One of Their Own
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The victim had been beaten, her face disfigured, there was blood on the carpet, blood on the walls. The victim had been shot three times at close range. Any one of those three shots could have killed her. The victim was 29-year-old Sherry Rasmussen. She was an up-and-coming nursing director at a hospital in Los Angeles and had just recently been married. I'm Joel Rubin. I'm Andrew Blankstein. We're police reporters with the Los Angeles Times.

Her killing came on the front end of a huge upswing of the murder rate in Los Angeles. Her friends and family were devastated. Unbelievable grief, heartache. We're Sherry's parents. The detective said to me that Sherry wasn't murdered, she was assassinated. The detective's conclusion at the time was that this was a burglary gone bad. Apparently they were wrong.

Little did anybody know that the contents of a small test tube would turn this case on its head 23 years later. You're accusing me of this? Is that what you're saying? The news hit like a shockwave through the Los Angeles Police Department. The suspect in this murder case was a cop. Now I'm thinking I probably need to talk to a lawyer. One of their own.

It was shocking news in the City of Angels. It wasn't just any cop they arrested, but a well-respected...

female detective Stephanie Lazarus. And it wasn't just a minor crime. Lazarus was charged with the murder of Sherry Rasmussen, a beautiful young nurse, 23 years after the killing. A Los Angeles police officer

arrested for murder is just, it's a bombshell. Andrew Blankstein and Joel Rubin, police reporters for the Los Angeles Times, are consultants to 48 Hours. Nobody says they saw this coming. Nobody says that she was a cop that they saw on the edge. Who is Stephanie Lazarus? Who's this woman? As far as we can tell, people in the department saw her as, you know, a cop's cop, a good cop.

She'd been a long time patrol detective. She was with the art theft detail, which is a high profile detail within the commercial crimes division of the LAPD. And in doing those kind of investigations, it gets a lot of press, a lot of attention. If the police and prosecutors are going to be believed, she's harboring a secret about a murder for 23 years.

At first glance, Stephanie Lazarus has no obvious connection to the victim in this murder case. Back in 1986, Sherry Rasmussen was a highly regarded nursing administrator. She came from a very close-knit family. Thank you very much. Uncle John and Aunt Sherry are spending Christmas with Rachel on her first Christmas. Sherry's sister, Teresa. She loved family.

We had the holidays Sherry was the glue that held the family together all the time and made everything that much better. But this Christmas celebration in 1985 would be Sherry's last in just 2 months Sherry Rasmussen would be attacked beaten and shot to death in her Los Angeles home.

Could you ever have anticipated that here we are more than 20 years later and only just now has someone been arrested for her murder? No. It doesn't make the pain any less. You start the grieving process all over again one more time. Like it just happened yesterday? Yep. Geez, I just thought about her laugh. Pain is most obvious when the family visits Sherry's grave. I don't believe that you can understand the grief

Her parents say Sherry excelled at everything she did. She became a nurse when she was only 20. She liked taking care of people and making sure that things were done right and people were cared for properly.

And just seven years later, at age 27, Sherry was named Director of Critical Care Nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, where she sometimes lectured. That we need to take advantage of our greatest asset. And that's you, the people, the-- On top of a successful career, back in early 1986, Sherry was extraordinarily happy, having just married the man she loved.

They definitely seemed to care for each other deeply. It was a beautiful wedding. Her new husband was John Rutten, a young engineer she'd met in 1984. And as it would turn out, John was the single link to the woman accused of murdering his new bride. He is the common denominator.

That is because Stephanie Lazarus was Rutten's ex-girlfriend. And according to Sherry's friends and family, Stephanie was not willing to give up the man she'd first met in college several years before the murder. Sherry was competition. If she could get Sherry out of the way, then possibly John would be free to be with her again. John is the one who discovered his wife's body. He was in a daze.

He just sort of had the deer in the headlight look. John Rutten had little to say publicly after his wife's murder back in 1986. He was the best wife that anybody could ever have. To me, he's kind of a central character that we really know the least about. There's a lot of questions left unanswered. Questions like, what did John Rutten know or suspect?

