The Megyn Kelly Show - September 12, 2026


Fatal Attraction： The Book Is Never Closed — Ep. 4 ｜ MK Confidential


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

147.01

Word count

5,957

Sentence count

448

Harmful content

Misogyny

26

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello! Can I use the bathroom, please?
00:00:03.000 Oh, great! You're here!
00:00:05.000 You've been in there for three hours already!
00:00:07.000 I know! I'm your debt!
00:00:09.000 I'm here to stay, baby!
00:00:11.000 Yeah, that's the problem. And I want you out.
00:00:15.000 It's time to break up with your debt.
00:00:17.000 We can help you reduce your debt by up to 80% and feel great again.
00:00:21.000 Farber Debt Solutions. Licensed Insolvency Trustees.
00:00:24.000 Get the truth about debt.
00:00:27.000 Can you grab me some toilet paper?
00:00:30.000 Sonnet Insurance wants to know,
00:00:32.200 what would you do with an extra hour in your day
00:00:34.100 and more money in your pocket?
00:00:35.840 With Sonnet, you can quote and buy
00:00:37.440 home and auto insurance online or over the phone.
00:00:39.920 Your choice, on your time,
00:00:41.620 whatever works best for you.
00:00:42.880 And Canadian university and college alumni
00:00:44.860 could save over $2,000 a year.
00:00:47.140 That's real money back where it belongs.
00:00:48.960 Save time, save money,
00:00:50.360 save yourself from the way insurance used to be.
00:00:52.280 Get your quote at sonnet.ca.
00:00:54.260 Switch, save, simple, Sonnet. 0.86
00:00:57.760 Stephanie Lazarus sits in front of a camera 1.00
00:00:59.900 in a California state prison 0.98
00:01:01.840 and answers questions under oath.
00:01:04.900 It is February 12, 2025.
00:01:07.860 Stephanie is 64 years old,
00:01:10.040 and she has been in state custody for almost 16 years.
00:01:14.240 She really wants to get out.
00:01:16.680 On the other side of the video screen, 0.90
00:01:18.540 Sherry Rasmussen's two sisters, Connie and Teresa,
00:01:21.140 are watching.
00:01:22.300 So are Sherry's two nieces and John Rutten,
00:01:25.740 Sherry's husband.
00:01:27.060 The man Stephanie killed Sherry over
00:01:29.380 and still lost.
00:01:31.820 A parole commissioner named Kevin Chappell
00:01:34.940 asks Stephanie about a phone call she made
00:01:37.480 on a February morning in 1986.
00:01:41.140 Sherry had answered.
00:01:42.960 Chappell asks what Stephanie felt
00:01:44.940 when she heard Sherry's voice.
00:01:47.600 Yes, sir, I was enraged.
00:01:50.140 Stephanie says she went down the stairs of her condominium
00:01:53.060 and took a cord off of her workbench.
00:01:56.340 Chappell asks her why she brought that cord with her
00:01:58.620 to John and Sherry's home.
00:02:00.860 Because I was so angry that if she got in my way to see John,
00:02:04.840 I was going to strangle her.
00:02:07.440 Chappelle asks what she was thinking
00:02:09.360 by the time she reached Sherry Rasmussen's front door. 0.98
00:02:12.940 I'm going to kill her if I don't see John.
00:02:17.080 Sherry's younger sister, Teresa, 0.99
00:02:18.920 watches her screen, listening to Stephanie talk
00:02:21.360 about murdering Sherry.
00:02:23.860 At these parole hearings, Teresa 0.97
00:02:25.660 makes a point of staying visible.
00:02:28.020 She told us why.
00:02:29.220 Personally, I make a effort to be sure
00:02:34.220 that I'm on the screen the whole time.
00:02:36.200 So she has to, if she looks up, she has to see me.
00:02:41.060 But she never looks up.
00:02:42.760 Stephanie says she barged into Sherry's home,
00:02:45.540 asking for John.
00:02:47.200 And from there, she describes what happened
00:02:49.480 as a hellacious fight.
00:02:52.380 Kevin Chappelle stops her.
00:02:53.980 Why are you calling it a fight?
00:02:56.340 Stephanie thinks about this.
00:02:58.640 I invaded her home.
00:03:00.420 I was an intruder.
00:03:02.040 So maybe it was just a fight on my part. 0.99
00:03:04.680 Her trying to maybe defend herself 0.99
00:03:06.520 would be a better description of the situation.
00:03:09.560 Chapala offers a different word.
00:03:11.220 What about assault? 1.00
00:03:13.000 And Stephanie agrees with that.
00:03:15.100 Stephanie describes a violent struggle, 0.99
00:03:17.520 hitting Sherry in the face with her gun,
00:03:19.840 then biting her and smashing a vase over her head. 0.89
00:03:24.000 And Stephanie says she picks up a blanket
00:03:26.060 from the floor, wraps it around her gun,
00:03:29.380 and fires three times into Sherry's chest.
