The Strange Stephanie Lazarus Case

hey you and welcome my name is Mike and in this old video like every videos old we're gonna take a look at the batshit insane case of Stephanie Lazarus when sherri rasmussen was found murdered in her home in 1986 it seemed to have been a robbery gone wrong and so the case went cold for nigh on 20 years when like the man himself that came back from the dead in this video you got your crazy love triangle you're crazy interview with crazy lady who was a cop by the way and then your 20 years of people pointing the finger and nobody doing anything about it until they did so let's stop kicking the tires [Music] era story begins with a man by the name of John Rutan who was basically caught in the middle of this entire affair on the affair he was having John was born in 1959 and began attending UCLA in 1978 while attending university studying mechanical engineering he met a certain Stephanie Lazarus sent familiar she's the title of the video what are the odds Stephanie was also a fellow UCLA student she was studying political science and guess what they started dating they kind of had an on-again off-again relationship it was never official they were more like friends with benefits now while they were fooling around in university Stephanie threw a couple of red flags for example she'd photographed him naked while he was asleep harmless stuff not really but this went on for a number of years until they both graduated he would get a job with a harddrive manufacturer and Stephanie hmm wouldn't you know it would join the LAPD getting her badge in 1983 in June 1984 John would later meet sherri rasmussen a director of nursing at glendale activist medical center as the year went on things began getting really serious with Sherri having diamonds in her eyes but Stephanie oh boy she had not forgotten that old Dear John even though it's updated in about two years previous when they both graduated University in 1984 Stephanie true a surprise birthday party for John it was his 25th birthday she was totally out of the loop that he was in a pretty serious relationship with another woman Sherri and when she found out that John was seeing somebody else oh boy Stephanie would even write to John's mother telling her of how heartbroken she was [Music] the next year Stephanie roughed up to John's condo to get closure one final bang they were good to go John was engaged to Sherry at the time and remember how I said one final bang and they were good to go I lied that just seemed to lead Stephanie on even more she would pop by to John and sharise all the time and this made Sherri feel very uncomfortable no [ __ ] she knew they had a ting in college Sherri and John they would get married in 1985 seven II didn't give a [ __ ] one time Stephanie even popped by Sheree's office to tell sherry that things weren't over between her and John and on if Stephanie couldn't have John no one could which is a totally normal thing to say if you're a cartoon villain Shari would relate her fears to her parents that she might be dealing with in a job that she taught Stephanie might be had to get her a time she would even come out of the condo she lived in with John in van noise and see Stephanie standing outside in her LAPD uniform and a few days before what happened Sherri even told her parents she believed she was being followed early on the 24th of February 1986 John left the condo he lived in with his wife up three months for a lovely day of work ahead 29 year-old Sherri Rasmussen was due to start her job later that day though she was supposed to give a motivational speech at work which in my experience I just usually Krux a [ __ ] and she was not in the humor for it she was actually she was gonna pull a sickie I'm sick I come in so Sherri would stay at home for the day and this is when things get dark darker so John had left for work sherry was at home and at 9:45 a.m. and neighbor noticed their garage door was open with Sherry's BMW an engagement gift from John twas gone John and Sherry's sister would call her Trev the day no answer and at around midday a maid working in a nearby apartment heard what she thought was two people fighting and then falling she didn't hear any gunshots and she didn't file a police report because she thought it might you know just be a domestic disputes the head of it John would eventually return home errors later and find his wife dead on the floor she had been shot three times the place it wasn't bits broken vases toppled sideboards bloody handprints she had been shot through a quilt in order to muffle the sound sherry had put up quite a struggle she had defensive wounds someone had attempted to bind her and she had bruises on her face she also had a bite mark on her arm like someone had tried to take a chomp out of her it seemed like she had been surprised while at home she was wearing her nightgown and so forth so who who could have done this to Sherry wink-wink well obviously it was a burglar who someone had broken in to steal electronic equipment there was a shitload of it stacked beside Sherry's body so they were in there they got surprised by sherry a struggle ensued they killed her and then they made a hasty l retreat in Sherry's car hence why not that much was missing her jewelry and our stuff was still there and wire car was gone the silver BMW would be discovered two miles