>> i would not have wanted her to miss that. that's all for this edition of "dateline," thanks for watching. >> i'm craig melvin and i'm natalie morales, and this is "dateline." we were going to work behind closed doors and we were going to work after hours. we were going to go wherever the case took us. one of the most extraordinary cases in l.a.p.d. history. >> told her, we are not in kansas anymore. >> a newly wed murdered months after her wedding. >> as she walked away, she gave me a big smile and i relive that smile for years. >> and all that time, the killer was hiding in plain sight. >> no indication he was ever spoken to? >> no. >> and a new detective took a

look at an old lead. >> he said it's a match. >> and a person nobody suspected of murder. >> we were going to end this. >> was suspect number one. >> perfect murder, almost. she was a new bride, married three months and then she was found murdered, what happened to her had remained a mystery for decades partly because the police thought she was killed during a break-in gone bad, when the detectives reopened the case, they discovered it was not a burglar, but a suspect whoses trail led right to their own front door. here is "the smoking gun." >> february 2, 2009, the homicide did -- the homicide

detective arrived at the station. >> i was tired, i have tired. >> he hosted a super bowl party and the beer flowed freely. >> that seemed to be a good day, having a cup of cough and i getting caught up on the reading. >> reporter: a couple of aspirin. >> maybe. >>. >> reporter: he reached for a file that was sitting on his desk for months. the murder of sherry are rassmussen, shot to death in her condo, just a few miles from y where he worked. >> one of the worst, most horrific crime scenes that i have seen. this woman met a horrible ending. >> reporter: and just as troubling, she was murdered a generation ago, february 1986. meaning, the odds of catching her killer was slim to none. >> memories fade, evidence has to be relocated.

so, it's obviously an uphill battle when you are working one. >> reporter: uphill battle does not begin to describe it, the cold case file that he he opened would lead him on the chase of a lifetime and shake the foundations of the l.a.p.d. it dates back to 1986 and to a battle for the truth by the parents of a young bride. >> you miss her every day. >> reporter: those parents are nells and loretta rassmussen. >> there's a pain that is always there that there's no cure for. >> reporter: who would want to kill sherry rassmussen? she was hard working caring and popular with her co-workers. trained as a nurse, she was director of critical care at a large hospital. >> we are implementing the people difference program. >> it was a devastating day. she was 29 years old and just in

the prime of her career. >> reporter: althea kennedy was sherry's boss at the hospital and had originally hired her. >> we couldn't believe it, first of all. it was like how could someone do this? people crying, people upset. i mean the hospital was like a tomb, you know, so the loss was really palpable sn. >> reporter: sherry had just been married three months earlier. were sherry and john happily married? >> unusually so. >> reporter: just months after the wedding, john found sherry sprawled dead on the floor of their home. he may seem a likely suspect, but john was clearly almost immediately t the l.a.p.d. focused instead on evidence that this was aburg la hadry that turned violent. >> this was no accident. >> reporter: yolanda is a

retired crime seen investigator. >> multiple shots fired, shots fired at close range. >> reporter: she -- report records and media reports on the case. we returned to the scene to understand what happened. police think that the killer walked in the open door? >> they did not find forced entry, they assumed the killer walked right in. >> reporter: and right here where we are standing is where there's a confrontation. >> yes, appears to be a struggle here. not just a struggle, but we have shots fired at this point. of we have one shot that clearly goes state through the back slider and another shot that went through sherry and back out through the slider also. >> reporter: so sherry is wounded and trying to get down stairs. >> she is bleeding and wounded and gets down the steps and

actually, would appear that she ises trying to go out the door or make it to the alarm box where there's a panic button. and at that point, we believe that sherry went down in the foyer due to the fact that you could see marks in the as with well as broken finger nails from her hands. >> reporter: so there's a tremendous fight going on. >> yes, the killer is dragging her back in the area and then the killer takes a vase and hits her in the head with it. knocking her out and grabs a blanket and muzzels the gun and puts a contact shot in the victim. >> reporter: so that's an execution. >> that would be correct. >> reporter: as for motive, it seemed to be in plain sight. a few feet are from her body. >> they found a vcr and disk player that was stacked up one on top the other, near the front door. >> reporter: as if they were stealing it. >> as if it was a burglary or

