Detectives Solve 20-Year-Old Cold Case Only to Learn the Killer Was Working Right Alongside Them

When Stephanie Lazarus met John Ruetten at a college party in 1978, neither of them could have predicted that their whirlwind affair would end in bloodshed with the LAPD pointing fingers at one of their best detectives 23 years later.

Scene of the Crime

It looked like a burglary gone wrong. The body of a young nurse, Sherri Rasmussen, was lying in the upturned living room. The contents of a credenza had been emptied onto the floor and fragments of a shattered porcelain vase were strewn across every surface. Sherri was discovered by her husband of three months, John Ruetten, after returning home from work…

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The More You Know

  • Tree seeds were taken into orbit and planted as "Moon Trees."
  • Martin Luther King Jr. had a C in public speaking.
  • A single dollar bill costs 5 cents to make.
  • A quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet.
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