00:03:32.480 Chappelle comes back to that.
00:03:34.520 When I think of someone in a rage, they're just out of it.
00:03:38.140 They're not thinking about, well, I need to wrap this up.
00:03:41.780 Why did you wrap the gun up? 0.57
00:03:43.880 Stephanie shifts her eyes and answers to deaden the sound.
00:03:49.300 I'm Megan Kelly, and this is MK Confidential.
00:03:56.060 everybody's talking about weight loss injections because the results can be so dramatic
00:04:01.820 they work by lowering blood sugar and reducing appetite but what if you're looking to lose
00:04:06.440 weight but are not interested in painful weekly injections especially when you hear about some of
00:04:10.560 those intense side effects well that's why doctors created a weight loss supplement called lean and
00:04:16.660 the results could be remarkable lean says the studied ingredients in their product have been
00:04:22.000 shown to lower your blood sugar, burn fat by converting it into energy, and curb your appetite
00:04:27.300 and cravings so you are not as hungry. But listen, lean is not for the casual dieter with only a few
00:04:32.520 pounds to lose. The doctors at Brickhouse Nutrition created lean for frustrated dieters who have 10 or
00:04:38.680 more pounds to lose. You could get started with 20% off and free rush shipping, adding lean to
00:04:44.860 your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit takelean.com and enter Kelly for your discount.
00:04:50.380 That's promo code Kelly at TakeLean.com.
00:04:54.100 13 years earlier in 2012, Stephanie Lazarus is singing a very different tune.
00:05:00.780 She is on trial for Sherry Rasmussen's murder.
00:05:04.220 Stephanie was arrested in June 2009.
00:05:07.320 Over the next 32 months, through preliminary hearings, motions, and other pretrial proceedings,
00:05:13.360 she comes to court shackled in an orange jail jumpsuit.
00:05:17.400 Then on February 6th, 2012, the first day of her trial, she appears dressed in black.
00:05:24.000 She pleads not guilty. She will not testify.
00:05:28.300 Prosecutors tell the jury that Stephanie Lazarus killed Sherry Rasmussen because of a love triangle.
00:05:34.320 John Rutten chose Sherry instead of her.
00:05:37.560 They put the old evidence back on the table.
00:05:40.120 the swabs from Sherry's arm, the .38 caliber revolver that Lazarus reported stolen after the
00:05:46.720 murder, and Stephanie's own words about John preserved in letters, diary entries, and photographs.
00:05:53.720 And then they called John Rutten to the stand. John is 53. A reporter in the courtroom watches
00:06:01.020 him choke up several times and reach for a box of Kleenex when he is asked about the day his
00:06:06.580 Sherry died. The prosecution begins with the relationship. John testifies that he and Stephanie
00:06:13.940 Lazarus slept together somewhere between 25 and 30 times over roughly three years, beginning the
00:06:21.280 summer after he graduated from UCLA. Just as Stephanie herself predicted when questioned by
00:06:27.600 robbery homicide in their surprise interview, John says he did not consider Stephanie his
00:06:33.080 girlfriend. John says that in the summer of 1985, weeks after he asked Sherry to marry him,
00:06:40.720 Stephanie called him crying, asking to see him. So he went over and they had sex.
00:06:47.440 Asked to explain it, he says, quote, basically, she had no closure. She was upset. I felt bad.
00:06:53.500 I was a stupid and young man. Sherry's younger sister, Teresa Lane, is in the courtroom. 1.00
00:07:00.420 She's hearing for the first time that John slept with Stephanie after he and Sherry were engaged.
00:07:06.660 When we spoke with Teresa for this series, she still remembered what that moment felt like.
00:07:12.480 I was devastated.
00:07:20.300 I'm sorry, it's hard.
00:07:22.340 Sherry's older sister, Connie Wilkinson, is in the courtroom too.
00:07:26.380 John's behavior after the murder has bothered Connie for years, as she told us.
00:07:31.360 It wasn't as difficult for me to hear it because John's, in my opinion,
00:07:38.760 John's behavior around Sherry's death was suspect to me.
00:07:44.500 He delayed notifying my parents until after they couldn't get a flight out of Tucson.
00:07:50.680 And my parents weren't notified until his parents were there to support him.
00:07:57.300 Also, when my dad asked him, how did you know Sherry was dead?
00:08:00.680 He goes that he used his foot and touched her with his foot and that, you know, and she didn't move.
00:08:08.540 Those are behaviors I don't see as a loving, caring, loving husband.
00:08:15.940 Teresa, who says she's still in touch with John, sees him differently.
00:08:20.680 Sherry knew about the incident with Stephanie before they got married.
00:08:27.120 Did he do wrong? Hell yes.
00:08:30.900 But my sister was still willing to walk down that aisle and say, I do.
00:08:36.840 So I am going to support my sister in that.
00:08:39.840 Then Stephanie Lazarus' defense attorney, Mark Overland, gets his turn to cross-examine John.