He says that early on he told detectives to talk to his ex-girlfriend, an LAPD cop. But the cops were off chasing other leads, and Sherry's friend, Jane Goldberg, says that Rutten just quietly faded out of sight.

Leaving her quite angry. I would have expected that John would have been much more involved in the investigation and demand answers. Especially as months and then years went by with no resolution to the case. He should have been her advocate. She would have been his. And why wasn't he camped outside the police station? I don't understand it.

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The crime scene, a quiet gated community in Van Nuys. There was a terrible struggle. She had been beaten badly about her face. And there was blood on the walls. The place was a mess.

24 years later, police reporter Joel Rubin began looking into the unsolved murder of Sherry Rasmussen. His focus? How police handled the original investigation. So the presumption is that the attacker hits Sherry over the head, perhaps stunning her, which perhaps gave the attacker enough time to pull out the gun and shoot Sherry.

Rubin learned that investigators back then wasted little time theorizing what had happened. The lead detective in the case very quickly had the idea that Sherry Rasmussen had happened upon two men as they were trying to burglarize the house and that they had killed her after being discovered.

A few weeks later, two men tried to commit a similar burglary in the area and it bolstered their theory. Police even had sketches drawn of those two men, who they now considered suspects in Sherry's murder. But there seemed to be little evidence that could tie anyone specifically to this crime.

No witnesses, no gun. Fingerprints they found led nowhere. But the Rasmussen family just wasn't buying it. Any of it. It wasn't a robbery. It wasn't? No. They couldn't convince me of it. That's because Nels Rasmussen had his own idea about who was responsible for his daughter's killings.

At the time, he didn't know her name, just that she was his son-in-law's ex-girlfriend, an L.A. cop. She was the number one suspect. She was his number one suspect from day one of the murder because of a troubling story Sherry had told him and some of her closest friends in the weeks leading up to Sherry's murder.

She told me that John's ex-girlfriend had come to her office at the hospital, dressed provocatively. And confronted Sherry about John and said that if she couldn't have John, nobody could. And she said, if this marriage doesn't work out, I want you to know that I'll be waiting to pick up the pieces. And at the time, I didn't realize how significant it was. Never happened.

Lazarus' attorney, Mark Overland, confirms that a confrontation did occur at the hospital. But he tells a completely different version of what his client said to Sherry. That you should tell John to leave me alone since you two are now engaged. So she went to say your fiancé is pursuing me. Yes, she did.

But another one of Sherry's friends, Peggy Crabtree, who had worked in nursing with her, says Sherry told her about some alarming behavior by Stephanie Lazarus, who seemed to be showing up everywhere. John's ex-girlfriend kept appearing everywhere.

in places that Sherry would go. She couldn't go out to the store or go to the gym without having this woman show up. To me, it would border on harassment. Sherry was clearly fearful and unhappy that she just couldn't get this person out of her life. Did Sherry think that there may have still been something going on between John and Stephanie? She had suspicion.

Clearly, the message wasn't getting through that the behavior of his ex-girlfriend wasn't acceptable. And it was creating enough stress and unhappiness for Sherry that she was considering breaking up with John. Even more unsettling, Nels Rasmussen said at one point, Sherry told him she was being followed by someone in disguise.

And she said that the person that was following her was dressed like a boy, but had eyes that could penetrate you. They could see right through you. John Taylor, the Rasmussen's attorney, says he has a pretty good idea who Sherry was describing. It's very telling that one of the things that Sherry told her father is she believed she was being followed by somebody who had either crazy or wild-looking eyes.

I look at some of the photographs now of Stephanie Lazarus and maybe it's not that far off. What's the timing on when the stalking incidents began for Sherry with Stephanie? I think either immediately before they were married and then after they were married.

Lazarus' attorney calls the stalking charges nonsense and says that it never happened. And more importantly, he claims it's highly unlikely that any of the so-called stalking behavior that Sherry told her friends and father about can be used by prosecutors against this decorated cop. Evidence of any prior contacts is not going to come in at the trial.

