one of the most extraordinary cases in lapd history. toto, were not in kansas anymore. a newlywed murdered months after her wedding. as she walked away, she gave me a big smile and and i lived in that smile for years. and all the time episode the killer was hiding in plain sight. no indication she was ever spoken to? no. then a new detective took a look at an old lead. he just said it s a match. a person no one would have ever suspected of murder. we were going to end this. was suddenly suspect number one. perfect murder. almost. hello. welcome to dateline . she was a new bride married just three months, then she was found murdered. what happened to her remained a mystery for decades partly because police told us the thief must have killed her during a break-in gone bad. they discovered it wasn t a murder, but a suspect whose trail right to their own front door. here is josh mankiewicz with the smoking gun. february 1st, 2009. the dete
mishandled and improperly stored and sealed which compromised the sample. the vile was protruding, rather than being inside the envelope and sealed in order to protect the integrity of the evidence. you can t rely on the scientific results. overland said that hair, blood, fingerprints found at the crime scene did not come from lazarus. as for the weapon the fired the fatal shots? he insisted several other types of guns besides stephanie that could have fired those bullets. as for motive? the defense argued there was no evidence that stephanie lazarus was obsessessed with sherri s husband, john. john was still calling her. and stephanie went to tell sherri, look, you guys are getting married, i d tell him not to call me. after five weeks, it was up to the jury. loretta and nels
locksmithing books, that could explain why there was no forced entry to the condo. and on the day of the murder, then patrol officer lazarus happened to be off duty. the ammunition used in the shooting was the same type issued by the lapd, said prosecutors. and was the same caliber of lazarus off-duty weapon. a.38 revolver she reported stolen just two weeks after the murder. but the real smoking gun was the bite mark dna found at the crime scene. dna was definitely the centerpiece of this case. this shows she was there. without the dna, they could not have placed her at the condo. and the statistics were staggering. a 1. 7 sextillion to one chance that the dna belonged to someone other than stephanie lazarus. defense attorney mark overland aggressively attacked that dna evidence and insisted it was
stephanie s date book was also introduced which mentioned locksmithing books, that could explain why there was no forced entry to the condo. and on the day of the murder, then patrol officer lazarus happened to be off duty. the ammunition used in the shooting was the same type issued by the lapd, said prosecutors, and was the same caliber of lazarus off-duty weapon. a.38 revolver she reported stolen two weeks after the murder. the real smoking gun was the bite mark dna found at the crime scene. dna was definitely the centerpiece of this case. this shows she was there. without the dna, they could not have placed her at the condo. and the statistics were staggering. a 1. 7 sextillion to one chance that the dna belonged to someone other than stephanie lazarus. defense