Both Buck and Stephanie were convicted of stealing the boat and transporting it to Honolulu, Hawaii. The coldest homicide on the LAPDs books was, literally, the first one: the unsolved murder of a man named Simon Christensen in downtown Los Angeles on the night of September 9, 1899. A warrant could have forced their suspect to give them a sample, but they werent sure they had enough evidence to get one. WebStephanie Stearns was born on September 15, 1976 in Houston, Texas, USA. Alas, poor Muff, her bones at the time of publishing, languish in the care of the FBI, forty years after her torture and murder by Stearns and Walker, still not at rest, forlorn and forgotten. starbulletin.com 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. Sherris widower, John Ruetten, was also there. Its been nearly two years of hell, not knowing who did this to Sherri or why, he told the assembled reporters. 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. Of course it was O.J.s DNA: it had been planted at the scene! Stearns In most violent crimes, the suspect comes up XY, or male. At a time when public trust is paramount, our communications team will be a key link between City Hall and the residents of Boston as we work to create a stronger, more equitable city., An alumna of The Partnership, Inc. Next Generation Executive program for professionals of color, Garrett-Stearns also completed the Business Management Institute at Cornell University. After that meeting, Loretta stopping calling. She's working for the telecommunications giant Harris Corporation. Second, they promised one another that they would follow the trail of evidence wherever it led. A careful reading of FINAL ARGUMENT answers these, and many more questions that should have been asked, but were not. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. ATSWT reviewed the supposed facts surrounding the murder of the Grahams on Palmyra, and followed STEPHANIE STEARNS (aka JENNIFER JENKINS) upon her Stearns, 39, is accused of plotting Grahams death and helping Walker carry out the crime in what prosecutors have called a modern-day case of piracy and murder. But how far back could they go, given the inevitable loss and decay of physical evidence? Hes not going to miss this.. Stearns and Walker had sailed to Palmyra aboard a leaky boat and were the only other people on the atoll besides the Grahams at the time of their disappearance in 1974. They met Curtis Shoemaker, another yachtsman. In December 2004, a criminalist named Jennifer Butterworth noticed the unworked request sitting on her colleagues desk and volunteered to handle it. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Just for like five minutes or something, Jaramillo added. 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.) Given the sensitivity of the unfolding investigation, Nuttall had to be cautious about tipping his hand. It was only after Jaramillo asked Lazarus if shed be willing to give them a DNA swab and noted, Its possible we may have some DNA at the location, that she said she wanted to contact a lawyer. Stephanie Lazarus: Yeah, I know she got killed. 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. About that time, Nels again mentioned the ex-girlfriend to the Van Nuys detectives. Im Dan Jaramillo. Transcript of police interview with Stephanie Lazarus, June 5, 2009, Video: Watch key moments from Lazarus's interrogation. The unknown factor was how long she would wait before invoking one or both. By BARBARA GARCIA. Lazarus, considered the least likely suspect, was No. 2314. On June 8, 2009, she was charged with the murder of Sherri Rasmussen. Then something changed, Most of Yosemite Valley is closed due to potentially perilous snowpack and flooding, Column: If not cops or guns, what will it take to make us feel safe? Knowing she was married to someone else, they told her, theyd selected a place where they could speak privately, away from gossiping colleagues. Her mother, Rose King, and sister, Peggy Faulkner, of San Diego, were quoted in media coverage of the murders as having grown up here. PART SIX Curse of Palmyra: Stephanie Stearns on trial for murder Her attirerobe, T-shirt, and pantiessuggested she had not been expecting visitors. Lazarus got only as far as the jails hallway, where she was stopped by other RHD detectives and placed in handcuffs. In her long career, she had never been involved in a use-of-force incident or been accused of any misconduct. Even as forensic technology was taking great leaps forward, the investigation into Sherri Rasmussens murder remained stalled. The detective turned him down. Tuesday, September 4, 2007, 12 a.m. Share this story. The police said they found him using another alias in a hotel on the north edge of Hawaii Island. At a time when public trust is paramount, our communications team will be a key link between City Hall and the residents of Boston as, we work to create a stronger, more equitable city., An alumna of The Partnership, Inc. Next Generation Executive program for professionals of color, Garrett-Stearns also