from the couple's house 10 days after the murder but give investigators jack-shit the only utter ting missing was John and Sherry's marriage license maybe the burglar was the sentimental type well they were half that word at least the lead detective did look into John but he was quickly ruled out and he moved away shortly after there had been burglaries in the area a few days after two men had robbed woman at gunpoint a few months after the murder the same two held another unsuspecting woman at gunpoint after she walked into a break-in her house was just a few blocks away they were described as Latinos between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 6 inches tall they therefore emerged as the primary suspects in Sherry's death but they were never found one of the suspects was carrying a gun of the same caliber used to kill sherry so seemed to match up but Sherry's parents they were like hmm you know shortly before our daughter was brutally murdered she had mentioned a woman by the name of Stephanie Lazarus who was stalking her and intimidating her I don't know might be worth a goo the detective made a note of it would dismissed it pretty quickly even after another detective said hmm there's a bite mark on Sherry's body that's it's like something you know if that's more of a female thing to do men don't usually bite but women do maybe there's something off don't worry about it it's a burglary you solve them and so time passed with jock [ __ ] to show for it the police kept their line of thinking burglary gone wrong and this is Los Angeles in the 1980s they had bigger fish to fry however Sherry's parents were like we disagree the fact that someone was able to mask the gunshot with a blanket kind of proves more that this wasn't just a struggle this was a deliberate murder Sherry's parents kept it up as many many years went by press conferences rewards offering to pay for DNA testing the investigators told them they were watching too much TV it's always funny when people say that because covering these stories you know on that chapter the truth is always a lot more batshit than fiction is at one point Sherry's parents were told by a detective you should do yourselves a favor and move on with your lives good idea [Music] so what was Stephanie Lazarus doing during this time I wonder well she was having a very successful career rising up the ranks of the LAPD eventually becoming a detective and marrying a fellow police officer Scott young and they adopted an infant daughter she became quite well respected sell it off highly by her fellow officers having an unblemished record for example she helped fundraise to provide reliable round-the-clock child care for parents who worked on the force at one point she even started her own private investigation company unique investigations all the little children [Music] and that was that until a couple more years and by couple more I mean about 18 when in 2004 LAPD criminalist Jennifer Butterworth took a look into the case she was examining the forensic evidence from the now cold case of sherri rasmussen using modern you know investigative techniques not gonna stuff using the forensic evidence from the crime scene Jennifer found the suspects saliva which don't turn tone matched what an unknown female she continued digging and found the report that Sherry's parents made that's someone a woman had been after Sherri not long before the incident she put two and two together pretty quickly and was like hey is that anybody he looked into who this who this woman was that Sherri you know said was following her oh she's a detective you don't want me to look into it you're still saying it's a burglary okay fine I mean we should we should look into it though maybe okay fine I'll forget I said anything it wouldn't be until 2009 that the sherry recipes in case would be given a fresh pair of eyes and by that I mean two pairs Jim not all and Pete Barba they started from scratch with the burglary theory at the window from the get-go their first thought was that the attempted robbery was staged and they knew their suspect was female and on their list was old Stephanie back from the list of dead leads I only wish there was a name for someone who came back from the dead Stephanie was now working on art theft cases by the way a very classy affair which tracked stolen art and art forgeries and so all the other suspects women who in one way or another may have had disputes with sherry they were all eliminated due to DNA testing but Stephanie she was a Kulak you don't go after you all which i think is the motto of corrupt police officers everywhere something like that so would Stephanie being the only remaining suspect Jim and Pete the two detectives that to look into her covert like she wasn't even listed as a suspect in their files she was just listed as number five and it was especially awkward when Stephanie's husband Scott young his his office was literally across the hall from the cold case division kind of awkward when you're going to get a coffee and so digging into Stephanie they discovered that she had reported her backup off-duty gun stolen 13 days before sherry was murdered wow I wonder if that gun I wonder if it was the same color of course it was she likely booked it in the ocean specifically in the Pacific interestingly she didn't report her gun stolen in her own