LAZARUS, STEPHANIE: People Magazine Investigates TV - Faking It: Tears of a Crime TV - True Crime with Aphrodite Jones TV - True Crime Recaps 2022 -
This particular day she [Sherri Rasmussen] called in sick … John leaves for work at 7:20 with Sherri still in bed ... John leaves from work around 5:00 … He sees Sherri’s body on the floor … People Magazine Investigates s2e5: Once Bitten, Discovery 2017
The LAPD has a suspect within reach … One of their own … Their trump card: The DNA matching the bite-mark … She’d been holding this secret for years … ibid.
The policewoman suspected of murder. On camera the full interrogation. Los Angeles, June 2009: the moment a murder mystery is about to be solved. For the next 70 minutes detectives would interrogate Stephanie Lazarus about a cold-blooded murder committed more than 20 years earlier [Sherri Rasmussen]. Faking It s3e10: Stephanie Lazarus
We can see stress, anxiety, by a reddening of cheeks, nose, ears. ibid. Cliff
A female bite-mark … Officers had matched her DNA with a sample recovered from the body of the victim who’d been bitten, beaten and shot three times at close range. ibid.
You effectively see someone in turmoil. ibid. Dawn
A pretty young newlywed found murdered with three shots to the chest. A baffling case goes unsolved for years until forensic science reveals the most unlikely of suspects. True Crime with Aphrodite Jones s3e5: A Bite, a Bullet & a Broken Heart, ID 2013
In 1986 the swab of Sherri’s wound wouldn’t have told detectives much, but in 2005 it might tell them everything because it has a sample of the killer’s DNA. ibid.
That profile belongs to a woman … John’s ex-girlfriend … The remaining suspect is an LAPD detective … a woman named Stephanie Lazarus. ibid.
One of those stranger than fiction stories … With no leads and no suspects Sherri’s file collected dust as it passed from detective to detective … It would take 23 years for breakthroughs and DNA evidence. True Crime Recaps: Stephanie Lazarus: LAPD Officer Murders Lover’s Wife! Youtube 19.07, 2022
A suspect who had been sitting under their noses the entire time. ibid.
LEATHEM, JOHN: Forensics: Catching the Killer TV -
Clydebank, March 2016: Two days after Paige [Doherty] had gone missing a discovery was made less than a mile from the bus stop she’d been heading towards. Forensics: Catching the Killer s4e4: The Murder in the Deli, Sky Crime 2024
Detectives have confirmed that a body found in Clydebank is that of a missing 15-year-old schoolgirl, and that he death is being treated as murder. ibid. local TV news
Now they hope to trace her last movement from CCTV images captured form a row of shops. ibid.
‘You don’t see Paige coming back out of John Leathem’s shop.’ ibid. comment
There was more CCTV to help them confirm their suspicions. ibid.
LEAVITT, RICHARD: True Crime Recaps 2023 -
July 21st 1984: Danette’s [Elg] body is covered in blood; on her slashed deflated waterbed the sun beats down on her hurrying along the decomposition – she’s been there for days. She’s been slashed 15 times. True Crime Recaps: Chilling Story of Idaho Death Row Case, Youtube 7.16, 2023
Rick Leavitt: The local police knew him as a suspect in at least three sexual assault cases. ibid.
LEBARON, ERVIL: Prophet of Evil 1974 - The Mormon Mexican War 2012 - Los Angeles Times - Escaping Polygamy TV - Deadly Cults 2020 -
Los Molinos Mexico December 1974: ‘Because it’s God’s will. Because I believe in Him.’ Prophet of Evil 1993 starring Brian Dennehy & William Devane & Tracey Needham & Dee Wallace Stone & Danny Cooksey & Brian Reddy & Michael Watson et al, director Jud Taylor, opening scene
‘I’ve always been free. You’re the prisoner, Frank.’ ibid. LeBaron to screw
‘He’s gone so far as to threaten the president of the Mormon church.’ ibid. LeBaron’s brother to Fields
Declaration of War by Ervil LeBaron and The Church of the Lamb of God. ibid. pamphlet
‘Governments will bow down to us one day.’ ibid. LeBaron
‘You’ve been ordered to carry out a blood atonement against an enemy of God. Will you do it?’ ibid. LeBaron to wife
‘Ervil LeBaron is leaving a trail of murder from Mexico to Salt Lake City and he’s getting away with it.’ ibid. detective
The drug wars taking place just south of the American borders … affects him [Mitt Romney] personally. The Mormon Mexican War, Vice TV 2012
Mitt Romney’s family-type Mormons, Mexican drug cartels, polygamy, kidnapping, cocaine, and finally murder. ibid.
The thing that sets the Mexican cartels apart from the other Mobs is their seemingly profound love of murder. ibid.
The war on drugs in so violent that its body count is almost ten times that of American soldiers killed in the real ways in Iraq and Afghanistan. ibid.
These Mormon colonies are still here and they’re actually fighting the Narco drug cartels. ibid.
Many moved down to Mexico to continue to practise polygamy. ibid.
The LeBarons wouldn’t quit. ibid.
Ervil LeBaron listened carefully when God told him to take many wives. He married 13. When God told him to have children, he had at least 50.
And, 20 years ago, when God told him to break away from his family’s polygamist sect, he founded his own church, tearing apart the once close-knit family.
That’s apparently when God told Ervil to start killing people, too, including his own kin.
Authorities say it was the start of a chilling family tradition that continues to reverberate today among his descendants and followers more than a decade after his death.
The bizarre saga of Ervil’s secretive cult – which also attracted a handful of non-family followers – stretches back to the Nixon era and follows a blood-spattered trail that zigzags through Mexico and the Southwest like an addled snake.
By one expert’s estimate, the group has committed 25 to 30 murders in Utah, California, Texas, Colorado and Mexico. Investigators can only guess at the total number of slayings because the bodies of some of the presumed victims have never been found. West of here, in Tooele County, for instance, a man disappeared some 16 years ago after reportedly coming into contact with the cult. Authorities were never able to determine his fate.
When the LeBarons were at the peak of their infamy more than a decade ago, self-styled redeemer Ervil and his sullen brood were media staples. In the search for superlatives, one news magazine tagged Ervil The Mormon Manson. His influence was so powerful, authorities say, that a shrinking band of wives, children and hangers-on continued to commit crimes in his name even after 1981, when he died at age 56 in a Utah prison. Los Angeles Times article 20 September 1992
The Church of the Lamb of God was started by Ervil LeBaron ... the Mormon Manson. Deadly Cults s2e6: The Ervilites, comments
Dr Allred was a well-respected man in the community. His life was also mired in controversy. ibid.
By 1977 it was no secrets that there were still polygamists in Utah. ibid.
So police had a dead leader of a polygamous group [Allred] and two young women who were the killers. ibid.
Fundamentalist Mormons believe God’s prophet is alive and among them. He is called ‘the one mighty and strong’. ibid.
The LeBarons were in Chihuahua, Mexico, in a community that was called Colonia LeBaron. ibid.
I remember being very terrified of him [LeBaron] because we knew he shot my dad. ibid.
A man who can make all the rules and marry anyone he wants. ibid.