00:08:47.280 Overland argues that it was John, not Stephanie, who could not let the relationship go.
00:08:53.500 John is already dabbing at his eyes when Overland takes him back to the night he had sex with Stephanie
00:08:58.340 after becoming engaged to Sherry and to whether John tried to clean up before going home.
00:09:05.240 The attorney asks, did you take a shower before leaving Miss Lazarus's place?
00:09:11.260 John Rutland looks down. I don't recall that.
00:09:14.760 The defense attacks the bite mark evidence.
00:09:18.300 Overland points to that hole in the corner of the evidence envelope,
00:09:21.820 which poked straight through the case number,
00:09:24.640 and argues that someone could have used it to remove the tube and tamper with the swab.
00:09:29.700 There is a second swab inside that tube.
00:09:32.880 An independent lab tests the second swab with a defense representative in the room.
00:09:38.540 It, too, comes back with the same DNA profile as the first.
00:09:42.540 Stephanie Lazarus. The odds that the 15 DNA markers belong to anyone other than Stephanie
00:09:49.880 Lazarus are about one in 1.7 sextillion. 17 days after the trial begins on March 8th,
00:09:59.020 the jury comes back with a verdict. We the jury in above entitled action find an amendment Stephanie
00:10:05.820 Eileen Lazarus, guilty of the kind of a Sherry Rask in school.
00:10:11.980 Teresa watches Stephanie as the verdict is read.
00:10:15.500 She showed nothing. I mean, a woman that, I mean, you have to have, I assume people have feelings.
00:10:25.180 I think the best of people that she did not shudder. She didn't do anything. She didn't even blink.
00:10:34.460 she looked forward and there was nothing left in her soul nels and loretta rasmussen stay in their
00:10:44.140 seats in the second row sobbing two months later on may 11 2012 stephanie lazarus is back in the
00:10:52.860 same courthouse for sentencing she gets 27 years to life sherry's family stands one by one and
00:11:01.660 and tells the court what her murder has done to them.
00:11:05.600 John Rutten speaks too.
00:11:09.340 The fact that Sherry's death occurred
00:11:10.980 because she met and married me brings me to my knees.
00:11:16.260 I have resigned myself to trying to endure the daydreams
00:11:19.960 about a world where Sherry's still with us.
00:11:23.360 And this pointless tragedy never occurred.
00:11:27.180 Teresa remembers watching Stephanie while John spoke.
00:11:30.820 I remember him standing up there and talking, and Stephanie did not move, flinch, blink, or anything.
00:11:39.620 That woman has no soul at all.
00:11:43.060 Stephanie Lazarus says nothing.
00:11:45.940 For Connie and Teresa, it feels like the end of the story.
00:11:49.340 It was relief that finally that she will pay for what she did.
00:11:56.260 Unrealistic, but it was like, okay, now we can close the book.
00:11:59.800 But it's, the book is never closed.
00:12:02.380 You learned that after the verdict.
00:12:05.000 We thought, I thought it was going to be closed.
00:12:06.800 I thought it would be a done deal that she would be there for the 25 years.
00:12:10.460 It hasn't stopped.
00:12:13.680 After the verdict, it hasn't, I mean, we don't get arrests.
00:12:17.400 Sherry Rasmussen was murdered in February of 1986.
00:12:21.420 Stephanie Lazarus was arrested in June 2009.
00:12:25.940 23 years.
00:12:27.880 The question of what's taking so long has haunted this case from the very beginning.
00:12:34.520 Connie says their father, Nels Rasmussen, who was tortured by the fact that he could not protect his daughter in life,
00:12:41.400 became determined to avenge her in death.
00:12:44.760 He began doing his own detective work the day after Sherry died.
00:12:48.200 The way that dad coped with the loss of Sherry was to be very analytical and go over every detail and everything that she had said to him.
00:13:01.660 So he did have a short list. Stephanie was on the list. Of course, we didn't know her name.
00:13:06.660 We just knew that an ex-girlfriend that was a police officer.
00:13:09.980 According to Connie, Nels Rasmussen gave the detectives two leads back in 1986. 0.55
00:13:14.560 a woman at the hospital who had been passed over for a promotion and had been making calls to Sherry,
00:13:21.140 and the police officer.
00:13:23.960 In his book, The Lazarus Files, author Matthew McGuff reports that Nels early on tried repeatedly
00:13:30.820 to raise the possibility of John's ex and her involvement to no avail.
00:13:37.280 Without Mayer's clearance, that likely ticked Mayer off.
00:13:40.520 Nels also discussed with Mayer the two bullets recovered during Shuri's autopsy.
00:13:47.080 In his 2009 LAPD interview, Nels recounted,
00:13:50.640 I met him on his own without Mayer's clearance that likely ticked Mayer off.
00:13:57.180 Nels also discussed with Mayer the two bullets recovered during Shuri's autopsy.