Police Department she reported it in Santa Monica as if she didn't want people maybe to know so what else do they have well stephanie was off the day Sherri was killed and would know enough about crime scenes to make it look like something it wasn't and so stephanie was put under surveillance and after nearly two weeks she tossed a soda cup and straw into a trash can the detectives would retrieve bingo due to her being an armed police officer her arrest had to be carefully planned they lured her to Department headquarters under the pretense that they had a suspect involved in an art theft they needed her to interrogate to get there she would have to surrender her gun so she rocked up and then quickly discovered that there was no one there she was supposed to talk to and she had been hoodwinked and so the investigators they brought up sherri rasmussen casual-like prepare yourself for this one stefano Cano my partner hey great hey sir how's it going no no uh-uh come see but this is a I don't want to bring this up in your squad room oh no it's like I think we recorded okay we'll bring your government civilian right yeah well I don't want to talk about this in the squadron because I don't know who people are listening [ __ ] and we go to my side everybody's always wondering when they're available okay but like we're talking about being business that we've been assigned a case that we've been looking at okay it's a new case and we're doing the case there's some notes to see that as far as your name being mentioned okay do you know John Rudin John Rutan Rutten oh yeah went to school with him you did yeah how long did you know him gosh I went to school and um let's see what did you see late 1978 I started and you know medam dead school at the dorms [Music] we guy's friends close friends yeah we're very close yeah I mean what's this all about well it's regarding it's a case we're working on it involves John and in there some of the statements were we reviewed you know there's nose and stuff that he knew you and stuff oh yeah really good friends um lid to the dorms for I was in the dorms for two years you guys live in the same to him yeah okay yeah Dijkstra okay well you guys just friends or anything else or yeah we were real good friends yeah was there any a relationship or anything to develop between you guys yeah and I knew he dated uh-huh you know um I mean is it what's this all about well it's relating to his wife okay okay did you know her not really I mean I knew that he got very yours ago uh-huh did you ever meet her god I don't know um you know she was or anything well I thank God it's been a long time ago I I may have met her um geez you know yeah well let me say let me ask you you said you dated John how long did you guys date I mean what are you guys is this something I mean you said I was going to interview something about art in hell yeah there's I mean Stephanie here's the situation's basically we you know we knew that this when we saw this in the in this chrono that maybe you know there was some relationship there that's what the chrono seemed to indicate and we didn't want to come up to you at your desk and ask those kinds of questions or do anything you know how up there people can see what's going on if you want to an interview room or people are in there give us applause so we wanted to afford you some privacy some confidentiality to talk about this because we thought it might be you know something you know you're married to someone else obviously and so forth and that you may not want to you know talk about these things in that setting or someone you know we don't want the rumor mill or gossip or any that kind of stuff I to me you know that's been a million years ago I mean you know what year is it now 2009 I mean I graduated in 82 82 yeah um you know we dated I dated other guys I'm sure he gains other girls some did you ever met his wife I may have do you know do you remember her name or anything or um for what she did for a living or where she worked or anything about her well I think she I'm gonna say I think she was a nurse um I mean I don't you know again I mean what you know I don't understand why you're talking about some guy dated a million years ago do you know what happened to his wife yeah I know she got killed for the numbers name ah Shelly um Sheri I know something maybe you know like I said it's been so many years and um from all the years as far as you can remember you don't deal you remember ever talking to her just well a she see I said earlier you know I mean I may have you know I may have talked to her um I it sound I you know you mentioned a hospital maybe you may have talked her to a hospital yeah um yeah I may have and I'm like you know why are you calling me if you're either dating her living with her married her I cuz i honest don't remember the timeframe I'm like come on knock it off and I'm now I'm thinking I put me I may have gone too and say hey you know what you know it is he dating you he's but he's bothering me and so I'm thinking that we had a conversation about that one or two maybe I don't even know that I knew where they lived I know I'm saying I don't if I knew where they lived and I'd been there if it was for something social I and I can't see how many times I I saw her face-to-face you know he lived on Roscoe did I ever see her there I don't know I mean I