In 1993, she made detective, and in 1996 she married a fellow LAPD officer, with whom she later adopted a little girl. Transcript of police interview with Stephanie Lazarus, June 5, 2009, Video: Watch key moments from Lazarus's interrogation. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. By Bryan Lambert, Boston 25 News Staff and Butch Stearns, Boston 25 News April 14, 2023 at 12:20 am EDT. In November 1987, they returned to Los Angeles and held a press conference, at which they renewed their offer of a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Chief Bratton didnt want anybody approaching her when she had a gun or access to a gun, Nuttall explains. The profiles matched, and Laudenberg is now serving a life sentence. She is an actress, known for Dreamers (1999), Triple Threat (2005) and America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988). It was four books when it reached me, four books deep, Nuttall says of the case file. As Stearns and Jaramillo would know, but Lazarus could hardly suspect, the moment she ended the interview and walked out of the room, she would be arrested, regardless of what she had told them. Shortly after their arrival, Muff and Mac Graham arrived on a second sailboat. If a homicide occurs in late December but an arrest is made in January, credit for the clearance is taken in the year of the arrest, not the year of the murder. In October 1998, the FBI launched a DNA database called the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which gave detectives the ability to compare DNA samples collected at crime scenes with the DNA profiles of legions of potential suspects. The cold-case unit initially consisted of seven detectives: three teams of two, with Lambkin at the helm. Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. He said they searched the beaches and found the Grahams's dinghy, an inflatable rubber boat, upside down. By one count, the term DNA was spoken in court 10,000 times during the nine-month trial, in addition to innumerable citations on television and in print. Were giving them this spiel of where we are and how we got here, whats been going on for 23 years, Nuttall recalls. At the Scientific Investigation Division, a DNA profile was quickly developed from the saliva on the straw and compared with the unidentified profile extracted from the bite-mark swab. Her mother fought with her over the plan to flee and flew to Hawaii to convince her daughter not to make the trip with Walker. By Wallace Turner, Special To the New York Times. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Mr. Shoemaker had learned from earlier radio talks of the trouble between the two couples, he testified. Meanwhile, in a freezer in the Los Angeles County coroners office, alongside biological evidence from hundreds of other murders, the swab of the bite mark on Sherri Rasmussens arm lay waiting for forensic scienceand the LAPDs scrutinyto catch up with it. But the box washed ashore and was discovered in 1981 by a South African traveler stopping in Palmyra. Miss Stearns came to Hawaii in the late 1960's. Hes not going to miss this.. He said he could find no sign of the couple and that he had brought their boat back to Honolulu to keep it from being destroyed by the weather. In the end, they decided to stage the interview at Parker Centers Jail Division, located on the floor directly below the Robbery-Homicide Division and the Art Theft Detail. To maintain secrecy, Stearns, Jaramillo, and Nuttall spent the next week working out of a conference room at the D.A.s office. In January, two persons from Natal, South Africa, were taking a break from their voyage by walking on a beach at Palmyra. There was no way anybody was going to sign off on us going into the house with a search warrant in the middle of the night and it maybe ending in tragedy.. While one removed electronics from the wall unit, the other went upstairs and was surprised by Rasmussen. He became Roy Allen and he and Miss Stearns moved to Maui, where she worked in a bar in Lahaina while he rebuilt a decrepit sailboat. They met Curtis Shoemaker, another yachtsman. Back at the squad room, the detectives prepared for two possible outcomes: if Lazaruss DNA matched the sample from the swab, RHD would assume responsibility for the case; if it didnt match, the Rasmussen case would be designated investigation continued and shelved yet again, probably forever. Stephanie Stearns Human Resources Professional Tewksbury, MA. The woman called the police, and the naf whod taken the surrogate blood test promptly fingered the man who had talked him into it, a fellow baker with the improbable name of Colin Pitchfork. She told of her extreme aversion to guns. She said that when Walker brought guns to their home on the island of Hawaii she fought with him over it. Bub went to his