Latest / True Crime California / TCC #15 Sherri Rasmussen

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TCC #15 Sherri Rasmussen · True Crime California

0:04
Speaker 1: Dark cast Network. Out of the shadows come the best
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Speaker 2: We are Castles and Cryptids, where the Castles are haunted
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and the Cryptids are cryptic as fuck. We're a couple
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of Canadian chicks who are fascinated by freaky shit. So
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join us as we fall down numerous rabbit holes, numerous,
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so very many rabbit.
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Speaker 1: Holes, fortune telling.
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Speaker 2: We talk true crime, cryptids, haunted af stuff, and much
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much more. There are definitely some movie tangents in there too,
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because we love our horror movie chat.
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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to True Crime California. I'm your host, Cindy,
0:52
and I'm glad you're here. Hey guys, I'm back this time,
1:08
only one week between as promised, and coming back with
1:11
one of my favorite cases, one of my favorite California cases.
1:16
I don't want to get too political, but I'm gonna
1:18
say right now that I love it when certain people
1:20
get their just desserts as it said. Man, I'm getting
1:24
old saying shit like just desserts, Like what is going on?
1:27
When you hit your forties, you just become kind of
1:31
a dork, Like there's nothing, there's nothing glamorous about it.
1:36
You get wrinkly, you get tired, and you start saying
1:39
shit that you would have laughed at twenty years earlier,
1:42
ten years earlier, I would have made fun of myself
1:44
five years ago. Probably. I mean, I'm making fun of
1:46
myself right now, but I still do that shit, so
1:49
I don't know. It's kind of messed up anyway. Thanks
1:52
everybody for tuning in again. I try not to do
1:55
too much personal stuff here. I just try to get
1:59
into the cases because I think, I think that's really
2:00
what people want, and I want to give the people
2:02
what they want. So I'm just gonna give you a
2:06
case and hopefully everybody likes it. It's one I love.
2:11
I'm gonna do the case of the murder of Sherry
2:14
ras Mussin, and it's not ras Mussen, which I thought forever,
2:17
but I finally listen to some interviews with like the
2:21
family and it's ras Mussin, which is actually really cute.
2:24
So I'm gonna just jump into this case. Obviously takes
2:27
place in California and specifically in Los Angeles, so let's
2:30
just dive in on this guy, all right. So this
2:33
takes place in LA in nineteen eighty six. This actually
2:36
takes place pretty close to where I live. So this
2:38
takes place in Van Eyes, which is just outside of Burbank.
2:42
It's basically Burbank, North Hollywood and then Van Eyes, so
2:45
I can drive to Van Eyes in about five minutes,
2:48
so very very close to me, and some of the places,
2:50
like where she works, are all familiar to me, which
2:52
you guys know, I love. That's why I'm doing a
2:54
California true crime podcast because I love knowing the areas
2:58
I'm talking him. That was kind of fun. So anyway,
3:01
we're gonna talk about our victim, Sherri ras Mussen. She
3:05
was born February nineteen fifty seven in Walla Walla, Washington,
3:09
and was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. She and her family
3:13
were all Seventh Day Adventists, and after graduating from a
3:17
Seventh Day Adventist high school, Sherry went to a Seventh
3:20
Day Adventist college in Loma Linda, which is out here
3:24
in California, about an hour and a half east of
3:27
Los Angeles. So this is not super far from Arizona
3:30
by any means, but she definitely, you know, left the
3:33
nest a little bit. That being said, the Seventh Day
3:37
Adventists have the second largest education system in the country
3:40
after just like I guess, straight Christian schools. So she
3:45
made the move more based on a school that met
3:48
with her faith. But I believe she attempted to stay
3:52
at least fairly close to her family, So I think
3:54
that was sort of what predicated the move was it
3:57
was a school she wanted to go to, it fit
4:00
with her faith, and it was still fairly close to home.