home invasion gone wrong. her bmw was missing. there was no sign of the murderer weapon. but detectives did recover two .38 caliber slugs and something else caught detecti detective's attention. >> on the inside of her left arm, there was a bite mark. a crime scene analyst swabbed the mark for saliva that could belong to the killer. >> reporter: dna of whoever bit sherry. this was before dna testing technology would arrive, that could link a suspect to a sample like this one. back then, the dna was not much help. but the swab was carefully packaged and bundled with all the other evidence. for now, detectives did not have much else to work with. no eye-witnesses. no useable fingerprints. no clear motive except the

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.

with the world's first invisible trailer. invisible trailer? and it's not the trailer right next to us? this guy? you don't believe me? hop in. good lookin' pickup, i will say that. oh wow. silverado offers an optional technology package with up to 15 different views - including one enhanced view that makes your trailer appear invisible. wow. - that's pretty sweet. - that's cool. oooohh! that's awesome. where'd the trailer go? i love it. it's magic. fight for blast offs fight for piggyback rides fight for 7 am makeouts. every year, walgreens helps millions of people fight the flu. fight to protect the ones you love. walgreens. be a flu fighter. get your free flu shot today at your neighborhood walgreens.

you should know the location of a decent bathroom.ation, my gut says, take new benefiber healthy balance. this daily supplement helps maintain digestive health naturally while relieving occasional constipation and abdominal discomfort. new benefiber healthy balance dimitri's on it. eating right? on it! getting those steps in? on it! dimitri thinks he's doing all he can to manage his type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but is his treatment doing enough to lower his heart risk? [sfx: glasses clanking.] sorry. maybe not. jardiance is the number 1 prescribed pill in its class. jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. that means jardiance can help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. plus, jardiance lowers a1c and it could help you lose some weight. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. a rare, but life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin

of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack? on it... with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. the type 2 diabetes pill that's on it. learn more at jardiance.com

♪ the year was 1986. crack was hitting los angeles and the city of angels had become a violent place. the murderer rate would hit 831 killings that year, nearly three times the amount 30 years later in 2016 and the l.a.p.d. of was stretched very thin. >> this was a time where homicide was just booming in los angeles. >> reporter: miles corwin is a best selling author who wrote several books about the l.a.p.d. >> it's a perfect strm of

problems. you had the proliferation of the high powered weapons. you had crack cocaine hitting the streets. all the forces had a tremendous homicide rate and the officers were overwhelmed. >> reporter: and now, the cops had their hands full with a heinous crime in the san fernando valley. sherry ras sympt amprassmussen in her home and then, a few weeks later, a possible lead. former crime scene investigator, yolanda mclarry was a consultant for nbc news. >> in the same vicinity, another woman was approached at her residence by two males at gunpoint, and involved a home invasion situation robbery. so, police early on thought the it was a possibility the two men may have something to do with the murders. >> reporter: a sketch was released of the two men. but still, detectives had no

prints no eyewitnesss and no murder weapon connecting them or anyone else to sherry's murder. and the dna directed at the crime scene was useless, at least right now. police went ahead and collected it anyway. why? >> well, at crime scenes, if you know there's possible evidence on anything, you are not going to leave it behind. so, the it was great forethought on their behalf actually to recover it. >> reporter: detectives scoured the condo in the entire complex. the only thing apparently stolen was from the garage. sherry's car. and that was recovered just a mile away from the crime scene with the keys still in it. the only other thing missing sherry and her husband's marriage license. it seemed an odd thing to steal. cash, computers and jewelry were not touched. but that was not the only thing that struck sherry's family and colleagues as strange. the crime was especially violent

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.