completed the Business Management Institute at Cornell University. Buck received 10 years for the theft Mayer made a note of the ex-girlfriend in the case file but apparently never followed up. The suspects on the squads list were numbered 1 through 5. After Bugliosi argued that Buck Walker had As Joseph Wambaugh, the LAPD detective turned crime writer, recounted masterfully in his 1989 book, The Blooding, an unprecedented force of 200 police officers was assembled to hunt for the murderer. It gave me the ability to be the person I am today, says Stephanie. By Bryan Lambert, Boston 25 News Staff and Butch Stearns, Boston 25 News April 14, 2023 at 12:20 am EDT. The defendant will be Stephanie Stearns, 34 years old, of Simi Valley, Calif., who has served one prison term as a result of what happened seven years ago at Palmyra Island. The assailant had then taken a quilt from across the roompresumably to muffle the guns reportand fired more shots through it, killing Rasmussen. By 1994, the DNA wars were basically over, as a singular case would affirm. The office the unit was givena 250-square-foot former janitorial storage spacewas so cramped that every time someone wanted to leave, others had to pull in their chairs to make room. In the past, Stephanie has also been known as Stephanie L Beshears, Stephanie Stearns, Stephanle L Eleanor Graham was either shot or clubbed, then her body was placed in a metal chest and set afire, according to prosecution experts. New evidence has led to a murder charge against her. In all, Rasmussen had been shot three times in the chest, the bullets piercing her heart, lungs, and spine. I work over here on the other side. He explained that he was working on a case and had a suspect in the jail who was talking about stolen art. Stearns said she would return to work as an office manager in a Los Angeles telecommunications company. The unit gradually came to grips with the magnitude of its caseload. It was four books when it reached me, four books deep, Nuttall says of the case file. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? He drove directly to the coroners office, where an evidence custodian booked the swab of the bite mark on Sherri Rasmussens arm into evidence at 10:32 a.m. on February 25, 1986. I am honored to serve the people of Boston as part of the historic Kim Janey administration, said Garrett-Stearns. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Nicholas Goldberg: Is God on the side of blasphemy laws? I wish Nick the very best in his next chapter., Before joining the Janey administration, Garrett-Stearns (pictured) served as Vice President of Communications and Fund Development for The Community Builders, Inc, where she led communications and fundraising strategy and program execution. In 1963, Robinson had been an 18-year-old Navy recruit stationed in San Diego. I first learned of the Palmyra murders when I saw the TV miniseries based on Vincent Bugliosi's book. Note: I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. He pleaded guilty and 10 other criminal charges were dropped. Use features like bookmarks, It includes substantial portions of the original trial testimony that were excluded in ATSWT. 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. When she turned to the crime-scene evidence, the items she initially testeda piece of fingernail, a bloodstained towelyielded only the victims profile. 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. The police were certain that he had killed both girls. Lambkin excelled at the work, but by 1990, he felt burned out and decided to shift to homicides. Some jurors took notes during her testimony. In 1986, a young nurse named Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in Los Angeles. 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. Both were charged with murdering Eleanor Muff Graham of San Diego, who disappeared along with her husband, Malcolm, from Palmyra atoll in August, 1974. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. A 77-year-old grandfather with a bushy white beard, Laudenberg was suspected of having raped and strangled four women between 1972 and 1975; the media quickly dubbed him the Santa Claus Strangler. The detectives possessed the killers DNA profile, but had no sample from Laudenberg with which they could compare it. But he wasnt the boy whom police had in custody. When he noticed the bite mark on Rasmussens arm, Mahany selected a six-inch swab housed in a tube with a red rubber stopper. The metal box was wired shut and thrown into the lagoon, where it was expected to keep its grisly secret forever. During those 39 years, 23,713 murders took place in Los Angeles. The lock on the drivers-side door had been punched, she said, and a blue gym bag stolen. How to support my channel:Artwork on Opensea link: https://opensea.io/collection/astoldbytheolyn-collectionArtwork on Etsy Where is Stephanie stearns now? - Answers I read the book soon after watching the TV show, and have re-read it a couple of times in the intervening years. 