The Stephanie Lazarus Case: A over 20 year cold case (SOLVED) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00hi everyone welcome back to our channel
2. 0:01my name is taylor i'm blanca and today
3. 0:03is
4. 0:04wicked wine wednesdays where we talk
5. 0:06about true crime
6. 0:07and sample wines today we'll be
7. 0:08discussing the stephanie lazarus case
8. 0:10so if you like wine and true crime don't
9. 0:12forget to like comment and subscribe
10. 0:16[Music]
11. 0:25this case is very intriguing because it
12. 0:28was considered a cold case for
13. 0:30around 23 years in 1986 the body of
14. 0:35sherry rasmussen was found
15. 0:37in her apartment that she shared with
16. 0:38her husband john rhetton
17. 0:42she was beaten until she was
18. 0:44unrecognizable and she was shot
19. 0:45three times the lapd had thought that it
20. 0:48was a botched burglary
21. 0:50because there had been burglaries that
22. 0:51happened in the same neighborhood
23. 0:54and a woman was assaulted she had said
24. 0:56that it was two hispanic men
25. 0:58and those men were never caught so for a
26. 1:00little more information on sherry
27. 1:02rasmussen's husband
28. 1:03his name was john rutten and he dated a
29. 1:05woman named stephanie lazarus
30. 1:06they met while they were in ucla
31. 1:08together he was studying mechanical
32. 1:10engineering and she was studying
33. 1:11political science
34. 1:13he does state that the relationship was
35. 1:15nothing more than a sexual one versus a
36. 1:17romantic one
37. 1:18so basically your average booty call
38. 1:21he also does state how whenever he was
39. 1:24in the shower she would go in and steal
40. 1:26his clothes
41. 1:27or while he was sleeping he was she was
42. 1:29taking unwanted pictures of him while he
43. 1:32was like naked
44. 1:34crazy alert
45. 1:38like oh my god red flag to the max i
46. 1:41don't know how you didn't call the play
47. 1:42on that one you're like nope
48. 1:44yeah after they do graduate though
49. 1:47she enrolls in the lapd academy and then
50. 1:50by 1983 she becomes a fully
51. 1:52uniformed police officer john rutten
52. 1:56later met sherry rasmussen who was a
53. 1:57critical care nurse
54. 1:59before lazarus was aware of rutten's new
55. 2:02found love
56. 2:03she decided to throw him a surprise 25th
57. 2:05birthday party
58. 2:07and she quickly found out how serious
59. 2:10rasmussen and rutten's relationship was
60. 2:13it didn't make her happy
61. 2:14she was depressed about it she wrote to
62. 2:16her mom that it had tore her up
63. 2:18she also wrote in her journal how she
64. 2:21found out that
65. 2:22they were getting married and she was
66. 2:24not happy about it
67. 2:26rutten later states that lazarus
68. 2:29had came over and the two of them had
69. 2:31had sex in order to give her
70. 2:34closure after this
71. 2:37lazarus kept coming over with her skis
72. 2:40and asking john to wax them for her
73. 2:44and sherry was pretty uncomfortable with
74. 2:47the situation
75. 2:49and she asked rutten to
76. 2:53get rid of their friendship because it
77. 2:55made her uncomfortable
78. 2:58sherry rasmussen's father had stated
79. 2:59that lazarus had shown up to her job
80. 3:02when she had came to her job she created
81. 3:04a very big scene
82. 3:05just basically causing an argument with
83. 3:06sherry in the argument she had told
84. 3:09sherry how things between her and rutten
85. 3:11weren't over
86. 3:12she did also state that if no one if she
87. 3:15couldn't have john
88. 3:16no one else could sorry but
89. 3:19major red flag on the crazy there
90. 3:22and then on top of everything sherry did
91. 3:25also state
92. 3:26prior to her murder obviously that
93. 3:29she felt like somebody was following her
94. 3:32honestly
95. 3:33personally wouldn't doubt it
96. 3:36on february 24th 1986
97. 3:40rutten had gone to work as if everything
98. 3:43was normal
99. 3:44sherry was supposed to give a
100. 3:45motivational speech at work that day so
101. 3:47she was kind of honestly debating