lieutenant in the Van Nuys Division and briefed him on the investigation. For years, her parents, Nels and Loretta, did everything possible to keep the case alive. The police were certain that he had killed both girls. At the time, detectives had collected more than 30 fingerprint lifts from the scene, but they had never identified a suspect. The interview was scheduled for early in the workday on Friday, June 5. Nels immediately sought out Mayer, the homicide detective, who informed him that the police were looking for one or more burglars in connection with the killing. The Grahams left Hilo June 24. It was his second homicide of the night. All concernedprosecutors, defense lawyers, forensic scientists, judgeshad to raise their game. He called the Rasmussens and said he was coming back and would need to see them again on Friday morning. About that time, Nels again mentioned the ex-girlfriend to the Van Nuys detectives. Burglars must have entered through the unlocked front door. As a result, in 2005 Lambkins unit was swamped with CODIS-based cold hits: DNA reports implicating suspects previously unknown to detectives. Shards from a broken porcelain vase littered the floor. I am thrilled to have Stephanie as part of my cabinet and look forward to her continued leadership and counsel as we advance a city-wide agenda for Bostons recovery, reopening, and renewal. When she turned to the crime-scene evidence, the items she initially testeda piece of fingernail, a bloodstained towelyielded only the victims profile. Both victims had been raped and strangled, their bodies left beside out-of-the-way footpaths. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The decision, People v. Castro, sent shock waves through the criminal-justice system. The captain of the Van Nuys Division and his commanding officer, the chief of the Valley Bureau, were quickly brought into the loop. Because a burglary murdersomeone is going to have broken into the place, spent some time there. Webstephanie stearns today. Nels replied that he had a doctors appointment. Many people in Honolulu yachting circles recognized the Sea Wind, and after a quiet investigation, the authorities acted. When the dust settled, the squad consisted of Bub and three other detectives: Pete Barba, Marc Martinez, and Jim Nuttall. On April 30, the detectives entered Lazaruss name into the California state gun registry, which returned a list of all the firearms she had ever registered. But the DNA results in front of Butterworth were XX, meaning that the person who bit Sherri Rasmussen was female. But a curious detail caught Butterworths eye. Later, he married and raised a family. She will serve as lead communications strategist and advisor for the Janey administration, guiding a dynamic team of press, digital media, speechwriting, and photography professionals. Moreover, he believed strongly that the LAPD had a moral obligation to do its best to solve cold cases. In court, Robinson cut a respectable figure. He escaped from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in Washington State in July 1979 and is still at large. Murder charges were added only after Mrs. Grahams skeletal remains were found in a metal box on Palmyra in 1981. Eager to win every point, when necessary he shaves the truth. Bugliosi professing his belief in Stearns innocence is duped by his client. Bub, a veteran of RHD, was determined to deliver an ultra-professional case to them. They have also lived in Honomu, HI and Haiku, HI. The jury deliberated 2 1/2 days. The results stunned everyone. Just five years after a potential juror had confidently informed Lisa Kahn that DNA stood for Does Not Apply, it had become a household term. When Mayer learned that one of them had brandished a gun, these unidentified burglars became the focus of his homicide investigation. A housekeeper in the unit next door later said shed heard a scuffle and a scream, but no gunshots. Jeffreyswho would later be knighted for his contributions to forensic sciencerealized almost instantly the potential of the new technology, for which he coined the term genetic fingerprinting. Defense lawyers said Walker was solely responsible for the murder and hid it from Stearns, who testified she thought the Grahams had drowned on a fishing trip, and joined Walker on a search that found the Grahams overturned dinghy but no sign of the couple. Miss Stearns surrendered and was freed on $100,000 bond. I dont know a lot about this stuff, he told Lazarus. The prosecutor in his case was Lisa Kahn, a deputy in the district attorneys Van Nuys officethe same branch that would have handled the Rasmussen murder a few years earlier, had a suspect ever been arrested. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Into the early 1990s, Loretta called the Van Nuys homicide unit regularly to inquire about Sherris case. Webstephanie stearns today Nationally and in San Diego, the trials made headlines. According to Bugliosis book, Dorothy Young of La Mesa is an older sister of Bugliosi. Seven months after Sherri Rasmussens death, half a world away from Los Angeles, DNA was used in a criminal investigation for the first time. Somebody on that list committed this crime., The Van Nuys detectives quickly eliminated three of the five women on their list for having insufficient motive to harm Rasmussen. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2010 -- New details on a Los Angeles cold case that led to the murder arrest of The accused killer of a San Diego woman on a tiny Pacific atoll told a U.S. District Court jury that she never harmed anyone in my life.. Given the sensitivity of the unfolding investigation, Nuttall had to be cautious about tipping his hand. Walker was convicted in 1985. Chief Bratton wanted the Rasmussen family informed of the arrest in person as soon as it happened, so they didnt hear about it through the media. New evidence has led to a murder charge against her. When confronted, Pitchfork confessed to the killings, and DNA analysis later confirmed that he had raped both girls. Now, using the new fingerprint and ballistics databases that had come online, Lambkin found he was able to clear some old homicides fairly easily. Another defendant is named in the indictment, Buck Duane Walker, 44, but he will not stand trial with Miss Stearns. On September 19, DNA analysis was requested on evidence from the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen. Laboratories became more careful with evidence; trial courts grew more familiar with DNA; and higher courts affirmed its admissibility as a matter of law. They had subsisted by eating birds' eggs and by borrowing as much food as they could from any other boats that came to the atoll. - Kindle edition by Bucy, Tom. Her attirerobe, T-shirt, and pantiessuggested she had not been expecting visitors. Time and again she is exposed as a liar and a perjurer, yet the jury forgives lie after lie all the while ignoring the honest and forthright testimony of the Pollocks (The LEONARDS in ATSWT.) Other yachtsmen testified that there were bad feelings between the Grahams and the other couple. In 1993, the Rasmussens traveled to Van Nuys for a face-to-face meeting with one of the detectives who had inherited the case when Lyle Mayer retired. Seven months later, in September, the unit cleared four cases at once when it arrested its first serial killer, Adolph Laudenberg. How to support my channel:Artwork on Opensea link: https://opensea.io/collection/astoldbytheolyn-collectionArtwork on Etsy A warrant could have forced their suspect to give them a sample, but they werent sure they had enough evidence to get one. The LAPD had collected semen at both crime scenes, and Kahn received permission to submit the evidence to a private lab for DNA analysis, which confirmed that Wildss DNA profile matched that of the rapist. Since her arrest, Lazarus has steadfastly maintained her innocence. Mr. Walker and Miss Stearns had been trying to plant seeds, but most were eaten by sand crabs. Forensic scientists and legal historians refer to the late 1980s and early 90s as the height of the DNA wars. As DNA evidence was accepted state by state, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, defense attorneys were initially helpless against the highly credentialed scientific experts called by prosecutors to testify. On the night of Aug. 28, 1974, a Wednesday, the last radio conversation was held between Mr. Graham at Palmyra and Mr. Shoemaker on Hawaii. A woman who worked at a bakery in Leicester had been gossiping with co-workers at a pub when one mentioned that he had agreed to take the blood test on someone elses behalf. Police asked Jeffreys to develop DNA profiles from the suspects blood sample and from semen at the two crime scenes. Stephanie is related to Conner Mark Stearns and John T Stearns as well as 3 additional people. At midnight on December 31, when the LAPD closed the books on its 1986 homicide statistics, Sherri Rasmussens murder was indelibly recorded as one of 293 unsolved cases. She was located living in Northern California, and Bub made arrangements with local law enforcement to surreptitiously collect a DNA sample from her. Unfortunately, because of Enoki's refusal to allow Bugliosi's tidal data into the trial, the jury was deprived of this information. WebStephanie Stearns was convicted, after a jury trial, on two counts of theft of personal property within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, violations of 18 U.S.C. In 1963, Robinson had been an 18-year-old Navy recruit stationed in San Diego. That left them with only two suspects: Lazarus and one other woman, a fellow nurse who, according