00:14:01.960 In his 2009 LAPD interview, Nels recounted,
00:14:05.760 I mentioned to Lyle the fact that they were similar, if not the same, as what police are
00:14:10.960 issued. According to Nels, Mayer never acknowledged what Nels said about the bullets.
00:14:16.440 He never acknowledged. He wouldn't deny it. He wouldn't say okay or whatever. He would just go
00:14:22.720 on with whatever he wanted to talk about, Nels informed the LAPD in 2009. As things went along
00:14:29.340 with Mayer, day by day that week, Nels became ever more insistent and emotional about bringing
00:14:35.280 up the subject that seemed to irritate Mayor the West, John's ex-girlfriend, the female cop.
00:14:42.040 Nels felt Mayor was on his case from Wednesday on. After a certain point, according to Nels,
00:14:47.820 whenever he met with Mayor, Mayor got loud with him. Mayor was not afraid to let Nels know he
00:14:53.340 didn't want his input, and often punctuated their conversations with petulant gestures,
00:14:58.880 like slamming a book down, throwing papers, or handing something to Nels and then grabbing it
00:15:04.420 back from him. Lyle Mayer, the lead detective, says none of that ever happened. No one from the
00:15:10.560 family told him about a police officer, he says, not even one time. And if they had, he would have
00:15:16.060 run the lead down. According to Nels, Mayer responded to his theories with, you've been
00:15:21.280 watching too much television. I asked Connie and Teresa how they reconciled those two accounts
00:15:27.100 and what they believe kept the investigation from moving. Here's a critical question.
00:15:32.340 Do you believe that Lyle Mayer didn't want to talk about the police officer who John used to date because he wanted to back the blue and cover up for a fellow police officer or because he had tunnel vision on his burglar theory?
00:15:51.120 Connie, I'll start with you on that.
00:15:52.620 I believe he had tunnel vision because if you look at the murder book and the first entry when they come to the site, he already had labeled it as a burglary.
00:16:06.440 So he was not open to discussing any other theories or alternatives.
00:16:13.520 And what about Mayer's denial?
00:16:16.460 I don't believe that. I don't believe anything that Lyle Mayer says.
00:16:21.100 I know my brother-in-law has told me that he said to the police
00:16:24.860 when he was first questioned after Sherry died
00:16:27.460 that he had a girlfriend that was in the police department.
00:16:31.320 And John has told me that, and my dad followed up.
00:16:36.960 The sisters agree that the Los Angeles Police Department
00:16:40.160 failed to seriously investigate Stephanie Lazarus.
00:16:43.380 They are less certain about why.
00:16:46.060 I was naive at the time. I was very young.
00:16:48.400 and I believe that the police were doing everything they could
00:16:52.660 and they were pursuing it with an honest heart
00:16:57.300 and I don't believe that happened
00:17:00.340 and that's sort of as distressing to me.
00:17:03.500 On March 12th, 1986, 16 days after the murder,
00:17:07.520 the LAPD gives John Rutten a polygraph exam.
00:17:10.960 The result is inconclusive.
00:17:13.360 According to the murder book,
00:17:14.520 Rutten was too emotional to give an accurate reading.
00:17:18.400 Mayer says the two key questions were, are you personally involved?
00:17:22.740 And do you personally know who killed her?
00:17:25.480 On both of those, he was deemed credible.
00:17:28.480 There are seven questions listed for the exam.
00:17:31.560 Not one of them is about Stephanie Lazarus.
00:17:34.760 20 months later, on November 19th, 1987,
00:17:38.760 someone writes one line at the bottom of page 18 of the murder book chronology.
00:17:43.420 John Rutten called, verified Stephanie Lazarus-P.O. was former girlfriend.
00:17:51.760 Her name is in the murder book. Her job is in the murder book. Her relationship to the husband
00:17:58.700 is in the murder book. Exactly once. That one line is the only time Stephanie Lazarus appears
00:18:06.620 in the file for the next 22 years. The handwriting has never been identified.
00:18:12.660 The detectives are no closer to finding her.
00:18:16.300 Then, sometime in 1992 or 1993, Nels and Loretta and Connie drive to Van Nuys trying to restart the case.
00:18:25.120 Nels asks whether anyone had run DNA and offers to pay for it himself.
00:18:29.500 The detective who tells him no is Steve Fisk, who runs Van Nuys homicide.
00:18:35.080 He sets a thin manila folder on the table between them.
00:18:38.420 A tiny case file.
00:18:40.500 According to Matthew McGuff's book on the case, Fisk says there is no point in running DNA without a suspect.
00:18:47.000 Nell's points at the manila folder, quote, I think it's in your record there about John's ex-girlfriend.
00:18:54.300 Fisk says nothing.
00:18:56.380 Connie later says he seemed eager for them to leave.
00:19:00.360 Early Monday afternoon, October 11th, 1993.
00:19:03.900 A homicide detective from Van Nuys drives to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office about 30 minutes from the station.
00:19:11.700 His name is Phil Morit. He works under Steve Fisk.
