40: His Jealous Ex Kept Showing Up…Then The Newlywed Bride Was Found Dead | Sherri Rasmussen

You didn't harm your wife did you, John? I wasn't good. You did everything going on. Hey, so she ran. It's our light on the ground. I knew right away that there was she was dead. John, she's not having any problems with an explorer friend or you with an ex-girlfriend. As I walked in, I saw Sherry Rasmussen on the ground. She said that the person that was following her and I see right through you. As John rutting pulled into the alley behind his condo, something immediately fell off. His garage door was wide open. Now at first, his brain probably tried to make sense of it. Maybe his wife Sherry was inside cleaning out her car or carrying groceries upstairs or something like that. But then he noticed that her car was gone. And that didn't make sense either. I mean, Sherry could be forgetful sometimes, yes. Okay, little things for getting to turn on the answering machine before leaving the house or stuff like that. But leaving the garage door wide open in Los Angeles, in a back alley where random people just walked by all the time, that definitely was not like her. And then as he pulled his car into the garage, John noticed something else. There was broken glass all over the garage floor. Now I will say, sometimes your brain will protect you from jumping straight to the worst conclusion possible. And I think that that's what was happening here. Because after seeing that instead of panicking, John just immediately tried rationalizing it. Maybe Sherry accidentally backed into something and shattered one of the corners of her tail lights or something like that. So he parks his car, gets out, and he walked right past the glass, planning to come back down and then clean it up later. But before he could even walk into the condo, he stopped dead in his tracks. The door leading into the living room was cracked open. Now not really stopping to even think about why, John walked inside and he headed toward the lower level living room. And that's when he saw her. Sherry Rasmussen was just lying there on the floor. She was on her back and from the second that John saw her, he knew that something horrible had happened. Her face was badly swollen and bruised, covered in blood. Her right eye was completely swollen shut, surrounded by a bright blue bruise. Her left eye was still partially open, but just frozen, staring up at the ceiling. Her mouth was open too, but again almost frozen with this expression of shock. Worst of all, the robe that she was wearing? It was opened and it was showing three very distinct bullet holes. So John Panicked, of course, started bending down to touch her, check on her, see if she was okay, even though he knew deep down that she probably wasn't alive anymore. She was cold. The blood on her face and blood on other parts of her body had already dried. So the truth was, Sherry was dead and she had likely been dead for hours at this point. Now just that morning, Sherry's biggest concern had been whether or not she wanted to skip an HR class at work. But now fast forward and this 27-year-old newlywed was just lying dead in the middle of her own living room. Hey guys, my name is Annie Elise. This is "Tent to Life" and we are going to jump right in. Now really quickly before we get into the case, I do want to mention this. If you had a little bit of FOMO from CrimeCon because we had exclusive merch there, designs that we only sold there, fear not because we have officially launched all of that exclusive merch that you can grab right now. However, quantities are very, very limited, so it will probably go incredibly quickly. But we have the exclusive designs that we only had there. We have the very popular and in-demand sweatshirt that says "Hellar" in embroidery. Also, the "Not a Detective" just nosy, tumbler, so many new, cute, exclusive brand new designs. So go check that out. Quantities are limited. Go to Annie Elise.com and grab them now. Today's case began on February 24th, 1986, in the Van Ayes area of Los Angeles. It was a Monday and it started off like any other normal weekday. It was chilly in the morning, sunny and warm by the afternoon, and pretty quiet. Now Sherry had every intention of taking it easy that day. At 27 years old, she was already the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, which I have to say is incredibly impressive. However, that morning, the last thing that she wanted to do was go supervise some mandatory HR class that she thought was boring and pointless. So, she debated just calling and sick and skipping it all together. Her husband, 25-year-old John Rutton, even found the whole thing pretty funny. I mean, normally both of them would have already been gone for work well before 8 a.m., usually Sherry even left before he did, but that day was obviously different. So, when John headed out around 7-20 a.m. that morning to his engineering job nearby, Sherry was still back at home, still in bed, just relaxing and taking the day easy. So, at that point, it seemed pretty obvious that she had made the decision to stay home. John thought that she was probably planning on sleeping in, given that she wasn't going to go into work that day. So, he left. He didn't bother calling her that morning, the way that he normally would have. He didn't want to wake her up just letting her sleep. And just letting her have a chill day. Now, their three-story condo was in a really nicer area in Van Aes. And on a normal day, the place would have stayed completely empty and locked up until both of them got home from work later that night. But around 9.45 a.m., one of the neighbors noticed something strange. John and Sherry's garage door was just wide open, just completely up, exposed, open, even though neither of their cars were there. Now, yes, it was a gated condo complex, but this still wasn't the kind of area where people just casually left their garages open or doors unlocked or anything like that, especially because all of the garages faced a back alley where random strangers could just walk in and out and walk through during the day. As the day went on though, nobody really knew that anything was wrong. John tried calling Sherry throughout the day after he allowed her some time to sleep in, but she didn't return any of his calls. And that wasn't normal at all. Even if she was working, she almost always answered his calls or would call him back as soon as she could. And the truth was, John wasn't the only one trying to get a hold of her. Sherry's sister Teresa also had a habit of calling her every day during the work break, usually around 10 a.m. just to check in, catch up, and talk. So that day, Teresa first called Sherry's office, but Sherry's secretary answered and explained that Sherry had called in sick. So Teresa figured, okay, maybe she's just at home resting. But when she tried calling the condo as well, nobody answered there either. Now, at the time though, none of those little moments, nothing seemed all that alarming on their own, right? The open garage door, the unanswered calls, the answering machine not being turned on. Weird details that we now know of, but some of those details they wouldn't even fully click into place until much later. For John, he mostly just assumed that Sherry was being forgetful. They had only been married for three months at that point, and he knew that she could sometimes be a little scatterbrained with small things, things like the answering machine. They had this mutual agreement that whenever either one of them left the house, they would turn the answering machine on, which for anybody listening who didn't grow up in, you know, the olden days like myself, it's basically exactly what it sounds like. It's a machine with a cassette