>> we really would like to know what happened. >> reporter: sherry's parents never thought it was a burglary. they knew that just weeks before the murder, sherry had several strange encounters. one as she dined in a restaurant, and thought a woman was watching her. >> she said, she has eyes that can see right through you. >> scary eyes. >> reporter: there was a run-in at the hospital where sherry worked. >> she went to sherry's office and said that if she could not is have john nobody could. >> reporter: most terrifying an encounter in sherry's own home and by now, she knew who the mystery woman was. >> she heard a noise and looked up and there was john's ex-girlfriend. >> reporter: how did she get in the house? >> we have no idea. >> reporter: john's ex-girlfriend appeared to be stalking sherry. yet sherry never mentioned the

woman's name to her parents. instead, she told them not to worry. >> she told me, i want to see if i cannot work this out myself. >> reporter: that kwfrconversat happened in a dinner celebrating her 29th birthday. >> as she had walked away, she turned and gave me a big smile. and i have relived that smile for years. >> reporter: less than three weeks later, sherry rassmussen lay dead. the rassmussen's insist early in the investigation they told the lead l.a.p.d. detective about sherry's troubling encounters with john's ex-girlfriend. >> i told the detective, not once, but probably 15-20 times. and he said, the trouble with you is you have been watching too much tv. >> coming up, old he was offers new clues. >> the suspect made it appear to

look like a burglary. they staged it to mislead the initial investigation in 1986, she was executed. >> when "dateline" continues.

♪ years had passed and no arrests had been made in the brutal 1986 slaying of nurse and new ll newlywed of sherry rasmussen,

the trail kept getting colder. sherry's parents offered to have the saliva sample of the bite mark tested for dna, they even would pay for it and the l.a.p.d. declined. >> they said, we don't have a suspect, if we center a suspect, and we have their dna, then we have something to match. >> and the case sat for another decade. then the newly formed cold case unit was conducted dna tests on unsolved cases and one of them was the murder of sherry rasmussen, it took two months to find the saliva sample, buried in a refrigeration unit, the vial was poking out and the label torn but the saliva was still inside and the dna was enough to blow the case wide open. >> in the lab report, it indicated that the suspect, that

had bitten sherry rasmussen in the struggle was a female. >> a woman. not two male burglars as the original detectives had suspected all those years. but it would take a few more years before investigators began to understand what that crucial dna test result meant. and the it was now 2009 and the case was cold once again. 23 years it sat with no apparent leads, no suspects, and to answers for the rasmussen family. then came that monday after the super bowl when the detective started to pick through the old case file and make a remarkable discovery. the dna test that had been conducted on that bite mark back in 2004 -- >> once the department realized that a woman was involved why did it take four years until you picked it up. what was the department doing in the interim? >> from what it appears,

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

least some of them may have had a motive to harm her. three of them we eliminated for insufficient motive. >> reporter: two names were left. one was a co-worker. >> a woman named debra, she was replaced by sherry rasmussen in an official capacity and problems followed after that. >> reporter: there was bad blood between them. >> there was a motive. >> debra moved to northern california and he asked law enforcement to watch her and secretly try to snag a sample of dna for testing. he learned about the second woman. he contacted sherry a's -- sherry's former husband and -- >> stephanie lazarus, that was the other name still on the short list of suspects.

he pressed for more on their relationship which had started when they were students at ucla, they dated on and off until john got engaged to sherry and even then -- you are convinced that the relationship that john had with stephanie lazarus overlapped with his wife. >> we know he was engaged and he was intimate with stephanie lazarus, there was a love triangle and stephanie lazarus had deep feelings for john rutten and may have had a motive to harm sherry rasmussen. >> reporter: was sherry's killer a scorned lover or a jealous co-worker. >> we had two women on the list that had a motive. >> debra the nurse and stephanie lazarus. >> correct. >> a few weeks later, cops tracked down debra and secretly

scooped up a sample of her trash that contained dna. it was sent to the crime lab in l.a. for analysis. and 72 hours later, came an answer. >> she was not the donor of the dna profile from the bite. >> reporter: that left one possible suspect, number five on the list. john rutten's ex-girlfriend, stephanie lazarus. he called the rasmussens. >> we came home and there was a message that there was a detective that wanted to talk to us, and i thought, oh, yeah, right. i thought it was another false hope. >> reporter: this is detective nutall. >> he said that they were opening the investigation. >> they were upset with me, it was like, detective, where have you been for the last two dec e decaddecade s. >> reporter: and now, nells rasmussen explained it all saying that someone was stalking his daughter sherry, a woman