That's all hearsay. It's unreliable. That's why it's inadmissible. Do you believe that Stephanie was obsessed with John? Absolutely not. Infatuated, yes. Obsessed, no. Nels Rasmussen has been on a frustrating quest for more than two decades to uncover the truth about his daughter's murder.

But back in 1986, he says he got nowhere trying to talk about it with Sherry's husband, John. I was unable to get much out of John. Do you think he was holding back on information? I have no idea what's going on in that boy's mind. In fact, he was holding back. Years later, John would admit to police that he did have sex with Stephanie after he got engaged to Sherry.

Did you think he was involved in Sherry's death in some way? I do not believe that John had any involvement whatsoever.

Apparently, neither do the police, who reportedly eliminated John early on as a suspect. But Nell says he tried, unsuccessfully, to get the lead detective to focus on John's ex-girlfriend. That first week, the first five days, I mentioned it so many times that he kind of lost his cool with me.

and saying that there was no need to go there because there was nothing there. The investigating detective told him, "You're watching too much TV. It's sloppy police work. It's negligent police work. It's incompetent police work." Is it possible it was a cover-up? Yes. He drives up to the townhouse. Her car is not there. It was about 6:00 in the evening when Sherry's husband John returned home from work.

He sees broken glass that's shattered from the sliding door. He comes up the stairway, opens the door, and finds his wife's body on the floor. Sherry's found with three bullet wounds. Los Angeles Times reporter Joel Rubin. Two in the upper torso area, one here, one here, and then a third to the abdomen area.

When he came in from the garage, her body was the very first thing that he saw. Alan Tarski, Sherry's neighbor back in 1986, spoke to Sherry's husband, John, just moments after he discovered Sherry's dead body. His face was gaunt. He simply said, Sherry's dead.

Although he was a close neighbor, not a single detective ever questioned Turski. The police never came to me. They never questioned me. Detectives also failed to contact close friend Jane Goldberg. Why aren't the police coming to me and saying, do you know somebody who Sherry had a problem with? Sherry had confided in Jane about all the problems she was having with John's ex-girlfriend.

But investigators still continue down the road of a botched burglary.

Even though the only missing items from Sherry's home were her car, which was a gift from John, and her marriage certificate, according to Jane. And I thought, hmm, her marriage license and her car that she got when she got engaged, those two things are gone? It was just so symbolic.

When the detectives did their walkthrough... Reporter Andrew Blankstein. There's nothing else in the house that's disturbed. So it raises questions about whether this was in fact a burglary. Detectives stuck to that botched burglary theory...

Even as the trail went cold for more than two decades. You have to look back into the investigation to see if there's anything you missed. And in this case, Stephanie Lazarus. Bert Luper is a retired detective who spent 27 years working for the LAPD. Now an investigator on Stephanie's defense team,

Even he believes Stephanie Lazarus was an obvious suspect. She should have been looked at right away. Who knows what would have come out of that? We don't know. We'll never know because nobody did it. They should have looked at her, if nothing else, to eliminate her. And had they eliminated her, we probably wouldn't be here. As a result of not looking at her, we've lost valuable evidence that could have exonerated her.

But Stephanie Lazarus was an unlikely suspect. She was just a beat cop at the time, but she would go on to be a star detective in her department. The UCLA graduate eventually married another detective. She had survived thyroid cancer,

Stephanie even raised money to start a daycare program for members of the LAPD and eventually adopted her own little girl. Stephanie and her daughter have a wonderful relationship. Stephen Lazarus, Stephanie's younger brother, says there is absolutely no way his sister committed this brutal crime. When you know Stephanie and you know her devotion to law enforcement and to her family and to humanity...

It doesn't make sense. Nor do I believe it. To the best of anyone's knowledge, was Stephanie ever looked at? Was she ever questioned? No. We know, well, according to the lead investigator of the case at the time, he told me he never considered her a suspect.

That detective, Lyle Mayer, spoke to reporters in 1986 about the burglars he suspected of the crime. The suspects may be illegal aliens. Mayer is now retired and reluctantly spoke to us about that original investigation.

