it was a devastating day. she was 29 years old and jus in the prime of her career althea kennedy was sherri s boss at the hospital and had originally hired her we couldn t believe it. first of all, like how could someone do this? people crying. people upset i mean, the hospital was like tomb, you know so, the loss was real palpable sherri had just married three months earlier to john ruetten. where the happily married unusually so. months after the wedding, john found sherri sprawled dead he might seem a likely suspect but john was cleared almos immediately. the lapd focused instead o evidence that this was a burglary that turned violent this was no accident.
she met and dated john ruetten long before he and sherri go married. after graduating in 1982, lazarus surprised he family by joining the lapd this when only a handful o women entered the force. i don t think i knew that she was applying she seemed to be someon above suspicion. stephanie ilene lazarus had grown up i southern, california, a tomboy of sorts and loved sports. she attended u.c.l.a. where sh played basketball. it wa during her college days that she met and dated john ruetten long before he and sherri go married. after graduating in 1982, lazarus surprised he family by joining the lapd this when only a handful o women entered the force. i don t think i knew that she was applying stephanie s brother, steven i was very proud of steph. thought it was a cool thing. stephanie lazarus quickly rose through the ranks of lapd from patrol officer to detective. she was popular friendly, and well-regarded. her assignments also include project d. a. r. e., a dru
hi. have a seat that is when detectives revealed that this conversatio wasn t about art do you know john ruetten? john ruetten? john ruetten? you said you dated john. ho long did you guys date i mean, what? are you guy is this something i mean you said i was going t interview somebody about art and now you re - detective lazarus seeme uncomfortable and vague in her answers, especially when detectives asked about sherr rasmussen. you know, i may have talked to her. i it sound i you mentioned a hospita maybe. you may have talked t her in a hospital? yeah. yeah. i may have you know, i m thinking bac now. you guys are bringing u all of these old memories. detectives turned up th heat did you ever fight with her
may have had a motive to har her. three of them w eliminated almost immediatel for insufficient motive. but there were still tw names left. one of them was coworker a woman named debra tha worked with sherri rasmussen i the glendale hospital. thi person of interest was later placed by sherri rasmussen i an official capacity and problems followed almost immediately after that so, there was bad blood between them there was a motive. debra had moved to northern california. nuttall asked loca law enforcement to watch her and secretly try to snag a sample of her dna fo comparison testing. in the meantime, nuttall learned more about the second woman. he contacted john ruetten sherri s former husband and no remarried and living in sa diego. john involved he had been involved in a dating relationship with stephani lazarus. stephanie lazarus that was the other name on the shor list of suspects. nuttal
sherri rasmussen. she seemed obsessed with john and jealous of his new wife. she was the woman with the scary eyes, who d been stalking sherri to nuttall, it seemed to ad up. sherri s purse and all o its contents stolen during the crime were recovered soon afte the murder, except for one ite inside the only thing to this da that was never recovered was john and sherri s marriage certificate. after three months of intense secretive investigation, nuttall s team needed one last piece of evidence that would either clear detective lazarus or incriminate her we needed a sample of her dna. our investigators were no cut out for undercover surveillance work.