The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation - Hardcover

Mcgough, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805095594 ISBN 13: 9780805095593

Verlag: Henry Holt & Company Inc, 2019

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A deeply-reported, riveting account of a cold case murder in Los Angeles, unsolved until DNA evidence implicated a shocking suspect – a female detective within the LAPD’s own ranks.

On February 24, 1986, 29-year-old newlywed Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in the home she shared with her husband, John. The crime scene suggested a ferocious struggle, and police initially assumed it was a burglary gone awry. Before her death, Sherri had confided to her parents that an ex-girlfriend of John’s, a Los Angeles police officer, had threatened her. The Rasmussens urged the LAPD to investigate the ex-girlfriend, but the original detectives only pursued burglary suspects, and the case went cold.

DNA analysis did not exist when Sherri was murdered. Decades later, a swab from a bite mark on Sherri’s arm revealed her killer was in fact female, not male. A DNA match led to the arrest and conviction of veteran LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus, John’s onetime girlfriend.

The Lazarus Files delivers the visceral experience of being inside a real-life murder mystery. McGough reconstructs the lives of Sherri, John and Stephanie; the love triangle that led to Sherri’s murder; and the homicide investigation that followed. Was Stephanie protected by her fellow officers? What did the LAPD know, and when did they know it? Are there other LAPD cold cases with a police connection that remain unsolved?

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Matthew McGough has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. His acclaimed memoir Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees was the basis of “Clubhouse,” a primetime TV series on CBS, and his story about his first day with the Yankees was selected to lead the pilot episode of The Moth Radio Hour. Formerly a legal consultant and writer for NBC’s Law & Order, he lives in LA with his wife and children.

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The Lazarus Files

A Gold Case Investigation

By Matthew McGough

Henry Holt and Company

Copyright © 2019 Matthew McGough
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8050-9559-3

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Epigraph, 
PART ONE SHERRI, JOHN, AND STEPHANIE, 
1. The Aftermath (February 24, 1986), 
2. Sherri Rasmussen (1957 to 1984), 
3. John Ruetten (February 1984 to May 1985), 
4. Stephanie Lazarus (1960 to March 1984), 
5. "Admit Nothing. Deny Everything. Demand Proof." (March 4, 1984, to March 30, 1985), 
6. Stephanie at Club Dev (March 31 to June 16, 1985), 
7. The Hospital Confrontation (June to August 1985), 
8. Night Stalkers (August 12 to October 12, 1985), 
9. Tying the Knot (November to December 1985), 
10. Warning Signs (December 1985 to January 1986), 
11. The Month Before the Murder (Mid-January to February 23, 1986), 
PART TWO THE MURDER OF SHERRI RASMUSSEN, 
12. Sherri's Final Day (February 24, 1986), 
13. The Chrono and Crime Scene (February 24, 1986, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.), 
14. John's Interview (February 24, 1986, 9:00 p.m.), 
15. The Bite Mark Swab (Early Morning of February 25, 1986), 
16. "The Day Was Boring and Nothing Happened That Was Worth Remembering" (February 25, 1986), 
17. The First 48 Hours Ends (February 26 and 27, 1986), 
18. "God Holds the Key" (February 28 to March 2, 1986), 
19. "A Well-Reasoned, Carefully-Documented and Insightful Investigation" (March 3 to April 8, 1986), 
20. The Burglary Suspects (April 10 to May 21, 1986), 
21. "There Is No Power on Earth More Formidable Than the Truth" (May 1986 to November 1987), 
PART THREE THE MURDER OF CATHERINE BRALEY, 
22. Catherine Braley (January 14, 1988), 
PART FOUR EPILOGUE, 
23. "We Do Not Condone Murder" (2008–2012), 
Author's Note on Sources, 
Acknowledgments, 
About the Author, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

The Aftermath

(February 24, 1986)

Sherri Rasmussen, a twenty-nine-year-old hospital nurse, was just one of 831 people murdered in Los Angeles in 1986.

Sherri's husband, John Ruetten, came home from work at six p.m. on Monday, February 24, and discovered her lifeless body. Sherri and John had been married for only three months. The young newlyweds lived in the Balboa Townhomes, a well-kept but nondescript condominium complex in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles.

