# Murder of Sherri Rasmussen
The murder of Sherri Rasmussen was the February 24, 1986 killing of a 29-year-old Glendale hospital nursing director in the California condominium she shared with her husband of three months, John Ruetten, a crime treated as a burglary-homicide for 23 years until DNA from a bite mark identified the killer as Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, a veteran [Los Angeles Police Department](https://www.edgepedia.org/los-angeles-police-department) detective and Ruetten's former girlfriend.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Victim | Sherri Rasmussen, 29, a nursing director at a Glendale hospital, killed February 24, 1986 in the condo she shared with her husband of three months, John Ruetten[3](https://apnews.com/article/stephanie-lazarus-detective-sherri-rasmussen-killing-parole-fee7812abf96bcbe35129b5dff4b7c70) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) |
| Cause of death | Three gunshots to the chest, one a contact wound, with wrist abrasions consistent with a rope or cord and a bite mark on her arm[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) • [4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) |
| Initial theory | Burglary-homicide or "hot prowl" home invasion, despite no evidence of forced entry[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) • [4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) |
| DNA breakthrough | 2005 testing of the coroner's-freezer bite-mark swab showed a female profile with no CODIS hit; a 2009 discarded-straw sample matched it[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/) • [6](https://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/justice/lazarus-trial-cold-case) |
| Conviction | First-degree murder verdict on March 8, 2012, after little more than a day of jury deliberation[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) |
| Sentence | 25 years to life for the murder plus two years for the weapons enhancement, 27 years to life total[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) |
| Parole | Granted November 2023 after 14 years in prison, then rescinded, with a new suitability hearing ordered within 120 days[7](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle) • [4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) |
## Background
Sherri Rasmussen was a 29-year-old nursing director at a Glendale hospital. She had married John Ruetten three months before the attack.[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) Ruetten had dated Stephanie Lazarus casually for a few years before the wedding; the two had become close friends at UCLA, where they lived in the same dorm and dated on and off, and Ruetten began dating Rasmussen seriously in 1985.[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) • [5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/)
## The murder and initial investigation
Rasmussen was killed on February 24, 1986 in the condominium she shared with Ruetten. The pathologist found three gunshots to the chest, all fatal, one a contact wound and at least one inflicted while she was lying on the floor or against a similar hard surface; she also had wrist abrasions consistent with a rope or cord and a bite mark on her arm.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) • [4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531)
**The burglary theory.** Original investigators strongly believed Rasmussen was the victim of a burglary that escalated into murder, treating the scene as a "hot prowl" home invasion, despite no evidence of forced entry.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) • [4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) That assumption, which pointed toward male burglars, directed the investigation away from a female suspect for more than two decades.[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html)
## Cold-case review and DNA breakthrough
In 2001 the LAPD Cold Case Unit inherited more than 9,000 unsolved murders spanning more than two decades, including Rasmussen's case.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) In December 2004 the unit reopened the case and asked the coroner's office to locate the bite-mark tissue sample, which had been in a freezer in the coroner's evidence room since 1986.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) The sample was a sealed vial containing a cotton swab with saliva from the bite wound on Rasmussen's left forearm.[6](https://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/justice/lazarus-trial-cold-case)
Lab results returned in late January 2005 showed the bite had been made by a woman, undermining the two-man burglary theory; the profile produced no hit in CODIS, the FBI's national DNA database.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer) • [5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/) The LAPD did not move aggressively on the finding, and four more years passed before a [Van Nuys](https://www.edgepedia.org/van-nuys) detective asked whether the victim had any female enemies.[7](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle)
**The straw.** Undercover officers followed Lazarus and recovered a cup, and a soda straw, she had discarded in a public trash can. At the LAPD Scientific Investigation Division, a profile developed from saliva on the straw was compared with the bite-mark profile, and a technician confirmed the match to detectives on May 29, 2009.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) • [5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/) • [6](https://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/justice/lazarus-trial-cold-case) Lazarus was arrested on June 5, 2009.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623)
## Trial and conviction
Lazarus was charged by information dated December 18, 2009, with willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder, with an allegation that she personally used a handgun.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) The prosecution established that Lazarus was in love with Ruetten, was devastated by his 1985 engagement to Rasmussen, and had confronted Rasmussen at her workplace; the bullets were of the type used by LAPD officers, fired from a gun similar to one Lazarus reported stolen two weeks after the shooting.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623)
