They Searched for Burglars for Years. The Killer Was One of Their Own

On the morning of February 24, 1986, 29-year-old Sherri Rasmussen is home alone in the Van Nuys condominium she shares with her husband John — a Monday, her husband already gone to work, her own shift at Glendale Adventist Medical Center skipped because of a back injury from an aerobics class the night before. She is the director of nursing at the hospital, a Loma Linda University graduate who started college at 16, and by every measure a woman in full forward motion. By the time John returns that evening, Sherri is dead on the living room floor, shot three times, with fifteen separate injuries to her face Comprehensive case record drawing on court transcripts, The Lazarus Files (2019), and the 2023 parole hearing confession, covering the full arc from the 1986 crime through Lazarus's 2024 parole denial. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sherri_Rasmussen Christopher Goffard's deep-dive into the institutional failures of the original investigation, drawing on Matthew McGough's book and the 2023 parole hearing in which Lazarus confessed. Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle Post-parole-denial coverage detailing Lazarus's confession, the full board reversal of the initial parole grant, and LAPD Detective Stearns's testimony on the calculated nature of the crime. Source: https://abc7.com/post/former-los-angeles-police-detective-who-murdered-ex-lovers-wife-hid-crime-for-decades-remains-behind-bars/15364410/ Primary legal source: the appellate court's unanimous decision upholding Lazarus's first-degree murder conviction, addressing the DNA evidence, the search warrant, and the admissibility of her pre-arrest interview. Source: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8298926708092908252 SEO OPTIMIZATION KEYWORDS Stephanie Lazarus murder Sherri Rasmussen case Stephanie Lazarus LAPD detective killer Sherri Rasmussen murder 1986 Stephanie Laza