Thursday, October 31, 2019

Stephanie Lazarus Case - HLN ORIGINALS, New Episode 11/3/19

Sherri Rasmussen & John Ruetten, 11/23/1985

New Show on Sherri Rasmussen Murder
New show airing on HLN Originals, November 3, 2019 at 8pm ET. As part of HLN's series DEAD WIVES CLUB, a new episode will air this Sunday on the murder of newlywed Sherri Rasmussen, murdered by Stephanie Lazarus, a trial I covered from gavel to gavel.

Journalist Matthew McGough, author of TheLazarusfiles.com, former news anchor, writer and producer Pat LaLama and I were interviewed for the episode.

Complete T&T Lazarus trial coverage.

Stephanie Lazarus, Arrested June 2009


3 comments:

bettyschaeffer said...


I doubt you will publish my comment, but I wanted to write it nevertheless.



It's very telling: jealous women kill their "rival", but men kills their ex-partner.


John Ruetten is as much to blame for Sherri's murder as Stephanie Lazarus. He was two-timing both women and never revealed to Sherri that he had a psycho ex.

Sherri's father Nels Rasmussen passed away last month (June 20). I don't know how he and the rest of Sherri's family coped all these many years after her brutal murder.

Sherri by all accounts sounds like the most wonderful person.

I had a boyfriend for almost five years whom I never suspected was seeing other women. It turns out he was on and off with his disturbed ex-girlfriend the whole time I was with him.

He later told me that she had asked to see pictures of me.

I lived with him for one year in L.A., and one day when he was away, she came knocking on our apt. door. I looked through the spy hole and recognized her from old vacation photos in a photo album of his. I wisely did not open the door, and soon thereafter I moved out after finding out he had been seeing her on and off.

I moved out of his apt. in L.A. in May 2009, and when I read about the arrest of Lazarus that same year I felt like had I not made that decision, I might have ended up like Sherri.

Lazarus is one of the most cunning, evil women to ever walk the earth. And John is one of most spineless men who ever lived.

He was attracted to assertive, independent, athletic women. What did they see in him beyond the average "Talk Dark Handsome" look?

Lazarus had a poster of singer/actor Bobby Sherman in her room when she was a teenager. She clearly had a preference for a certain look. The book The Hidden Brain" reveals how we often fall for people who bear a resemblance to someone we were attracted to in the past: a teacher, a parent, even a sibling, an actor or singer, a school crush, an ex-partner. Many date and/or marry a person who looks just like their ex.

Lazarus was not an attractive women, and John never considered her GF or wife "material". Sherri was beautiful, and for John she was clearly a trophy.

Sherri would have been 63 years old today. I cannot imagine her still with John Ruetten, with children and grandchildren. I believe they would have split up sooner or later, and she would have married someone who was always going to be there for her, to treasure her. John was the wrong man for her from Day 1. I think Sherri was rushing to get married because her two sisters had already married. It sadly is what was and still is expected. But she had a great career, and was only 29. She could have waited until she found the right man. She could have had any man in the world. She was beautiful on the inside and the outside.

I don't know how John Ruetten sleeps at night. He remarried, had kids, has a career while Sherri has been gone for 34 years.

There is a photo in The Lazarus Files book that I'm finishing up today. A close up black/white crime scene photo of Sherri's left, bruised eyelid, her eyebrow visible. It brought home just how brutal the murder was. It brought tears to my eyes.



Betsy: I doubt you will publish my comment, but I wanted to write it nevertheless.




bettyschaeffer said...

Correction to my previous comment:

I mentioned that the a crime scene photo in the book "The Lazarus Files" shows Sherri's bruised LEFT eyelid.

The photo shows her RIGHT eyelid.

My mistake.

staci said...

I agree w everything you’ve said. I’m listening to the book, the Lazarus files. I think John was continuing to have sex w SL. He sounds like a Narc who only thought of himself...never once does he seem to be aware of ANYONE ELSE’s emotions surrounding ANY situation. He could have prevented all of this...and yet he went on to live a full life. I don’t know how he has EVER slept at night. But then, it’s never seemed to bother him: Anyone else’s emotions. How tragic beyond measure. Makes me so very sad and outraged. Btw? Lazarus sounds like a total lazy asshat as a cop—-it’s disgusting listening to her entries in her diary...never even WORKING when she’s on the job. Her loathing regard for people—her community that she was supposed to serve—is shocking.