The victim, Thora Rose, had been brutally killed in her apartment in October 1963. When it was over, the killer stole the BMW parked in the garage. With no direct evidence of any role Stearns played in the killing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliot Enoki cited disputed testimony about a feud between the couples, and pointed to numerous lies and omissions admitted by Stearns in her statements to authorities. 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. Get help and learn more about the design. 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. Her trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in late August. At the Scientific Investigation Division, a DNA profile was quickly developed from the saliva on the straw and compared with the unidentified profile extracted from the bite-mark swab. ATSWT reviewed the supposed facts surrounding the murder of the Grahams on Palmyra, and followed STEPHANIE STEARNS (aka JENNIFER JENKINS) upon her 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. The profiles matched, and Laudenberg is now serving a life sentence. 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. Even as forensic technology was taking great leaps forward, the investigation into Sherri Rasmussens murder remained stalled. Given the number of drive-by shootings then occurring in the city, LAPD detectives were far more accustomed to picking shell casings up off the street than searching for hair strands, semen stains, and other barely visible bodily traces. 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. One corollary of this quirk is that a division can raise its current-year clearance rate by solving old cases as well as fresh ones. In January 1988, Pitchfork became the first murderer in history to be convicted on the basis of DNA evidence. The stolen BMW was found abandoned nearby about a week later, but it offered up no further clues. and Mac's messenger, Curtis Shoemaker. Select this result to view Stephanie Stearns's phone number, address, and more. He removed the stopper and carefully swabbed the impression left by the assailants teeth. Her husband has never been found. The jurors, and the judge, agreed: Robinson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Because a burglary murdersomeone is going to have broken into the place, spent some time there. Im very happy to stand in opposition to the principle that you are entitled to one free murder every 30 years, Turley told the jury. Meanwhile, the Grahams, who previously had sailed the Sea Wind around the world, had arrived in Hilo about June 1, 1974, to take on more provisions before moving on for an extended stay at Palmyra, a place that Mr. Graham found fascinating. At the time, Lazarus was a 26-year-old patrol officer in her third year with the LAPD. Convicted of Stealing Yacht. Walker was convicted in 1985. Move on with your lives, he advised the Rasmussens. Bub, a veteran of RHD, was determined to deliver an ultra-professional case to them. While Stearns and Jaramillo began planning their strategy for interviewing Lazarus, Nuttall and Lisa Sanchez, another RHD detective, flew to Arizona to meet with the Rasmussen family. We explained that this could still turn out not to be her, Bub says. Its a very manageable number of murders for three guys to work, Bub says. Given the sensitivity of the unfolding investigation, Nuttall had to be cautious about tipping his hand. 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. His children and members of his church packed the gallery in support of him. 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. 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. During those 39 years, 23,713 murders took place in Los Angeles. 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. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment April 2. Her moronic pronouncements (all of which went unnoticed) regarding the birth of the Iola (for the most part wisely left out of Bugliosi's account of the trial) are absurd to the point of zaniness. Kahn recalls her desire to find jurors who would be able to make sense of this new universe of DNA testimony. One of the thorny issues still to be resolved was how and where to confront Lazarus. A woman who worked at a bakery in Leicester had been gossiping with co-workers at a pub when one mentioned that he had agreed to take the blood test on someone elses behalf. Detectives have a third way to get a suspects DNA sample without running afoul of the Fourth Amendment: collect a voluntarily discarded sample. Then Butterworth noticed that the property sheet listed a bite-mark swab. To maintain secrecy, Stearns, Jaramillo, and Nuttall spent the next week working out of a conference room at the D.A.s office. The lock on the drivers-side door had been punched, she said, and a blue gym bag stolen. He pleaded guilty and 10 other criminal charges were dropped. She is an actress, known for Dreamers (1999), Triple Threat (2005) and America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988). That most items in the house appeared undisturbedincluding Rasmussens jewelry box, sitting in plain view on her dresserseemed to Mayer further evidence of a rushed exit. 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. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? When the boy was arrested and interrogated, he offered a rambling half-confession to the more recent murder, alternately describing his acts in great detail and then, moments later, denying hed done anything wrong. In October 1998, the FBI launched a DNA database called the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which gave detectives the ability to compare DNA samples collected at crime scenes with the DNA profiles of legions of potential suspects. Garrett-Stearns is a volunteer and board member for several nonprofit organizations, including the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), the Boston Chapter of The Links, Incorporated and Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. An active member of Union United Methodist Church in the South End, she lives in West Roxbury with her husband and daughter. Examining the scene, the lead homicide detective, Lyle Mayer, began to piece together what he thought had taken place. It was a burglary gone awry. Stearns, who sobbed as she read entries from her 1974 log to the jury about the Grahams disappearance, denied there was any feud. