Murder of Sherri Rasmussen

Who is Murder of Sherri Rasmussen?

Sherri Rasmussen was found dead in the apartment she shared with her new husband John Ruetten in Van Nuys, California, United States. She had been beaten and shot three times following a struggle. The Los Angeles Police Department initially considered the case to have been a botched burglary. It remained unsolved for over 20 years despite her father's persistent belief that Stephanie Lazarus, an officer who had dated Ruetten prior to his marriage and stalked Rasmussen since the engagement, was a stronger suspect than police had originally believed.

Detectives who re-examined the cold case files in 2009 were eventually led to Lazarus, by then herself a detective. A DNA sample Lazarus unknowingly discarded was matched to one from a bite on Rasmussen's body that had remained in the files. She was convicted of the crime in 2012, and is serving a sentence of 27 years to life for first-degree murder at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. She is appealing the conviction, claiming that the age of the case and the evidence denied her due process.