The victim's family is not commenting, but has read through the transcripts and seen excerpts of the interview posted online. "The family had questions about this woman, which was reported to the LAPD back at the time, and the interview with Stephanie Lazarus leads to the answers to many of the questions that the family had." "That is an interview that the Los Angeles Police Department should have been done back in 1986," said family attorney John Taylor. The Rasmussen family long suspected Lazarus in the murder, even urging the police department to look within. "Can I make my-"įor the Rasmussen family, last year's break in the case and arrest of Lazarus was long overdue. "You're going down to the women's facility at Century Sheriffs," Stearns told his partner. The interrogation ended with Lazarus being taken into custody. "Well, one of the concerns I had as we were looking at some of the notes is some of Sherri's friends said that you and her were having problems because of the John situation," Jaramillo said. Jaramillo eventually addressed the tense relationship the victim's friends said she had with the suspect. Once in the jail facility, where Lazarus had to surrender her gun before entering, casual conversation began to turn awkward as the detective's partner, Det. On the morning of June 5, 2009, the detective assigned to the case, Daniel Jaramillo, approached Lazarus under the pretense of needing her expertise in questioning a man who had information on an art theft case. An undercover officer was assigned to follow her and finally collected DNA samples from the veteran officer. New interviews were conducted with the victim's husband, John Ruetten, her father and other family members. DNA evidence revealed saliva found on the victim's body belonged to a woman and not a man. In 2003, the case was re-examined as part of a slew of cold cases dating back to the 1960's. While the victim's father did not know Lazarus by name, he urged police to look to his daughter's widowed husband's ex-girlfriend, Lazarus. Rasmussen's family urged police to keep the investigating going. The awkward, sometimes tense interrogation came as a shock to the suspect, who eventually asked, "Am I on 'Candid Camera'?"īut, in fact, Lazarus soon was under arrest for allegedly gunning down Sherri Rae Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nurse, in 1986, less than four months after Rasmussen married Lazarus' former lover.Īt the time of the murder, police believed Rasmussen was the victim of a botched robbery by a suspect or suspects who had committed other crimes in the neighborhood, but no one was arrested and it eventually became a cold case. Stephanie Lazarus to an interrogation room in the basement of the Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters under false pretenses. 25, 2010 — - New details on a Los Angeles cold case that led to the murder arrest of a respected police detective show how the case played out like a suspenseful Hollywood script.Ĭourt transcripts and video of an interrogation on the morning of June 5, 2009, reveal how police detectives lured fellow Los Angeles Police Det.
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