![]() Police declined to disclose further details, saying they feared it could compromise their investigation. When investigators reopened the case in February, they analyzed DNA from the crime scene and determined that the killer was a woman, not a man as previously believed. Rasmussen’s killing was one of 9,000 unsolved homicide cases in Los Angeles that police said came to the top of the cold case unit’s work pile because of DNA evidence in the case. They surmised Rasmussen, who had stayed home that day because she had strained her back in an aerobics class, had surprised one or two men who had entered through the unlocked front door. They said in both home-invasion burglaries, armed men had entered security buildings and tried to steal stereo equipment. Rasmussen died as a result of multiple gunshots.”Īt first, police suspected two men linked to a residential burglary a month later that occurred three blocks away. “Her husband had left for the day, and when he returned in the early evening hours, he found his wife brutally murdered,” Bratton said. The arrest stunned Lazarus’ LAPD co-workers and her family and neighbors.Īlthough Lazarus was mentioned as having had a relationship with Ruetten in the original case file, police said she wasn’t a suspect at the time because detectives believed Rasmussen had been a victim of armed robbers she had confronted in her home.Īccording to Bratton, Rasmussen had been alone at her home. “It doesn’t reflect too well on her, in terms of what we allege that she did, but it has no negative reflection on the department.” “It reflects very positively on the department. ![]() police officers who were going where the truth took them,” Bratton said. ![]() “This individual was investigated and arrested by L.A. Lazarus’ arrest was the first of a Los Angeles police officer on suspicion of murder in years, and Police Chief William Bratton told reporters he does not believe it sheds negative light on his department. DNA testing eventually led them to Lazarus – who was working on the same floor of police headquarters as the detectives investigating the case. But faced with a recent decline in the homicide rate, investigators had time to re-examine the cold case in February. She was arrested June 5 at the department’s downtown headquarters and has been in custody since then.įor years, police believed that two male armed burglars were the lead suspects. Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Lazarus, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Unit. ![]() Lazarus also faces a separate allegation of personal use of a handgun. The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a burglary. 24, 1986, killing of Sherri Rasmussen at the victim’s Van Nuys condominium.Ī date is also scheduled to be set then for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require her to stand trial. ![]() Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, who appeared in court in orange jail-issued clothes, remains jailed without bail pending her next court appearance - set for July 21 - at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.Ī hearing is expected then on the prosecution’s motion to get dental impressions from the 49-year-old detective, who is charged with capital murder for the Feb. A veteran Los Angeles police detective accused of killing her ex-boyfriend’s wife in 1986 - about two years into her LAPD career - pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge. ![]()
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