4:04
Cherry went to school for nursing, and after graduating, she
4:07
moved to Los Angeles and worked for UCLA. She also
4:11
got her masters during this time, her master's in nursing.
4:15
She was an amazing woman, super smart and extremely hard working,
4:19
like she skipped grades when she was younger. She was
4:22
just a brilliant mind. And by her mid to late twenties,
4:27
she was not only the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist,
4:30
which I've gone to many times, but she also gave
4:34
lectures and taught classes to nursing students. So she's not
4:38
even thirty years old, and she's just like a force
4:42
of a woman, very very impressive person. Now, around nineteen
4:49
eighty four, Sheery met a man named John Rutten at
4:53
a Roaring twenties party. The two hit it off immediately
4:57
and began dating, with things turning serious very quickly. Within
5:02
a year of meeting, the two were engaged and married
5:05
in November nineteen eighty five. Prior to this, Sherry's dad, Nells,
5:10
had bought her a condo in Van Eyes, though Sherry
5:13
paid him the cost of the mortgage monthly. So I
5:15
think it was the type of thing where he basically
5:17
put the down payment down for her because she didn't
5:19
have it, and then she just made the payments because again,
5:23
she's very hard working. She's not going to take a
5:25
free ride. She's earning everything that she has. So I
5:29
thought that was cool that he did that for her,
5:31
And I also thought it was cool that everything I
5:33
read made a point to say no, she was paying
5:35
for it, like he had the down payment. She's young,
5:37
she doesn't have much savings, but she's very responsible, you know,
5:40
and paying now. Once married, John moved in with Sherry.
5:44
This condo was small but nice, and it had an
5:47
attached garage. The couple actually almost exclusively entered through the garage,
5:52
not the front door, which was typically locked. This is
5:55
important for later. The couple seemed really happy together. They
5:59
had big plans for the future. Cherry was excited and
6:03
looking forward to being an aunt, as her sister had
6:05
just had a daughter and you know, also possibly having
6:08
children of her own one day. Very unfortunately, this was
6:13
not to be, as on February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty six,
6:17
tragedy struck. John had gone to work for the day,
6:22
arriving around nine thirty am. Cherry was also scheduled for
6:27
work and was supposed to give a motivational speech, but
6:30
she found this to kind of be a waste of time,
6:33
so she decided she might call in sick that day. Now,
6:35
she hadn't said for sure, but she was thinking about
6:39
it because she didn't feel that the motivational speeches she
6:42
was asked to give had the effect that her employers
6:45
wanted them to have. Cherry had actually hurt her back
6:49
working out the day before, and she found this was
6:51
the perfect excuse to call in. Now, it's not clear
6:55
if John knew for sure if she was calling in,
6:57
but it was definitely discussed before he left for work,
7:01
and about an hour after arriving at work, John received
7:03
a call from his neighbor saying his garage door was open,
7:07
which wasn't normal. This neighbor also said that Sherry's car
7:11
was gone, so perhaps she had just forgot to close it.
7:14
But this worried John a little bit because this wasn't
7:16
normal for Sherry, because she was a very conscientious person,
7:19
which I think I have communicated pretty well. John wasn't panicked,
7:26
you know, he didn't really try her at work. He
7:28
didn't call her at work. He probably thought it was
7:30
a mistake, but he did call the house several times
7:33
and never got through. Her sister also called at one
7:36
point and didn't get through, and John later said that
7:39
he wasn't getting the answering machine, but her sister said
7:42
that she did get the answering machine, So I don't
7:44
really know. They were all feeling like something was a
7:47
little off, and John was definitely worried enough to call
7:50
several times. However, he was not worried enough to come
7:53
home during the workday, and after getting off work at
7:56
six pm, he did come straight home because he was like,
8:00
you know, I'm not gonna mess around. I'm gonna go
8:02
see what's going on. Very unfortunately, he was met with
8:05
a horrible scene. John went inside to find Sherry dead
8:10
on the floor in the living room, and the house
8:13
an absolute mess. There was blood everywhere, including on the
8:18
robe and underwear Sherry was wearing, so she wasn't even
8:21
dressed when whatever took place happened. There were three bullet
8:25
holes in Sherry's body, including one in her chest, as
8:28
well as injuries to her face and evidence that she
8:31
had been hit over the head with something heavy and hard.