102. 3:49whether or not she should even go into
103. 3:50work because she didn't want to give
104. 3:51that motivational speech
105. 3:53at this point it's very uncertain
106. 3:56whether or not sherry had called off or
107. 3:57not that day
108. 3:58but the fact was that she was at home
109. 4:01while she was at home
110. 4:03there was a maid in a nearby unit that
111. 4:05was cleaning she does state to police
112. 4:07officers that she had heard some arguing
113. 4:10between two people
114. 4:11and something fall that was roughly
115. 4:13around 12 30 pm that day
116. 4:16rutten himself didn't get home till
117. 4:18later that day and when he did get home
118. 4:20he did find a very very terrible scene
119. 4:23when he came home
120. 4:24what he found was his wife sherry dead
121. 4:27he found that she did have defense
122. 4:29wounds on her because she obviously was
123. 4:31struggling for her life
124. 4:32there was broken glass in the home and a
125. 4:35bloody handprint next to their panic
126. 4:36button
127. 4:37there was also a bite mark on her which
128. 4:41later comes into play because
129. 4:44i mean not a spoiler alert but i guess a
130. 4:46little bit of a spoiler alert
131. 4:48it helps them basically determine who
132. 4:51her killer was at that point
133. 4:53it is just a little sad that it took
134. 4:54them so long to find it
135. 4:56but at least they found it and you'll
136. 4:58see how that bite mark
137. 5:00plays out in the next bit of this in
138. 5:032009 they
139. 5:04reopened this cold case due to the
140. 5:08decline
141. 5:09of crimes that were happening in la so
142. 5:12they in this file they had the dna from
143. 5:14the bite mark as well as
144. 5:16all of the statements that they had
145. 5:17taken from everybody so
146. 5:20they ran the dna that came from the bite
147. 5:22mark and it showed
148. 5:24a female and
149. 5:27immediately the two hispanic men that
150. 5:30they thought it was from the burglaries
151. 5:32that we talked about earlier were
152. 5:33completely ruled out
153. 5:34they also saw that lazarus name had
154. 5:37popped up a lot
155. 5:38in the file and they noticed that she
156. 5:41had had an argument
157. 5:42with sherry rasmussen before she was
158. 5:45murdered
159. 5:46they kept the investigation a secret
160. 5:48because they didn't want lazarus to know
161. 5:50that she was part of the investigation
162. 5:52especially since she works in the lapd
163. 5:54as well they retrieved her dna from a
164. 5:57discarded coffee cup when she was off of
165. 5:58duty
166. 6:00and they ran that through with the dna
167. 6:01from the bite mark and
168. 6:03it matched this blew the cold case
169. 6:07wide open and now they were keeping a
170. 6:10close eye
171. 6:11on lazarus and they were now aware
172. 6:15that it was somebody that they
173. 6:17considered their own
174. 6:19and somebody that worked very close with
175. 6:22them
176. 6:22and by close i mean in the same building
177. 6:26also i just want to say sorry if you
178. 6:28guys hear any background noise it's
179. 6:29raining outside pretty hard so
180. 6:31sorry enjoy them
181. 6:38yeah so you're just gonna be in the rest
182. 6:41of the video it's fine
183. 6:42it's fine my dog has really bad anxiety
184. 6:44so
185. 6:45since there's thunder he needs to be
186. 6:47here and he'll
187. 6:49be comforted in love don't worry so we
188. 6:51will have a dog
189. 6:53in the frame for probably the rest of
190. 6:56the video
191. 6:57because he just shivers it's fine
192. 7:01okay detectives know that a 38 smith and
193. 7:04wesson was what was used
194. 7:05they also knew that lazarus herself had
195. 7:08a 38 smith and wesson
196. 7:10which she reported missing 13 days
197. 7:13after the murder murder
198. 7:17probably not but again speculation
199. 7:21in our opinion so they began the
200. 7:25interrogation of lazarus without really
201. 7:27letting her know that it was an
202. 7:28interrogation
203. 7:30what they had done was they told her