to the original case notes, had occasionally argued with Sherri at the hospital. A careful reading of FINAL ARGUMENT answers these, and many more questions that should have been asked, but were not. But police hoped that the list of those who declined to participate would provide new leads. The night before, and all through the morning, he went over in his head exactly what he was going to say to them: The hardest part was, I thought, Man, Nels is going to undress this. By 1994, the DNA wars were basically over, as a singular case would affirm. When the boy was arrested and interrogated, he offered a rambling half-confession to the more recent murder, alternately describing his acts in great detail and then, moments later, denying hed done anything wrong. They have also lived in Santa Clara, CA and San Jose, CA. Mr. Walker did not appear for his sentencing. Few people could have predicted in early 1986 that the science of police work was about to take an epochal leap forward. A murder trial scheduled to begin in Federal Court here this fall will center on the disappearance of a San Diego couple who were swept up in the romance of cruising under sail in the South Pacific. It was useful for investigative purposes, but too imprecise to serve as a smoking gun. She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. Page by page, for months, the detectives combed the old homicide summary books. Stephanie Garrett-Stearns named Chief Communications Officer Garrett-Stearns will serve as lead communications strategist and advisor for the Janey When Lazarus arrived in the interrogation room, Stearns and Jaramillo abandoned the story of a suspect talking about stolen art, and explained that her name had come up in a case involving an ex-boyfriend of hers, John Ruetten. In 1988, Nels wrote a letter to thenChief of Police Daryl Gates requesting his intervention in the case, specifically looking into the possibility that an ex-girlfriend of Ruettens who was a police officer might have been involved. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. When one couple emerges months later, the FBI will spend years Her new trial, which was to have begun June 9, has been delayed until October. The food supply never went below a seven-day supply, she said. They failed to report the couples disappearance to authorities and at one point Walker told friends he won the boat in a chess match with an eccentric millionaire. In the past, Stephanie has also been known as Stephanie L Beshears, Stephanie Stearns, Stephanle L Get help and learn more about the design. Everything I knew about Stephanie, she was sharp, Nuttall says. From the interrogation room, Lazarus was taken to Lynwood, the Los Angeles County jail facility for female prisoners, where she has been held ever since on $10 million bail. The police said they found him using another alias in a hotel on the north edge of Hawaii Island. It was a burglary gone awry. The separate murder trials were transferred to San Francisco because of publicity in Hawaii. He is now trying to locate Muff's family and return her remains to them. See the article in its original context from. It includes substantial portions of the original trial testimony that were excluded in ATSWT. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelors degree in human resources management from Michigan State University., Janeys appointment of Garrett-Stearns is her latest move to build one of the most diverse cabinets in the Citys history. Buck received 10 years for the theft Lambkin, by comparison, had been working with biological evidence for years, and was already convinced of DNAs potential. The two detectives who were ultimately chosen, Greg Stearns and Dan Jaramillo, were selected in part because they did not know Lazarus well, and had no bias for or against her. A credenza drawer had been yanked out and its contents, mostly documents, dumped on the floor. One corollary of this quirk is that a division can raise its current-year clearance rate by solving old cases as well as fresh ones. There was a hole in the temple of the skull. But the suspects remained elusive, and months passed without further leads. At the time, Lazarus was a 26-year-old patrol officer in her third year with the LAPD. Of course it was O.J.s DNA: it had been planted at the scene! Examining the scene, the lead homicide detective, Lyle Mayer, began to piece together what he thought had taken place. Beside that it is full of useless repetitions and after a while that was a real pain in the ass. The first criminal suspect ever subjected to forensic DNA testing was thus exonerated by it. The whole family was waiting inside. We were teetering, Bub recalls. The plan was for the RHD detectives to request Lazaruss help interviewing a jailed suspect who claimed to have information on an art-theft case.