8:35
Her sliding glass door had bullet holes in it as well,
8:38
showing bullets entering low and high, which meant there was
8:41
likely a struggle before Sherry was killed. On further investigation,
8:45
it was found she also had two broken fingernails. Next
8:50
to her body was a broken ceramic vase, likely used
8:53
to incapacitate her. It had blood on it, which was
8:56
later confirmed to be Sherry's. Despite her being shot three times,
9:01
there were no shell casings on site anywhere. Police later
9:05
thought this meant a revolver was used in the murder,
9:08
which is significant, but as always, we will get there.
9:13
Beyond the obvious struggle, there were signs of a botched robbery,
9:16
including stereo components on the floor and a drawer pulled
9:20
out with papers strewn everywhere. Because of this, at first,
9:25
and actually for most of the time, this case went on.
9:28
Police believed this was a robbery gone wrong, as the
9:31
signs mostly pointed that way. However, there were a few
9:34
concerning signs, including no sign of forced entry, and one
9:40
thing I haven't mentioned yet was that, in addition to
9:43
all the other injuries on Sherry's body, there was a
9:46
very prevalent bite mark on her forearm. This bite was
9:52
swollen and bloody and showed the outline of teeth as well. This,
9:58
along with the lack of forced entry, made police wonder
10:00
if the attack was more personal than originally thought. Sherry's
10:07
family was informed of the murder and they were just
10:10
beyond ruined. Her sisters were both destroyed. Her younger sister
10:15
said Sherry was the anchor of the home, while her
10:18
older sister remembered her as loving, steady, caring, and just
10:22
generally wonderful. The family was just beyond upset, and they
10:29
were her biggest champions throughout this entire case. I do
10:33
have to say this case was cold for like twenty
10:37
three years. It is solved. I'm not going to do
10:39
you guys dirty with two unsolved cases in a row,
10:43
but this one was unsolved for a number of years,
10:46
and her family kept pushing, kept pushing, kept advocating, and
10:51
I think they had a lot to do with this
10:52
finally being resolved. Police were sure to follow up on
10:57
the robbery lead, and in fact there had been a
10:59
recent violent robbery nearby that had similar details, but in
11:03
the end that lead didn't end up really going anywhere.
11:06
They looked into the men that they thought had you know,
11:08
perpetrated the robberies, but it didn't really go anywhere. Police
11:14
actually really pushed on this. They thought they had something
11:17
when they found Sherry's car abandoned a few miles away
11:20
in an area where people known to commit robberies kind
11:24
of lived, like in a rough area of Van Eys,
11:26
which these rough areas still exist out there today. When
11:29
they found the car, which again, like I said, had
11:32
been missing, it had bloody fingerprints in it that didn't
11:35
match either Sherry or John. But all suspects in the
11:38
case were ruled out as their fingerprints didn't match either.
11:42
So the men that they thought had perpetrated the other
11:45
robbery were tested against these fingerprints and they didn't match.
11:49
Police obviously also looked very carefully at John because it's always,
11:53
you know, the spouse, and they found some troubling things now. First,
11:58
the couple had only been married for three months, and
12:01
we're already having money problems as John was a really
12:04
big spender. Sherry, ever steady and reliable, was definitely not
12:09
this way, which you can imagine created some problems between
12:13
the two beyond even the stress of John spending all
12:16
the money. John was also, of course the last person
12:20
to see Sherry alive, as well as the first person
12:23
to see her dead. Those are not good things for
12:26
a suspect. That makes you look pretty pretty guilty or
12:30
not guilty, but you know, it makes you a pretty
12:32
solid suspect. That being said, police checked his alibi of
12:36
being at work and it was solid. He had multiple
12:39
co workers who saw him at work all points throughout
12:43
the day. There's no way he could have left, so
12:46
it was basically like it couldn't have been him. Police
12:49
at first believe the murder happened within a ten hour window,
12:53
so definitely while John was gone. And then this was
12:56
further narrowed by neighbors giving a timeline of the murder.
