About this item
A deeply-reported, riveting account of a cold case murder in Los Angeles, unsolved until DNA evidence implicated a shocking suspect - a female detective within the LAPD's own ranks.On February 24, 1986, 29-year-old newlywed Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in the home she shared with her husband, John. The crime scene suggested a ferocious struggle, and police initially assumed it was a burglary gone awry. Before her death, Sherri had confided to her parents that an ex-girlfriend of John's, a Los Angeles police officer, had threatened her. The Rasmussens urged the LAPD to investigate the ex-girlfriend, but the original detectives only pursued burglary suspects, and the case went cold.DNA analysis did not exist when Sherri was murdered. Decades later, a swab from a bite mark on Sherri's arm revealed her killer was in fact female, not male. A DNA match led to the arrest and conviction of veteran LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus, John's onetime girlfriend.The Lazarus Files delivers the visceral experience of being inside a real-life murder mystery. McGough reconstructs the lives of Sherri, John and Stephanie; the love triangle that led to Sherri's murder; and the homicide investigation that followed. Was Stephanie protected by her fellow officers? What did the LAPD know, and when did they know it? Are there other LAPD cold cases with a police connection that remain unsolved?
About the Author
Matthew McGough is an author, journalist, and screenwriter. His non-fiction writing has been published in The Atlantic magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. As a teenager, Matt was a bat boy for two seasons with the New York Yankees. He attended Williams College and Fordham Law School, then served as a law clerk to a federal district court judge in New York City.In 2004, Doubleday published his memoir Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees. Matt's spoken word performance about his first day with the Yankees was selected to lead off the pilot episode of The Moth Radio Hour. His book Bat Boy became the basis of CLUBHOUSE, a primetime TV series on CBS. Matt was then hired as a legal consultant and writer for NBC's LAW & ORDER.Matt's true crime account "The Lazarus File," published in the June 2011 issue of The Atlantic, was named by Longform.org to its list of the Best Crime Writing of 2011, and also received two Los Angeles Press Club awards, for best magazine article in two categories: News Investigative and Feature Writing.His true crime book The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation was published by Henry Holt in April 2019.He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.
