All the time, the killer was hiding in plain sight. No indication she had ever spoken to him . No. Then old detective looked at old lead and person no one suspected of murder was suspect number one. Perfect murder. Almost hello and welcome to dateline. She was a new bride, married just three months, then she was found murdered what happened to her remained a mystery for decades, partly because police mistakenly believed she was killed during a breakin gone bad. But when detectives finally reopened this case, they discovered it wasnt a burglar but a suspect whose trail led right to their own front door. Heres Josh Mankiewicz with the smoking gun. February 2nd, 2009, homicide detective arrives before dawn at Los Angeles Police departments van nuys station. I was tired reporter had nht before, and beer flowed freely. Seemed to be good way to spend the day, cup of coffee and caught up on reading. Reporter cup of aspirin. Maybe reporter reached for a file sitting on his desk for months, murder of Sheri Rasmussen. Shot to death in her condo, a few miles from where nuttal worked just as troubling, murdered a generation ago, february 1996. Meaning the odds of catching her killer were slim to none memories fade, evidence has to be relocated, so its obviously uphill battle, what youre working with. Reporter doesnt begin to describe it. Cold case file that he opened that bleary eyed monday morning would lead him on chase of a lifetime and shake the foundations of the lapd. Dates back to 1986 and battle for truth by parents of a young bride. We miss her every day. Nils and loretta rasmussen. Doesnt make a difference what day it is, its a pain always there, no cure for it reporter who would want to kill Sheri Rasmussen she was hardworking, popular with friends and coworkers, a nurse at local hospital. Implementing the program. Devastating day she was 29 years old, just in the prime of her career. Reporter Althea Kennedy was sheris boss at the hospital and had originally hired her. We couldnt believe it first of all, how could someone do this people crying, people upset. The hospital was like a tomb, you know, so the loss was really p palpable reporter sheri had just been married to engineer john ruttan. Were they happily married unusually so. Reporter but months after the wedding, john found sheri sprawled dead on the floor of their home he might seem a likely suspect but john was cleared almost immediately. Lapd focused instead that this was a burglary that turned violent. This was no accident. Reporter retired crime scene investigator and consultant to dateline. Multiple shots fired, at close range. Reporter shes reviewed Court Records and media reports on this case we return with her to the actual apartment where sheri was found murdered to try to understand what happened. Police think maybe the killer just walked in the open front door. They didnt find any forced entry, so yes theyre assuming the front door was open and kill killer walked right in reporter and here was a confrontation. Appears to be a struggle. Not just a struggle but shots fired at this point. One shot clearly goes straight through the back slider, and another shot that went through sheri and back out through the slider also. So sheri is now wounded and tries to get back downstairs. Correct shes bleeding profusely, very wounded. Gets down these steps appears like trying to go out the door or make it to alarm box where theres a panic button we believe sheri went down in this foyer area due to the fact you could see marks in this as well as broken finger untinailsm her hands. Reporter tremendous fight going on. Killer is dragging her through this area, takes a vase, hits her in the head, knocking her out, grabs blanket, muzzles the gun and does a contact shot into the victim. Reporter so thats an execution. That would be correct reporter as for a motive, it seemed to be in plain sight, just a few feet from sheris body they found vcr and disc player stacked up by the front door. As if going to steal them indication this was burglary or Home Invasion gone wrong. Reporter purse was missing and bmw, a gift from john. No sign of the murder weapon but detectives did recover two. 38 caliber slugs and Something Else. Inside of sheris right arm they found a bite mark crime scene analyst swabbed it for saliva that could belong to the killer. Reporter and contain dna from whoever bit sheri this was 1986, years before dna Testing Technology would arrive to link a suspect to a sample like this one. Back then the dna wasnt much help, but the swab was carefully packaged and bundled with all the other evidence for now detectives didnt have much else to work with no eyewitnesss, no useable fingerprints, no clear motive except the theory of botched burglary. By the level of violence that occurred in the residence, theory was it was a man or two men who went in the residence for a Home Invasion that had gone terribly wrong, murdered the victim to cover up the theft and fled. Gone wrong because sheri somehow surprised them, panicked and shot her, then fled. Seemed to make sense, especially since sheri had no apparent enemies who wanted to kill her or so they thought. Coming up went to sheris office, said if she couldnt have john, nobody good. When dateline continues all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. Oh, thats a good one. Wait, whats that . Thats just the lowbattery warning. Oh, alright. Now its all, check out my rv, and, lets go fourwheeling. Maybe theres a little part of me that wanted to be seen. Well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. So theyve got other things to do now, bigfoot. Wait, whatd you just call me . Bigfoot . My name is daryl. 