with crazy eyes. the ex-girlfriend of sherry's husband. nell's had never known that the girlfriend's name was stephanie lazarus. but he did know something else about her . something very important. and by this time, detective nutall knew it too. >> he was very cautious with what he said, but he said that we would be hearing more from him. >> nutall had reason to be cautious, he learned that stephanie lazarus wore the same badge he did. >> you now have a los angeles police officer as a person of interest in a murder case. >> reporter: and you thought i have bitten off more than i can chew. >> we are not this kansas anymore. 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.

talk to your doctor or pharmacist today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. talk to your doctor or pharmacist today could you email me the part great about geicon, tim. making it easy to switch and save hundreds? oh yeah, sure. um. you don't know my name, do you? (laughs nervously) of course i know your name. i just get you mixed up with the other guy. what's his name? what's your name? switch to geico®. you could save 15% or more on car insurance. could you just tell me? i want this to be over. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again!

♪ . police are looking for a gunman after a south carolina shooting left two people dead and nine others injured, it happened in a crewed sports bar early saturday morning. so far, no arrests have been made, but police say they have many leads on the suspect. and residents of southeast texas are returning to their homes that are now underwater in the after math of imelda, it turned streets in to rivers and downed power lines and caused a least five deaths. now back to "dateline." ♪ welcome back to "date line," sherry rasmussen had been murder inned in los angeles back in the 1980s. from the outset, her parents told investigators about several run-ins sherry had with her husband's ex. now, decades later, a cold case detective was focusing his attention on that very same

woman who also happened to be a member of the l.a.p.d. here's josh with more of "the smoking gun". >> for two decades the l.a.p.d. had one narrative for sherry rasmussen's murder. she was randomly killed by two men in a botched burglary. now science had rewritten the script and the once cold case was suddenly too hot to handle. the prime suspect, a l.a.p.d. detective named stephanie lazarus. but as detective jim nutall went through the original murder book, he found nothing on lazarus, even though she was the ex-girlfriend of sherry's husband. >> no indication she was spoken to? >> no. >> just one notion in the chronology of 1986, somebody had

written, stephanie l, po, as police officer. as her name had come up but not as a suspect. she seemed to be someone above suspicion. stephanie ilene lazarus grew up in southern california, a tom boy of sorts. loved sports. she attended ucla where she played basketball. it was during her college days that she met and dated john rutten, before and sherry got married. after graduating, lazarus surprised her family by joining the l.a.p.d., this when only a handful of women entered the force. >> i don't think had that i knew she was applying. >> reporter: stephanie's brother, steven. >> i was proud of steph. i thought it was a cool thing. >> reporter: stephanie lazarus quickly rose through the ranks of the l.a.p.d., she was popular. friendly and well regarded. her assignments also included

project dare. she was twice named detective of the year. later, lazarus worked at internal affairs investigating other officers accused of wrongdoing or corruption. and was then promoted to the l.a.p.d.'s art theft unit. her personal life was good too. in 1996, lazarus got married to another l.a.p.d. detective. together, they adopted a baby daughter. life both at home and on the job never seemed better. >> she was a happy person. she loved what she did for work. she loved her husband. loved their life. >> but in 2009 this high achieving cop game the focus of a homicide investigation. jim nutall and his team of three detectives had to be mindful that lazarus had many friends on the force. her husband worked at the same station. >> we were going to work behind closed doors and work after hours. we would never leave a paper

trail of what we were doing. >> they even gave lazarus a code name. >> number five. and contrary to police procedure they decided to not tell l.a.p.d. headquarters that their new suspect was a fellow detective. >> you are doing it to protect her or to protect your investigation from her? >> dual purpose. it would protect the integrity of the investigation and if she was not involved, then nobody would ever know about it. >> four cops, knowingly skirted department rules to investigate one of their own. >> it was a difficult phase of our careers. she was one of us. she worked our unit. had worked side-by-side with the people around us. >> but nutall and his three fellow detectives did not waiver. they methodically built a case by exhaustively reviewing the original files and interviewing sherry's friends and family. it became clear to them that stephanie lazarus had the means,

