case detective Jim Nuttall and the Robbery-Homicide Division reopened the file and re-examined the long-dismissed lead about Stephanie Lazarus, a Los Angeles police officer who had dated John Ruetten and, according to the Rasmussen family, had confronted and threatened Sherri before the killing. To compare Lazarus's DNA without alerting her, detectives placed her under covert surveillance and followed her to a Costco store in Simi Valley, where she discarded a cup and a straw. They retrieved the items and a laboratory developed a profile that matched the saliva from the bite mark, with prosecutors citing odds of roughly 1.7 sextillion to one against the DNA belonging to anyone else. On June 5, 2009, Lazarus was disarmed under a pretext at a downtown jail and then arrested by Robbery-Homicide detectives. A Los Angeles County jury convicted her of first-degree murder on March 8, 2012, and she was sentenced on May 11, 2012, to 27 years to life. A California appeals court upheld the conviction in July 2015.
Sources
- Murder of Sherri Rasmussen
“On February 24, 1986, the body of Sherri Rasmussen was found in the condominium she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. She had been beaten and shot three times.”
- Stephanie Lazarus
“Despite Nels Rasmussen repeatedly telling investigators about Lazarus, the detective allegedly told him: You are watching too much TV. The case went cold for 23 years. During interrogation Lazarus responded: We had a fight and so I went and killed her? I mean, come on.”
- Bite mark, DNA tie LAPD detective to 1986 murder
“Detectives secretly followed her to a local retail outlet where she discarded a cup and a straw. The results indicated a 1.7 sextillion-to-1 chance that the DNA belonged to someone other than Stephanie Lazarus.”
- People v. Lazarus
“Convicted in March 2012 of first-degree murder; sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. Her backup .38-caliber handgun was identified as the likely murder weapon, reported lost to Santa Monica police two weeks after the killing. Unanimously rejected by the California Court of Appeals on July 13, 2015.”
- Bite Mark on Sherri Rasmussen Ties Stephanie Lazarus to Murder
“The DNA analysis found that the saliva had come from a female, undermining the initial burglary theory. A sample taken from a cup that Lazarus discarded at the Simi Valley Costco matched the DNA from the bite mark on Sherri Rasmussen.”
- Evidence debated in 1st day of 1986 murder case
“Prosecutor Shannon Presby opened with: A bite, a bullet, a gun barrel, and a broken heart. Rasmussen, 29, was found beaten and shot to death in a Van Nuys condo on February 24, 1986.”
- Stephanie Lazarus Convicted of Killing Nurse Sherri Rasmussen
“A jury convicted Lazarus on March 8, 2012, after three days of deliberations of first-degree murder for the Feb. 24, 1986 killing of Sherri Rasmussen, and she was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.”
- Decision to parole former LAPD detective who murdered her ex's new wife and hid crime for decades faces scrutiny
“Stephanie Lazarus is a former Los Angeles police detective sentenced to 27 years to life in prison in 2012 for the 1986 murder of her ex-boyfriend's new wife, Sherri Rasmussen; investigators compared DNA from a bite mark with a sample secretly captured from a discarded cup.”