tape that you turn on that acts like a voicemail, okay? And then when you get home, you press play, and it plays your messages. So in this case, though, even though they had their agreement to always turn it on when they left, and John realized that it wasn't on earlier that day, he just initially thought that she had, you know, eventually woke up, gotten up, went into work after all, and probably forgot to turn the machine on. And forgetting to turn the machine on, it wasn't exactly unheard of for her, especially if she had rushed out the door after sleeping in later than she normally would. So by the time John got off work, and then ran a couple of errands, stopping at the dry cleaner and UPS, he then had that weird feeling of why haven't I talked to Sherry, or why wasn't the answering machine connected, it kind of faded into the background. He was busy. That is until he got home, and he saw that the garage door was still standing open. Also until he went inside, and he found Sherry. The way that her body had been left on the floor in her own home covered in blood. I mean, that was bad enough, but the crime scene itself was also horrific. I mentioned the injuries on Sherry, the ones that John saw just from this quick glance, but the truth is her injuries were even more extensive. Once investigators began processing the scene, it became obvious very quickly that Sherry had fought for her life. She fought hard. She had multiple defensive wounds on her body. Two of her fingernails had even been completely ripped off. They were later found near the front door of the condo. The injuries to her face were also so severe that investigators believed that she had likely been pistol whipped with the same gun that was used to kill her. And they think she probably was pistol whipped more than once. There was also a bite mark on the inside of her left forearm. Which that detail, it really stood out to the investigators later on. The condo itself also showed clear signs of a violent struggle. Two large speakers had been completely knocked over near Sherry's body. A ceramic vase that was nearby was shattered across the floor. The sliding glass doors leading to the second floor balcony had also been broken. I mean, the living room was a disaster. But interestingly, the rest of the condo wasn't. And that detail mattered. Because maybe this wasn't some random burglary gone wrong. It looked more personal than that. Almost like Sherry herself had been the target. And whenever a woman is murdered, investigators almost always start by looking closely at the husband or the boyfriend first. We know that. I mean statistically, that's usually where the answers are. They know the routine, they know the schedules, and, and in some cases, they have the most to gain or lose. So naturally, investigators started digging into John and Sherry's relationship. And on the surface, everything looked good, really good, actually. They were newly wedged. They had only gotten married a few months earlier in November of 1985. That was after meeting about a year and a half prior to that at a party in June of 1984. And the attraction between the two of them it was almost immediate. John was tall, muscular, charming, had thick dark hair. And Sherry's eyes, he looked like a model. And Sherry absolutely stood out as well. She was lean, athletic, had beautiful light brown hair, high cheekbones, and at six feet tall, people definitely noticed the second she walked into any room. But according to the people who knew them, it wasn't just physical attraction that pulled them together. John was very outgoing and talkative, and Sherry was smart, compassionate, and deeply driven. She in fact, she had dedicated her entire career to helping people. And pretty quickly, they both realized that this wasn't just casual dating. They stopped seeing other people almost immediately because they genuinely believed that they had found their future together. Sherry's family later said that more than anything she wanted two things in life, a loving marriage, and eventually a family of her own. So when she met John who seemed to want those exact same things, she fell hard and she fell fast. By June of the following year, they were engaged. And not long after that, in November of 1985, Sherry and John officially became husband and wife. From the outside, their marriage looked happy, really happy. Their wedding had been full of love, excitement, both families coming together. I mean, all of it. And as far as anyone knew around them, there weren't any obvious signs of marital problems, not in the least. Which is exactly why investigators had to ask the very uncomfortable question pretty early on. Could a guy like John actually have a reason to murder his wife? Because the truth was, there was one detail still inside the condo that immediately raised eyebrows. And it's one of those details that sounds small at first until you really stop and think about it. The only thing that investigators could confirm was missing from the condo wasn't jewelry. It wasn't expensive electronics. It wasn't cash. But it was John and Sherry's marriage license. And look, I don't have a full inventory of everything that they owned back then. But Sherry was a director of nursing. And John worked at an engineering company. They were doing very well financially. They absolutely had nicer valuables that someone could have stolen and capitalized on. And not a piece of paper, not a marriage license. So the fact that somebody took this marriage license out of all things, it felt personal. And I think that the investigators saw it the same way. Because what is a marriage license stand to offer anyone? I mean, think about it. What is a marriage license represent? It represents the marriage itself. So naturally, detectives started sight eyeing John just a little bit, a little bit harder. Had the two of them rushed into things? Was the marriage already falling apart behind closed doors? Was there something that people around them didn't know yet? And then the investigators learned another detail. A detail that pointed back toward John. Remember when John got home and he saw the garage door was just standing wide open? I mentioned this, but Sherry's BMW was gone. And this wasn't just any car. It was a newer BMW that John had actually gifted Sherry when they got engaged this summer before. So now, investigators had two things missing from the condo. The marriage license and the engagement gift. It almost felt like somebody was trying to send a message. But the truth was, a week into the investigation and detectives still weren't making much progress. They also weren't really updating the media or Sherry's family either. And if they had a strong theory about what happened, they certainly weren't sharing it publicly. But then, about a week after the murder, there was finally a major development in the case. Sherry's BMW was found abandoned on the side of a random street in Van Aes. And inside her car, there was evidence that would end up changing the entire direction of this case. Whoever had abandoned Sherry's BMW didn't exactly seem worried about it being found. The car had been just left there, unlocked. The keys were still sitting right there in the ignition. So investigators take the vehicle and they processed it. And they found several fingerprints inside the vehicle, along with a small drop of blood. But the piece of evidence that really stood out the most to the investigators was a strand of brown hair. And that mattered, because Sherry didn't have brown hair. Her hair at this point was more of a dirty blonde color. Now remember, this was 1986. So DNA testing, it was not available the way that it is now. So the investigators couldn't just run the hair for a full profile and then bam, get