Stephanie Lazarus
| “ | If I can't have John, nobody else will. | „ |
| ~ Stephanie Lazarus' alleged threat to Sherri Rasmussen |
Stephanie Ilene Lazarus (born May 4, 1960) is a former LAPD officer who was revealed as the villainess behind the cold case murder of Sherri Rasmussen in 1986.
In the early 1980s, Stephanie Lazarus became involved in a sexual relationship with John Ruetten--which ended sometime in 1983. Afterwards, Ruetten met Sherri Rasmussen, with Lazarus learning about the relationship sometime in 1985. Lazarus found out that Ruetten and Rasmussen were engaged to each other, leading to Lazarus seeing Ruetten again for another sexual encounter. In the months that followed, Lazarus often made excuses to see her ex-lover, and she even visited Rasmussen at her workplace and told her that things were not over between herself and Ruetten. Lazarus began turning heel during their conversation when she ominously informed Rasmussen that, "If I can't have John, nobody else will." Rasmussen and Ruetten got married in November of 1985.
On February 24, 1986, Lazarus turned heel and shot Rasmussen to death inside her own home, engaging in a fight with her perceived romantic rival before killing her. The scene was set to look like a robbery, though Rasmussen's parents had suspected that Lazarus was the killer, as Sherri informed her father, Nels, that she believed that Lazarus was stalking her and had been doing so for months. As the case continued to go cold, Lazarus moved up the ranks of the LAPD, and by 2009, she was working art theft cases.
During that same year, Lazarus became the prime suspect in the 1986 cold case, and the investigation included police taking a cup that Lazarus discarded and testing the DNA to a bite mark that was on Rasmussen during the murder. After the DNA matched, the evil Lazarus ended up arrested and charged with Rasmussen's murder. In March 2012, Lazarus was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. She will be eligible for parole in 2039, when Lazarus is 79 years of age.
Trivia edit
- On February 13, 2013, less than a year after Lazarus' conviction, NBC aired an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that was loosely based on Lazarus and the cold case murder. The episode, "Secrets Exhumed," featured Marcia Gay Harden in her fourth and last appearance as FBI agent Dana Lewis, with the episode revealing Dana as a cold case villainess.