204. 7:32they needed help with an investigation
205. 7:34that they were looking into that
206. 7:35involved in arts crime which is what her
207. 7:38specialty was being in the
208. 7:40lapd at that point she was like an art
209. 7:42crimes detective i believe is what it
210. 7:43was yeah
211. 7:44um but that's what they were calling her
212. 7:46help for or at least what they were
213. 7:47making it seem like
214. 7:49as soon as they got into the
215. 7:50interrogation room you know they made it
216. 7:52seem like a friendly interaction
217. 7:54and then they instantly hit her with
218. 7:55questions about her and john retton's
219. 7:57relationship
220. 7:58[Music]
221. 7:59which if you watch the interrogation
222. 8:02video
223. 8:02completely throws her off instantly
224. 8:05and on top of that she just keeps trying
225. 8:08to say that she's married
226. 8:10she hasn't thought about rutten and who
227. 8:12knows how many years
228. 8:14it's been so long she's happily married
229. 8:16now
230. 8:18but we all probably know she still
231. 8:21probably
232. 8:21constantly thinks about him on a daily
233. 8:24basis
234. 8:24most likely still as obsessed with him
235. 8:27to this day
236. 8:28as she was that day because it's been 23
237. 8:32years but she committed murder for the
238. 8:34dude
239. 8:35yeah the rest was carefully planned in
240. 8:38june 2009
241. 8:40a dozen officers were briefed with a
242. 8:42search warrant and they waited outside
243. 8:44of lazarus house
244. 8:45as well as the metrolink station which
245. 8:47she used to
246. 8:48get to work after the interrogation and
247. 8:51the dna match
248. 8:52they had enough to arrest her and she
249. 8:55was quickly arrested
250. 8:56and she was charged for the murder of
251. 9:01sherry rasmussen they searched her house
252. 9:04and they found a journal
253. 9:06that had a bunch of entries about her
254. 9:09love for
255. 9:10john rutten and just how obsessed she
256. 9:14was with him
257. 9:16it was a bit much after
258. 9:20after her arrest she was allowed to
259. 9:23retire from the lapd
260. 9:25early and they held her in the lapd
261. 9:28county jail the judge set her bail for
262. 9:3110 million dollars cash because they
263. 9:35consider her to be a high
264. 9:37flea risk which i'm sure she would have
265. 9:40booked it if she could have
266. 9:42i would have the trial took place in
267. 9:462012 where lazarus brought a bunch of
268. 9:48friends and family who
269. 9:50stated that she showed no violence and
270. 9:53she was a nice person
271. 9:54and yada yada but the case evidence was
272. 9:58already
273. 9:59far too strong they had the gun that was
274. 10:01used as well as her dna
275. 10:02on the bite mark on the body like there
276. 10:06was no getting away from that it doesn't
277. 10:07matter if you've never shown violence
278. 10:08for years or nobody's ever seen
279. 10:10violence dna is dna yeah it's specific
280. 10:13to you
281. 10:14and just in case you didn't know that
282. 10:15information yeah
283. 10:17lazarus defense attorneys were trying to
284. 10:19say that the dna from the bite mark had
285. 10:20been compromised
286. 10:22obviously if you kind of know dna you
287. 10:24know that that would be hard because
288. 10:25again
289. 10:26specific to you and it's also dna that's
290. 10:28been sitting around for the past 23
291. 10:29years
292. 10:30yeah why would they just pin it on her
293. 10:32like of all people
294. 10:33somebody you work with like i mean i
295. 10:35mean i get the arguments but i mean
296. 10:36those were just arguments they would
297. 10:38have to be very very hard to just
298. 10:40convict somebody over
299. 10:41just an argument yeah they tried to file
300. 10:44for a mistrial and also were trying to
301. 10:46say that they had
302. 10:48violated her fifth amendment again i
303. 10:51still don't know how you can do that
304. 10:52when she willingly went in there
305. 10:54on her own in that interrogation again
306. 10:57like chris watts could have gotten up at
