On February 24, 1986, Sherri Rae Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nursing director at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. She had been brutally beaten and shot three times in what initially appeared to be a botched burglary. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) initially treated the case as a home invasion gone wrong, but the investigation soon grew cold due to a lack
of leads and suspects.
Rasmussen's father, Nels Rasmussen, was convinced that LAPD officer Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, who had previously been in a relationship with Ruetten, was involved in his daughter's death. Despite his insistence, the case remained unsolved for over two decades. It wasn't until 2009, when detectives re-examined the cold case files, that they began to focus on Lazarus as a suspect. A crucial piece of evidence was a DNA sample from a bite mark on Rasmussen's body, which matched a sample obtained from a cup Lazarus had discarded.
In 2012, Stephanie Lazarus was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. Lazarus appealed the conviction, arguing that the age of the case and the evidence used against her denied her due process. She also claimed that the search warrant was improperly granted and that her statements during an interview prior to her arrest were compelled. Despite these appeals, the California Court of Appeal upheld the guilty verdict in 2015.
The case also involved several litigations. Rasmussen's parents sued the LAPD, alleging that evidence implicating Lazarus had been deliberately removed to protect her. They claimed that the initial investigation was mishandled, but their lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful. Additionally, Jennifer Francis, the criminalist who discovered the key DNA evidence, sued the City of Los Angeles, alleging that she had been pressured by police to favor certain suspects and faced retaliation when she brought this to light. Her lawsuit was also unsuccessful.
In a 2023 parole hearing, Lazarus confessed to the crime, but her request for parole was initially granted and then rescinded by the full board in late 2024. The case of Sherri Rae Rasmussen's murder highlights the complexities and challenges of cold case investigations, as well as the potential for conflicts of interest within law enforcement agencies.
