This new finding shocked the public and fellow police officers, who knew Stephanie Lazarus to be a stellar and well-respected cop. DNA evidence from the discarded items came back a match to Stephanie Lazarus and the bite mark that had been made on the victim’s body. Next, investigators devised a plan to collect Stephanie Lazarus’ DNA, which they successfully did after she discarded a cup and a straw. The bite mark sample was sent to the lab, where it was determined that the bite impression had been made by a woman. This sample proved to be more than helpful when detectives decided to open up the cold case decades later. They collected a saliva sample from a bite mark on Sherri Rasmussen’s arm. Though the Los Angeles Police Department was criticized for not investigating the case in a proper way, they did do something right. They had no idea that it would take more than 20 years to bring the killer to justice. Sherri Rasmussen’s grief-stricken parents made it their mission to prove that it was Stephanie Lazarus who had done this to their beloved daughter. However, family and friends say that investigators didn’t take the Stephanie Lazarus angle seriously and had failed to interview several key people who had in-depth information about Sherri’s problems with Stephanie. Investigators were told that in the weeks before her death, Sherri was being followed by someone with crazy eyes and that John’s ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Lazarus fit that description and was an LAPD detective who had once confronted Sherri at her job at the hospital. However, the police in Van Nuys back in 1986 believed that the crime was the result of a robbery gone bad.Īt the crime scene, there was no sign of forced entry, but the victim, Sherri Rasmussen, had struggled fiercely with her attacker. The crime was so vicious that family members say it was more like an assassination than a random shooting. The coroner’s report later concluded that 29-year old Sherri Rasmussen had been shot three times at close range. When the police arrived at the Balboa Boulevard condo, they found that the dead woman had been beaten about the face and had bullet wounds to the body. Instead, he found the dead body of his wife sprawled on the floor in a large pool of blood. In 1986, John Ruetten, an engineer, came home from work hoping to unwind after a long day. The episode reenacting the Lazarus-Rasmussen case is titled, “The Casanova Killer.” In addition to Oxygen’s coverage of the case, Sherri Rasmussen’s murder was also the subject of CBS 48 Hours. Stephanie Lazarus, the former LAPD detective who murdered her ex-boyfriend’s wife, Sherri Rasmussen, 30 years ago, is the leading story of crime and murder on Oxygen’s It Takes A Killer.
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