Case overview
Cold-case detectives matched DNA from saliva in a bite mark on Sherri Rasmussen’s body to LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus more than two decades after the 1986 killing. The victim’s father accused the Los Angeles Police Department of mishandling the original investigation. Lazarus had been a former girlfriend of Rasmussen’s husband.
The victim’s final day
Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nursing director at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was found dead in her Van Nuys condominium on February 24, 1986. Her husband, John Ruetten, discovered her body after returning home from work that evening. Rasmussen had been beaten, shot three times, and bitten during a violent struggle.
The crime scene showed signs of forced entry and a ransacked interior. Detectives initially classified the case as a burglary gone wrong. A broken window, missing electronics, and overturned furniture suggested an interrupted robbery. The bite mark on Rasmussen’s left forearm later became the most decisive piece of forensic evidence in the case.
Early investigation and family concerns
Rasmussen’s parents told investigators their daughter had been concerned about harassment from a woman named Stephanie Lazarus, who had dated John Ruetten before his marriage to Sherri. According to family accounts, Lazarus confronted Rasmussen at her workplace and made unwelcome visits to the couple’s home in the weeks before the killing.
Detectives focused on the burglary theory. No immediate follow-up occurred with Lazarus, who was a uniformed LAPD officer at the time. The case went cold within months.
DNA technology and the cold case unit
In 2004, the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division cold case unit began reexamining unsolved homicides using advances in DNA analysis. Detectives retrieved evidence from the Rasmussen case, including a swab taken from the bite mark on her arm in 1986. The sample had been stored but never processed through modern DNA comparison systems.
By 2009, forensic analysts developed a DNA profile from the saliva in the bite mark. The profile was female, eliminating the burglary suspect theory that had centered on male intruders. Cold case detectives reviewed the original investigation and identified Stephanie Lazarus as a person of interest based on the family’s earlier statements.
Surveillance and arrest
Detectives conducted covert surveillance on Lazarus, who had risen to the rank of detective and was assigned to the LAPD’s Commercial Crimes Division. In June 2009, investigators obtained a DNA sample from a discarded cup Lazarus had used. Laboratory analysis matched the sample to the DNA profile from the bite mark on Rasmussen’s body.
Stephanie Lazarus was arrested on June 5, 2009, at LAPD headquarters. She was charged with murder more than 23 years after Sherri Rasmussen’s death. The arrest marked one of the rare instances in which a serving law enforcement officer was accused of homicide in a case investigated by the same department.
Legal proceedings and the family’s response
Nels Rasmussen, Sherri’s father, retained an attorney who held a press conference accusing the LAPD of negligence and bias in the original investigation. The family argued that detectives dismissed credible leads pointing to Lazarus because of her status as a police officer. Documents and interviews later revealed that supervisors had been informed of the Lazarus connection early in the case but took no documented action.
Lazarus pleaded not guilty and remained in custody. Prosecutors built their case on the DNA match, witness statements about the pre-murder confrontations, and the absence of evidence supporting a random burglary. Defense attorneys challenged the reliability of decades-old DNA samples and questioned the chain of custody for the biological evidence.
Trial and conviction
Stephanie Lazarus went to trial in 2012. The prosecution presented testimony from John Ruetten, who described Lazarus’ persistent contact with him after his marriage and her unexpected visits to the condominium. Forensic experts testified that the DNA from the bite mark was a definitive match to Lazarus, with a probability excluding random coincidence.
The defense argued that the DNA evidence had been contaminated or mishandled over more than two decades in storage. Attorneys also suggested that the original burglary theory remained plausible and that the focus on Lazarus was the result of investigative tunnel vision driven by the family’s allegations.
On March 8, 2012, a jury found Stephanie Lazarus guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. The verdict affirmed the prosecution’s theory that Lazarus killed Rasmussen in a confrontation motivated by jealousy and unresolved attachment to John Ruetten.
Institutional questions and accountability
The case raised sustained questions about investigative priorities and internal accountability within the LAPD. Critics pointed to the failure to pursue Lazarus in 1986 despite direct reports from the victim’s family. Supervisors who oversaw the original investigation offered no public explanation for the decision to focus exclusively on the burglary theory.
The Rasmussen family pursued a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, alleging that officers deliberately avoided investigating one of their own. The case was settled in 2015 for $10 million. The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing but acknowledged the investigative failures that delayed justice for more than two decades.
Forensic legacy and the role of DNA
The murder of Sherri Rasmussen became a reference point in discussions of cold case DNA work and the limitations of early forensic methods. The bite mark evidence, collected in 1986 but not analyzed until 2009, demonstrated both the value of preserving biological samples and the consequences of investigative assumptions that deprioritize certain leads.
Stephanie Lazarus remains incarcerated. Her conviction was upheld on appeal in 2015. The case continues to be cited in training materials addressing conflict of interest, evidence preservation, and the importance of pursuing all credible investigative paths regardless of a suspect’s occupation or institutional affiliation.
Where to look next
- Documentary: “Lazarus: The LAPD Detective Who Murdered Her Rival” (Investigation Discovery)
- Book: “The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation” by Matthew McGough
- Podcast: “Casefile True Crime” (Casefile Presents)
