Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part V, 3/07/1986

T&T EXCLUSIVE

Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part V, 3/7/1986)

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 March 7, 1986, 33 years ago today. At the time, Stephanie was a patrol officer assigned to the LAPD’s Devonshire Division. Eleven days earlier, Stephanie murdered Sherri.

2330 – 0815 
K--- 
X53

DEV

3-7-86 

K--- drove tonight thank god. I didn’t sleep very much today. I was very tired. In fact all I did all night was to sleep. I couldn’t keep awake if you paid me. So we just drove around. [K---] is very unsafe, but I was so tired.

She made a few traffic stops for Drunks that were so far from being drunk. She also stands real close, and then she explains that she thinks they're border line drunk and to be careful.
 
For Code 7 I slept at the Station.

Then as the Sun was coming up [K---] wanted to get a few tickets. We stopped and sat on stop lights that there was no way anyone was going to run. Then she’d move to another crummy location. I told her no one was going to run these lights. I was really so tired I didn’t really care.

K--- is really bad news as far as tactics and knowing what to do. Very little common sense and until you work with her, one doesn’t really know.

 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.