00:19:16.200 Morit is listed as the signatory taking out all trace evidence collected from Sherry Rasmussen's body.
00:19:23.160 It is never seen again. It disappears from the record entirely.
00:19:28.820 Years later, Maura acknowledges the signature on the paperwork appears to be his,
00:19:34.520 but says he does not remember taking the evidence and says he never worked on Sherry's case.
00:19:41.000 There is no mention of this removal in the murder book.
00:19:44.780 No one tells the Rasmussen family.
00:19:47.140 Sherry's sister Connie has been trying to make sense of it ever since.
00:19:51.280 One thing we do know is that Stephanie Lazarus was stationed at the Van Nuys Police Division during the 90s.
00:20:02.040 So I don't know if she had a relationship or worked with that detective.
00:20:08.540 Or she may have done and moved the items herself and put his signature.
00:20:13.460 Who knows?
00:20:15.200 All we know is that it's gone.
00:20:16.920 stephanie lazarus is transferred to van nuys in march of 1995 which is a year and a half
00:20:24.020 after the trace evidence leaves the coroner's office she works out of that station on and off
00:20:30.540 for the rest of the decade sherry rasmussen's murder book is in the building unsecured the
00:20:37.140 entire time stephanie is there she often volunteers to work the morning shift a time when the building
00:20:43.360 is mostly empty, particularly of higher ranks. Whether she ever cracked it open or altered what
00:20:50.140 was inside, no one can say for sure. I asked Teresa for her opinion. I don't see why she
00:20:58.020 wouldn't have because if you look at her track record from the day she killed my sister to 26 0.98
00:21:05.740 years later, she has, everything is self-serving. So she has no regards for anybody else. I hate 1.00
00:21:16.700 to think the worst of people, to tell you the truth, but if you look at her life and how she
00:21:23.580 dealt with her family during the trial and lied that she didn't kill my sister, she has no
00:21:30.700 conscious about other people. I mean, her only thing is her well-being and what she wants to
00:21:40.240 accomplish in her life and her goal. That evidence is not the only thing missing from
00:21:45.980 the investigation. The original handwritten log of the first three months after Sherry died
00:21:51.580 disappears from the murder book sometime between 1986 and 2008. No one knows when,
00:21:58.500 who took it or why. It is the only real-time record of what the detectives did to track down
00:22:05.440 her murderer, including possible meetings with family members and various leads. Only a copy
00:22:12.120 of the log prepared on a typewriter by someone survives. It is dated three months after the
00:22:19.400 murder, and it is attached to the 60-day report. It is supposed to be word-for-word accurate.
00:22:25.660 Without the original, there is no way to verify that.
00:22:30.100 John Rutten's name is misspelled as Rudder throughout.
00:22:35.620 The break in the case comes from a piece of evidence Phil Morritt left behind at the coroner.
00:22:41.520 A bite mark swab from Sherry's left arm, tucked away in the basement freezer,
00:22:45.940 but it only comes after the case changes hands.
00:22:49.540 Mayer has retired. Steve Fisk moves on.
00:22:52.460 Cliff Shepard is now in charge, an LAPD cold case detective from the respected Robbery Homicide
00:22:59.100 Division. When criminalist Jennifer Francis finds female DNA in saliva from the bite mark,
00:23:05.860 it is because Cliff Shepard first asked for a fresh look at the forensics. But Shepard does 0.56
00:23:11.920 not respond meaningfully to the news that the bite mark was from a woman, Jennifer's discovery.
00:23:18.640 Jennifer calls Shepard a few weeks later.
00:23:21.420 She asks him about the Rasmussen case and the other woman.
00:23:25.800 She means that nurse who the murder book says harassed Sherry at work.
00:23:31.160 Shepard's reply surprises her.
00:23:33.500 Oh, you mean the LAPD detective?
00:23:35.640 She was not a part of this.
00:23:37.640 He does not say that detective's name,
00:23:40.280 and Jennifer Francis does not ask how she has supposedly been ruled out.
00:23:44.920 that ruled out female detective's name is in the binder on her desk. Just one line, page 18,
00:23:53.380 written in 1987. Stephanie Lazarus, P.O., former girlfriend. Francis had read right past it. 0.99
00:24:01.680 Four more years pass with no movement. Then Jim Nuttall is handed the murder book and starts
00:24:08.800 over. AI can clone your voice, forge your signature, even create fake documents that fool
00:24:15.800 experts. And criminals are using these tools right now to potentially steal from you.