307. 10:58any time and just walked out of the room
308. 11:00she you guys have free will like i don't
309. 11:02know what to tell you but you do
310. 11:04in march just days after the trial had
311. 11:06even begun she was convicted
312. 11:08she did get the guilty charge and was
313. 11:11sentenced to 27 years in prison
314. 11:14where she's currently serving her
315. 11:16sentence at this moment
316. 11:18she did file for an appeal in 2013 and
317. 11:21they are refusing to even look at her
318. 11:23case
319. 11:24because i mean you murdered someone
320. 11:26honey i don't know why you guys keep
321. 11:27trying to get out of prison
322. 11:29after you murder somebody like you did
323. 11:32your crime
324. 11:33now you gotta serve the time and she
325. 11:34knows she did like she didn't obviously
326. 11:36she didn't confess or anything they
327. 11:37don't have a confession from her
328. 11:39but she knows she she killed somebody
329. 11:41and just like chris watts yeah he
330. 11:42confessed but he also knows he killed
331. 11:44somebody
332. 11:44so why are you trying to get out of
333. 11:46prison why
334. 11:47and even without the confession if you
335. 11:49watch the interrogation
336. 11:51like there i personally
337. 11:55she's so guilty oh yeah it's almost as
338. 11:58i feel personally again personally it's
339. 12:01my opinion
340. 12:02that she gave it up so much quicker than
341. 12:05chris
342. 12:06yeah like she wasn't trying to deny it
343. 12:07don't get me wrong chris gave it up
344. 12:09pretty freaking
345. 12:10quick but as soon as we even brought up
346. 12:13john's name in the interrogation videos
347. 12:15she's just kind of like
348. 12:16um and then of course any other time
349. 12:19they mention
350. 12:20sherry she's just like i don't know
351. 12:23like it's been so long like i don't know
352. 12:26homegirl you remember because you
353. 12:28murdered her that like that ain't gonna
354. 12:29leave your brain
355. 12:30what so yeah like you know for sure that
356. 12:32she was thinking about that
357. 12:34forever like that's not something that
358. 12:36you just forget about
359. 12:37and if you were so obsessed with him you
360. 12:39would 100 remember
361. 12:41the wife's name just saying yeah there's
362. 12:43no way
363. 12:44but you guys should definitely um check
364. 12:46out the
365. 12:47interrogation for her there's
366. 12:51um a guy here on youtube that
367. 12:54is called jcs criminal psychology
368. 12:57and he goes over the entire
369. 12:59interrogation and lets you know like
370. 13:01her reactions and like how she
371. 13:04states certain things um and like why it
372. 13:07was
373. 13:08very apparent to the detectives that she
374. 13:10wasn't telling the truth
375. 13:11it's pretty interesting so you guys
376. 13:13should check that out
377. 13:15and on that note we're gonna end this
378. 13:18video
379. 13:18on a more positive note all about the
380. 13:21wine we're gonna talk about the wines
381. 13:23that we tried
382. 13:25so the wine that i
383. 13:28tried it's called it's right here
384. 13:33can you see there you go it's called
385. 13:37what burl wood sellers
386. 13:40burlwood world
387. 13:43wood sellers jesus
388. 13:47it's a little tongue twister for you
389. 13:48guys and it's a cabernet
390. 13:51of course um it's a red wine from
391. 13:54california
392. 13:55um and oh i guess i'm reading here it
393. 13:59contains sulfates so if you're allergic
394. 14:01to sulfates
395. 14:03don't drink it please don't drink yeah
396. 14:05we don't need you dying
397. 14:06yeah so it's bold it's somewhere in
398. 14:09between the
399. 14:11things of smooth and tannic it's
400. 14:15dry but not like too dry it's actually
401. 14:18kind of
402. 14:18sweet which i mean i didn't hate it like
403. 14:21i usually say that i don't like sweet
404. 14:23wines but it wasn't too sweet it was
405. 14:25pretty good
406. 14:25oh it's sweet can i turn it yeah it's
407. 14:28not that sweet i don't know if you'd
408. 14:29like it