He emphatically denies nearly every point made by Sherry's family and friends. He refused to go on camera with 48 Hours, but he did tell me that Nels Rasmussen never told him that Sherry was having a problem with John Rutten's ex-girlfriend. He also denies that John Rutten ever told LAPD to check in to Stephanie Lazarus. And he flat out denies any accusation of a cover-up. Lyle Mayer got a lot of explaining to do.

Rasmussen family attorney John Taylor. He absolutely claims that John never brought up the name Stephanie Lazarus to LAPD, ever. Never mentioned any of the altercations. Within two days of the murder, there was a crime scene walkthrough. John Rutten gave Lyle Mayer, at least told him, you should look at my ex-girlfriend. And he identified her as being a Los Angeles police officer. In the first couple of days? Within two days. So is Detective Mayer lying?

He has a selective memory. Mayor does admit Stephanie's name came up during his investigation, but he says it was months after Sherry's murder, and he felt there was no sufficient reason to question Stephanie.

As for Mayer's failure to interview critical witnesses, he firmly denies those accusations. He says that he spoke to hundreds, and I'm quoting, hundreds of witnesses, and that he absolutely canvassed the neighborhood. Do you think that's true? I think that there would have been a paper trail that would reflect the hundreds of interviews. I think that he's fabricating that. But whatever the shortcomings of the original investigation...

Forensic investigators did manage to collect one crucial piece of evidence, a saliva sample taken from a tiny bite mark on Sherry's arm. When they reopened the case, the saliva sample was sent out to a DNA lab for testing. The results were mind-blowing and totally destroyed the theory that Sherry was killed by two male burglars.

The DNA testing comes back as belonging to a woman. That's right. The DNA belonged to a woman. It led police to suspect one of their own, Stephanie Lazarus.

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22 years had passed since Nels and Loretta Rasmussen's daughter Sherry had been brutally murdered.

You never get over it. Such heartache and such pain. We felt that it was a lost cause. Little did the Rasmussens know, LAPD cold case investigators had quietly reopened Sherry's case and had found that the bite mark on her arm contained DNA of an unidentified female. In 2008, a detective called Nels with the news. I was ecstatic.

I told Red, I says, you know this, we're going to get it solved for the first time in two decades, says Nels, a detective from the LAPD finally listened to him that he believed an LAPD cop had murdered his daughter. He said, you know, if we get the DNA and it doesn't match, we're back to base one. And I says, you don't have to worry about that. You get the DNA and you got yourself

The new detectives immediately started trailing Detective Lazarus. At the point that they find out that Stephanie Lazarus could be one of the suspects here, next step is they have to get a surreptitious DNA sample. To get a sample of Stephanie's DNA, detectives secretly followed her to a local retail outlet, where Stephanie discarded a cup and a straw. Detectives then quickly collected the evidence.

The samples from those utensils are sent to the lab. The results of this DNA test were stunning. The DNA from that bite mark pointed directly at Stephanie Lazarus. The test indicated there was a 1.7 sextillion to one chance that it was someone other than Stephanie Lazarus. That's 17 followed by 20 zeros.

When he came back, it was exactly what I'd been pointing to for 23 years. You must have felt so relieved, Nels. I never felt so good in my life.

As soon as the match was made, a team of more than a dozen LAPD officers secretly planned Stephanie's arrest. The question was, how are they going to make an arrest of an LAPD officer without tipping that officer off? It was a covert operation with an intense degree of risk.

In fact, Stephanie Lazarus worked directly across the hall from the detectives investigating her for murder. It was an incredibly trying situation. I'm not trying to be melodramatic here, but it's a pretty dramatic scene that you're painting. Sure is. The idea of arresting a cop for murder is a pretty dramatic event. It doesn't happen very often. While plotting Stephanie's arrest, detectives feared she might be wearing her service weapon.

So they came up with a plan to disarm her that began with a visit from a fellow detective. She is approached by a colleague who says, "Hey, I just got word that over the weekend an arrest was made. This person is telling us that they have information about one of the cases that you're working." Within minutes, Stephanie made her way toward the jail, where she thought the suspect was waiting.