00:24:20.880 How? It's called title fraud. Your property records are public by law. Your name, address,
00:24:27.260 even your signature. It's all sitting in a database anyone can access. A cyber scammer
00:24:32.680 can pull your records, use AI to forge a transfer document, file it with your county,
00:24:37.280 and on paper, they are the new legal owner of your property. Then they can borrow against your
00:24:42.900 equity or even sell your property long before you realize anything is even wrong. But let me tell
00:24:48.980 you about Home Title Lock. They monitor your property's title 24-7, alert you of any changes,
00:24:55.540 and if you are a victim, their team of restoration experts will spend up to $1 million restoring your
00:25:02.040 title. So when's the last time you checked your title records? You can do it today. Use our promo
00:25:07.820 code MEGAN at HomeTitleLock.com to get a free title history report, plus a free trial of
00:25:14.340 million-dollar triple lock protection, so you can make sure you are not already a victim.
00:25:19.280 That's HomeTitleLock.com, promo code MEGAN, or use the link in the description.
00:25:24.800 Friday, June 5th, 2009. Sherry's little sister, Teresa Lane, is living in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
00:25:32.040 She receives an urgent, cryptic message from her parents.
00:25:36.080 And then they called me and they said,
00:25:38.440 you need to be up here today.
00:25:41.680 And I said, okay.
00:25:43.920 Which was, you know, sort of a nice thing
00:25:48.120 and a worrisome thing at the same time.
00:25:50.360 The family gathers at Nell's and Loretta's home in Tucson.
00:25:54.720 And LAPD detectives are already there.
00:25:57.580 They will not say why.
00:25:58.880 We were sitting around in my parents' family room, and my dad was questioning the detectives to see what was going on.
00:26:09.540 And they said they couldn't say anything until the arrest was made.
00:26:13.060 And then once the arrest was made, they came in and told us that they arrested.
00:26:20.860 Stephanie Lazarus has just been taken into custody for murder off the DNA from a Costco cup.
00:26:28.880 Teresa remembers hearing the news.
00:26:32.220 It was a relief, but it was just a new starting point.
00:26:36.400 After Stephanie's arrest, the Rasmussen's file a two-part claim against the city of Los Angeles.
00:26:42.560 First, alleging that Stephanie Lazarus used her position as an officer to commit and cover up her crime, literally, to get away with murder.
00:26:52.340 Second, that the LAPD protected Stephanie Lazarus and helped cover for her
00:26:58.200 through fraud, negligence, and other wrongful acts.
00:27:03.420 A judge dismisses the lawsuit before discovery begins,
00:27:08.040 primarily on the grounds of governmental immunity.
00:27:11.420 No witness is ever questioned under oath.
00:27:14.220 No police documents are ever handed over.
00:27:17.420 No court will ever decide whether the LAPD covered.
00:27:21.540 or one of its own. On February 6, 2012, Stephanie Lazarus pleads not guilty. She does not testify
00:27:30.320 at her trial. After being found guilty, she says nothing at her sentencing. She appeals her
00:27:37.300 conviction and loses, then appeals again and loses. Lazarus never publicly admits to killing
00:27:44.420 Sherry Rasmussen. That is, until doing so could work to her advantage. November 16, 2023. The
00:27:53.900 California Institution for Women near Chino, California. Stephanie Lazarus's parole hearing.
00:28:01.140 Two commissioners, Lazarus and her lawyer, are present. The Rasmussen family joins on a video
00:28:07.160 screen. Connie, Teresa, two nieces, John Rutten, and LAPD detective Greg Stearns. Stearns is one
00:28:14.900 of the detectives who interrogated Lazarus before her arrest in 2009. A California law makes
00:28:22.360 offenders who were younger than 26 when they committed their crime eligible for parole
00:28:27.800 earlier than usual. Stephanie Lazarus was 25 years, nine months, and 20 days old when she
00:28:36.160 murdered Sherry Rasmussen. The board asks Stephanie what she did. She describes driving over to the
00:28:43.580 condominium and barging in asking for John. She mentions the cord she brought and the vase. Then
00:28:50.620 she says the gun came out of her fanny pack and she and Sherry struggled over it. Two shots went
00:28:57.680 into the sliding glass door upstairs. Lazarus regained control of her weapon. The hearing is
00:29:03.740 not recorded on video, but it is transcribed. And here is some of what Lazarus said, word for word.
00:29:10.300 She stumbles throughout. Quote, at some point she had me in a chokehold and I couldn't get out of
00:29:16.920 the chokehold. I hit her several times to the right side of her face with my gun. I still couldn't get 1.00
00:29:22.460 out. Eventually I bit her. She continues. I picked up a blanket or a robe, something off the floor. 0.85
00:29:29.580 I wrapped it around my gun and I shot her three times to the chest.
00:29:35.520 Stephanie adds, quote, what I didn't do is I didn't check her pulse. 0.75
00:29:39.700 I didn't give her CPR. I didn't call 911.
00:29:43.140 All I cared about was my selfish self to get out of there.
00:29:48.400 The presiding commissioner, Patricia Cassidy, asks, why would you give her CPR when you were trying to kill her? 1.00
00:29:55.600 Stephanie backpedals and stammers.
00:29:57.940 She's just saying that she could have, and that she went to the condo to talk to John.
00:30:03.020 Sherry was just in her way.