On March 8, 2012, after little more than a day of deliberation, a jury of eight women and four men convicted Lazarus of beating and shooting Rasmussen three times in the chest.[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) The court imposed 25 years to life for the murder plus two years for the weapons enhancement.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623) The trial court found the 23-year pre-accusation delay justified and not a violation of due process, and the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence.[1](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623)
## Aftermath: civil litigation and the cover-up question
The Rasmussen family sued both Lazarus personally and the LAPD, hoping litigation would bring answers; a preliminary ruling that the department was immune to this type of lawsuit was on appeal as of 2012, and a judge ultimately threw the case out on statute-of-limitations grounds.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer) • [7](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle) According to Detective Stearns, a department re-investigation did not find evidence of an internal cover-up, but missing evidence from the case file left part of the mystery unsolved.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer)
## What has changed since 2023
Lazarus became eligible for parole in 2023 under a California law giving special consideration to youthful offenders who committed their crimes before age 26; she was 25 at the time of the murder.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) After her conviction she had continued to profess her innocence, but changed her story in 2023 when she became parole-eligible.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) In November 2023 a parole panel decided she should be released after 14 years in prison, having taken anger-management classes and been deemed a low risk to re-offend; the decision was later reversed.[7](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle)
The parole grant was later rescinded following a hearing.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531) • [3](https://apnews.com/article/stephanie-lazarus-detective-sherri-rasmussen-killing-parole-fee7812abf96bcbe35129b5dff4b7c70) ABC News reported that the board found good cause to rescind the grant and scheduled another suitability hearing within 120 days.[4](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531)
## Significance
The case was solved by DNA techniques that did not exist at the time of the crime: a bite-mark swab stored since 1986 yielded a female profile in 2005, and a discarded straw produced the matching sample in 2009.[2](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html) • [5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/) The original file had cited Lazarus as John Ruetten's ex-girlfriend with the notation "P.O." (police officer), and re-investigators working from a female-suspect assumption produced a five-name list that included her.[5](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/) Rasmussen's parents died without learning why the investigation took a quarter-century, and no evidence has emerged of a deliberate cover-up, though missing case-file evidence left part of the record unexplained.[7](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle) • [8](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer)
## References
1. [People v. Lazarus, B241172 (California Court of Appeal, 2015)](https://cases.justia.com/california/court-of-appeal/2015-b241172.pdf?ts=1436817623)
2. [Ex-LAPD detective found guilty of killing romantic rival in 1986, Los Angeles Times (March 2012)](https://www.latimes.com/local/la-xpm-2012-mar-09-la-me-0309-lapd-verdict-20120308-story.html)
3. [Parole rescinded for former LA police detective convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend's wife in 1986, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/stephanie-lazarus-detective-sherri-rasmussen-killing-parole-fee7812abf96bcbe35129b5dff4b7c70)
4. [Former LAPD detective who murdered her ex-lover's wife, hid crime for decades remains behind bars, ABC News](https://abcnews.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531)
5. [The Lazarus File, The Atlantic (June 2011)](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-lazarus-file/308499/)
6. [A bite, bullet and broken heart: Former LA cop stands trial for murder, CNN (February 2012)](https://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/justice/lazarus-trial-cold-case)
7. [It took LAPD 23 years to ID one of their own as culprit in fatal love triangle, Los Angeles Times (May 2025)](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle)
8. [Sherri Rasmussen's Murder: Tracing the Shocking Resolution to a 23-Year-Old Cold Case, Vanity Fair (July 2012)](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Law and justice › Criminal law and penal justice › Serial killers and notorious murder cases (biographies and cases) › Notorious single murder cases*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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