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. He also told Nels they had ruled out John Ruetten as a suspect. In 1985, Ruetten began dating Rasmussen seriously. And toward the end it becomes a horror fiction book, too. Buck received 10 years for the theft DNA profiles developed since the late 1990s typically include a gender marker. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. 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.. It was useful for investigative purposes, but too imprecise to serve as a smoking gun. Bugliosi's "And The Sea Will Tell" is an absolute prerequisite to this book. Her mother, Rose King, and sister, Peggy Faulkner, of San Diego, were quoted in media coverage of the murders as having grown up here. As tantalizing a clue as Butterworths DNA report provided in the Rasmussen casenamely, that a woman might be the murdererit did not point directly to a specific suspect, unlike the many cold hits rolling in thanks to Prop 69. When, in 2000, a $50 million state grant became available to fund DNA testing in certain unsolved murders, Lambkin and Lisa Kahn seized the opportunity to propose a joint LAPD/D.A. Once there, the couple discovered that the condition of their boat and the lack of adequate supplies prevented their return. During the summer and fall of 2003, Lambkins unit was working its way, case by case, through the 1,400 unsolved homicides it had flagged as having good forensic potential. Soon, all that either of them find is trouble. 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. 5. He was wearing a wire. Rasmussen was six feet tall and fit, and the ensuing struggle was ferocious. She just walked across the room and she gave me a hug. Before the detectives left, Nuttall made one last plea for the familys patience. Miss Stearns was sentenced to two years; Mr. Walker received 10 years and an additional three for the earlier drug conviction that had caused him to flee Hawaii. Wednesday, April 26, 2023 | Today's Paper | 72.248 News. Meanwhile, in a freezer in the Los Angeles County coroners office, alongside biological evidence from hundreds of other murders, the swab of the bite mark on Sherri Rasmussens arm lay waiting for forensic scienceand the LAPDs scrutinyto catch up with it. The decision, People v. Castro, sent shock waves through the criminal-justice system. How to support my channel:Artwork on Opensea link: https://opensea.io/collection/astoldbytheolyn-collectionArtwork on Etsy LAPD homicide detectives track their clearance rate the way pro athletes track their season stats. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? 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. So I get up there first and I say, Has anybody ever heard of DNA? Some little retired guy raises his hand and says, Yeah, I know, I know. He proposed to her that summer, and they married in November. 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. Shards from a broken porcelain vase littered the floor. She is an actress, known for Dreamers (1999), Triple Threat (2005) where is stephanie stearns today Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. But he wasnt the boy whom police had in custody. 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. Stephanie Stearns Human Resources Professional Tewksbury, MA. What happened to the Grahams has been a mystery, except for the story told by Mr. Walker and Miss Stearns, but the juries that convicted them refused to accept their explanation of how they gained possession of the Sea Wind. 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. Lambkin, by comparison, had been working with biological evidence for years, and was already convinced of DNAs potential. Stephanie Stearns fought back tears Tuesday when she testified about her decision to help her former lover Buck Walker flee drug charges in Hawaii and ultimately sail to Palmyra Island, where Eleanor and Malcolm Graham vanished in 1974. Detectives boxed up whichever cases werent being actively worked and sent them back to the divisions where they had originated, if there was room for them, or to the LAPD archives if there wasnt. Page by page, for months, the detectives combed the old homicide summary books. The accused killer of a San Diego woman on a tiny Pacific atoll told a U.S. District Court jury that she never harmed anyone in my life.. Stephanie is related to Conner Mark Stearns and John T Stearns as well as 3 additional people. Mayor Kim Janey announced today that she is appointing Senior Advisor Stephanie Garrett-Stearns as Chief Communications Officer. When Ruetten, an engineer, had come home from work at 5:55 p.m., hed known instantly that something was wrong. Many people in Honolulu yachting circles recognized the Sea Wind, and after a quiet investigation, the authorities acted. Mayers successor explained that he had reviewed the original case notes and tried to advance the investigation, but he had been unable to identify any suspects, and prospects for new leads were poor. On May 27, after a week of preparation and surveillance, plainclothes detectives surreptitiously trailed Lazarus as she ran errands. Her boyfriend, Buck Walker, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to life in prison. Bub estimates that when he took over the unit, it numbered 10 detectives and had about 120 cases open. In December 2004, a criminalist named Jennifer Butterworth noticed the unworked request sitting on her colleagues desk and volunteered to handle it. WebThe third result is Stephanie Marie Stearns age 60s in Mountain View, CA in the Grant - Sylvan Park neighborhood. 