00:30:05.580 Lazarus admits to the board that she staged the scene to look like a burglary
00:30:09.520 and drove off in Sherry's car.
00:30:12.240 She says that after the murder, John Rutten mentioned that he had given her name to the police.
00:30:17.900 Lazarus threw the revolver she had used to kill Sherry off a freeway.
00:30:21.780 Then she reported the gun stolen to the Santa Monica Police Department 0.81
00:30:25.240 because she was certain the LAPD would come and ask her for it.
00:30:30.280 No one ever did.
00:30:32.820 For 37 years, Connie and Teresa had waited for Stephanie Lazarus to say the words.
00:30:39.720 Connie remembers hearing them.
00:30:41.940 The first time that we heard that she admitted that she was murdered Sherry
00:30:48.640 was at the first parole hearing.
00:30:51.560 Up to that, she exercised every appeal and every way possible to get out of prison.
00:31:00.600 But she is still lying.
00:31:04.000 Every parole hearing, it's not the whole truth.
00:31:07.960 It's a portion of the truth, maybe enough to get paroled.
00:31:13.620 It works.
00:31:15.080 That day, the board finds Stephanie Lazarus suitable for parole.
00:31:19.380 after serving just 11 and a half years of a 27-year sentence.
00:31:25.220 After the board's decision, L.A. Police Chief Michael Moore
00:31:28.240 writes to the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom,
00:31:31.460 and asks him to intervene.
00:31:33.960 Moore writes that Lazarus continues to pose an unreasonable risk to the public.
00:31:38.840 Newsom formally recommends a second look.
00:31:41.540 He sends the decision back to the full Board of Parole hearings to reconsider,
00:31:46.620 and they schedule a hearing.
00:31:48.560 October 2nd, 2024.
00:31:51.040 The board has no questions for Lazarus.
00:31:54.040 It will decide based on the record from the last one
00:31:56.540 and will allow statements.
00:31:58.880 Stephanie speaks for seven minutes 0.78
00:32:00.480 about the programs she has completed in prison.
00:32:05.160 Greg Stearns is there in support of John Rutten.
00:32:08.640 Stearns describes the crime to the board
00:32:10.460 and makes the case that the young offenders law
00:32:13.400 should not apply to Stephanie.
00:32:15.260 In his view, this is a clearly premeditated and thoughtful crime. 0.90
00:32:19.040 Quote, Stephanie Lazarus stalked her victim.
00:32:22.740 She chose a time and a place when she knew that she would have the victim alone. 1.00
00:32:26.840 She brought cordage to bind her, used an improvised suppressor to execute her, staged a burglary.
00:32:33.580 Those are not the hallmarks of youthful offense.
00:32:36.900 They are the hallmarks of criminal sophistication and maturity.
00:32:41.640 John Rutten speaks as well.
00:32:43.400 Quote,
00:32:44.720 Every day she went to work as a police officer was a lie.
00:32:48.960 The inmate has exercised her rights to the fullest,
00:32:51.800 but never, has never done the right thing.
00:32:55.900 The full board rescinds the grant for Stephanie's parole.
00:32:59.760 She stays behind bars for now.
00:33:02.640 Which brings us back to where this episode began, February 12th, 2025.
00:33:09.460 This is the hearing where Parole Commissioner Chappelle
00:33:11.960 Pell will not let Stephanie Lazarus call the killing a fight.
00:33:15.640 It is also where he asks her how she found Sherry's address. 0.99
00:33:20.580 That's a good question, Stephanie, seems to stall. 0.99
00:33:24.160 I would say that I probably accessed LAPD records to obtain where she lived.
00:33:30.740 Later, Lazarus' own attorney takes her back to the morning of the murder
00:33:34.360 and asks what her plan was when she left her house.
00:33:38.560 She responds, quote,
00:33:39.700 to murder Sherry Rasmussen.
00:33:42.500 And there it is for the first time, clearly.
00:33:46.560 Beyond the murder confession,
00:33:48.420 Detective Greg Stearns calls out another crime for the board to consider.
00:33:52.260 For the first time today, Ms. Lazarus admitted what we long suspected,
00:33:55.580 that she utilized police databases in order to obtain the address of John and Sherry.
00:34:01.380 That's a felony in the state of California.
00:34:04.440 Parole is denied.
00:34:06.160 She will soon be eligible again.
00:34:09.260 Sherry's sister, Teresa Lane, was in the room that February.
00:34:13.440 She says the pattern is always the same.
00:34:17.020 Every parole hearing we've done with Stephanie,
00:34:21.360 she adds a little more details about the crime.
00:34:25.700 She'll add a little tidbit here and there.
00:34:27.980 She never tells the whole story.
00:34:30.180 So I assume this next parole hearing,
00:34:32.280 she's going to add a little bit more information.
00:34:34.340 The next parole board hearing is almost here. October 9th, 2026. The same prison dialing in
00:34:43.900 on the same video screen. Connie is confident they will be prepared.
00:34:49.660 We have an excellent team. I can say that we are blessed.
