Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part VII, 4/15/86)

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Stephanie Lazarus In Her Own Words (Part VII, 4/15/1986)

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 April 15, 1986, seven weeks after Sherri's murder.

 At the time, Stephanie was a patrol officer assigned to the LAPD’s Devonshire Division.

DEV
17XL71
0730 - 1615

4-15-86

We played basketball for work out day. I worked by myself. I wrote a ticket at Louise / Prairie. The woman ran the stop sign. Of course she said she stopped. All she could do was argue.

Then I had to go to the Station. I had to take Capt Fried to Marilla and Lasaine for a Earth Quake Drill that was put on by Hal Bernson’s office. This was Earthquake Awareness Week. It was I guess a privilege to drive the Capt around. The earthquake drill was interesting. They used citizens and had them made up with wounds and simulated what a rescue team would do if a real earthquake occurred. I did this from about 0915 to 1100. Then I drove around. I went and bought my dishwasher.

Then I got a call Tampa / 118 FWY. There was a TA. I took all the info and got a traffic car. Party 1 ran a stop light on the offramp and ran into this woman. Party 1 he worked at Rockwell, real nerd, didn’t even know what happened. Then I waited for C-7 to go w/ H---. Well I had to pick up Schuster at the Station. I wasn’t too happy. Dr. Schuster is OK but he likes to butt into the conversation and the work, like he knows it all.

I didn’t do anything for about 1 1/2 after lunch w/ him.

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.