12:59
Not intention like they didn't see the murder, but basically
13:02
they said, you know, the garage was opened and Sherry's
13:04
car was missing by nine thirty am, meaning she was
13:08
probably killed between eight thirty and nine thirty, just after
13:13
John left for work. Police of course also interviewed Cherry's family,
13:17
including her parents, and her father actually brought something up
13:22
that was kind of interesting. He said that one of
13:25
John's former girlfriends had been causing problems for Sherry, but
13:28
that they didn't know her name, so police now have
13:33
something of a lead with this. The family said that
13:36
this ex had come by Sherry's work at one point,
13:40
and that Sherry had mentioned her more than once as
13:42
being a problem or even possibly stalking her, although Sherry
13:46
said she didn't have any proof of this. Police of
13:49
course took this information to John and he said that
13:52
while he had a girlfriend from like many years back,
13:55
there was nobody that he dated very seriously or anybody
13:58
who would do anything like that or had been around
14:01
hardly at all in the past years. Because of this,
14:04
police chalked it up to the family being upset and
14:07
overthinking minor things, and because John didn't really give them
14:11
any specific names to follow up on, they let this
14:14
go as well. After this, the case went cold, and honestly,
14:21
it was cold for a very long time. Finally, in
14:27
two thousand and one, two police were assigned the case
14:30
as part of a push to solve cold cases in
14:32
La County. At this time, there were over eight thousand
14:37
unsolved cold case murders, which is absolutely insane, But considering
14:42
that nineteen eighty six alone, there were nearly nine hundred
14:45
murders in LA, it makes sense that over the years
14:48
the cases would build up. And the nine hundred murders
14:50
in nineteen eighty six weren't all cold cases by any means,
14:54
but that's a lot of murders, so you could see
14:56
how you could end up with so many. And LA
14:59
was like, you know, there was a lot of crime
15:02
in LA in the eighties the nineties. It finally started
15:05
to sort of turn around in the early two thousands,
15:07
and that's why these guys were given the case because
15:10
they were like, we finally have a little bit of
15:11
breathing room to start looking at things again. And these
15:15
two investigators started looking at the case, but unfortunately got
15:19
pulled off of it before they could do much with it. Now,
15:22
this was because of the Grim Sleeper serial killer, who
15:25
was very active at that time in La. In the
15:28
early two thousands, all hands were on deck to catch
15:31
this guy, but as a note, he wasn't caught until
15:34
twenty ten. We'll definitely cover him at some point, but
15:37
I thought it was interesting that the serial killer specifically
15:41
played a part in why this case took so long
15:44
to crack. Anyway, before they were pulled from the case,
15:48
these two investigators were able to make some really big headway. Now,
15:52
as we all know, DNA wasn't a thing in nineteen
15:54
eighty six, but it certainly was in two thousand and one.
15:58
And as I've noted, there was a bite on Sherry's arm. Now,
16:03
even back in nineteen eighty six, forensic scientists had the
16:08
presence of mind to take a swab from the bite,
16:12
and that swab collected saliva. That swab, in two thousand
16:16
and one was put through the system, and it came
16:19
back with some very interesting information. The saliva from that
16:24
bite belonged to a woman. This, of course, was a
16:32
big left turn for investigators who were obviously expecting male DNA,
16:37
either John's or a burglar's, but definitely not a woman.