If Stephanie was armed, she would have to remove her weapon before interviewing the suspect. She walks through the security point, at which point she's confronted by robbery homicide detectives who say, Stephanie, we need to talk to you.

Unarmed and unaware that she is the suspect, Stephanie sits down in front of a hidden camera, still thinking the subject they need to talk about is art theft, but not for long. Do you know John Rutten? John Rutten? Rutten. Yeah, I mean, we dated, you know. I mean, what's this all about? Well, it's relating to his wife. Okay. Okay. Did you know her?

Not really. Did you ever meet her? God, I don't know. How long did you guys date? I mean, are you guys, is this something, I mean, you said I was going to interview somebody about art. I don't understand why you're talking about some guy I dated a million years ago. Well, do you know what happened to his wife? Yeah, I know she got killed. Detectives continue to circle back to the subject of Sherry Rasmussen. Had you ever met his wife?

I may have. Yeah, I may have met her at a hospital. I may have talked to her once or twice. Some of Sherry's friends said that you and her were having a problem because of the John situation.

Words are being exchanged and it's all relating to John. You know what? I just, I can't say. You can't say? No, that doesn't even ring a bell. Finally, an hour into the interrogation, detectives get down to the tough questions. Did you ever fight with her? You mean like we fought? Yeah. Did you ever duke it out with her?

No, I don't think so. I mean... You'd remember that, right? That would be pretty... Yeah, I would think so. By now, there's no doubt about what is really going on. I mean, if you guys are claiming that I'm a suspect, then, you know, I got a problem with that. I mean, I'm shocked. I'm really shocked that somebody would be saying that I did this. I mean, we had a fight, so I went and killed her. I mean, come on. That's...

Stephanie walks out, only to be arrested and handcuffed, then is immediately brought back to be read those fateful words she knows all too well. You know you have the right to remain silent, do you understand? Yes. Anything you say may be used against you in court, do you understand? Yes.

Tonight, a detective arrested for a murder. She's behind bars tonight, accused of killing her former boyfriend's wife. This time, the 26-year veteran LAPD detective was the one in court in handcuffs. On June 5th, 2009, more than two decades after Sherry's death, Detective Stephanie Lazarus was charged with the first-degree murder of Sherry Rae Rasmussen.

But her defense attorney, Mark Overland, says the state's case against his client is no slam dunk. Do you believe that she is innocent? Absolutely. The bottom line is this DNA evidence is flawed.

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Are you 100% confident that Stephanie Lazarus killed your daughter? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this girl is guilty. It has been more than two and a half decades since the Rasmusson's daughter, Sherry, was shot dead. And finally, the woman accused of that murder is going to trial. It's a bit mind-boggling to me of how many people just think she's guilty. Stephen says people shouldn't be so quick to judge his sister.

Just keep an open mind and watch and let the trial take place. She's entitled to her day in court. People versus Stephanie Lazarus. The prosecution begins by portraying Stephanie Lazarus as a heartbroken woman driven to kill by jealousy over John Rutten's decision to marry someone else. The evidence, her diary, saying, "I found out that John is getting married. I was very depressed."

And so prosecutors are saying that and other entries show that she's getting progressively more upset about this relationship.

To back up their theory, prosecutors call their star witness, the man everyone has been waiting 25 years to hear speak publicly for the first time, John Rutten. He testifies that Lazarus was so upset she cried and begged him not to get married. They had sex that day, he says, but he still went through with his wedding just weeks later.

So on February 24th, 1986, prosecutors say Lazarus showed up at the Newlywood Sherry's condo armed with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. There is indications of a prolonged struggle. There's indications that Sherry's wrists had been bound. As for the bite mark,

There's an effort to try to, again, wrestle for the control of the gun. And at some point during that struggle, prosecutors believe that the suspect bit Sherry Rae Rasmussen in the left inner forearm. Investigators believe that at some point, Detective Lazarus finally got the upper hand. Perhaps she shot her once or twice and then dealt the third and fatal shot at point-blank range.