the motive, and the opportunity to kill sherry rasmussen. she seemed obsessed with john and jealous of his new wife, was she the same person with the scary eyes who was stalking sherry. to nutall, it seemed to add up. especially when he considered this. sherry's purse and all its contents stolen during the crime, were recovered soon after the murder. except for one item inside. >> the only thing that to this day was never recovered was john and sherry's marriage certificate. >> after three months of intense investigation, nutall's team needed one a last piece of evidence that would clear detective lazarus or incriminate her. >> we needed a sample of stephanie lazarus's dna, our investigators were not cut out for undercover surveillance work. >> so, nutall finally brought l.a.p.d.'s internal affairs

detectives in the loop. hoping they could close the deal by secretly obtaining her dna. she was tailed for days. as undercover cops waited for her to leave some small piece of herself behind. finally at a retail store it happened. lazarus ordered a soft drink and drank it and a trace of her saliva was on the straw that she tossed in the trash. it was more than enough for testing. two dna samples, separated by two decades. 48 hours later, jim nutall got a call from his had supervisor. >> service simple -- it was a s match. that moment, that call, never forget it. >> but stephanie lazarus was still free. and had no clue that after 23 years the very own department was on her tail for murder.

detectives wanted to speak with stephanie to get a statement or perhaps a confession, they had to do it without showing how deeply indicated she was. so a plan was of hatched, to get her side of the story and get it on tape. ? she is asked to help in an interrogation to discovery she was the suspect. >> when date line continues. >> when date line continues. fight for piggyback rides fight for 7 am makeouts. every year, walgreens helps millions of people fight the flu. fight to protect the ones you love. walgreens.

be a flu fighter. get your free flu shot today at your neighborhood walgreens. thenot actors, people, who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin. and, had significantly less itch. that's a difference you can feel. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within,

and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. "dad." -oh, n-no. -look, [sighs] i get it. some new guy comes in helping your mom bundle and save with progressive, but hey, we're all in this together. right, champ? -i'm getting more nuggets. -how about some carrots? you don't want to ruin your dinner. -you're not my dad! -that's fair. overstepped. -that's fair. i wanted more that's why i've got the power of 1 2 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy. with trelegy and the power of 1 2 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation for 24 hours of better breathing.

trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1 2 3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 save at trelegy.com

♪ june 5th, 2009 started routinely enough for stephanie lazarus, she reported for her normal shift at police head quarters. . after arriving stephanie was told to meet with two detectives. a man she didn't know from l.a.p.d.'s elite robbery homicide division, to help had them question a suspect involving stolen art work which was stephanie's beat as a detective. so, lazarus went down to a secured area in the basement to meet with her two colleagues in a small interview room. because it's part of the jail, all cops who enter here are

required to give up their guns. unarmed and unsuspecting, lazarus didn't realize she was being recorded by an undercover camera. >> have you met my partner? >> hi, nice to meet you guys. >> have a seat. >> and that's when detectives revealed that this conversation was not about art. >> do you know john rutten? >> john rutten? >> you said you dated john, how long did you guys date? >> i mean, are you guys, is this something i mean, you said i was going to interview somebody about art and now you are -- >> detective lazarus seemed uncomfortable and vague in her answers especially when detectives asked about sherry rasmussen. >> you know, i may have talked to her. it sounds, you know -- >> you mentioned the hospital, you may have talked to her in the hospital? >> yeah, yeah, i may have -- you know, i'm thinking back now, you

guys are bringing up all the old memories. >> detectives turned up the heat. >> did you have a fight with her? >> did i fight? >> yeah, did you duke it out with her. you would remember that, that would be pretty -- >> yeah, i would think so. >> most of us can remember without difficulty the number of fist fights we have had in the course of our lives. at one point she answers know when asked if she remembers attacking sherry or being attacked and then another point does not recall. >> it does not sound familiar, so, i fought with her, so, now i, i, i, i am getting the jump. they say, look, i must have killed her. i mean, come on. >> after about 45 minutes, lazarus realized she was the prime suspect in sherry's murder. >> now, you are accusing me of this? is that what you are saying? >> we are trying figure out what happened, stephanie.

