![]() She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole. ![]() Lazarus was arrested about a week later in June 2009. The DNA from the straw was consistent with that of the bite mark swab. Investigators followed Lazarus to Costco and surreptitiously picked up a straw she had used and discarded, Nuttall said. He drew up a list of five women who were possible suspects and, within months, zeroed in on No. She told him she didn’t think the slaying stemmed from a botched burglary. “He eventually, sadly, gave up.”Īfter Nuttall took over the case, he brought Francis into his small circle of trusted investigators. “He had been telling us quite often, sir, through the years,” Nuttall said of Rasmussen’s father. Over the years, he said, Rasmussen’s parents and husband told detectives to look into Lazarus. How could I? Look what happened over 30 years.” “I didn’t trust them,” Nuttall testified last week. Nuttall said he launched a highly secretive investigation and lacked trust in the investigators who had prior custody of the case. James Nuttall took it on, six months after a storage box filled with the murder files mysteriously showed up at his station in Van Nuys. Cliff Shepard, the cold case investigator in the elite Robbery Homicide Division, early in 2005. The men were not caught and the homicide investigation went cold.įrancis said she took her findings to Det. Detectives developed a theory that they were behind Rasmussen’s slaying, releasing sketches and publicizing a reward for information. Her stolen car was found a week later, the key in the ignition.Ībout two months after the killing, two men burglarized a home in the area. Police suspected the killer used it to muffle the sound of the three gunshots fired at close range into Rasmussen’s chest. Wounds on her wrist and cords on the floor indicated that she had been tied up. Rasmussen, the murder victim, was found by her newlywed husband bludgeoned and shot in their Van Nuys townhouse, where overturned furniture and blood on the walls showed there had been an intense struggle. “This element is where Francis’s already-very-weak case is weakest.”Ī supervisor testified this week that he violated department policy by ordering Francis to the psychological evaluation because he wasn’t her commanding officer, but that he made the referral to help her through sleep and concentration problems. “Not only did (Francis’) work on the investigation not harm her, it raised her professional profile and burnished her reputation,” attorneys representing the city argued in court papers. She and several others received a Police Meritorious Service Medal, the highest award for a civilian employee. It also argued that the mental health referral didn’t hurt her career - she was not demoted or denied pay, but was recognized for her work in the case. The city argued in court filings that Francis did not report a crime, so her disclosures did not amount to blowing the whistle. ![]() “You’re up against this terribly powerful institution and you are its collateral damage.” I feel isolated and I feel like I’m all by myself,” she said, tearing up on the stand. “I feel like a complete pariah in the department.
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