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Dateline: Detective Story episode re-examines one of the most chilling cases of Los Angeles, the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen. Sherri, a 29-year-old director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was beaten and shot dead inside her Van Nuys condo on 24 February 1986.
The case had initially been classified as a botched burglary, but over the years, it never occurred to the investigators that DNA would assist in solving the case, and the shocking result was that LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus, the former girlfriend of Sherri’s husband, John Ruetten, was identified as the suspect in the case.
The Dateline episode that has been broadcast under other titles, such as Secrets Uncovered: Obsessed and The Detective Secret, narrates how love, jealousy, and forensic science met in a mystery that took 20 plus years to solve.
The core of this Dateline retelling is how a seemingly ordinary home breakage evolved to be one of the most infamous instances of internal malefaction in the LAPD. The crime scene looked as though put on stage; the living room was in disarray, there was broken glass on the floor, and the BMW had been stolen, only to be located at the end and abandoned.
Over the years, the LAPD had assumed that it was the work of burglars who had panned at the moment of confrontation. But DNA preserved from a bite mark on Sherri’s arm decades later told a very different story, one that pointed inward, not outward, to one of their own.
The murder and early investigation of 1986
Sherri Rasmussen was a successful nurse who had just married an engineer from one of the leading technological companies, John Ruetten. John went off to work in the morning of February 24, 1986, and Sherri was left at home. On coming back that evening, he found indications of a fierce fight; the house was messed up, there was broken glass around the sliding door, and Sherri lay dead with three gunshot wounds. She also had a bite mark on her forearm, suggesting a physical fight with her killer.
During that time, the investigators came to the conclusion that burglars had entered the house when Sherri was there. Several household things were tampered, such as her car. The reports about a series of burglaries in the area carried out by two men supported the theory. Nels Rasmussen, the father of Sherri, did not agree from the very beginning, telling the investigators that there was someone who was familiar with his daughter.
He named in particular Stephanie Lazarus, the former girlfriend of his son-in-law, an officer of the LAPD who at one time confronted Sherri concerning her relationship with John. In spite of his warnings, investigators dismissed any personal relationship, and the case was cold.
The cold case reopens: DNA evidence changes everything
Dateline revealed subsequently that the case was re-examined in the early 2000s by the Cold Case Unit of the LAPD. In 2004, DNA using the preserved bite mark was tested due to the advancements in forensics. It was revealed that the attacker was a woman, which was a big discovery and nullified the initial theory of burglary.
This new development led detectives to reexamine all the women who could have had a motive to have been close to Sherri, or any form of a connection. The name of Stephanie Lazarus was mentioned again in that review. She was a long-time detective in the Art Theft Detail department of the LAPD, with a reputation and a long tenure at the time.
The detectives started to spy on Lazarus. In 2009, they had a sample of her DNA on a discarded cup she had used in one of the cafes. On testing, the DNA was a match to the bite mark on the arm of Sherri Rasmussen - an irrefutable forensic connection.
The case of arrest, trial, and conviction of Stephanie Lazarus
On June 5, 2009, Stephanie Lazarus was arrested at the LAPD headquarters. Her arrest was shocking news to the department and rekindled the speculation as to how this case could have been so long neglected to such an extent. The prosecutors claimed that Lazarus could not tolerate Ruetten marrying Sherri and that she confronted her in a jealousy-filled situation, which broke out into violence.
The facts that were shown in the court were the DNA findings, the ballistics that reported the weapon used to murder was a gun that belonged to Lazarus.
Lazarus was convicted on March 20, 2012, of first-degree murder by a Los Angeles County jury. The sentence was imposed on her for 27 years to life imprisonment. The conviction was the culmination of a 26-year battle to get justice and showed how confirmation bias and departmental relationships could have led to the slowness in closing the case.
The Dateline episode placed more emphasis on the role of science and perseverance and ignored evidence in eventually clearing the murder of Sherri Rasmussen.
Dateline’s reinvestigation and the media focus
In numerous episodes, Dateline NBC returned to the case and examined not only the human but also the institutional aspects. The show emphasized that professional respect combined with a departmental hierarchy and procedural assumptions enabled Lazarus to get away with it over the years.
Interviewing detectives, forensic specialists, and reporters who had kept up with the case since the onset, the Dateline team members found out how the initial errors of the LAPD and their adherence to the theory of burglary impeded justice.
Another issue highlighted in the Dateline episode was the importance of the parents of Sherri Nels and Loretta Rasmussen, who ceaselessly urged the case to be reopened. Their lobbying ended up catalyzing the cold-case re-examination, which resulted in the arrest of Lazarus.
To most of the audience, this Dateline case was a lesson in persistence, how the determination of a victim's family can keep a long-lost case alive until the truth is known.
Parole proceedings and current status
In 2025, Stephanie Lazarus is still incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Her latest parole hearings have turned out to be unsuccessful, according to the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and CBS News. No documented history of Lazarus pleading guilty or confessing responsibility for the crime. In 2024, her parole was once more denied following a review, and she still insists on her innocence.
Although there is no parole board reversal, the factual data of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and reputable sources, like NBC News and CBS Los Angeles, prove that no parole release occurred. The fact that Lazarus has stayed in prison only goes to show the severity of the crime that the justice system has yet to forget about, and the fact that parolees are usually closely associated with the responsibility recognition.
The broader implications of the case
The Dateline investigation of the murder of Sherri Rasmussen remains the standard for the potential contribution forensic innovation can make to cold cases. It also raises serious questions about internal responsibility within police forces, how familiarity and hierarchy can contaminate investigations. The case inspired the LAPD to re-engineer evidence handling, cold-case case management, and internal review procedures.
Apart from institutional lessons, Dateline had broadcast a very human tale of loss, determination, and scientific advancement. The utilization of forensic evidence, the DNA bite-mark proof, was a testament to the ability of the technology of today to correct the investigative errors of the past. The case is even utilized in the education of criminology and law enforcement studies due to its lessons in prejudice, procedure, and tenacity.
Sherri Rasmussen's murder is one of the most chilling stories of justice delayed but not denied. What started as a 1986 burglary was completed more than two decades later with the sentencing of an LAPD detective. Through a combination of human will, scientific advancements, and renewed investigative enthusiasm, the truth came out.
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Years after, Dateline continues to revisit the Rasmussen case, reminding everyone how no secret stays buried forever, and how evidence, while cold, never truly shuts up.
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