a two-bit burglary. it just seemed a little like overkill. reporter: sherri s boss at the hospital, ahthea kennedy had to review sherri s autopsy report for insurance reasons and she was struck by what she saw. wow, she put up one heck of a fight, which wasn t real surprising because sherri was tall, athletic, and i m sure wouldn t go down easily. reporter: the lapd theory back then was that there were two men robbing the house and so presumably sherri would have fought with two guys. does that sound like sherri. reporter:. that part didn t make sense to me because two men and two guns seemed weird. reporter: sherri wouldn t begin a fight with two guys who were armed? i wouldn t think so. reporter: what about with a woman? hawaii i think she would have
investigators may have followed the initial theory of the crime that it was a burglary. and that there was a woman involved in the burglary? yes, and looking back in hindsight, it was an opportunity that slipped through our hands as an organization. but now, he took a closer look and developed his own different theory. remember, sherry rasmussen was shot at point blank range after a violent struggle despite the stereo equipment stacked at the front door. very little was stolen. the suspect made it appear to look like a burglary. they staged it to mislead the initial investigation in 1986. she was executed. reporter: in other words somebody wanted sherry rasmussen dead. so now, he dug deeper through the file looking for names, female names. we had five women that had access to share and i perhaps at
for a two-bit burglary. reporter: it just seemed a little like overkill. sherry s boss at the hospital, althea kennedy had to review sherry s autopsy report for insurance reasons and she was struck by what she saw. i thought, wow, she really put up one heck of a fight, which was not really surprising because sherry was tall, athletic, and i m sure would not go down easily. reporter: the l.a.p.d. theory back then was that there were two men robbing the house. and so, she d have fought with two guys. does that sound like sherry? well, that part didn t make a lot of sense to me. because i thought if there were two men and they had a gun, i, that just seemed a little weird. reporter: because sherry would not begin a fight with two guys who were armed? i would not think so. reporter: what about with a woman? well, i think she d have taken on a woman.
theory that this was a botched burglary. by the level of violence that occurred in the residents, the theory was that it was a man or to men that had entered the residence to do a burglary and a or a home invasion that went wrong, and murdered the victim to cover up the crime and fled. reporter: gone wrong, because sherry somehow surprised them. they panicked, shot her and then fled. the theory seemed to make sense, especially sherry had no apparent enemies, no one who would want to kill her, or so they thought. coming up we wasn t to sherry s office and said that, if she could not have john, nobody could. when dateline continues. so, let s make this the summer of loving your gut. activia. love for your gut.
for a two-bitburg larry. it just seemed a little like overkill. reporter: sherri s boss at the hospital, althea kennedy, had to review the autopsy report for insurance reasons and was struck by what she said. i thought, wow, she really put up one heck of a fight. which wasn t real surprising because sherri was tall, athletic, and i m sure wouldn t go down easily. the lapd theory back then was that there were two men robbing the house, and so presumably sherri would have fought with two guys. that sound like sherri? that part didn t make a lot of sense to me because i thought if there were two men and they had a gun, that just seemed a little weird. because sherri wouldn t begin a fight with two guys who were armed. i wouldn t think so. what about with a woman? well, i think she would have taken on a woman. we d really like to know what