![]() See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at. Visit the show's website at for contact, merchandise, and donation information ![]() You can help support the show at /truecrimeallthetime But, they had to tread carefully to take down one of their own. John Ruetten, victim Sherri Rasmussen's husband, describes how his wife's murder, by former police officer and his ex-lover Stephanie Lazarus, impacted his and his family's lives. And when they did all signs pointed to Stephanie Lazarus. It took cold case investigators, over 20 years later, to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Many people have said this caused them to not interview key witnesses or even take a hard look at John's ex-girlfriend. ![]() From the start, police were stuck on the theory that Sherri was killed by one or multiple burglars. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder of Sherri Rasmussen committed by Stephanie Lazarus. She used her police training to make the murder look like a robbery. Lazarus was still infatuated with her ex, John Ruetten, and decided to execute the woman she thought was her romantic rival. Stephanie Lazarus, a Los Angeles police detective charged with capital murder in the 1986 slaying of her ex-boyfriend’s wife, pleads not guilty Jduring her arraignment in Los. "…Sherri was the glue that held the family together all the time….and made everything that much better," says Sherri's younger sister, Teresa, tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Maureen Maher.īut in February 1986, Sherri would be attacked, beaten and shot to death in her Los Angeles home.In 1986, Stephanie Lazarus was an LAPD officer who murdered her ex-boyfriend's wife, Sherri Rasmussen. You never think something like this is gonna happen to you," says Teresa. She says she never could have anticipated that only just now - more than 20 years after her sister's murder - there's been arrest. "You start the grieving process all over again, one more time." "It doesn't make the pain any less," she says. The pain is most obvious when the family visits Sherri's grave. "I don't believe that you can understand the grief… a part of your life has just been taken away forever," Nels Rasmussen tells Maher in an exclusive interview. Her parents say Sherri excelled at everything she did. How Did LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus Get Away With Murder for Over 20 Years. ![]() At age 27, she was named director of critical care nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, where she sometimes lectured.īut police were off chasing other leads, and Sherri's friend, Jayne Goldberg, says that Ruetten just quietly faded out of sight, leaving her quite angry. "Why wasn't he camped outside the police station? I don't understand it!" "I would have expected that John would have been much more involved in the investigation… and demand answers," she says.Įspecially, as months - and then years - went by with no resolution to the case. In the winter of 1986, the dramatic spike in street crime was beginning to strain the Los Angeles Police Department as cops were called to investigate yet another killing this time in a quiet, gated community in Van Nuys, the scene of Sherri Rasmussen's murder. She had been beaten badly about her face and there was blood on the walls. "The presumption," Rubin explains, "is the attacker hit Sherri over the head - perhaps stunning her … which perhaps gave the attacker time enough to pull out the gun and shoot Sherri." The place was a mess," according to Joel Rubin, a Los Angeles Times police reporter who has been looking into how police investigated this case 24 years ago. Psychology 17M views 3 years ago Audio: Chris Watts prison interview. Rubin learned that investigators back then wasted little time theorizing what had happened. Stephanie Lazarus was told a suspect in the basement jail had information on one. This is the interview transcript where LAPD Robbery/Homicide. "…the lead detective in the case very quickly hatched on the idea that Sherri Rasmussen had happened upon two men as they were trying to burglarize the house and that they killed her after being discovered. Stephanie Lazarus Interview w/RHD - Free download as PDF File (.pdf) or read online for free. The crime scene includes… two pieces of electronics equipment stacked at the foot of the stairs. And they pointed to that as indication this was a burglary gone bad. "…a few weeks later, two men tried to commit a similar burglary in the area and it bolstered their theory," explains Rubin. Police even had sketches drawn of those two men, who they considered suspects in Sherri's murder. But there seemed to be little evidence that could tie anyone specifically to this crime. Even fingerprints they found led nowhere. ".it wasn't a robbery," Nels Rasmussen tells Maureen Maher.īut the Rasmussen family just wasn't buying any of it.
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