immediate answers. However, John, they knew, did have brown hair. And that started to, you know, trigger some things. Now at first glance, you would think that that would only strengthen investigators' suspicions about him. But interestingly, around this same time, detectives actually seemed to be moving further away from the theory that John had murdered Sherry. See, after Sherry's body was discovered, investigators interviewed him extensively. And according to them, nothing really stood out as suspicious or alarming. John told detectives that he and Sherry were still very much in the newlywed phase. Everything still felt exciting and fresh between them. There also weren't any major financial problems. No looming divorce, no obvious marital tension. Investigators also asked whether there were any, you know, jealous exes involved. An ex-boyfriend of Sherry's, or an ex-girlfriend of John's that was somehow involved causing issues. But according to John, no detectives interviewed friends, neighbors, family members, everyone really trying to see if anybody would hint that the marriage wasn't as perfect as it appeared to be from the outside. But nobody really did. And on top of that, John's alibi was solid. He had left for work that morning around 7.30 a.m. He had been continuously at work afterward. Investigators believed that Sherry was killed sometime shortly before 10 a.m. well after John had already clocked into work. So timeline-wise, it just wasn't fitting together. So slowly, investigators started leaning toward a different theory, a different theory altogether. Instead of believing that this was a deeply personal attack, they began convincing themselves that Sherry had simply interrupted a burglary, a burglary that turned deadly. And there were a few reasons that they landed on this theory. Near the condo's front door, investigators found a stack of stereo and video equipment just sitting there together. And it was obvious that that is not at all where those items normally would belong. Most people don't just keep electronics like piled up by the front door like that. So the detectives theorized that somebody may have broken in, believing that this condo was empty, started gathering valuables to steal, and then got caught off guard when Sherry was suddenly there. And if that happened, investigators believed that Sherry may have seen their faces, which would then explain why the situation escalated so violently. Because if someone had been watching John and Sherry's routines beforehand, they probably would have assumed that nobody would be home on a Monday morning. Except remember, Sherry called in, she stayed home that day. And that detail, it really matters later, because if she had just gone into work, like originally planned, then maybe none of this would have happened at all. It also wasn't just the condo scene itself that was influencing the investigators. Apparently, there had been several break-ins happening nearby around that same time of day. A few weeks after Sherry's murder, two men broke into another home only a few blocks away away from the condo. And in that case, the homeowner had unexpectedly come back while the men were already inside. So this really seemed to support investigator's theories that burglars in the area may have been studying people's schedules before targeting the homes. Now, the biggest difference, though, in all of this is that that woman survived and Sherry didn't. Unfortunately, the woman from the nearby break-in had been assaulted before the men fled, but she survived. And despite going through something incredibly traumatic, she was able to give the investigators detailed descriptions of the two suspects, detailed enough for police sketches to be created. So from the LAPD's perspective, the theory, it started feeling pretty simple. Two nearby break-ins targeting nicer homes and condos, and Sherry just happened to become the victim who interrupted the wrong people at the wrong time. And at the time, LAPD was overwhelmed with gang violence and drug-related crimes. So investigators started wondering whether the people responsible could have been connected to that world somehow. Maybe they were stealing valuables to resell for drug money. Maybe they were tied to a gang, I mean both theories seemed possible, but what I couldn't really find, though, was a solid explanation for why Sherry had been killed while the other woman had been left alive, especially considering that that woman had also seen the suspect's faces. I mean sure, maybe it came down to the struggle because we know Sherry clearly fought back hard her defensive wounds prove that, but there was another detail too. Some of Sherry and John's neighbors later reported hearing shouting and fighting coming from the condo that morning. They assumed it was just some kind of domestic argument, not something serious enough to call the police over, but it was something. Even with this burglary theory, though, the investigator still weren't actually getting any closer to identifying suspects. Nothing came from the prince or the blood in Sherry's car, and weeks passed, then months, then years. And eventually, Sherry's case went cold. No arrests, no major updates, no new evidence that seemed to move things forward. But the truth was, behind the scenes, there was one person who never really accepted the burglary theory, not at all. And that was Sherry's father, Nell's. And what's interesting with that is that this wasn't some theory that he developed years later out of frustration or desperation. Nell's had concerns almost immediately. Literally starting the day after Sherry was killed. Because when Nell's first learned that his daughter had been murdered, he didn't even hear it from the police. And he also didn't hear it directly from John either. It was actually John's father who called him. He called him around one in the morning on February 25th to break the news to him. Which I can't even imagine getting a phone call like that and learning that your daughter was brutally murdered inside her own home. And then realizing that you were seemingly one of the last people to even hear about it. Nell's was understandably furious and also devastated. And during the call, he learned that John was there with his father, as his father made this call. Now whether John's dad mentioned it directly or Nell's could hear him in the background, I'm not exactly sure, but Nell's immediately begged to speak with John himself. Which I think does make sense. He was grieving. He was confused, desperate for answers. John was the man who had married his daughter after all, only a few months earlier, as a matter of fact. Now to be clear, if this truly was a burglary gone wrong, there may have been absolutely nothing that John could have done to save Sherry. But grief, it doesn't always work logically. And in that moment, Nell's wanted answers. But John's father refused to put him on the phone. So just like that, Nell's felt completely shut out. So instead of sitting quietly with his grief, he threw himself into trying to figure out what had really happened to his daughter. From the moment that he learned that his daughter had been murdered, he started replaying every recent interaction that he had had with Sherry back in his head. Every conversation, every complaint, every odd detail that maybe didn't seem important at all at the time. And what's interesting to me is that Nell's never really bought into the whole gang-related burglary theory that the investigators were pushing. He wasn't focused on random intruders or drug-fueled break-ins. Instead, he started looking backwards through Sherry's life, trying to figure out whether there had been somebody making her uncomfortable before she died. Had she mentioned somebody