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 They have also lived in Santa Clara, CA and San Jose, CA. Stephanie? he asked. Webstephanie stearns today Nationally and in San Diego, the trials made headlines. 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. Second, they promised one another that they would follow the trail of evidence wherever it led. The third, in 1989, was an accused rapist named Henry Wilds. They failed to report the couples disappearance to authorities and at one point Walker told friends he won the boat in a chess match with an eccentric millionaire. The body of a 29-year-old nurse and three-month newlywed, Sherri Rasmussen, had been discovered by her husband, John Ruetten. Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. Laboratories became more careful with evidence; trial courts grew more familiar with DNA; and higher courts affirmed its admissibility as a matter of law. 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 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. 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. 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! Bugliosi's careful analysis of the tides revealed Stearns was lying about her activities purportedly occurring on the 30th and 31st of August 1974. Stearns claims to have studied mathematics, yet in her supposed log she cannot engage in simple addition. I am proud to welcome these experienced and inclusive leaders to Boston City Hall.. Beside that it is full of useless repetitions and after a while that was a real pain in the ass. It was four books when it reached me, four books deep, Nuttall says of the case file. Yet she couldnt find the swab in the rape kit or anywhere else. WebStephanie Stearns was tried separately in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. It was extremely difficult initially to process that possibility, he says. I am thrilled to have Stephanie as part of my cabinet and look forward to her continued leadership and counsel as we advance a city-wide agenda for Bostons recovery, reopening, and renewal. Eager to win every point, when necessary he shaves the truth. What is the birth name of Jeff Stearns? Chief Bratton didnt want anybody approaching her when she had a gun or access to a gun, Nuttall explains. Robinson emerged from prison a changed man. There was a hole in the temple of the skull. L.A. has a new answer, Epic snowpack upends rhythms of life for many species in Sierra Nevada range, Decades of failures leave L.A. County facing up to $3 billion in sex abuse claims, Most California colleges dont offer rape kits on campus. "FINAL ARGUMENT" was written in response to VINCENT BUGLIOSI'S best seller "AND THE SEA WILL TELL" (ATSWT) which recounts the brutal murder and torture of MAC and MUFF GRAHAM on PALMYRA ISLA8ND August 29, 1974. Nels brought up an article about DNA forensics he had read in a science magazine and offered to pay for DNA analysis of the evidence at a private lab. Miss Stearns surrendered and was freed on $100,000 bond. Students demand better access to care, Copenhagen mayor to Californias Danish Capital: Stop acting homophobic. 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. For these families, this stuff never goes away, he says. It seemed strange that she would not be home; he knew she had called in sick to work that morning. Imagining the din to be a domestic altercation, she hadnt called the police. I need you to walk me through everything from A to Z, Nuttall recalls. It wasnt until nearly two oclock in the morning that Lloyd Mahany, a criminalist from the Los Angeles County coroners office, arrived to examine the body. Inside were human bones, including a skull. The unit gradually came to grips with the magnitude of its caseload. Just five years after a potential juror had confidently informed Lisa Kahn that DNA stood for Does Not Apply, it had become a household term. 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. The unknown factor was how long she would wait before invoking one or both. The units initial focus would therefore be on unsolved homicides committed from 1960 through 1998. Thats the nature of being a detective: we all want to know.. Stephanie received a two-year sentence of which she served seven months in prison and six months in a halfway house. The entire point of "Final Argument" is to argue against "And The Sea Will Tell"; plus, Bucy doesn't start the reader off by explaining the story's narrative - so if you don't already know about the tragedy of Palmyra backward and forward, you'll be lost for a while. Bub says maintaining the secrecy of the investigation was a top priority. Several months and thousands of blood samples later, the police received a curious tip. Stephanie is related to Janet Allison Stearns and George Palmer Stearns as well as 3 additional people. Somebody on that list committed this crime., The Van Nuys detectives quickly eliminated three of the five women on their list for having insufficient motive to harm Rasmussen. When they finished going through the case file, they had a list of five names, among them that of Stephanie Lazarus, who was cited in the original police work as John Ruettens ex-girlfriend, with the further notation P.O. Nuttall didnt make anything of the initials until he called Ruetten, who told him that Lazarus had been a Los Angeles police officer. Of course it was O.J.s DNA: it had been planted at the scene! I said, We need to talk about everything. Soon after, a couple arrived to Hawaii on board the Sea Wind. Russia missile attack on Ukraine injures 34, damages homes, Far from Russia, a pro-Moscow sliver of land tries to cling to its identity and keep war at bay, Man who lost wife, son in Texas mass shooting tells story. The police said they found him using another alias in a hotel on the north edge of Hawaii Island. These four were the only people continuously at the Palmyra lagoon in July and August 1974, although several other craft came and went. Within a week, the detectives obtained a copy of the stolen-gun report. The detectives had known for a while that they would need to obtain a sample of Lazaruss DNA to compare with the bite-mark swab. The woman called the police, and the naf whod taken the surrogate blood test promptly fingered the man who had talked him into it, a fellow baker with the improbable name of Colin Pitchfork. Later, he married and raised a family. 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. A murder trial scheduled to begin in Federal Court here this fall will center on the disappearance of a San Diego couple who were swept up in the romance of cruising under sail in the South Pacific. Its the number by which their performance is judged, both within the unit and up the chain of command. She was located living in Northern California, and Bub made arrangements with local law enforcement to surreptitiously collect a DNA sample from her. Her mother, Rose King, and sister, Peggy Faulkner, of San Diego, were quoted in media I swear by all I hold dear I never harmed anyone in my life, the soft-spoken Stearns told jurors, who leaned forward in their seats to hear her. But it was certainly unusual. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Into the early 1990s, Loretta called the Van Nuys homicide unit regularly to inquire about Sherris case. Through her lawyer, she declined The Atlantics interview request. 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. The detectives on the Van Nuys squad made two pacts regarding the Rasmussen case. Burglars must have entered through the unlocked front door. She typed up her conclusions and sent the report to the cold-case unit on February 8, 2005. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The prosecution said Stearns helped Walker in the murder in order to get the Grahams yacht and food supply and leave Palmyra. We were looking for a bright jury, she explains. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2010 -- New details on a Los Angeles cold case that led to the murder arrest of Deputy D.A. As a result, sometime in 2007, the Sherri Rasmussen case file was returned to the Van Nuys Division in a cardboard box. The police were certain that he had killed both girls. Why did Cory Williams divorce Stephanie? Stearns was acquitted. Simpson was soon linked to the crime by forensic evidencein particular, a blood-soaked glove that a detective named Mark Fuhrman reported finding on Simpsons property. All Rights After leaving the Navy in 1966, he fell into drugs and crime, and was eventually sentenced to three years at San Quentin for assault and robbery. While one removed electronics from the wall unit, the other went upstairs and was surprised by Rasmussen. She said she did stand up to Walker occasionally. The night before, and all through the morning, he went over in his head exactly what he was going to say to them: The hardest part was, I thought, Man, Nels is going to undress this. The results stunned everyone. We want to hear what you think about this article. In the past, Stephanie has also been known as Stephanie L Beshears, Stephanie Stearns, Stephanle L Stephanie Stearns fought back tears Tuesday when she testified about her decision to help her former lover Buck Walker flee drug charges in Hawaii and ultimately Unfortunately, because of Enoki's refusal to allow Bugliosi's tidal data into the trial, the jury was deprived of this information. On May 19, 2009, the Van Nuys detectives met off-site with detectives from the LAPDs Professional Standards Bureau, a surveillance unit directly under the command of the chief of police, who was then William Bratton. I knew from experience that there was probably nothing left from earlier than 1960, Lambkin says. Over the next few years, in courtrooms across America, the adversarial process worked its magic. The detectives decided they would investigate the nurse first, confirming or eliminating her as a suspect. Although he didnt solve every fresh case he worked, he closed enough old ones to maintain a remarkable 100 percent personal clearance rate every year from 1991 through 1996. Her mother fought with her over the plan to flee and flew to Hawaii to convince her daughter not to make the trip with Walker. In 1993, she made detective, and in 1996 she married a fellow LAPD officer, with whom she later adopted a little girl. Jury selection began in January 1990. They have one child. Stearns denied prosecutors contentions that they were desperate for food, sick of living on coconuts and fish. 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. The clearance rates reported at the end of each calendar year stand in perpetuity; they cannot be corrected through later arrests. Two months after the murder, a pair of men attempted a burglary a few blocks from Sherris condo. HILO In 1974, Buck Duane Walker and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, sailed in a leaky boat to Palmyra Atoll and returned to Honolulu Harbor in a beautiful yacht owned by a San Diego couple who had been vacationing on Palmyra. The jurywhich included Kahns little retired guyvoted to convict. Jurors announced they were deadlocked 6-6 before noon Friday, but were told by U.S. District Judge Samuel King to keep deliberating. On September 19, DNA analysis was requested on evidence from the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen. Fact by fact, the team began piecing together Lazaruss relationship to Sherri Rasmussen. LAPD homicide detectives had always been free to work cold cases, but only as time permitted between fresh murders, which wasnt very often. He escaped from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in Washington State in July 1979 and is still at large.

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