The Murder of Sherri Rasmussen: A Killer in Uniform
A Bright Future Cut Short
Sherri Rasmussen was 29 years old and exceptionally successful. Born in Washington and raised in Arizona, Sherri was a brilliant student who entered college at just 16. By her late 20s, she was the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, an unpaid assistant clinical professor, and a highly respected leader among her peers. In June 1984, she met John Ruetten, a mechanical engineering graduate from UCLA, and the two fell deeply in love. They married in November 1985 and moved into a beautiful condominium in Van Nuys, California. Sherri had everything to look forward to, but her new life was quickly overshadowed by an unsettling presence from her husband's past.
The Shadow of Obsession
Before meeting Sherri, John had occasionally dated a fellow UCLA student named Stephanie Lazarus. While John viewed their relationship as casual, Stephanie had grown deeply obsessed with him. When she learned that John was marrying Sherri, Stephanie fell into a deep depression, writing about her despair in her journals and even sending a letter to John's mother. Her obsession soon turned into active harassment. Stephanie, who graduated from the police academy and became a uniformed LAPD officer in 1983, began stalking Sherri. She showed up at Sherri's hospital in uniform to threaten her, and on another occasion, Sherri found Stephanie standing in their living room. Terrified, Sherri confided in her father, Nels Rasmussen, that she was being stalked by a woman with "crazy eyes."
A Brutal Crime Scene
On the morning of February 24, 1986, John left for work, while Sherri stayed home to nurse a back injury. Later that day, neighbors noticed their garage door was open and found Sherri's purse abandoned nearby. When John returned home that evening, he found shattered glass on the driveway and their BMW missing. Inside the condominium, he made a horrific discovery. Sherri was dead on the living room floor. She had been brutally beaten, bitten on the arm, and shot three times through a quilted blanket. The scene was highly chaotic, with a toppled credenza and a bloody handprint next to the alarm panic button. Lead detective Lyle Mayer quickly decided the crime was a botched burglary committed by two men, ignoring the family's pleas to investigate Stephanie.
The Cold Case and the Frozen Evidence
For twenty-three years, the case remained cold. John moved away to escape the trauma, and Sherri's parents were repeatedly rebuffed by detectives who told them they "watched too much television." But the truth was preserved in a tiny tube. During the initial investigation, a forensic technician had swabbed a bite mark on Sherri's arm. In 2004, criminalist Jennifer Francis analyzed the swab and discovered the DNA belonged to a female, completely dismantling the theory of two male burglars. However, her supervisors ignored the finding. It was not until 2009 that cold case detectives Jim Nuttall and Pete Barba re-examined the file and realized the only female suspect remaining on their list was one of their own: Stephanie Lazarus, who was now a prominent LAPD art theft detective.
A Sting Operation and a Confession
Because Stephanie was an active, armed detective, investigators had to act with extreme caution. They set up a sting operation, inviting her to assist on a fake case in a secure jail facility where she would be required to leave her firearm at the door. Once she was unarmed, they brought her into an interrogation room. In a chilling video recording, Stephanie repeatedly played dumb, claiming she barely remembered John and could not recall ever meeting Sherri. While she sat in the room, detectives matched her DNA from a discarded cup to the bite mark swab. Stephanie was arrested, and in 2012, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life. In a 2023 parole hearing, Stephanie finally confessed to the brutal murder, though her parole was ultimately rescinded in late 2024.
This week we cover the heartbreaking murder of Sherri Rasmussen, the decades-long fight of a family seeking justice, and the chilling story of how a police officer almost got away with the perfect crime.