following her, someone acting strange around her, watching her? At first, he couldn't come up with anything. But then, suddenly, he remembered something that Sherry had told him. Something she told him just weeks before her wedding. Something that at the time felt more uncomfortable than dangerous, more invasive than threatening. Now, I have to tell you, Sherry was extremely close with her parents, especially her dad, Nell's. So when something bothered her, she would talk to him about it. And according to Nell's, shortly before the wedding, Sherry called him very upset, not terrified, exactly, but definitely rattled and pretty annoyed. Because a random woman had shown up at her front door, just unexpectedly asking for John. Apparently, the woman had a pair of water skis with her. And she was casually claiming that she needed John to wax them for her. Which Sherry immediately felt like these skis were just an excuse for this woman to see John, but like, who is this woman? And why is she just showing up on their doorstep weeks before the wedding, right? And look, women have a remarkable intuition, I have to say. And in that moment, feeling that something isn't quite aligning, you trust your gut, right? Something feels off, something feels out of the norm. So I totally get why I bothered her. This was only weeks before their wedding. They were supposed to be busy planning the final details of getting married, but instead, some random woman was just showing up, expecting John to stop whatever he was doing, and like, what? Wax her water skis? It made no sense. It felt weird. And according to Sherry, John acted almost overly casual about the entire thing. Which in turn, that only made her more upset. But eventually, he admitted that he and this woman had previously hooked up back in college. According to him, though, it was never even that serious. He told Sherry that they had originally just been friends at first, then briefly crossed a line romantically before supposedly, then going back to being just friends again afterward. Now, I don't think that that makes this situation any better. I then would still be like, okay, well, why is this chick who you hooked up with once in the past asking you to wax her water skis? Like, what is going on? Which not to be a pessimist, though? Okay, maybe that was true. But I will say, showing up unannounced right before someone's wedding. It definitely sends a different message, at least to me. So Sherry apparently told John, like, look, I don't want you waxing these skis. I think that it's going to encourage this woman or give her the wrong idea. But John disagreed. And according to Sherry, what really upset her the most was the fact that he wasn't shutting it down himself. And then things got even stranger. On another random day, the woman came back to the condo saying that she was there to pick the skis up. And the second that John handed these skis over to this woman, Sherry basically told her, get the hell out, leave. There wasn't any sort of fake friendliness. There wasn't an attempt to become buddies with this old friend of his. Sherry made it very clear that she did not want this woman around. Now, unfortunately, when her dad and Nell's later tried recalling all of this information after Sherry's murder, he couldn't remember the woman's name. But he did remember one very important detail. The woman was a police officer, or as he described it, a lady cop. And according to Nell's, the water ski incident wasn't even the only uncomfortable interaction. Not long after that, the woman showed up again. Except this time, she was dressed head to toe in LAPD gear. And you can interpret that however you want. I mean, maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe she was trying to intimidate Sherry. But the woman apparently claimed that she was just nearby on a break and she thought that she would stop in and say hello. But what made the visit stand out was that John wasn't home. Sherry was alone, and this part really stood out to her dad Nell's later. Because apparently John was originally supposed to be home that day, while Sherry was supposed to be working. Their schedules had unexpectedly switched around somehow. And if your fiance's former hookup keeps showing up at your house, assuming that he will be there alone and you won't be there, I mean, hello, that's going to make almost anybody uncomfortable. So Sherry called her dad once again to tell him what was going on. And this time, according to him, she was genuinely scared that John might be cheating on her. She kept going back and forth between wanting to trust him and feeling like the entire situation was strange. More than anything, though, she just wanted John to step in and tell this woman off, tell her to beat it back off. But according to Sherry, He wasn't. wasn't doing that. And obviously it was making her confidence in the relationship start to crack a little bit. Nell's also said that there was something else in that conversation that really stayed with him. Sherry almost never cried. As a nurse, she dealt with stressful and upsetting situations constantly, and she usually stayed incredibly composed because of that. But turning that phone call with her dad, she was sobbing. Nell's didn't really know what advice to give her in that moment. Other than try to stay calm, not make any huge emotional decisions based off fear or suspicion alone. So that's what Sherry did. She moved forward with the wedding. She acted like things were normal, and then afterward she and John appeared happy together. And as far as Nell's knew, this woman had stopped showing up completely. Maybe it had all just been some last ditch attempt to get John's attention before he officially became a married man. But now after Sherry was murdered, Nell's couldn't stop thinking about it. So literally, the day after learning that his daughter was killed, he brought the woman up to the investigators. And according to Nell's, he wasn't storming in, making some crazy accusation or demanding arrests. He simply asked the lead detective one question, "Hey, have you checked out John's ex-girlfriend, the lady cop?" But according to Nell's, the investigator just brushed him off almost immediately, telling him, "You know, you've watched too many cop TV shows." So that was basically the end of the conversation. No follow-up questions, no indication that they planned to take it seriously or look into it, nothing. And I think what frustrated Nell's the most wasn't necessarily that he was positive that this woman killed Sherry, but it was the fact that the investigators didn't even seem willing to consider the possibility. But Nell's and Sherry's mother, Loretta, she refused to let it go. Even two years later, in 1988, Nell's was still pushing investigators to take another look at the case. He even wrote directly to the then LAPD chief, Daryl Gates, asking him to intervene and have fresh eyes to review the investigation. And once again, he specifically mentioned the woman, the lady cop in all of this. The LAPD officer that he believed detectives had ignored far too quickly. But according to the family, they never even received a response back. Not a letter, not an acknowledgement, nothing. Over the years, Nell's and Loretta kept trying to keep Sherry's case alive publicly. And interestingly, John stayed involved too. He stood beside the family during the interviews. He was asking the public for information, and he was continuing to mourn Sherry publicly as well. Unfortunately, though, once an unsolved case goes cold and there aren't any major developments, media attention usually fades too. So in 1993, Nell's and Loretta traveled from Arizona back to BANIs, hoping that detectives finally might have some kind of update for them. But the