00:34:54.720 I asked Connie whether there was something specific in the years since 1986
00:34:59.060 that she wished her sister Sherry had been there for.
00:35:04.340 When mom was critically ill and passed away I would have liked to have would have liked to 0.99
00:35:11.940 have Sherry there in their process and caring for my mom. It was especially as a nurse. Well we're 0.97
00:35:18.580 both nurses but it sometimes it helps to bounce your ideas and the symptoms you're seeing off
00:35:25.660 with someone else and talk it through. There are two people who will not be logging on
00:35:31.620 for the next parole hearing.
00:35:34.340 After the sentencing in 2012,
00:35:36.580 Nels and Loretta Rasmussen sat down in front of a camera
00:35:39.580 and recorded victim impact statements
00:35:42.160 about the loss of their daughter.
00:35:44.680 They did so just in case they were gone
00:35:46.940 by the time Stephanie Lazarus came up for parole, 0.91
00:35:49.880 which turned out to be prescient. 0.70
00:35:52.720 Nels died in the summer of 2020. 0.99
00:35:55.420 Loretta followed in 2022.
00:35:57.360 At the 2023 hearing,
00:36:00.140 the family asks to play those recordings. The video files are too large for the state's system
00:36:07.000 and they will not play in the room. So one of the granddaughters, Rachel Buck, asks to read the
00:36:14.220 transcripts aloud. Rachel tells the commissioner her grandparents would rest better knowing their
00:36:20.020 words had been heard. The commissioner agrees. Greg Stearns finds a copy. Then Rachel reads her
00:36:27.060 grandparents' statements into the record. Here is part of what Sherry's mother, Loretta, recorded in
00:36:32.960 her statement about Sherry. For a hearing she knew she might not attend, Loretta, who loved Sherry so
00:36:39.540 much, was always described as the soft one. Quote, she fought so hard to live and it always worried 0.55
00:36:47.980 me what she must have gone through. I would just like to say to the parole board, I beg you not to
00:36:54.020 let this person out. Sherry's father echoed his wife first about the murder and Stephanie Lazarus.
00:37:01.740 Quote, I've been able to stand up to many problems in life, but this one has put me on the ground
00:37:07.560 because I think of such a senseless killing. The selfishness that took place is just beyond me.
00:37:14.900 He continued, we have grandchildren and great-grandchildren now, and not only do we miss
00:37:20.500 Sherry, but we miss the children that she would bring into this world. And knowing Sherry, she
00:37:26.200 would have been a terrific mother, and her children would have been tremendous kids.
00:37:31.320 John Rutten remarried and stayed in California. He now has two sons and a granddaughter.
00:37:38.440 Teresa Lane tells me that the trial for her sister Sherry's murder reached John's second
00:37:43.620 family, too. He's told me this many times that the trial came about when his sons were in high
00:37:49.620 school you know it was very publicized and also they realized their dad cheated on his wife they
00:37:57.440 have a good life but you know it affects them as much as it affects us daily Teresa has remained
00:38:04.500 friends with John Rutten Connie has not but Connie is careful to say this John has been very strong
00:38:12.360 advocate and it has really showed up for Sherry in regards to the parole hearing so I appreciate
00:38:18.340 that. I asked Connie what she really thinks led to her sister's murder. Do you think this was
00:38:25.740 a fatal attraction where she was just obsessed with John and could not have him be married to
00:38:33.300 another woman, Connie? Yes, I do. Her perception of the relationship and then how John describes
00:38:40.340 their relationship is very different. He considers her an acquaintance where she considers him his
00:38:48.140 her boyfriend. So I think she had in her mind what she wanted and she was going to get it no
00:38:58.020 matter what. Sherry never got to have the children she so badly wanted. Stephanie Lazarus made sure 1.00
00:39:04.740 of that. But Sherry's own family never stopped loving or fighting for her. When she went off
00:39:11.580 to California, Nels wrote to her, quote, we all need a friend from time to time to talk to.
00:39:16.920 I hope I will always qualify. He modeled the importance of a family first life,
00:39:23.720 showing his children how to never lose touch and never give up. Now Connie and Teresa appear
00:39:30.620 at every parole board hearing and do media around them to keep the pressure on officials
00:39:35.880 not to release their sister's killer. When I asked them one last question about Sherry,
00:39:42.820 the sisters who lived with learned from and loved her so much told me this i don't know if you're
00:39:51.500 religious people if you believe in heaven a god but i wonder if you do what do you think sherry's
00:39:59.940 going to say to you when you see her again well i think she's going to be proud of us for fighting
00:40:06.180 for her and she's going to be really excited to see us now hopefully we're not as old as we are
00:40:12.780 right now when we see her but yeah not too soon i think she'd be so grateful to both of you you've
00:40:18.840 been just true warriors every sister should be so lucky as to have two sisters like you
00:40:23.240 thank you for telling her story and yours thank you i'm megan kelly this is mk confidential