Los Angeles Police Detective Arrested

On June 5, 2009, detectives assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division arrested Los Angeles Police Detective Stephanie Lazarus for the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen.  The arrest was made at the Los Angeles Police Administrative Building (PAB) in downtown Los Angeles.

On February 24, 1986, Sherri Rasmussen, who was 29 years old, was alone in her residence in Van Nuys, California.  Her husband had left for the day, and when he returned in the early evening hours he found his wife brutally murdered.  Ms. Rasmussen died as a result of multiple gunshots.

In February 2009, the murder of Sherri Rasmussen was reviewed by Los Angeles Police Department Detectives in a systematic review of “Cold Cases.”  The current investigation, combined with technology available today lead to the identification of Lazarus as the suspect in this case.  The investigation revealed that Lazarus had a previous relationship with the victim’s husband prior to the murder.

DNA processing and analysis provided a key piece of evidence in this investigation.

Robbery-Homicide Division Detectives served search warrants at several locations to further the investigation following the detective’s arrest.

Lazarus is 49 years old, and has been a member of the Department for 25 years.  At the time of the murder Lazarus had been a member of the Department for two years.  Lazarus resides in Simi Valley.

All inquiries should be directed to the Los Angeles Police Department Detective Bureau at 213-847-4491.

Comments

[Ed O'Shea]

Sick and Tired...... 12 to 10 hours in a shift, plus a little overtime, still leaves me 10 to 15 minutes to punch out a blog once in a while. Which I don't do very often, but do want to contribute constructively. As for you, bench sitter, if you actually cared about your fellow Officers (you're demonstrably an Officer by your pejorative rhetoric) or the people of this city, you would supply a constructive post every once in a while, to contribute to the debate. If not just sit back and fill your diaper, as usual, and cry about why things bother you. Dude, if my posts bother you??? You're clearly a REMF who still has the new leather smell and a clean tread on his academy boots. The rest of us will do the ground pounding at work while you play hide and seek, slug. Your probably the type of Officer that cannot even find the gun on their hip let alone one on a real live gang member. I love these closet tough guys, they're so entertaining.

[Thank you.]

Officer, Detective not sure of your title I do wish I knew you though. You remind me so much of my father. I'm sure that's because you have a lot of your father in you. Thank you for always putting out there and not sugar coating it in the least. I can take the strait approach; it's the behind my back people that I have the most trouble with. So if our paths ever do cross, and I hope they do I hope I can tell that it is you Ed O'Shea that I'm talking to? Your father/mother/parents did a great job.

[CITIZEN]

alicein1 derland you figured me out. Your post is 100% correct about me.
I get the biggest kick out of the responses.

[Maura]

Boy you guys and gals really got off topic huh? Everyone is talking about the victims family which is sad,but I also can't stop thinking about Detective Lazarus's husband and little girl. I could cry for them,seriously!How devastating and what a shock to turn their lives upside down.I really hope the husband has wonderful,loving friends around him to help him throuh the grieving process of that situation and relationship if that happens, and that little girl will NEVER have her mom back again. This is heartbreaking for me to think of what they're going through...god bless them and give them strength.