meeting ended up feeling almost exactly like the earlier years of the investigation. There were still no suspects, no arrests, no major new leads. Detectives told them that they had reviewed the original reports. They had looked into incoming tips, but still hadn't identified anyone responsible. And remember, the woman from the nearby break-in, she survived and provided police sketches of the men who attacked her, right? Well, those suspects were never identified either. And as awful as the meeting was, what the detectives told Nell's and Loretta at the end of the meeting, it may have hit the hardest, because they told them they needed to move on with their lives, which I can't even imagine hearing that as a parent. Because at that point, it forced this family to confront something that they probably never wanted to admit to themselves. Despite how badly they wanted answers, the case didn't seem any closer to being solved than it had years earlier. So eventually, Loretta stopped calling detectives, stopped looking for updates. And I'm sure that there came a point where Nell's, Loretta, maybe even John too, started wondering whether they would ever actually know what happened to Sherry, whether anyone would ever be held accountable or not. Now, back in 1986, DNA evidence simply was not what it is now. The technology that investigators rely on today didn't really exist yet. However, in October of 1998, things started changing. The FBI launched a national DNA database, giving investigators the ability to compare crime scene DNA to known offenders and potential suspects in ways that they never could do before. So with that, it completely changed cold case investigations. It took time for the technology to spread from the FBI into local departments, though. So LAPD didn't officially create its own cold case unit until late 2001. But by the end of 2002, detectives finally started reviewing unsolved murders for possible DNA evidence. And thankfully, Sherry's case made that list. Now, it still wasn't considered some huge priority investigation at the time, but for the first time in years, there was at least a possibility that the evidence that was left behind in Sherry's murder might finally be able to tell investigators something that they hadn't been able to see before. In December of 2004, a criminal list named Jennifer Butterworth sat down at her desk, preparing for a long day of combing through cold cases. And one of the files sitting right there in front of her was Sherry's file. Now, say what you want about the original investigation, because there were definitely issues with it, but detectives had collected a pretty decent amount of physical evidence from the crime scene. So Jennifer started going through it piece by piece. There was a piece of a fingernail, a blood-stained towel paramedics had placed over Sherry's face. But when those items were tested, the only DNA that was found belonged to Sherry herself. Then, Jennifer came across something else in the evidence file, a DNA swab that was taken from the bite mark on Sherry's arm. So they tested it. And the results showed two DNA profiles. One belonged to Sherry, but the other belonged to an unknown person. Now, unfortunately, the unknown DNA didn't match anyone in the FBI database. But still, that wasn't even the biggest discovery. Because when Jennifer looked at the gender marker connected to the DNA profile, it came back as XX, meaning that the person who bit Sherry was a woman. And just like that, the entire theory that the investigators had built this case around, it started falling apart. Up until then, detectives believed that Sherry had likely been killed by a man, maybe multiple men, gang members, burglars, drug dealers, drug-related suspects. That was the only narrative that they had worked with for years. But now, they had physical evidence showing that a woman had been directly involved in the attack. Now, as major as this discovery was, though, it still didn't immediately solve the case. The DNA findings were documented, written up, and added to the file. But then, things stalled again. It wasn't until 2007 that new DNA evidence finally triggered a second investigation into Sherry's murder. And this time, detectives had to approach the case completely differently than the way that the investigators before them had. And that is when the case landed on the desks of two detectives, Jim Nuddle and Pete Barba. And almost immediately, they realized something pretty obvious. If the DNA evidence contradicted the original theory, then every conclusion that the investigators had reached over the years needed to be reexamined. This case no longer needed to be investigated like a burglary gone wrong. They needed to find a woman, possibly a woman who hated Sherry enough to kill her. And interestingly, when they reviewed the original case file, there were actually five women listed in connection to the investigation. Yet somehow, none of them had really been seriously looked into at the time. So now, years later, detectives started going through those names one by one, trying to determine who might realistically have had a reason to target Sherry. One woman was a nurse who worked with Sherry and had apparently gotten into arguments with her before. Another name in the file was Stephanie LaRazas. And unlike the nurse, Stephanie was not a coworker, a friend or family member. So because of that, naturally, the detectives wanted to know why her name was even in there in the first place. Well, according to the documents, Stephanie was listed as John's ex-girlfriend. And next to her name was a small little note that read P-O. Now, at first, Detective Nuddle apparently didn't think much of it, but after briefly speaking with John about Stephanie, it clicked. P-O stood for police officer. So with that, they started digging deeper into Stephanie, her history with John, everything. Now, Stephanie and John first met while they were both students at UCLA, living in the same dorm. And at first, they were just friends. But after college, things became more complicated. They started spending a lot of one-on-one time together and going out on dates. And I'm not intentionally, not fully calling it a relationship because a lot of sources are pretty vague about whether they were ever truly official. But it seemed like they had more of this like ongoing kind of casual relationship. Or at least, that's how John viewed it. Before meeting Sherry, John apparently wasn't thinking much about settling down. And I wouldn't necessarily call him a player, but he definitely had multiple women in his life at different times. And Stephanie was one of them. The issue was that Stephanie seemingly didn't realize that she wasn't the only woman in his life. And apparently, it all came to a head around John's 25th birthday. Stephanie had thrown him a birthday party. And during that birthday party, John revealed that not only was he seeing somebody else, but that he and Sherry were very serious. And even though Stephanie and John may not have been technically official, it seems pretty clear that Stephanie wanted something more from him. So finding out that he had essentially chosen another woman over her, it was devastating to her. Which to me, it sounds like John had completely moved into a, you know, new phase of his life. He went from casually dating around and not really thinking about the future to now suddenly wanting marriage and wanting stability and wanting that with Sherry. So after learning all of this, Stephanie actually wrote a letter to John's mother. Now maybe it was just a way to vent her feelings that felt somewhat safe. I don't know. I don't have the full letter, but I do know that one section of it read, "I'm truly in love with John, and the past year has