Kriti Mehrotra
When 29-year-old newly married Sherri Rasmussen was found dead in the Los Angeles-area condo she shared with her husband on February 24, 1986, the entire nation was left baffled to the core. That’s because, as explored in ABC’s ’20/20: The Killer Down the Hall’ as well as ‘Dateline: Detective Story,’ she had actually been killed in arguably the most heinous ways imaginable. However, it wasn’t until 23 years later that her killer, Stephanie Lazarus, was identified because the officials initially wrongly believed her murder was nothing but a robbery gone terribly wrong.
Stephanie Lazarus Was Infatuated With John Ruetten
It was reportedly back around the late 1970s-early 1980s when Stephanie first came across John Ruetten in the dorms while they were both attending the University of California – Los Angeles. The truth is he was a year ahead of her, yet they still became friends before gradually evolving into something more without being too serious or putting a label on their involvement. Nevertheless, when it was time for the latter to graduate, this junior varsity basketball athlete made it clear she wanted a relationship with him, which he declined since he never really felt that strongly about her.
Stephanie and John still remained in touch, though, which is reportedly just part of why she was heartbroken when she heard he had gotten engaged to Sherri Rasmussen in the mid-1980s. By this time, the former had surprisingly already joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where she kept her infatuation with her ex-boyfriend a secret for years as she rose up the internal ranks. In fact, according to reports, this southern California native eventually even married a fellow officer from the San Fernando Valley as the years passed by, keeping her past a secret.
Stephanie Lazarus Had an Incredible Reputation as a Cop
While Stephanie’s first role in the Los Angeles Police Department was merely as a patrol officer, she soon proved her mettle as a dedicated hard worker and was promoted to work alongside the then police chief in Devonshire for an anti-drug project. Little did she know they would soon develop a mentor-mentee relationship, which further propelled her career to great heights, and she ultimately even became a detective. In fact, her reputation in the department was so stellar that she was once even chosen by internal affairs to investigate other officers accused of wrongdoing or corruption.
It was only after this that Stephanie was moved to the much less stressful art theft unit, which gradually became her true specialization and even earned her the media spotlight several times. However, everything changed for her in the winter of 2009 as this high-achieving cop became the focus of Sherri’s murder investigation 23 years after the fact, owing to her past relationship with John. He and Sherri had actually tied the knot in November 1986, only for her to be found dead less than three months later and after she had complained to her loved ones about being bothered by her.
Stephanie Lazarus Had Meticulously Planned Sherri’s Murder
Apart from the fact Sherri had once called her dad in worry while being followed by a woman with intense eyes in boys’ clothes, it was the other face-to-face incidents that had bothered her more. After all, according to reports, Stephanie had shown up at Sherri’s condo as well as her workplace at least three times shortly following their engagement to warn her to stay away from John. Before this, though, she had contacted him in devastation, leading him to go to her place to talk things out, only for them to somehow end up sleeping together. Sherri later forgave him for this infidelity.
Nevertheless, owing to the initial belief that Sherri’s murder was a robbery gone wrong, considering the look of the scene of the crime, Stephanie wasn’t even looked into until two decades later. In fact, it was only when a saliva sample from a bite mark on the victim’s arm was forensically analyzed that it came to light that her perpetrator was actually a female, later leading officials to look into the late nurse’s personal life. This was when Stephanie’s name came to the forefront of the homicide investigation, yet they still kept it mum till DNA analyses confirmed she was a 100% match to the profile of the assailant.
Stephanie Lazarus is Currently Serving Life Behind Bars
It was in late 2009 that Stephanie was arrested for bludgeoning and shooting Sherri to death in her own home 23 years prior, to which she maintained her innocence by pleading not guilty. She thus went on trial another three years later, at the end of which she was formally convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. During this period, the former cop revealed that while she was responsible for Stepahnie’s demise, she never intended to kill her and had actually shown up at her door in the hopes of seeing her ex.
Stephanie admittedly never turned herself in because she was afraid and ashamed of her actions, yet her alleged remorse two decades after the fact didn’t make anybody feel sympathy for her. She was hence ordered to serve her sentence behind state bars itself, only to be granted parole by the formal shortly after she became eligible for the first time in 2023 owing to good behavior. However, this decision was rendered on October 2, 2024, following a Governor’s referral to the parole board, meaning the 64-year-old remains incarcerated at the mixed-security California Institution for Women in Chino, San Bernardino County, to this day.
Read More: John Ruetten: Where is Sherri Rasmussen’s Husband Now?