Van Nuys was a middle-class community in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. As late as the 1940s, Van Nuys was mostly sunbaked farmland. After World War II, its orange and walnut groves were uprooted for vast tracts of single family homes. Practically overnight, the character of Van Nuys changed from rustic to suburban. Major companies like General Motors and Anheuser-Busch built massive plants in Van Nuys that employed thousands. Prosperity fueled more development, until few traces remained of the once bucolic landscape. The streetscape that supplanted it was flat and unglamorous, with broad boulevards lined by all manner of businesses. The 1970s brought more change to Van Nuys. Many single family homes were torn down and replaced by higher-density apartment buildings. Violent crime increased. From 1970 to 1975, the LAPD's Van Nuys Division averaged about a dozen homicides per year. Over the next five years, the Van Nuys murder rate doubled.

The Balboa Townhomes, built in 1980, were well secured compared to other residences nearby. A six-foot wall surrounded the entire condo complex, which spanned the 7100 block of Balboa Boulevard, a major north–south thoroughfare through the Valley. The only gaps in the wall were a locked pedestrian gate, which opened by key or from inside by buzzer, and an electric car gate. Past the car gate was a paved interior driveway bordered on each side by rows of three-story condos.

John sensed that something was wrong as he pulled up in his car that night. Their unit's garage door was open, which was highly unusual, and no cars were parked inside. John knew Sherri had called in sick to work that morning, so there was no reason for her car to be gone. The pavement in front of the garage door was strewn with broken glass. To John it looked like auto glass. It reminded him of a minor driving mishap Sherri had a few months before, when she clipped her car while backing out of the garage. John wondered if she might have done something similar, like broken her taillight or side mirror. John figured maybe she took her car to get fixed and forgot to close the garage.

John and Sherri had had a burglar alarm system installed just two months earlier. They typically armed the alarm only when they were both out, and before they went to sleep. When John left for work at 7:20 that morning, Sherri was still in bed. John had not thought to set the alarm, or to make sure that their front door was locked. The front door unlocked automatically when opened from inside. If they didn't manually lock the door afterward, it remained unlocked. John and Sherri rarely used the front door, mostly only to let the cat in or out, or when they had guests. Their friends tended to use it because it was closest to the condo's visitor parking.

Sherri's younger sister, Teresa, and her husband, Brian, had visited with Sherri and John the day before, a Sunday. Teresa was five months pregnant with her and Brian's first child. During the visit, Sherri gave her a present, a maternity bathing suit and swim cap she bought to encourage Teresa to exercise during her pregnancy. Sherri, Teresa, and Brian also took a drive in Sherri's BMW to a pet store to look at saltwater aquariums. Sherri's car was stylish and still new. She let Brian drive. Sherri and John had bought the BMW 318i for Sherri nine months earlier, the same weekend they got engaged, in lieu of a diamond ring. Sherri decided having a car was more practical. After Teresa and Brian went home, a friend of John's, Mike, also visited John and Sherri at home.

On his way to work the next morning, John dropped off some clothes at the dry cleaner's. He arrived at his office at about ten minutes to eight. John had started work about six weeks earlier as an engineer at a company named Micropolis, which made computer disk drives. Around 10:00 a.m., he called home, to see how Sherri was feeling, but got no answer. A little later, he tried again. The phone rang and rang. John then called the hospital and spoke with Sherri's secretary, Sylvia. Sylvia told him that Sherri was out of the office, teaching a class. Unbeknownst to John, Sherri's sister Teresa also tried calling her at home and left a message on the answering machine. Sherri did not return the calls. John finished work around five o'clock. On his way home, he ran a few errands, stopping to collect their dry cleaning plus a package at the UPS store.

John drove past the broken glass and parked in his usual spot in the garage. He took the dry cleaning and started up the short staircase inside the condo. John's unease deepened when saw that the door at the top of the stairs was wide open. He was certain he had closed and locked that door when he left that morning. As John walked upstairs, he did not see that the wall alongside him was flecked with bloodstains.

The stairs up from their garage opened onto a tiled entryway near the front door. John saw Sherri lying in the middle of their living room, which was in disarray. A shelf of their entertainment wall unit had collapsed. A corded telephone and pieces from a broken vase were strewn on the carpet...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Henry Holt & Company Inc
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0805095594
• ISBN 13: 9780805095593
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 595
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar