Sherri Rasmussen 1986: A Bite-Mark Swab Waited 19 Years in a Coroner's Freezer

Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old nurse, was killed in Van Nuys, California, in 1986. Her killer was caught 23 years later, when DNA from a bite-mark swab kept in a coroner's freezer matched a cup and straw thrown away by LAPD veteran Stephanie Lazarus, her husband's ex-girlfriend. The 1986 detectives called it a burglary, even though the stereo was left stacked by the door and there was no sign of forced entry. A criminalist swabbed a bite mark on Sherri's arm with distilled water and cotton, and by the coroner's log nobody touched the tube for 19 years. In 2005, a lab found the bite came from a woman. In 2009, a surveillance team picked up a cup and straw Lazarus tossed outside a Costco. A jury convicted her of first-degree murder in 2012, and she was sentenced to 27 years to life. In October 2026, after admitting the killing, she was denied parole again. In this video: • Why did the first detectives treat the killing as a burglary, and who disagreed? • How did a swab kept in a coroner's freezer since 1986 reveal a woman's DNA? • How did a cup and straw outside a Costco lead to one of the LAPD's own? • What did the jury, the appeals court and the parole board decide? 📌 Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:33 Who Sherri Was 3:06 A Young Engineer, and a Woman From His Past 5:03 The Last Day 6:31 Distilled Water and Cotton Swabs 7:59 Two Men in a Sketch 9:32 The Freezer 11:10 A Woman Had Been in That Room 13:03 Five Women 14:39 One of Their Own 16:20 An Art Theft Case 18:02 A Bite, a Bullet, a Gun Barrel 20:00 Fluff and Filler 21:58 23 Years: The Delay 23:47 Truly and Immensely Sorry 25:40 The Best Wife Anybody Could Have Do you know another case where evidence saved in the 1980s waited decades for science to catch up? Tell us which one in the comments. Subscribe to Cold to Court for more murders solved decades later, told from the court record. #ColdCase #TrueCrime #ColdToCourt 📰 Sources • CBS News (48 Hours Mystery: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours... • Oxygen / NBCUniversal (Jill Sederstrom: https://oxygen.com/dateline-unforgett... • Los Angeles Times (via AOL): https://www.aol.com/news/took-lapd-23... • California Court of Appeal: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-... • Associated Press (republished by Law Officer): https://www.lawofficer.com/shocking-p... • Associated Press (Portland Press Herald): https://www.pressherald.com/?p=317504 • ABC7 Los Angeles (KABC): https://abc7.com/archive/8657803/ • Associated Press (via Fox News): https://www.foxnews.com/us/ex-lapd-de... 📷 Image credits CC BY and CC BY-SA photographs from Wikimedia Commons, by licence: author and number of each work (its page: commons.wikimedia.org/?curid= + number): CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0): Chris Yarzab 37296629; Eden, Janine and Jim 108801994; Eric Garcetti 37147323; IAEA Imagebank 89992893 89992900; Jason Lawrence 175396809; Joseph Elsbernd 16880107 16880046; Patrick Feller 113182083 113181991 67337194 113181939 113182410; Rennett Stowe 26302619; Steven Straiton 49609337 CC BY 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0): K. Aken, CSIRO 35439860; Sandstein 5111235; Tedder 15154336 15154338 15154339 15154340 CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0): AramilFeraxa 148292614; Coolcaesar 172792345; Don Ramey Logan 41704310; Los Angeles Times 122273938 122273532; Mundanemetal 182589946; R. L. Oliver, Los Angeles Times 129026268 CC BY-SA 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0): La Citta Vita 29402200; Neon Tommy 89346443; Tomás Del Coro 58069550; Tony Webster 61599292 CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0): Andre m 31832691; Cbl62 17962550 4639027; Clotee Pridgen Alloc… 57637732; Daniel Mayer 7381663; Downtowngal 19149233 32975648; MaxVT 6841230; Mnolf 1131449; Visitor7 32734650 32734254 CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0): Busition 129246734; Clyde Charles Brown 148119653; Coolcaesar 36070028; Daniel L. Lu 69819321; Don Ramey Logan 131381967; Erin Asadourian 84200975; Levi Clancy 63693798; RobotGoggles 160225273 Public domain or CC0 archive: Wikimedia Commons. Stock: Pexels. Stock: Pixabay. Music: YouTube Audio Library. Thumbnail photo: Tedder · CC BY 3.0 · commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=15154336