Sherri Rasmussen

Woman shot dead on February 24, 1986.

The murder suspect is retired LAPD officer Stephanie Ilene Lazarus.

Sherri Rae Rasmussen, a 29-year-old Glendale Adventist Medical Center nursing supervisor, was shot three times on Feb. 24, 1986, in the Balboa Boulevard condominium she shared with her husband. Rasmussen had married John Ruetten, Lazarus’s one-time love interest, three months before her death.

Lazarus was convicted of the murder in 2012 and is serving a sentence of 27 years to life for first-degree murder at the California Institution for Women in Corona.

Sherri Rasmussen was a graduate of Loma Linda University who was on a fast career track in critical care nursing. She entered college at 16, and by her late 20s was the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, giving presentations and teaching classes for fellow nurses.

Rasmussen was six feet tall, had a large frame, and was in good physical shape. She fought off her attacker ferociously.