16:41
And unfortunately, the woman seemed to have no criminal record,
16:44
so police were unable to make a match of any kind. Still,
16:49
this was very interesting and important information, and I will
16:53
say right now that it proved Sherry's father Nells, to
16:57
be correct. As I had mentioned previously, he had been
17:01
saying for a long time that the killer was probably
17:04
a woman, and specifically probably an ex girlfriend of John's.
17:09
His reasoning for this was sound, which is what makes
17:11
it so frustrating that he wasn't listened to. Even though
17:14
police did sort of consider it, they didn't really ever
17:18
take him seriously. And I guess that's probably because John
17:22
didn't take it seriously. But I feel like men can
17:24
be really oblivious, and John really seems like that kind
17:28
of guy. Now, one thing that Nel's pointed out that
17:31
made a lot of sense was that whoever shot Sherry
17:33
in the chest had actually placed a quilt against her
17:37
first to muffle the sound of the shot. This means
17:40
that the murder was deliberate and not just the result
17:43
of a struggle. So while there were a couple of
17:45
bullet holes in her sliding glass door behind her, the
17:49
one to her chest was after she was already incapacitated
17:53
laying on the ground, and it was a very deliberate
17:57
and close contact shot. It was basically like the quilt
18:01
was the only thing between the gun and Sherry's body,
18:05
so that is extremely personal and definitely not just a
18:09
result of an accidental robbery. Unfortunately, as we know, the
18:16
family was shined on for a number of years, and
18:18
even after this DNA evidence was found to support their theory,
18:22
the case was shelved again because police had too many
18:26
current murders to investigate. Fast forward about seven years to
18:32
two thousand and eight, and investigators again find the time
18:35
to start digging into cold cases. This is a different
18:38
set of investigators altogether, and not the same ones from
18:41
the eighties, not the same ones from two thousand and one,
18:44
and this set of investigators started looking into Sherry's death
18:48
pretty quickly. They found it very likely was not a robbery,
18:52
which duh. To that point, that had been the prevailing theory.
18:57
I mean, I guess once they knew there was women's DNA,
18:59
maybe they were rethinking it. But again the case got shelved.
19:02
So now finally they're looking at it and they're like, no,
19:05
it wasn't robbery. There's too many things about the murder
19:08
that didn't fit, like the fact that none of the
19:10
bedrooms were ransacked, and bedrooms are typically where people keep
19:13
their valuables. So that's where robbers go. Another thing was
19:17
that the house was in the middle of the neighborhood
19:19
instead of on the Outskirts and robbers rarely hit houses
19:24
that are in the middle because it's too dangerous. And
19:26
once again, as noted before, there was no forced entry. Now,
19:32
one thing that police found out when they were talking
19:34
to John. Remember I said that they usually going through
19:36
their garage and their front door remains locked. The night
19:40
before the murders on February twenty third, John and Sherry
19:43
had friends over and these friends came through the front
19:46
door because that's what they would do. They wouldn't know
19:49
to go through the garage like John and Sherry did.
19:52
As a result, John forgot to lock the front door
19:55
at the end of the night because he wasn't used
19:57
to using it. So there's a very easy way for
20:00
someone to get into the house. Now, be that robbers
20:03
or not, it's still interesting that the night before these
20:07
attacks that door was left unlocked accidentally. Now there were
20:13
other things that sort of pointed away from it. You know, again,
20:16
the gunshot being so close, the kind of the things
20:19
that I talked about, so police are thinking like, yeah,
20:22
this was somebody personal to Sherry and it was a woman.
20:26
So they then start looking into the women in Sherry's life.
20:30
Her sisters and her mother gave DNA. They were ruled out.
20:34
It turned out that around the time she was killed,
20:36
she was having a dispute with someone at work who
20:38
was upset with her for not giving them a promotion,
20:41
so that was looked into. They were excluded as well.
