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The Dateline report on Sherri Rasmussen's 1986 murder brings to mind a case that remained unsolved for more than two decades until DNA became the key and unraveled the horrific truth. Sherri, a 29-year-old director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Los Angeles, was murdered on February 24, 1986, in her Van Nuys apartment. She had been beaten and shot thrice, and the room was full of proof of struggle: defensive injuries, a bite, and a broken vase.
Notwithstanding this, the initial researchers approached the case as a botched burglary, evidenced by the stealing of her car and the loss of property. Dateline's analysis of the Rasmussen case centered on how the initial presuppositions were the basis for the failure of justice to move forward.
The original investigation was marked by traditional signs of a robbery, and when leads pointed towards other motives or suspects, they were not pursued to completion. The outcome was a cold case that would not be solved until forensic science had advanced to where it could reopen the primary evidence.
With that evidence as a model, the case did ultimately result in the arrest and conviction of a former LAPD cop, a close friend of the victim's husband, and initially overlooked.
Early investigation: Burglary or something worse?
John Ruetten came home on the night of February 24, 1986, to discover his wife's body lying on the living room floor. Sherri Rasmussen had been savagely assaulted—she had a gunshot wound to the chest and evidence of blunt force trauma. There were obvious indications of struggle, including a smashed porcelain vase, knocked-over furniture, and an obvious human bite mark on her arm.
The couple’s home appeared ransacked, and Sherri’s car had been taken and later abandoned. These facts were the basis of the LAPD's initial hypothesis: a burglary that was cut short by a homeowner. As Dateline outlined in its feature, the police quickly leaned into the burglary narrative and did not consider other personal leads.
Despite suggestions from Sherri’s family, particularly her father, that someone known to Sherri may have been involved, those theories were dismissed. The LAPD kept the robbery motive as the leading theory, and the investigation ultimately lost steam. Without any arrests or suspects in sight, the case went cold for over 20 years.
The turning point in the cold case
LAPD Cold Case Unit reopened Rasmussen's case in 2009 with new DNA testing technology that did not exist in the original investigation. The saved swab of the bite mark was retested and proved positive that the attacker was a female, unlike the previous hypotheses that the attacker was male. The new results radically changed the direction of the investigation and subjected new analysis to suspects previously eliminated.
Dateline reporting explains that the DNA find led detectives to revisit personal relationships between Sherri and her husband, John Ruetten, and Ruetten and his former girlfriend, Stephanie Lazarus.
Lazarus was a LAPD police officer at the time of the murder being committed, and her relationship with Ruetten had just ended before he got married to Sherri. She was identified very early in the course of the preliminary investigation, but nothing was done to her because there was not sufficient evidence, and she was just another cop.
Stephanie Lazarus identified and arrested
The case took a dramatic turn when Lazarus, who was working at the LAPD at the time, became the target of the reopened investigation. Undercover officers tailed her and picked up a discarded coffee cup whose contents provided them with a DNA sample. The DNA was matched with that on Sherri Rasmussen's bite mark. Based on this forensic link, Lazarus was arrested in June 2009 and charged with first-degree murder.
Dateline gave the trial and the following events extensive coverage. The prosecution read a scenario where Lazarus had gone to Rasmussen's house, and the meeting got violent. The evidence was the DNA match, that she had previously been romantically involved with the victim's husband, and that she had motive, as attested.
A .38 caliber gun, the same caliber as the murder weapon, was traced to her duty weapon for the time. And as Lazarus went on protesting her innocence during the trial, she was convicted in March of 2012 and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
Courtroom proceedings and verdict
The trial centered primarily around the forensic evidence, most importantly the DNA from the bite wound, and the timeline connecting Lazarus to Ruetten in the pre-mortem days. The defense tried to discredit the evidence on the grounds of a lack of witnesses and the passing of time. The jury, however, agreed that DNA evidence and motive were enough to obtain a conviction.
Dateline's reports on the trial spoke about how the case highlighted the significance of evidence storage and raised the implications involved in questioning suspects who are law enforcement officials. The case was an unusual instance where a police officer was found guilty of a murder committed decades ago, courtesy of physical evidence preserved for over 20 years.
Media coverage and Dateline's role
Dateline has returned to the Rasmussen case many times, dissecting the timeline, evidence, and trial several different ways. The process of the program remained firmly fact-based, including interviews with investigators, attorneys, and family members. Dateline was interested in following up on the timeline of the breakthroughs in the investigations and not sensationalizing the situations.
In this way, Dateline has facilitated making sense of how cold cases are solved by remaining persistent, non-discriminatory, and taking advantage of forensic technology. The show also raised the ethical questions posed by the case: the suggestion of police investigating a fellow officer, and the potential for leads being lost because of insider bias. These are all issues that have become standard fare in thinking about institutional transparency in criminal justice ever since.
Legacy and impact on cold case investigations
The Sherri Rasmussen case is frequently referred to as a cold case classic, more specifically for the employment of stored forensic evidence in assisting in the identification of a suspect, many years following the commission of the offense. As Dateline has shown, the case has had a tremendous impact on how cold cases are reopened, with more emphasis placed upon looking back to early theories and making sure that personal connections are completely investigated, professional status or not.
The guilty conviction of Stephanie Lazarus was a reminder that justice should be pursued beyond superficial theories if closure isn't reached. The case also emphasized the need for the preservation of and re-testing of biological evidence, as DNA testing remains increasingly popular.
Recent developments and parole status
In 2023, Lazarus was paroled by a single panel, but the full parole board considered that decision. In 2024, parole was refused on the grounds of the seriousness of the offence and persistent issues. The case was covered in the press and syndicated on Dateline reports, which continued to check up on the resolution of the case and its wider significance for the law.
The Sherri Rasmussen murder case and the guilty verdict of Stephanie Lazarus are the most intricate and longest pursuit of justice Dateline has ever covered. From a botched initial investigation to a years-later DNA discovery, the case demonstrates the changing use of forensic science as well as the necessity of impartial investigation. It is also a cautionary story about the way assumptions can stall justice and the way evidence, even if preserved for decades, may eventually provide solutions.
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With documentary fact-finding and adherence to verified facts, Dateline offered a fact-centered exploration of the Rasmussen case, focusing on procedure rather than story and investigation rather than rumor. The legacy of the case continues to be relevant in influencing forensic responsibility, police transparency, and the continued remembrance of long-closed files worthy of scrutiny.
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