Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part III 2/25/1985)

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Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part III, 2/25/1985)

In 1986, Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in her Van Nuys home.

23 years later, in 2009, LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus was arrested for the crime. Lazarus was convicted of first degree murder in 2012, a trial I covered from gavel to gavel.

Early in her LAPD career, Stephanie kept a diary of her daily patrol rounds.

This diary entry is from February 25, 1985, 34 years ago today. 

At the time, Stephanie was a patrol officer assigned to the LAPD’s Hollywood Division. Her partner that day was Wayne Morris.

2245 - 0730
MORRIS
6A67
HWD

FEB 25 1985

In roll call today Ofcr Koon made Sgt so they had a singing telegram for him. It was funny.

I’m driving. First call we get is a attack vict. So we go over to the call (Ridgewood) and this white man greets us. Well I thought this was going to be a good rape. I don’t know why, it’s a crummy neighborhood. We talk to the vict who is hysterical. At first I thought she might be retarded, but she was just upset. She was on the corner of Santa Monica / Wilton waiting for the bus and 2 guys came up behind her, dragged her into their car and took her behind the Sears. ...

We took her for medical treatment. She was so hysterical we didn’t get the full story from her until about 1 1/2 hours later. We found out she wasn’t raped but they did the medical exam. We sat in waiting room (Queen of Angels) and ate sandwiches and cookies and watched TV. Then we took her and her parents home. I wrote the report. We got done about 0400.

Wayne didn’t want to eat, so I lifted weights. Wayne slept in the parking lot (car). Then we went to the taco shop and got something to eat.

Then we got a call at 0615 a poss attack susp. We got to the location and the husband answered the door. He said he didn’t call, but we asked to speak to his wife. She said yes she had called. She had filed a ADW report against him last week. So we arrested him. We booked him for Wife Beating and Wayne wrote the report and I booked. We got done by 0730. Time to go home.

I was supposed to work on 2-26-85, but I really didn’t feel like going to work so I called for a T/O and got it. I was glad. So I have one more night of morning watch.

My friend Matthew McGough's book, The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation, will be released on April 30, 2019. You can pre-order his book on Amazon HERE.

The previous diary entry can be found HERE.
The next diary entry can be found HERE.