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
apologize that it took us over two decades to give them that closure. you feel better? the most gratifying moment of my career. i was extremely happy. i said, i feel like i knew it all along. back in l.a., the lazarus family also got the news. well, it was numbing. i m guessing that one of the things you said or thought was, they got it wrong somehow. this is a mistake. absolutely. some error has been made here? yes. it will be cleared up by the end of the day, yeah. it didn t happen? didn t happen. stephanie lazarus didn t go home that day after her arrest. bail was set at $10 million. much higher than most murder cases. the judge considered her a flight risk, citing the strong case against her, and for the lapd? it was a
we really did not expect this result with the state of the evidence and the way mr. overland presented the case, so it s devastating. for the lapd, a cold case was finally solved, but with painful side effects. i m very pleased, but it s bittersweet. and i m thrilled that the conclusion has been reached and that some form of justice has been brought to a family that has grieved for far too long. we would much rather that this not be a los angeles police detective. that s for sure. i ve known stephanie for 5 years. this is a tragedy on a bunch of levels. this is not something that we are proud of in that we had a los angeles police detective involved here. stephanie lazarus was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. as for that wrongful death civil lawsuit that sherri rasmussen s parents filed against lazarus, they were awarded $10 million. and so, ended the case of a detective
we are trying to figure out what happened, stephanie. well, i was you know, i m just saying. you know? do i need to get a lawyer? you re accusing me? moments later, it came to an end, as it must have felt uncomfortable as all of them. i know you guys have had to do your job and i guess i have to contact somebody, so. that s fair. i mean, because i know how this stuff works. and then stephanie lazarus was read the same words she, herself, had read to hundreds of suspects over the years. stephanie, you know you have the right to remain silent? do you understand? yes. and for just a moment, you can see the handcuffs placed on her by her fellow officers. i m like in shock. i m totally in shock. word of lazarus arrest traveled fast to tucson, where detective nuttall was standing by to deliver the news to the rasmussen family. tell me what you said. you were right, folks. you folks were right and i
may have had a motive to harm her. three of them we eliminated almost immediately for insufficient motive. but there were still two names left. one of them was a coworker. a woman named debra that worked with sherri rasmussen in the glendale hospital. this person of interest was later placed by sherri rasmussen in 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 local law enforcement to watch her and secretly try to snag a sample of her dna for comparison testing. in the meantime, nuttall learned more about the second woman. he contacted john ruetten, sherri s former husband and now remarried and living in san diego. john involved he had been involved in a dating relationship with stephanie lazarus. stephanie lazarus that was the other name on the short list of suspects. nuttall