really torn me up. I wish it didn't end the way it did, and I don't think I'll ever fully understand his decision." So clearly not taking this, I don't want to say breakup, but separation well. Heartbroken, jealous, sad. Then after learning that John and Sherry were engaged, Stephanie showed up at John's house, asking for closure. But apparently, that conversation, it didn't exactly end the way that either one of them probably expected. Because the two of them ended up sleeping together. And that detail, it matters. Because even years later, it painted a much messier picture of the relationship between Stephanie and John. Way messier than Stephanie would later try to spin and admit. By the summer of 2009, when Sherry's case was officially being reinvestigated, decades had passed. And I know a lot of people look at this case and immediately ask, "How was Stephanie not investigated sooner?" And I get that reaction. But you also have to look at who Stephanie was by 2009. At that point, Stephanie had built a very respected career within the LAPD. She had worked her way up from patrol officer to the art theft division, which apparently was considered a pretty high-profile assignment in Los Angeles, especially with all the wealthy collectors and expensive artwork that is there. Everybody who knew Stephanie seemed to respect her as well. She didn't really seem to have any disciplinary problems, no major complaints. Nothing suggested that she was some sort of unstable or violent person. She had even helped create a childcare program for officers with kids, and she had launched a child's safety program too. So on paper, she looked like the model officer. And beyond that, she appeared to have her personal life together too. She was married. She and her husband had adopted a little girl together. She was happy. So I do think that there was probably a level of hesitation from the investigators because Stephanie was one of their own, but also because she simply didn't fit what people expect a murderer to look like. As for John, he had also moved on with his life by then. He had remarried. He started a family with his second wife, the family that he and Sherry had once talked about having together. But despite all of that, detectives couldn't ignore the mounting evidence surrounding Stephanie. Because now it wasn't just about old suspicions or awkward stories from the 1980s. They had female DNA from the bite mark. They also had Stephanie's name buried in the original case file. And now they were actively narrowing potential suspects down. Now earlier, I had mentioned that the list included two remaining women that the investigators wanted to look closely at. Stephanie and the nurse that Sherry had argued with at work. Well, detectives quickly ruled out the nurse after she voluntarily gave them a DNA sample and the DNA didn't match the bite mark evidence. So that left Stephanie. And once investigators really started digging into her history, there were a lot of details that suddenly started standing out in a much different light. For example, the gun that was used to kill Sherry was a 38 caliber weapon. And at the time that Sherry was murdered, 38s were commonly carried by the LAPD officers, either as backup guns or as off-duty weapons. So detectives started researching every firearm that ever was registered to Stephanie. And in 1986, sure enough, she owned a 38. Now could that alone be a coincidence? Sure, it's not like she was the only officer within the LAPD or anything, right? Not the only officer carrying that kind of gun. But then, the investigators also, as they were digging in, learned something else. Just 13 days after Sherry was murdered, Stephanie reported that same 38 as missing. According to her, it had been stolen. And there was a whole story attached to that as well. Apparently, Stephanie walked into the Santa Monica Police Department. She identified herself as an LAPD officer and then she filed a report claiming that someone had broken into her car near the Santa Monica pier. According to Stephanie, a gym bag had been stolen from the vehicle, along with everything inside of it, including the gun. And to be fair, the Breakin did appear legitimate on the surface. The driver's side law had been punched, which is something that thieves commonly did back then. So it was absolutely possible that somebody really did break into her car. But at the same time, if someone had used that gun to kill Sherry, this also would have been a very convenient way to explain why the weapon suddenly disappeared less than two weeks later. The issue for the investigators was that almost everything that they had against Stephanie was circumstantial. Could she have been obsessed with John, maybe? Could she have been jealous of Sherry, sure? And could her car genuinely have been broken into completely unrelated to the murderer? Yes. Did any of that automatically make her a murderer? No. Plus, when you're talking about accusing one of LAPD's most respected officers of brutally killing someone, you need evidence that is undeniable. So the detectives came up with a plan. They decided to wait until Stephanie discarded something in public that contained her DNA. Then they were going to quietly collected themselves. And that did not take very long. On May 27, 2009, plain clothes officers followed Stephanie while she ran errands around town. At some point, she got a drink, finished it, and then threw the cup away in a public trash can. So investigators immediately retrieved that cup and the straw, and they sent both of them in for testing. Two days later, they got the call that they had been waiting for. It was a match. Stephanie's DNA matched the DNA that was found on the bite mark on Sherry's arm. But still, detectives wanted to interview both Stephanie and John again. Now, when Stephanie was questioned about her relationship with John, she really tried to minimize it completely, acting like it had barely even been a real relationship at all. God, that's been a million years ago. I mean, you know, what year is it now? 2009, I mean, I graduated in 82, 82, yeah. You know, we dated. I dated other guys. I'm sure he dated other girls. Well, let me ask you, roughly how long would you say you guys did? I couldn't even say. I mean, I started school there in 78. I started to see a late set in 1978. I graduated in 82. I don't even remember what year he graduated if it was a year or two before me. I think he was a little bit older than I was. So you haven't talked to him for a long time? Oh, I think I haven't talked to him in a long time. I couldn't even tell him in the last time I talked to him. Now, just watching that interrogation footage, if you are watching the video version of this episode, she seemed incredibly nervous. Every answer felt rushed and jittery. I mean, what's, I mean, what's this all about? I mean, what did the relationship between you and John? You know, I don't, it was kind of a weird relationship. I mean, we dated. I can't say that he was my boyfriend. I don't know that he would consider me his girlfriend. We just, we dated. We did things. I played sports in college. He played basketball. His brother played basketball. We just you know, it just didn't work out. I don't know what to tell you. It was like I went out with other guys, saw other guys and went on lots of vacations, you know. And once you guys split, were you guys still friends or kind of, you know, I mean, is it friendly, not friendly? No, I don't think it was not friendly. I mean we were friendly. I know that we went to Hawaii at one point, another friend of mine who's actually dying right now. I went to Hawaii with us at some point. I have to check my pictures, or I'd say I'd ask Greg, but my friend Greg is dying of liver cancer right now. Yeah, I mean, you know, she already seemed uncomfortable just discussing John in general. So when investigators started asking about Sherry and whether she had ever met her before, things became even more tense. It's 2009 now. Had you ever met his wife? I may have. Do you remember her name or anything? Or what she did for a living or where she worked or anything about her? Well, I think she, I'm going to say, I think she was a nurse. I mean, I can't remember how he said he met her. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's been so long ago. Well, let me ask you, did you go to their wedding? No, I didn't go to their wedding. No, I did not go to their wedding. Couldn't even tell you what year you got married. I mean, you know, it's been a million years ago. Do you ever remember if you ever talked to her? Because it seems like a lot of you who were at the school at UCLA, you guys kind of were friends during and after school. So I don't know if you guys still associate it afterwards once he was married or anything. With him? No, I don't think so. Then the questions got darker. Did Stephanie remember hearing that John's wife had been murdered? Did she remember hearing the details about how Sherry was killed inside her own home only months after her wedding? You know, I don't understand why you're talking about some guy dated a million years ago. Well, do you know what happened to his wife? Yeah, I know she got killed. What did you what did you hear about that? I guys saw a poster at work. I'm sure I spoke to him about it. I think I spoke to another friend of his about it. And how did you first learn about that? Geez. Someone could have called me. I could have heard of that work. I think at one point there may have been a flyer or something. I know a good friend of his. Are you on the job back then? Will that happen? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm sure I was on the job. That's why I would have heard about it with a flyer. He had a good friend Mike Voldrick Mike. Anyways, he may have lived in the dorms. I don't remember if that's how I met him. I may have talked to him. I mean, you know, I don't remember how I heard. I mean, I don't even remember what year it was. And you think you thought you said you thought his wife was a nurse. Do you have any idea where she was working at the time or did you ever mention that to you? Was it a hospital or a doctor's office? I'm sure you must have mentioned it. Now that you're bringing that up, I think she worked at a hospital somewhere. And yeah, I may have met her at a hospital. I may have talked to her once or twice. Now watching those clips now, it's hard not to notice how uncomfortable she looks, especially considering that she had spent years working high pressure police assignments. She definitely did not come across as calm or collected. And then the investigators finally started steering the interview exactly where Stephanie probably knew that it was heading from the very start of when she sat down. I can't even remember if we got a conversation. I mean, we may have. I may have seen her at his apartment, you know, geez, how many years ago was that? I don't even know what year she, you know, got killed. Where was his apartment on Roscoe? Okay. Yeah, Roscoe and Easter west of Disoto. Either Easter west of Disoto. Do you know where he moved after? Did he move after he got married or do you know or? I'm sure he did. Did you know where he was living or somewhere in the valley? Did you ever visit him and his wife? No. No, never went out. You know, get together dinners. Now at that point, Stephanie was still pretending that she had barely interacted with Sherry at all. Meanwhile, though, investigators already knew that there had been multiple encounters between the two of them back in the eighties, including Stephanie showing up at the condo. So eventually detectives stopped dancing around it and they came right out with their suspicions. And Stephanie reacted with what I can only describe as shock and outrage, though, in my opinion, it didn't really feel all that convincing. They've also told us that an incident at our house occurred. You know what? And this is at our house during the period of time that they're married. That's just not sounded familiar at all. I mean, I, you know what? I, that's just not sound. Again, if someone says that I was at our house and I had an incident with her, you know, I, that just doesn't sound, you know, was John there? Did John say this happened because and other people were there? I just, I don't recall. I mean, it just doesn't sound, you know, familiar. And this is an incident where you showed up, you weren't supposed to show up and things got heated. At his house? Yeah. It's that I, you know, I, that just doesn't sound familiar. I mean, you know, it's not sounding familiar. So not at all. Now you say not familiar because it's just, so you remember it. Well, you know what? I would have, then I'd have to say don't remember because I don't remember. I mean, it doesn't sound familiar. I, I mean, would you remember something like that in your life? Well, I would think like, sort of drama involving, you know, the other woman type of thing. Do you fight with her? You mean like, we fight? Yeah. Did you ever do it out with her? I mean, you'd remember that, right? That would be pretty. Yeah, I would think so. I mean, yeah, like I said, I mean, obviously, yeah, I, you know, I mean, it just doesn't sound familiar. I mean, I mean, what are they saying? So I, I fall with their soul. So I mean, I get getting the jump of the leaf. Excuse me. I haven't eaten. They're saying, okay, I fought with her. So I must have killed her. I mean, come on. I mean, that's, you know, I, I don't even know who these people are. I can't even say I met any of these people. I mean, that's, it's insane. Then investigators finally revealed why she was really there that day. On this case, you know, this is, it occurred in 186, right? It detected process, the scene, things of that nature. They did fingerprints and all that stuff. You know, you know, the standard, you've been doing this. I have, well, about that. I got 26 years on going on. 19, so, but you know, as they processed everything, they did the best they could at that time. And they looked at a lot of a lot of people and different things in this case. And you're. I mean, if you guys are claiming that I'm a suspect, then, you know, I got a problem with, you know, with that. Okay. Okay. So, you know, if you're, if you're doing this as an interrogation, you're saying, Hey, I'm a suspect. Well, now I got a problem with, you know, now you're accusing me of this. Is that what you're saying? We're trying to figure out what happened, Stephanie. Well, I was, you know, I'm just saying, you know, right now, from looking at the evidence, it's, you know, it's possible we may have some DNA at the location. That's great. And we're going to do what we can to try to put this thing together. And your name's in the book. These people are pointing at you for whatever reason. I don't know why that's just crazy. I mean, that's just, that's absolutely crazy. Now this part is absolutely wild. Okay. When detectives eventually told Stephanie that she was free to leave, they were lying. The second that Stephanie stormed out saying she was contacting a lawyer, the officer stopped her in the hallway, handcuffed her and formally arrested her for Sherry's murder. At that point detectives already have the DNA evidence that they needed. The interrogation was really just about saying how Stephanie would react once she realized that they were on to her. Now when the news broke that an LAPD officer had been arrested for murdering Sherry, reactions were all over the place. People who didn't know the history