In the end, the prosecution's case all comes down to the DNA found in that bite mark. According to their expert testimony, there is a one in seven sextillion to one chance that it belongs to someone other than Lazarus. And that, prosecutors argue, is proof positive that Stephanie Lazarus is the murderer. DNA profiling technology absolutely nails her as a defendant.

Lazarus seems to be facing insurmountable odds by the time her attorney, Mark Overland, begins her defense. He paints a picture of her as a well-respected police officer who won commendation after commendation. She was a woman who made it in a man's world and certainly was not a woman obsessed with her former boyfriend. So the defense is trying to say, look,

Stephanie Lazarus was not as close to John Rutten as the prosecutors are trying to say. She's not jealous. This isn't as big a deal as they're saying. With that motive called into question, Overland focuses on attacking what was the state's strongest evidence: the DNA. His argument? That the DNA is suspect because of the haphazard way it was handled over the course of more than two decades.

He explains that swabs taken of that bite mark on Sherry Rasmussen's arm were kept in a vial like this one and sealed in an envelope back in 1986. The whole purpose of the envelope is to preserve the integrity of the specimen. Overland says the envelope had been misplaced for years, but eventually was found here in the L.A. County Coroner's Office.

And he says that evidence may have been mishandled, or even worse, tampered with. This is approximately the way the envelope was found in the coroner's office. The vial was protruding from the envelope. Correct. And was the vial sealed? No.

This DNA evidence is flawed. The bottom line is because of this tear, you can't say that this is the evidence that was recovered from the scene. But prosecutors maintain they have a circumstantial case as well.

Stephanie Lazarus reported a gun stolen to the Santa Monica police just two weeks after the murder of Sherry Rae Rasmussen. The weapon that was reported stolen was a five-shot, snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver.

A gun like this one. Ballistics tests and gunshot residue found at the crime scene have led prosecutors to believe that gun was the murder weapon. Prosecutors and cops believe that perhaps she reported the gun stolen so as to obviously make it untraceable. For all they know, it could be at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

But the defense disputes this theory. It's apparently the exact same type of gun. Wrong. It wasn't? Wrong. It's not the same kind of gun. The exact type of gun that was used in committing the homicide has never been identified. After more than four weeks and some 60 witnesses, the jury takes little more than a day to reach a verdict.

We, the jury, in above entitled action, find the defendant, Stephanie Eileen Lazarus, guilty of the crime of murder of Sherry Rasmussen. Guilty of first degree murder.

Well, I am very disappointed. I think the speed of the verdict showed that we never had a chance in this case. 26 years after Sherry Rasmussen's death, her family members finally have their chance to speak in court at the sentencing two months after the conviction. Because of a selfish, brutal act of violence, Sherry's family, extended family and friends have endured extreme heartache and pain.

A pain for which there is no cure. What a waste it was to take Sherry's life because she lives in all of us. John Rutten joins the family to speak about the woman he loved. Sherry Rasmussen had a profound impact on so many people. I was proud that she agreed to be my wife. My heart still races when I look at pictures of her. But Sherry was extraordinary. More for who she was than the way she looked.

After remembering Sherry, Rutten stuns the listeners by apologizing to the Rasmussen family. The Rasmussens have treated me like a son and a brother, contemplating their profound grief, and the fact that Sherry's death occurred because she met and married me brings me to my knees. The victim's statements heard, Stephanie Lazarus is sentenced. The total sentence imposed is 27 years to life in the state penitentiary.

She could be paroled after 16 years, but she will probably spend the rest of her life in prison. This will conclude this matter. Thank you all. Nels and Loretta Rasmussen fought long and hard seeking justice for their murdered daughter. You never get over it. You only learn to live with it. We'll still have the loss of our daughter, and we will feel that loss until we leave this earth.

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Thank you.

Was there a crime committed?

As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't. Guilty by Design dives into the wild story of Alexander and Frank, interior designers who in the 80s landed the jackpot of all clients. We went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up as one of the most wanted people in the United States. What are they guilty of? You can listen to Guilty by Design exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Paramount Podcasts.