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In the same vincinity another woman was approached in her resident by two males at gunpoint also a Home Invasion robbery situation. Thought these two men could have something to do with the murder. Reporter a composite sketch was released but still had no prints, witnesses or murder weapons connecting them or anyone else to sheris murder, and dna was useless. Right now. Police collected it anyway, why . At crime scenes, if theres possible evidence youre not going to leave it behind great forethought to recover it. Reporter detectives scoured the condo and complex. Only thing apparently stolen from the garage was sheris car, recovered a mile from the crime scene with the keys still in it. Only other thing missing, sheri and her husbands marriage license. Seemed an odd thing to steal cash, computers and jewelry werent touched. Wasnt only thing strange. Crime was very violent for a twobit burglary. Overkill. Sheris boss had to review her autopsy for insurance reasons and was struck by what she saw. I thought she really put up a heck of a fight. Wasnt real surprising sheri was tall, athletic and im sure wouldnt go down easily. The lapd theory back then was that there were two men robbing the house so sheri would have fought with two guys does that sound like sheri that part didnt make a lot of sense to me if there were two men and they had a gun, just seemed weird because sheri wouldnt be in a fight with two guys who were armed . I wouldnt think so a woman i think she would have taken on a woman. We just really want to know what happened. Reporter sheris parents never thought it was a burglary. Had strange encounters dined at restaurant. Woman watching her scary eyes. Runin at hospital where sheri worked went to sheris office and said if she couldnt have john, nobody could reporter most terrifying, encounter in sheris own home and by now she knew who the mystery woman was. She heard a noise and looked up there was johns exgirlfriend. How did she get in the house . We have no idea reporter johns e exgirlfriend appeared to be stalking sheri but never mentioned her name to her parents. Wanted them not to worry. See if i cant work this out myself. Reporter that conversation in a dinner celebrating sheris 29th birthday. Afterwards took sheri to the airport. As she walked away, turned and gave me a big smile, and i relived that smile for years reporter less than three weeks later, Sheri Rasmussen lay dead the rasmussens insist that early in the investigation they told the lead lapd detective about sheris troubling encounters with johns exgirlfriend. I told the detective not once but probably 15 to 20 times. And he said trouble with you, watching too much tv. Coming up, old evidence offers new clues. Suspect made it appear to look like burglary, staged it to mislead the initial investigation in 1986. She was execute. 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Lapd declined. They said we dont have a suspect. If we had a suspect and dna, then would have something to match. Reporter and the case sat for another decade then in 2004, lapds newly formed cold case unit was conducting dna tests on unsolved cases, one of them the murder of Sherri Rasmussen it took two months to actually find that saliva sample buried in refrigeration unit. Label was torn, poking out, but saliva was still inside and dna was just enough to blow this case wide open in the lab report it indicated that suspect that had bitten Sherri Rasmussen during the struggle was actually a female reporter a woman, not two male burglars as the detectives had suspected. But would take two more years to understand what that crucial test result meant. It was 2009 and cold again 22 years it sat, no apparent leads, suspects or answers for the rasmussen family then came that monday after the super bowl when detective jim nutall started picking through the old case file and made a remarkable discovery the dna test that had been conducted on that bite mark in 2004 once the department figured out a woman was involved, why did it take 22 years, what was the department doing in the interim . From what it appears, investigators may have followed the initial theory that it was a burglary. Reporter and woman involved in the burglary . In hindsight, organization that may have slipped through our hands as organization. Reporter but now nutall looked at the photos and developed his own theory Sherri Rasmussen was shot at point blank range after violent struggle and despite the stereo equipment stacked by front door, very little was actually stolen. Suspect made it look like burglary, staged it to mess up the investigation in 1986. She was executed. Reporter someone had wanted Sherri Rasmussen dead, so nutall dug through the file for name, female name. Three we eliminated almost immediately for insufficient motive. Reporter but still two name left, one a coworker a woman named deb braorah th worked with sherri in the hospital replaced by sherri in official capacity and problems followed after that. Reporter bad blood between them a motive. Reporter deborah had moved and nutall asked local Law Enforcement to watch her and secretly snag her dna for comparison testing in the meantime learned more about the second husband, contacted john ruetten, now remarried. In relationship with Stephanie Lazarus. Reporter that was the other name still on the short list of suspects nutall pressed john ruetten for more on their relationship started as students in ucla, dated on and off until john got engaged to sherri. Even then youre convinced th lazarus overlapped with the relationship with his wife we know from john, at least one incident he was engaged and intimate with Stephanie Lazarus, it was love triangle and lazarus had deep feelings for john ruetten, maybe a motive to hurt Sherri Rasmussen reporter scorned lover or coworker a few weeks later cops in Northern California tracked down deborah and scooped up a sam of her trash which contained dna. It was sent to the crime lab in l. A. For hours later, came the. She was not the donor of the dna from the bite. Reporter left just one suspect, john ruettens exgirlfriend Stephanie Lazarus. Nutall called the rasmussens. There was message from detective, they wanted to talk to us. I thought oh, yeah, right. Thought it was another false hope reporter this was detective nutall right. He said they were opening the investigation. Upset with me, detective, where have you been the last two decades . Reporter now Nils Rasmussen explained it all, how he told detectives in 1986 someone was stalking his daughter sherri, a woman with crazy eyes, the exgirlfriend of sherris husband. Nils had never known the name Stephanie Lazarus but did know Something Else about her, something very important, and by this time, detective nutall knew it too. He was cautious with what he said, but said we would be hearing more from him. Reporter nutall had ample reason to be cautious because hed learned that Stephanie Lazarus wore the same badge he did. We now have a Los Angeles Police officer as a person of interest in a murder case. Reporter add you thought ive bitten off more than i can chew toto, were not in kansas anymore, that changed everything. Coming up, top secret investigation as detectives go after one of their own we would never leave a paper trail of what we were doing. She worked our unit. When dateline continues wh. Get in its way. Hpv can affect males and females. 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