may have seen their disappointment on Roscoe I may have met her there um you know I mean but she didn't have any issues with her right no I mean you know obviously if he was dating me and dating her I probably said hey pic or something you know no pads in um I can't say that we ever screamed or yeah you know it's I'm crazy but you're only gonna like I mean you can kind of bubbly oh I'm people think I'm really hyper but I can I can get I can get upset you know and and I'm then I forget five seconds later you know you don't know how glad you and you go ah you know um you know I don't know it's like I said this stuff's been so long ago um you know I'm sure as soon as I walk out here I'll go shoot I did 25 things I'll remember um you know but you'll call us there I mean you'll just come over our desk yeah I mean I I don't know what else you need to know like I said some of Sherry's friends said that you and her were having a problem because of the John situation well number one I don't know who her friends are um because again I don't I don't recall if you did tell me where you met her I don't even who these friends are a problem well that's what I mean is it you guys have problems with each other and words are being exchanged and it's all relating to John you know what i I just I can't say cancer no I did that doesn't ring a bell I mean I mean it seemed like yeah you would recall something if I was going off on you right I think I mean I would think well on some of the on this case you know this is current with 86 right detective process the scene things of that nature they did fingerprints and all that stuff you know anyway you know the staff you didn't been doing this longer than I have well about that I get 26 years on going on 26:19 so but you know as they processed everything they did the best they could at that time and they looked at a lot of a lot of people different things in this case and you're right if you guys are claiming that I'm a suspect then you know I got a problem with you know with that okay so you know if you're if you're doing this as an interrogation you're saying hey I'm a suspect well now I got a problem with you know now you're accusing me of this is that what you're is that what you're saying we're trying to figure out what happened Stephan well I was you know I'm just saying ideally what I need to get a lawyer for accusing me a reason you know you don't have to I mean you know I'm here of your own free will I mean oh well I know but I mean you're not you're not under arrest you can walk out you can leave whenever you like well you know I'm trying to give you some background of you know how I knew him and now you're telling me that some somebody's saying that we had this big old fight and I don't even know what you're talking about um you know and I don't want to you know get in trouble for something that I didn't even do or you're saying I did something okay no II understand I mean how would you guys like it if the tables were turned on you I understand no no that's why we're telling you I mean you're free to go whenever you want if this makes you uncomfortable you want to get one now you're starting to make me uncomfortable the thing is I mean tectors did what they could at that time on the crime scene okay and the burglary thing you're talking about that is an angle that they looked at I go but now we're looking at everything else on the case because nobody was ever arrested on the case I don't know that or not now we'd like to do is obviously you know about all the DNA stuff and things of the nature that you know gets done on cases nowadays you know if we asked you for a DNA swab would you be willing to give us one maybe cuz now now now because now I'm thinking I probably need to talk to a lawyer I mean well I cuz I know how this stuff works okay don't get me wrong you're right I have been doing this long time yeah and I wish I have been recording this because because now it sounds like you know there's you know you're selling these people say I'm fighting with her and now you sounds like you're trying to you know I've been doing this a long time we're not okay and now it almost sounds like you're trying to pin something on me now I got that sense what it gets to in these on these cases and you know it as well as I do our job is to identify and eliminate some I can't believe this so if we ask you to point it was a DNA sample buccal swab so we can identify or eliminate you should be willing to do that maybe cuz I know this III that's where we're at - I mean because right now from looking at the evidence it's you know it's possible we may have some DNA at the location that's great and we're gonna do what we can to try to put this thing together and your names in the book these people are pointing at you for whatever reason I don't know why that's just crazy I mean that's just that's absolutely crazy and it would be irresponsible in our part not to look at it I know you guys have to do your job and I guess someone have to contact somebody so that's fair I mean it because I know how this stuff works I mean I I just can't believe it we understand that I mean if we were in your position I mean we would feel the same way I just can't even believe I mean it's just I mean I'm shocked I'm really shocked that somebody would be blamed saying that I did this I mean we had a fight so I went