between Stephanie, John, and Sherry, there was a lot of shock and confusion. How could someone who had spent her career supposedly fighting for justice be accused of something like this? - I'm happy for the family, I'm happy for the family, but I'm glad it was in robbers. It was somebody that somebody knew. Wow, that's really fun. - Very relieved and thrilled. A lot of shock, nobody could believe it had happened to one of our nursing directors. Now for Sherry's family though, this arrest, it brought a sense of relief. This was the theory that they had been pushing for decades. The family released a statement saying, quote, "The family was not surprised at the arrest. We can only praise the work of the current chief of police and his loyal detective department." And there was definitely some shade in that statement toward the original investigation, which I mean, considering everything, I completely understand and like respect. Because imagine believing for over 20 years that investigators ignored critical warning signs from the very beginning, only to learn that you were right. - The investigation in 1986 is a completely different story and the family has numerous questions about what was done during that time period. The family has nothing but praise for the LAPD of 2009. It wasn't until 2012 that Stephanie finally went to trial and throughout the entire process, she maintained that she was innocent. There was never some dramatic confession after her arrest or any remorse. The prosecution explained that the reason for Stephanie killing Sherry was pretty simple. Jealousy. Sherry had everything she wanted. She had John, she had the life, the marriage, all of it. That stereo equipment that was by the front door of the condo, it was there planted to make it seem as if someone had broken in. That somebody was going to steal it like a home robbery gone wrong. Now, as for John himself, investigators never believed that he was involved in the murder or that this had been some kind of setup or murder for higher type situation. Ultimately, the DNA evidence against Stephanie was incredibly difficult to explain away. And although the stolen marriage license was never recovered, there was plenty of evidence that proved that Stephanie wasn't being truthful about a lot of different things. After her arrest, investigators searched her home and they found years worth of diaries. Inside those diary entries were entries about being in love with John and being devastated over his relationship with Sherry. In one entry, Stephanie wrote about visiting John in May of 1985 and seeing Sherry there. In another from April of 1985, she described leaving a note on John's car and repeatedly checking to see whether he had found it or not yet. Interestingly though, the defense tried using some of the diary entries to help Stephanie. For example, they pointed to a March 1986 entry where Stephanie mentioned taking her car in for repairs after it had supposedly been broken into. And I guess that their argument with that was basically like, why would she journal about a fake break-in if it never happened? The defense also brought in character witnesses through all of this, including people who claimed that they had never known Stephanie to be violent. But I mean, compared to the DNA evidence and everything else, it just did not seem like strong evidence in comparison. The trial lasted about five weeks. And finally, the jury reached a verdict. People of the state of California versus Stephanie Eileen Lazarus. Case number B8, three, five, seven, four, two, three. We the jury in the bobbin title of action find the defendant, Stephanie Eileen Lazarus. Guilty of the crime of murder of Sherry Rasmussen in violation of penal code section 187A, a felony as charged in count one of the information. We further find the murder was of the first degree. We further find the allegation that in the commission of the above offense, the defendant, Stephanie Eileen Lazarus, personally used a firearm, namely a handgun. Within the meeting of penal code section 12022.5, subsection A1 to be true. This eighth day of March in the year 2012, during number nine, four person. Is this your verdict? So say you once, so say you all. Guilty of first degree murder. More than 26 years after Sherry was killed, her family finally had justice. Justice that they had been fighting for since the very beginning. Stephanie was later sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. But unfortunately, the story still didn't fully end there. Because four years afterward, Stephanie continued insisting that she was innocent and that she had been wrongfully accused. That is, until November of 2023, during a parole hearing. For the very first time, Stephanie admitted to killing Sherry. But the timing of the confession, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Because California had passed a law allowing special parole consideration for people convicted of crimes that were committed before the age of 26. And Stephanie, she happened to qualify under that law. Now personally, I don't know if she ever would have confessed otherwise, I'd have to say no. She went on for decades hiding this. And that's just my opinion, but I don't believe that she would have ever come forward. Sherry's older sister Connie attended the hearing and later said that Stephanie never even actually apologized for killing Sherry. According to Connie, Stephanie also tried minimizing what happened, describing the murder almost like an accident, claiming she hadn't meant to kill her that day. And shockingly, parole officers initially found Stephanie suitable for release. One commissioner even said that Stephanie appeared remorseful and did not seem like a danger to society anymore. Now thankfully, that didn't mean that she was immediately released. In 2024, a select committee of the board of parole hearings voted to review the decision. And then in 2025, Stephanie's parole request was officially denied. And throughout all of this, John continued advocating for Sherry. He joined other family members in asking the parole board to deny Stephanie's release, arguing that she was manipulative, calculating, and had used her police training to help cover up the murder. He also said that he believed that Stephanie would say whatever she needed to say in order to get parole. So even decades later, John was still trying to protect Sherry the best way that he could. And as things currently stand, Stephanie will be eligible for parole again in 2028. And hopefully for Sherry's family's sake, she remains exactly where she is. It's just once again, such a senseless crime over what jealousy? And I know on here I always say just get a divorce, which that doesn't really seem applicable in this scenario. But maybe the tagline needs to be like, he's just not worth it, period. Like he is just not worth it. Or she is just not that worth it, not in this case. But like, you know, when men kill over women. So it's like, he's just not that worth it, for what? And now your life that you tried to build for yourself, the marriage, the adopted child, that child, this innocent child who was adopted into this family, she now has to grow up without a mother because you couldn't contain your jealousy, like get real. So for any of my female listeners right now, who might be going through a breakup or you might be envious of your man's new girl or what's going on or the situation. He's not worth it. It is not worth it. Now before you go, quick reminder, merch right now, anyeles.com, and get it before it is completely gone. All right, guys, thank you so much for hearing Sherry's story today and allowing her voice to carry on. And I am so glad that justice was finally served. Until the next one, stay safe. Bye. (upbeat music)