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. Nels mentioned that his daughter had complained one or two months earlier about an ex-girlfriend of her husbands who had shown up at Sherris hospital one day and confronted her. They were convicted on Federal charges of boat theft and transport of stolen goods. WebAs Mayor, Michelle is working in coalition to deliver bold, systemic change and make Boston a city for everyone. Stephanie? he asked. 661, and on one count of transporting stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce, a violation of 18 U.S.C. Still, as the Van Nuys unit continued to dig, other details fell uncomfortably into place. Wondering whether she might still be on the job, the detectives typed her name into the LAPDs directory, and there she was: Detective Stephanie Lazarus. When he was charged with drug sales in 1973, he swore he would never return to the California prison. A credenza drawer had been yanked out and its contents, mostly documents, dumped on the floor. She would bebut only technically. In 1993, Lambkin was working homicide at the Hollywood Division, where he had a front-row seat for the conclusion of perhaps the coldest case ever solved by the LAPD. She was located living in Northern California, and Bub made arrangements with local law enforcement to surreptitiously collect a DNA sample from her. Final Argument: An Inquiry Into the Torture and Murder of Mac and Muff Graham on Palmyra Island Perpetrated by Buck Walker and Stephanie Stearns, and the Subsequent Trial of Stephanie Stearns. These four were the only people continuously at the Palmyra lagoon in July and August 1974, although several other craft came and went. 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. The Rose case made Lambkin eager to see how many other homicides from the citys past might be solved using new technology. Final Argument: An Inquiry into the murders of Mac and Muff The decision, People v. Castro, sent shock waves through the criminal-justice system. She described binges of baking small bon voyage cakes for other boaters as they left the island. It evidently began in the dining room on the second floor of the townhouse, where shots were fired from a .38-caliber pistol, one of which may have hit Rasmussen. In the wake of the successful prosecution, Kahn became responsible for handling any DNA-admissibility hearing that took place in Los Angeles County. Three months later, she was dead. The detectives on the Van Nuys squad made two pacts regarding the Rasmussen case. Another defendant is named in the indictment, Buck Duane Walker, 44, but he will not stand trial with Miss Stearns. Select this result to view Stephanie Marie Stearns's phone number, address, The third, in 1989, was an accused rapist named Henry Wilds. 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. You have to go back to square one.. Thats how it looked, at least, to the Los Angeles police detectives who arrived at a gated condo complex in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on the evening of February 24, 1986. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. I am proud to welcome these experienced and inclusive leaders to Boston City Hall.. 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. To maintain secrecy, Stearns, Jaramillo, and Nuttall spent the next week working out of a conference room at the D.A.s office. SAN FRANCISCO -- The defense today attacked the federal murder case against Stephanie Stearns for a 1974 killing of a San Diego socialite in the remote She is an actress, known for Dreamers (1999), Triple Threat (2005) where is stephanie stearns today Convicted of Stealing Yacht. Not since 1901, when Scotland Yard validated fingerprinting for the purpose of criminal identification, had detectives power to solve crimes been so profoundly transformed. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment April 2. Final Argument: An Inquiry Into the Murders of Mac and The investigation went back to the drawing board in all respects except one: police now had a DNA profile of their killer, who they suspected lived nearby. Miss Stearns came to Hawaii in the late 1960's. he didnt he just doesnt want her in his videos for Cursed Paradise Stephanie Sternes, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Emmett, ID, 83617, (208) 357-9335, I completed my studies in Marriage and Family Counseling at All of which were ignored by the prosecutor, judge, jury and reading public. (Most egregious were her August 5th log remarks about "drooling and dreaming" anticipating possession of the SEA WIND on execution of the Grahams.) How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! Where is Stephanie stearns now? She served seven months in prison and six months in a halfway house. In early February 2009, with the squads most recent homicide cleared, Nuttall and Barba began poking around for an interesting cold case. Reserved. Without the case file, Butterworth had little information regarding theories of the case or possible suspects, and so lacked context for her discovery. We felt it best, if were