>> well, i'm, i was, i'm just saying -- you know, do i need to get a lawyer? are you aaccusing me? >> it came to an end that must have been as familiar as uncomfortable. >> i know you will have to do your job, and i have to contact somebody. >> that's fair. i know how this stuff works. >> and then stephanie lazarus was read the same words she herself had read to hundreds of suspects over the years. >> stephanie, do you know you have the right to remain silent, do you understand? >> yes. >> and for just a moment, you can see the handcuffs placed on her by her fellow officers. >> i'm in shock, i'm totally in shock. >> word of lazarus's arrest traveled fast to tucson, where detective nutall was standing by to deliver the news to the rasmussen family. >> tell me what you said. >> you were right folks, you

folks were right. and i apologize that it took us over two decades to give them that closure. >> reporter: you feel better? >> the most gratifying moment of my career. >> i was extremely happy. i said, i feel like i knew it all along. >> back in l.a., the lazarus family also got the news. >> well, it was numbing. >> i am guessing one of the things you said or thought was, they got it wrong somehow, this is a mistake. >> absolutely. >> some error was made. >> it will be cleared up by the end of the day. >> right. >> didn't happen. >> didn't happen. >> stephanie lazarus did not go home that day after her arrest. bail was set at $10 million. much higher a than most murder cases. the judge considered her a flight risk. citing the strong case against her. and for the l.a.p.d., it was a bitter sweet day.

a 23-year-older cold case they believed had finally been cracked. but the prime suspect worked right besides them. for the rasmussen family, stephanie's arrest was a vindication and it brought back their bitter memories of the original l.a.p.d. investigation. >> i think it was because she was a police officer so they just figured that they would cover this one up. >> the family hired a l.a. attorney john taylor that filed a lawsuit get detective lazarus andthe l.a.p.d. saying that think deliberately ignored claws that pointed to a fellow officer. >> the earlier missteps of l.a.p.d. were not missteps. they were intentional conduct and intentional ignoring of he was. and an intentional derreliction of dutiys, beyond being sloppy or lazy. >> the fact that they didn't close the case and that they

didn't listen to the family, those two things are not evidence of a cover up. >> it was not that they didn't close the case. they didn't do anything to create a case. >> he said that in 1986, the detectives were protecting stephanie lazarus. >> they actively covered up the identity of the person who committed the crime. >> the rasmussen's lawsuit alleging a cover up was dismittdismitt -- was dismissed in 2011. >> i can accept somebody that is unable to solve a crime that is solvable. i cannot accept somebody be that covers up a crime or covers up an individual that committed a crime and i have no indication that that happened here. >> there's nothing to suggest that they deliberated looked away from stephanie or that was a road they didn't want to go down. >> i think it was lack of ability not an intentional act to exclude stephanie. >> stephanie lazarus --

>> in february of 2012, nearly 26 years to the day since sherry rasmussen's murder, stephanie lazarus would have her day in court. a chance to clear her name and reputation. a chance to show that dna evidence is not always right, and that the los angeles police department had it all wrong. coming up. did the l.a.p.d. have it wrong? >> john was still calling. and stephanie went to tell sherry look, you guys are getting married. i told him not to call me. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find stephanie ilene lazarus -- >> when "dateline" continues. and live your lives. that's why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you.

now there's less pain immediately following injection. we've reduced the size of the needle and removed the citrate buffers. and it has the same effectiveness you know and trust. humira citrate-free is here. a little change can make a big difference. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. here's to you. why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills?e else. flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler. nothing lasts longer. flonase sensimist. 24 hour non-drowsy allergy relief

walking a dog can add thousands walking this many?day. that can be rough on pam's feet, knees, and lower back. that's why she wears dr. scholl's orthotics. they relieve pain and give her the comfort to move more so she can keep up with all of her best friends. dr. scholl's. born to move. ♪ go where my baby lives b[ growl ]olle♪s good boy. hey. hey.

you must be steven's phone. know who's on your network and control who shouldn't be with xfinity xfi. simple. easy. awesome.

