True Crime Podcast 2022 - Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories Podcast Jennifer Francis, the criminalist who found key evidence from the bite mark, unsuccessfully sued the City of Los Angeles, claiming she was pressured by police to favor certain suspects in this and other high-profile cases and was retaliated against when she brought this to the LAPD's attention. Rasmussen's parents unsuccessfully sued the department over this and other aspects of the investigation. Some of the police files suggest that evidence that could have implicated Lazarus earlier in the investigation was later removed, perhaps by others in the LAPD. In 2015, the guilty verdict was upheld by the California Court of Appeal. She also alleged that the search warrant was improperly granted, her statements in an interview prior to her arrest were compelled, and that evidence supporting the original case theory should have been admitted at trial. Lazarus appealed the conviction, claiming that the age of the case and the evidence denied her due process. Lazarus was convicted of the murder in 2012 and is serving a sentence of 27 years to life for first-degree murder at the California Institution for Women in Corona. A DNA sample she unknowingly discarded was matched to one from a bite on Rasmussen's body that had remained in the files.
Detectives who re-examined the cold case files in 2009 were eventually led to Lazarus, by then herself a detective. Rasmussen's father believed that Stephanie Lazarus, an LAPD officer, was a prime suspect. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) initially considered the case a botched burglary, and the crime remained unsolved. Rasmussen had been beaten and shot three times in a struggle.
Sherri Rasmussen (Febru– February 24, 1986) was an American woman found dead in February 1986 in an apartment she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, in Van Nuys, California.
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"On the surface yes.(but there) are there things that explain why it didn't happen as quickly."īlankstein said the murder trial of Stephanie Lazarus left a powerful imprint about the family of victim Sherri Rasmussen, who had to relive their loss yet again, after 25 years.LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus Murder Suspect - Full Length Police Interrogation Video "Should it have happened faster?," said Blankstein, regarding the arrest of Lazarus. To underscore his point, Blankstein noted that in the early days of the case, the LAPD wasn't even using cell phones, let alone high-tech forensics. He says aspects of the original LAPD investigation may be "problematic," and there are still unanswered questions as to why Lazarus wasn't looked at more closely to begin with.īut the LA Times reporter says the dramatic developments that took decades later hinge mainly on a revolution in DNA technology, which enabled investigators to zero in on the source of a bite mark on the arm of the murder victim, Rasmussen. The case raised tough questions about whether the LAPD intentionally looked the other way, and ultimately, covered up Lazarus' involvement in the killing.īlankstein sees a case of "tunnel vision" by the police, in their long-held belief that Rasmussen was killed in a robbery.
Back in 1986, Sherri Rasmussen was a newlywed, and Lazarus, already a cop, was an ex-girlfriend of Rasmussen's husband, John Ruetten.
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