going to do this and hand the package to RHD, were going to hand it to them with everything done correctly.. Stephanie Stearns But it was certainly unusual. Stearns, who sobbed as she read entries from her 1974 log to the jury about the Grahams disappearance, denied there was any feud. Jurors announced they were deadlocked 6-6 before noon Friday, but were told by U.S. District Judge Samuel King to keep deliberating. Bub recalls, It was one of those gut-wrenching moments when he said, Yes, its a match., The Art Theft Detail where Lazarus worked was on the third floor of Parker Center, just across the hall from the Robbery-Homicide Division squad room. - Kindle edition by Bucy, Tom. But that began to change in 1989, when two lawyers, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, convinced a New York judge that poor laboratory procedures warranted exclusion of DNA evidence that had been introduced against their client. All over the world, newspapers hailed the breakthrough and marveled at the ways DNA forensics might revolutionize detective work. A suspect, Edmond Marr, had been identified at the time but was never prosecuted; confronted with wiretap evidence and a DNA report that linked him to the murder, Marr eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 years to life. Its a very manageable number of murders for three guys to work, Bub says. WebStephanie lied about the scuttling of the Iola until she was confronted with a photograph that showed both the Iola and the Sea Wind outside the channel into the western lagoon of When she arrived at the interrogation roomone equipped with recording equipment to videotape the interviewthey would shift gears and gradually turn to the Rasmussen case. Hearing the shots, the downstairs burglar probably fled, ditching the video components. A week went by before the coroners office could locate the missing evidence. He asked Nels about women who might have wanted to harm Sherri, and Nels recounted what he had told detectives in 1986 about Ruettens cop ex-girlfriend, who his daughter said had confronted her at the hospital where she worked. Fact by fact, the team began piecing together Lazaruss relationship to Sherri Rasmussen. PARTINGTON Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Without that gunor, more precisely, without a bullet known to have been fired from itthe Van Nuys detectives would have no way to prove, or disprove, that it was the murder weapon. A few hours later, the vote was changed to 10-2. But the suspects remained elusive, and months passed without further leads. Two 15-year-old girls from neighboring villages outside Leicester, in the English Midlands, had been killed, one of them that summer and one three years earlier. 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. The team had by then moved to a new, slightly more spacious squad room on the fifth floor of Parker Center, the LAPDs legendarily decrepit headquarters, but it still didnt have enough space for all the murder books that it had accumulated. There was a hole in the temple of the skull. Because many more people within the LAPD and the D.A.s office were now aware of where the investigation was headed, concern was growing that word could leak at any moment. It was a burglary gone awry. Her manipulative skills are unusually sharp as can be observed while she was at work on Palmyra Island the summer of 1974, and in her interplay with counsel and court during her murder trial. 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. Stephanie Stearns The LAPD detective who arrested him had been 8 years old when the murder occurred. I need you to walk me through everything from A to Z, Nuttall recalls. Walker told her terrible stories about his term in San Quentin prison at the age of 19 for armed robbery. He made detective quickly and requested assignment to a sex-crimes unit. The body of a 29-year-old nurse and three-month newlywed, Sherri Rasmussen, had been discovered by her husband, John Ruetten. They have also lived in Honomu, HI and Haiku, HI. Mr. Walker and Miss Stearns were convicted in separate trials of stealing and transporting the Sea Wind to Honolulu. For what it's worth, at the end of the day I do agree with Tom Bucy's assertion that Stephanie Stearns is compulsive liar and sociopath who is responsible in WebOthers named Stephanie Stearns. He placed the tube inside a 5-by-7-inch L.A. coroners physical-evidence envelope, on which he wrote Sherri Rasmussens name, a description of the contents, and where hed obtained them. We were in love. Notorious atoll murderer dies after parole to Willits area Stephanie Stearns - Biography - IMDb The first article Butterworth analyzed was a blood swatch taken at the victims autopsy, which gave her Rasmussens DNA profile. Stephanie Stearns Stephanie Garrett-Stearns named Chief Communications Officer Their story was that they had met the Grahams on Palmyra, and they believed they had drowned after a fishing accident, because they had failed to come back in a couple of days and there was an overturned boat on Woman Acquitted