20:44
That was a woman and her boyfriend, and they excluded
20:46
the woman. So now they bring John in again and
20:49
they interview him again and they say, let's go back
20:51
to what the original cops were told by Sherry's family.
20:55
And by the way, Sherry's family had continued this whole time,
20:58
putting out rewards for information and you know, forwarding the
21:01
idea that it was an ex girlfriend, that it was
21:04
somebody who knew Sherry, that it wasn't random. They've been
21:07
advocating for Sherry this entire time. So finally cops go
21:11
to John and they say, okay, let's talk about your
21:13
ex girlfriends Sherry said there was someone harassing her before
21:16
her death, and John's like, yeah, I remember being asked
21:19
about this, but I don't really know who it could be.
21:23
He says, you know, I did have a girl that
21:26
I dated off and on in college. She definitely wasn't
21:29
a girlfriend, but maybe you could talk to her. And
21:32
the cops are like, great, what's her name? He says,
21:34
her name is Stephanie Lazarus, So now we have a name.
21:39
Stephanie was somebody that John dated very casually wall in
21:42
college and for a very short time after as well.
21:45
During this time, John continued to date many other women
21:49
as well, but Stephanie unfortunately fell head over heels, although
21:53
she didn't really make that super clear to him. The
21:57
two of them took trips together out of town, spent
22:00
nights together, but to John it was nothing serious and
22:03
they never put a label on it. And when he
22:05
met Sherry, he basically cut off all romantic contact with
22:08
Stephanie pretty much immediately. He and Stephanie continued to talk
22:13
here and there as friends, and Stephanie never really gave
22:15
any indication that she wasn't okay with that. But I
22:18
think we all know that's kind of something that people
22:21
will do so that they can stay in the life
22:23
of somebody that they're infatuated with or in love with.
22:27
So Stephanie sort of had this front where like she
22:30
was pretending she didn't care. She just wanted to be friends.
22:33
It wasn't a big deal, and this kind of went
22:35
on until just after John and Sherry were engaged. At
22:40
this point, Stephanie came to him and said she wanted
22:42
to sleep with him one last time so that she
22:45
could get closure. She also told him that she loved him.
22:50
John unfortunately agreed to do this, telling her afterwards that
22:54
nothing had changed and that he would be marrying Sherry
22:57
but they could still be friends, which to me, he
23:00
is pretty shitty behavior on his part. He later came
23:03
forward and said he really regretted it, but he just
23:05
didn't know what to do to calm her down, which
23:07
feels like a cop out. While being interviewed, John recounted
23:11
all of this with a very large amount of regret,
23:16
very deep regret, but the damage had already been done.
23:19
It's something that he had done. Shortly after their sexual encounter,
23:23
Stephanie found out where Sherry worked and confronted her, telling
23:27
her everything. Stephanie, of course did this to try to
23:31
break them up, but it didn't work. John came clean
23:35
to Sherry, apologized, and told her it would never happen
23:37
again and that he loved her that you reconciled and
23:41
were married as planned that November. Stephanie continued to come
23:46
around even after this quote unquote as a friend. Now,
23:51
if I were shery, I would have put a very
23:52
quick stop to this, but she was a much nicer
23:55
and more patient person than I will ever be. Unfortunately,
23:59
and I say unfortunately because I think we all know
24:01
where this is going. At one point, Stephanie came by
24:04
their house asking John to wax her skis for her.
24:08
This is not a euphemism, believe it or not. She
24:11
really was going skiing and needed help. But it's like
24:14
go to the rental shop, Like, why do you need
24:16
him to do this for you? It's it's obvious what's
24:18
going on. Cherry was upset and asked John not to
24:22
do this and to return this keys instead, but he
24:25
told her they were just friends. He wanted to help
24:27
her out, and I think he kind of felt bad
24:29
for her, which bro it's time to let it go.
24:32
Cherry was able to convince John to not take the
24:35
waxed skis to Stephanie's apartment because she did not trust
24:38
him to go over there, which is smart but also unfortunate.