409. 14:30and it's a little bit more on the soft
410. 14:32side than the acidic side
411. 14:33which i also think is kind of weird
412. 14:35because to me it tastes a little bit
413. 14:36more acidic like
414. 14:37right yeah it did it tastes like more
415. 14:39acidic but i guess apparently it's more
416. 14:41on the soft side
417. 14:43it has flavors of oak and vanilla and
418. 14:46caramel basically like the basics that
419. 14:47you get
420. 14:48with a cabernet and it has black cherry
421. 14:51blackberry cherry raspberry
422. 14:54so good stuff you know and it pairs well
423. 14:58with beef
424. 14:59lamb venison and chicken
425. 15:02so if that's your thing maybe give this
426. 15:05a try
427. 15:06it's not bad i enjoyed it um
428. 15:10it is like i think it's weird that it
429. 15:12says that it's like more
430. 15:14soft and acidic because to me i feel
431. 15:16like it's very soft and it's very smooth
432. 15:18going in
433. 15:18but i can definitely taste like that
434. 15:20oakiness to it yeah
435. 15:21you think yeah i don't know like it it's
436. 15:24pretty it's good don't get me wrong
437. 15:26i like it but yeah i mean i would think
438. 15:28it's more on the acidic side but i need
439. 15:30to google what tannic is i'm so curious
440. 15:32at this point
441. 15:34like what the [ __ ] is what is tannic a
442. 15:37dry
443. 15:37white with a slightly tannic aftertaste
444. 15:41okay
445. 15:42again what does it mean
446. 15:47it refers to the dryness bitterness and
447. 15:50essentially
448. 15:51i guess that would make more sense
449. 15:52because if it's sweet or tannic so yeah
450. 15:54they're sweet or bitter
451. 15:55yeah oh okay that's what i was saying
452. 15:57like it's because like the
453. 15:59uh astringency is that how you say it
454. 16:02i feel like that's like more of that
455. 16:03like
456. 16:07i feel like that's more of like the
457. 16:08acidic taste than i'm getting i go
458. 16:10eating yeah like that like
459. 16:12that's how you do it but then you
460. 16:14explained why just
461. 16:17hopefully everybody else knows what that
462. 16:18means
463. 16:21so the wine that i tried tonight guys
464. 16:23hold on let's see
465. 16:25there we go it's a trestoria rose it's
466. 16:27from california
467. 16:29it's definitely dry but yet very fruity
468. 16:33um it has some sweetness to it but it's
469. 16:36not your overall like normal
470. 16:38sweet rose i would say it does have some
471. 16:41fruit like hints of
472. 16:42cherry and watermelon grapefruit some i
473. 16:45think it was
474. 16:46peaches and nectarine is that what i
475. 16:47read yeah yeah so with that one
476. 16:50overall personally my jam very much
477. 16:53enjoyed it
478. 16:54i don't think she liked the sip but
479. 16:58i mean i personally liked it if you do
480. 17:01want to give this a try
481. 17:03it is great with chips and salsa it's
482. 17:05also pretty good with pasta or seafood
483. 17:08so the next time you got a post tonight
484. 17:10give it a try
485. 17:13thank you everybody for watching and we
486. 17:14can't wait to see you next wednesday
487. 17:16bye
488. 17:19[Music]
489. 17:27[Laughter]
490. 17:31oh my god accept it so i can yell at him
491. 17:36excuse me we're filming i was
492. 17:39literally mid-sentence
493. 17:43she's mad at you he dated a girl named
494. 17:45step
495. 17:46staff stephanie stephanie a staff
496. 17:50staff infection basically
497. 17:55in case you're not like a medical nerd
498. 17:57like how we are
499. 17:59it's just a type of bacteria i think
500. 18:00right yeah staphylococcus
501. 18:02there you go that was like are those
502. 18:05ones that are rods and okay you know
503. 18:07what never mind
504. 18:08um no caucus there's circles okay
505. 18:12spheres
506. 18:26interview or anything just i'm just yeah
507. 18:28i'm just going to stay stated
508. 18:29because it doesn't matter who he's
509. 18:30talking to no it could be us it could be
510. 18:32[ __ ] santa doesn't matter
511. 18:34she told santa