in Island Slaying : Victim, an S.D. Transcripts, Video Show LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus It took 23 yearsand revolutionary breakthroughs in forensic sciencebefore LAPD detectives could finally assemble the pieces of the puzzle. In late October, the Los Angeles Times ran a story on the now eight-month-old case, reporting that the Rasmussens were offering a $10,000 reward for any information regarding the suspects in their daughters murder, whom Mayer described in the article as two Latino men between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 6 inches tall. The detectives list was down to one name: Stephanie Lazarus. Marc Martinez recalled that in the mid-1980s, most LAPD cops carried a .38 as their backup or off-duty gunthe same caliber weapon indicated on the ballistics report in the Rasmussen murder book. Mr. Shoemaker had learned from earlier radio talks of the trouble between the two couples, he testified. Declaring herself shocked, the veteran detective stood and walked out, 68 minutes after shed sat down. So we looked for sexually motivated murders, where there was a better chance for DNA. When Butterworth analyzed the swab, it yielded a mixture of two DNA profiles, one of which matched Rasmussens. Since her swearing-in on March 24, Janey has named Dion Irish, Chief of Operations; Justin Sterritt, Chief Financial Officer; Celina Barrios-Milner, Chief of Equity; and Rev. 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. But as far as motive was concerned, the information that we had was that [Lazarus and Ruettens] relationship had been over since the previous summer. Students demand better access to care, Copenhagen mayor to Californias Danish Capital: Stop acting homophobic. 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. WebView the profiles of professionals named "Stephanie Stearns" on LinkedIn. The jurywhich included Kahns little retired guyvoted to convict. We were looking for cases that had the best chance for us to potentially work with, given the small numbers [of detectives] we had, says Rick Jackson, who was part of the original unit. The profiles matched, and Laudenberg is now serving a life sentence. WebApparently Stearns' and Walker's voyage from Hawaii had been an arduous one. 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. When she threw out a cup and straw she had been drinking from, the surveillance team swooped in and retrieved it from the trash. Its condition would later be described in court as pretty beaten up and ratty. There was a tear at one end, from which protruded the red-capped top of the tube holding the swab, but the tube itself appeared intact. Everything I knew about Stephanie, she was sharp, Nuttall says. In this case, it would not be easy. Lazarus listed for the clerk the contents of the stolen bag: clothes, half a dozen cassette tapes, and the handgun, which she described as a Smith & Wesson five-shot .38 revolver. A housekeeper in the unit next door later said shed heard a scuffle and a scream, but no gunshots. According to evidence presented at the earlier court hearings, Buck Walker's criminal career began when he was a teen-ager in Oregon and he was in and out of prisons through the 1960's. MYSTERY ON PACIFIC ATOLL LEADS TO MURDER CHARGE, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/13/us/mystery-on-pacific-atoll-leads-to-murder-charge.html. 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. 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. Six years later, a corroded chest was found partially buried in a lagoon at Palmyra. The Manson Family Blog - Tate LaBianca Murders - TLB - True WebStephanie Stearns Resides in Auburn, WA Includes Address (1) Phone (1) See Results Stephanie Louise Stearns, 49 Resides in Arlington, WA Lived In Reedsburg WI, Las Vegas NV, Auburn WA, Mount Vernon WA Related To Shannon Stearns, Steven Stearns, Stacy Stearns Also known as S Stearns, Stephanie L Stearn, Stephan Stearns So too, there is considerable variance between Bugliosi's cross-examination as revealed in the original trial transcript re Pollock and Shoemaker and his recounting this same testimony in his book. There were some coincidences, but there was nothing definitive for us at this point. The chief decided that Bubs unit could hang on to the case until the DNA sample was obtained. The same person had indeed raped and killed both girls. At the time, Lazarus was a 26-year-old patrol officer in her third year with the LAPD. Move on with your lives, he advised the Rasmussens. That is how I found out about Tom Bucy's book. In his zeal to prove Stearns' innocence, inadvertently, Bugliosi set forth clue after clue proving the guilt of Stearns and her crime partner, Buck Walker. That jumps off the page at you, because when you have that, and youre aware that the case is based on two male burglarswell, that alters the entire course of the investigation. 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. Stephanie Stearns is currently living in Hawaii.
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