and killed her I mean come on well that's after they requested a DNA sample she nope tried out and left the room she was then arrested like right outside okay Stephanie you know you have the right to remain silent you understand yes anything you say may be used against you in court do you understand yes you have the right to the presence of an attorney before and during any question do you understand you cannot afford an attorney want to be appointed for you free of charge before any questioning if you want do you understand you want to talk to us right now all right okay this is crazy this is happen I'm like I'm like in shock I'm totally in shock a surprise twist to a decades-old murder mystery LAPD detectives have found a killer and she is one of their own by the Suki's live at the cold case that took 23 years to solve Trisha Christine and Carlos this apartment building behind me here on Belle Bulova they're full of Boulevard that is where 23 years ago a woman was found murdered inside her apartment and that case went unsold for 23 years until this morning that's when investigators arrested a veteran LAPD female detective for that woman's murder after her arrest Stephanie was allowed to retire early from the LAPD she was held in a Los Angeles County Jail bail would be set at ten million dollars in cash reason being the case was strong she might flee the country or obtain weapons true her police officer husband the trial began in 2012 prosecutors argued Stephanie's motive for killing sherri rasmussen was pure jealousy in his opening argument the lead prosecutor summed up the case as a bite a bullet a gun barrel on a broken heart that's the evidence they'll prove to you that defendant Stephanie Lazarus murdered sherri rasmussen several times trip to trial john Rutan became quite emotional and he said having sex with Stephanie while he was engaged to his future wife was a mistake that's what tinkin we're dick who gave you he also had sex with Stephanie after his wife was murdered like for [ __ ] sake the defense just attacked the evidence more or less saying that so much time and past the quality would have degraded become tainted police never identified Stephanie as even after Sherry's parents did and so Stephanie's rights did you process had been adversely affected the evidence they said was circumstantial prosecutors said in a statement of use filed in court that Lazarus misused her police training in the most profound way imaginable by utilizing that training and experience to commit murder and to cover up her crime Lazarus portrayed the trust placed on her by the Los Angeles Police Department and by people of Los Angeles in order to pursue her own murderous ends that she did people in the state of California versus Stephanie Eileen Lazarus case number V eight three five seven four two three we the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant Stephanie Eileen Lazarus guilty of the crime of murder of Sherri Rasmussen in violation of Penal Code section 187 a a felony as charged in count one of the information we further by the murderer was of the first-degree 52 year old Stephanie Lazarus was eventually convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years in prison she will be eligible for parole in 2030 for there were a couple of lawsuits after the trial one by the rasmussen who well yeah they had been pointing a Stephanie since Jump Street and another by Jennifer Butterworth who claimed that when she discovered the female DNA from the forensic evidence and started you know asking you about Stephanie she faced harassment and was transferred neither lawsuit went anywhere it's thought that at one point Stephanie may have even learned of the investigation into her as so many evidence the LAPD had what they couldn't find they didn't find was someone cooking the books maybe miss placing a few things which you know may have been used against Stephanie or we're supposed to be used against Stephanie but ultimately we're in secretly confinement and sure at one point Stephanie did actually work in the van noise division so she would have had unrestricted access to share your s Pearson's case on all the files she could you know easily hey just gonna put that in my purse pocket whatever but I think this case really comes back to the the police you know don't investigate your own mentality because if they did do that back in 1986 this case would have been a hell of a lot shorter they're probably not as interesting which is weird to say bad thank you so so much for watching I really really appreciate it if you'd like to watch some more of my videos please work away you can and I will see you as always real soon in the next video take care of yourselves like you [Music] you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 2,297,607

Keywords: that chapter, stephanie lazarus, stephanie lazarus 2019, stephanie lazarus interrogation, sherri rasmussen, john ruetten, stephanie lazarus documentary

Id: k1lOuZMyEso

Length: 30min 48sec (1848 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DivineMacabre]

Good episode! I watched a body language analysis of her interrogation a while back....total sociopath.

[u/[deleted]]

Those weird faces she makes are very annoying.

[u/RachInNH]

Mikes wink at the end though :)

[u/Zorak6]

I'm so glad he did this one.. and he did such a good job of it too.