♪ welcome back, there was a lot lot at stake at the murder trial of l.a.p.d. detective stephanie lazarus, who stood accused of murdering sherry rasmussen, and the prosecution believed that the dna evidence was the smoking gun but the defense said it was tainted. what would the jury believe. here is the conclusion of "the smoking gun." >> it took 26 years to get here. a generation of false leads, missed opportunities, a family's frustration, a police department's nightmare.

february 6th, 2012, the people verse stephanie lazarus began in a courtroom in downtown los angeles. the prosecution laid out a clear case of how stephanie lazarus was deeply in love with john rutten and was devastated when he was engaged to sherry. then executed her and covered it up by staging a burglary. linda deutsche of the associated press covered the trial. >> the opening statement by the prosecutor was quite dramatic and he came up with the theme which was that the case was about a bite, a bullet, a gun barrel eand a broken heart and that resonated in the courtroom. >> the jury saw journals of stephanie's. stephanie's date book was introduced which mentioned

locksmything books. that could explain why there was no forced entry and on the day of the murder, then patrol officer lazarus was off duty. the ammunition used in the shooting was the same type issued by the l.a.p.d. said prosecutors. and was the same caliber as lazarus's off duty weapon. a .38 revolver that she reported stolen two weeks after the murder. the real smoking gun was the bite mark dna found at the crime scene. >> dna was the center piece of the case. . this shows she was there. without the dna, they could not have placed her at the condo. >> and the statistics were staggering. a 1.7sextillion to 1 chance that it belonged to somebody else. the defense attacked the dna he was saying it was mishandled and

improperly stored and sealed which compromised the sample. >> the vial was protruding, instead of being inside the envelope, in order to protect the integrity of the evidence. you cannot rely on the scientific results. >> he said that hair, blood and fingerprints found at the crime scene did not come from lazarus. as for the weapon that fired the fatal shots? he insisted there werer several other types of guns besides stephanie's that could have fired those bullets. and as to motive. the defense argued there was no evidence that stephanie lazarus was obsessed with sherry's husband john. quite the opposite. >> john was still calling her. and stephanie went to tell sherry, look, you guys are getting married. i am telling him not to call me. >> after five weeks it was up to the jury. lorain et eti -- loretta and ne

rasmussen had waited longer than that. >> did you feel confident? >> as confident as you can feel with a jury. you never know what they will do. >> we the jury in the above entitled action, find stephanie eline lazarus guilty of the murder of sherry rasmussen and we find it was of the murder of the first degree. >> the day the rasmussen family thought would never come finally did, as their attorney explained. >> the family is overwhelmingly relieved that again, their suspicions and today's verdict reflects and confirms the identity of the person who killed their daughter, and the intent with which she did it. it's a tremendous relief. >> reporter: for the lazarus family, their wife, daughter, sister, and once decorated detective was now a convicted killer. >> we really did not expect this

result with the state of the he was and the way mr. overland presented the case. so, it's devastating. >> for the l.a.p.d., a cold case was finally solved but with painful side effects. >> i'm very pleased, but it's bitter sweet. i'm thrilled that the conclusion has been reached and that some form of justice has been brought to a family that grieved for far too long. we rather it not be a police detective. i have known stephanie for a lot of years. you know, this is, this is a tragedy on a bunch of levels. it's not something that, that we are proud of in that we had a l.a.p.d. officer involved here. >> she was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. as for the wrongful death suit that was filed against lazarus, they were awarded $10 million. and so, ended the case of a detective, finally caught by her very own department.

she almost got away with it. >> perfect murder. almost committed the perfect murder. >> and who better to do it than a police officer. >> than a police officer. >> >> i'm national natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." she was beautiful. her eyes were remarkable. i was going to be there for her and she was going to be there for me. it didn't matter what it was. i thought maybe she had been kidnapped. no one knew what was happening. there was nothing i or anyone could have done. >> skylar, rachel, sheila. total bffs. >> they hung out all the time. >> you thought of them as a team. >> the three of them became inseparable.