24:41
Like what is this relationship, and instead Stephanie had to
24:44
come by the house to pick them up. When she
24:47
did this, she did so in her full uniform, which
24:51
included a gun. Why did her uniform include a gun,
24:55
you ask? Because she was a member of the LAPD. Now,
25:01
one of the things I didn't mention is that during
25:03
their confrontation at Sherry's work, Stephanie had told her quote,
25:06
if I can't have him, nobody can, including you. Because
25:11
Stephanie was a cop, Sherry figured it would be pointless
25:13
to report the threat, instead telling her father and then
25:17
also confronting John. But I don't even know if she
25:19
told John that Stephanie said that, because I feel like
25:22
if she had, then the first time he was asked
25:25
about this, he might have come forward. I feel like
25:28
she almost kept John out of it for some reason.
25:30
But she did confide in her father about what was said,
25:34
and I wanted to call that out because yikes. But yeah,
25:40
I think she just tried to not really tell John
25:42
anything unless Stephanie was like actually hanging out and then
25:46
she would say, you know, don't lax her skis this
25:49
is not cool, But she kept it pretty chill. Now,
25:53
after Sherry's murder. John moved out of the condo as
25:56
he couldn't handle living there emotionally or financially. He moved
26:00
back in with his parents for a time down in
26:02
San Diego, and after a couple of years of this,
26:05
you'll never guess who just happened to come around. John
26:10
and Stephanie began very casually dating again, even going to
26:15
Hawaii together at one point. By nineteen ninety one, things
26:19
had sort of fizzled between the two, and John moved
26:22
back to LA and met his second wife. I want
26:25
to say right now that I'm not a fan of
26:27
this man. I feel like he always gets a pass
26:29
when people talk about this case, but I can't give
26:32
him that. He has to be so like completely oblivious
26:36
and selfish, Like what the hell is going on? He's
26:40
got this beautiful, brilliant, amazing wife and this is the
26:45
way that he acts and then like hooks back up
26:48
with his chick after she's dead, Like it's so disrespectful.
26:50
I can't. I cannot deal with this guy anyway. I
26:53
feel like because his wife died, everybody feels bad for him,
26:57
but I feel like he's a big part of it,
26:59
you know, Like his actions are not without consequences and
27:02
very bad, big consequences for not just him anyway, whatever,
27:09
I just have to get it off my chest because
27:10
I hate how people just give him a pass, like
27:12
everything you read about this, he's like a good guy,
27:15
and I'm like, no, he's fucking noth anyway. Okay, So
27:20
Stephanie's name is brought up to the police and they go, hmmm,
27:23
this makes a lot of sense. First, like I said,
27:26
they knew that the attack was personal and the motive
27:28
is there for sure. Second, Stephanie would know how to
27:31
make the scene look like a robbery because she was
27:33
a cop and she had experience with that. Third, the
27:37
gun used is the same kind that she would have
27:40
carried back then. And you know, there's another piece to
27:44
this which I'll come I'll come to in a second.
27:47
But anyway, just on its face, this is really bad
27:49
for Stephanie here. The police, of course, aren't sure how
27:52
to handle this as by now, she is a high
27:55
ranking detective on the force. She's been there like over
27:58
twenty years, and she's very involved in public relations as well,
28:01
so she's like the cop that goes on TV and
28:03
talks to the reporters. So they didn't want to name
28:06
her until they had proof. So what did they do?
28:09
They did the oldest trick in the brand new DNA book.
28:13
They followed her around until she threw away a soda
28:16
and used that to test her DNA and wouldn't you know,
28:20
it was a match. They then brought her in for
28:23
questioning under the guise of having a suspect for her
28:26
to interview. She worked with like art theft and like
28:30
art like I don't know exactly how to explain it,
28:33
but that's what she worked in. And they said, oh,
28:35
they have a guy who knows something about stolen art.
28:38
Can you come talk to him? And they had her
28:40
do it somewhere in a room where she's not allowed
28:43
to have a gun because they were like, you know,
28:46
she might try to kill herself or us, Like she's murderer,
28:49
she's dangerous, you know. So they start the interview and
28:52
pretty quickly she realizes what's going on. I've watched footage
28:55
from this and it's kind of crazy. She's not an actress.
28:58
I will tell you that. It was so bad, it
29:01
was so obvious. She denies everything, downplays everything, but the
29:05
DNA don't lie. So she was arrested on the spot
29:11
now during the trial, the DNA was the thing that
29:13
got her, but there was also a lot of circumstantial
29:16
evidence as well, including that Stephanie reported her gun missing.
29:21
It was her personal revolver. She said it was stolen
29:24
out of her car with a gym bag about a
29:27
week before the murders, which means this was super premeditated
29:31
because that was absolutely the gun used in the murders.
29:36
They also had a ton of diary entries by Stephanie
29:40
about John, showing she was never over him, was in fact,
29:44
like pretty obsessed with him. Now, when the prosecution gave
29:48
their case, they presented it that she had been stalking her,
29:53
she had been planning this, and they also said that
29:56
when the two women fought in the house, it had
29:59
lasted as much as forty five minutes or more, and
30:02
that the murder was extremely brutal and intentional. And this
30:06
feels obvious. There's the broken vase, there's blood everywhere, there's
30:09
multiple gunshots. Really fucking awful the defense did. I don't
30:14
know what they did. There's DNA, there's so much evidence.
30:17
They didn't have a lot to say, and it took
30:19
the jury only eight hours to come back with a
30:22
guilty verdict. Stephanie was given twenty seven years to life
30:28
in prison, and it took twenty three years after the
30:31
murder took place for her to be arrested. She was
30:34
recently up for parole despite having only sort something like
30:38
twelve years, but she was denied, which I'm really happy
30:41
about because to this day she denies killing Sherry, and
30:45
I think at a minimum, she should have to admit
30:48
what we all fucking know, because if you can't admit
30:51
that when there is like irrefutable evidence, there's something very
30:55
wrong with you, and you're probably dangerous, and you've probably
30:57
learned nothing, and you'd probably do it again. And to
31:00
be honest, it's interesting that she was a cop for
31:02
twenty three years and like didn't have a record or
31:05
anything against her. I would be really interested to see
31:08
what her track record was at the LAPD because the
31:11
LAPED is one of the most crooked police forces in
31:14
the nation, possibly the world, So I'd really be interested
31:18
to see what she got away with during her time there,
31:20
because she's obviously down to get away with whatever she can.
31:25
That's also just candidly, That's why I like this case
31:28
so much, because I really like that she got She's
31:33
a cop that got arrested and charged and had to
31:36
go to jail for murder. And it's like that doesn't
31:38
happen that often, so it's always a good thing when
31:40
it does. So anyway, we'll see what happens, but hopefully
31:44
she remains in prison like everybody else in this state. Like,
31:46
I don't know why she would get out when she
31:49
did a premeditated murder in crazy cold blood after stalking
31:53
someone over a man. I mean, that's the most senseless
31:56
fucking murder ever. It's not a crime of passion or
31:59
in the heat of the moment, you know, cold and calculated.
32:03
Absolutely horrible. But anyway, that is the case. This is
32:07
a little bit of a shorter case, but an interesting
32:10
one and a classic to be sure. This is definitely
32:13
quintessential California true crime and I'm really happy to share
32:18
this story with you all. I'm also really happy to
32:20
be back on a regular schedule. And again, I apologize
32:23
that I took some weeks off things got a little wild,
32:25
but we're back. We're in business. Please like rate review,
32:29
share with your friends and family, make sure to subscribe,
32:32
tune in weekly, and I'll be back next week with
32:35
another California tale. Until then, stay safe,