When they did, they found themselves facing one of the unlikeliest murder suspects in the citys history. Given the sensitivity of the unfolding investigation, Nuttall had to be cautious about tipping his hand. 'Buck' Walker infamous for high-profile Palmyra deaths A warrant could have forced their suspect to give them a sample, but they werent sure they had enough evidence to get one. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. When the dust settled, the squad consisted of Bub and three other detectives: Pete Barba, Marc Martinez, and Jim Nuttall. He received no reply. With Mac Graham, Muff Graham, Buck Walker, Stephanie Stearns. Palmyra killer released from California prison - The Paul Turley, in his closing argument, addressed head-on the defendants evident rehabilitation and the three decades that had passed between the crime and the trial. When it was over, the killer stole the BMW parked in the garage. Stephanie Stearns Eager to win every point, when necessary he shaves the truth. Murder charges were added only after Mrs. Grahams skeletal remains were found in a metal box on Palmyra in 1981. 2314. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The cold-case unit initially consisted of seven detectives: three teams of two, with Lambkin at the helm. 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. Stearns and Jaramillos goal would be to keep her talking as long as possible, while simultaneously assuring her that she was free to leave at any time. 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. 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. 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. 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 It gave me the ability to be the person I am today, says Stephanie. But police hoped that the list of those who declined to participate would provide new leads. It took 23 yearsand revolutionary breakthroughs in forensic sciencebefore LAPD detectives could finally assemble the pieces of the puzzle. 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. Despite his many phone conversations with Nels, Nuttall had never met the Rasmussens in person, and he was nervous about the encounter. Final Argument: An Inquiry Into the Murders of Mac and The decision, People v. Castro, sent shock waves through the criminal-justice system. 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. It was a burglary gone awry. But the way the circumstances were, there would have been too many variables involved and too much potential for screwup. 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. But no matter how hard they pushed him, the boy refused to confess to the first murder. It was Buck Walker and his girlfriend Stephanie Stearns. According to other sailors who visited the island in that period, and who testified in the 1975 trials, the two couples became enemies over the two months when they lived in their boats at anchor in the Palmyra lagoon. By BARBARA GARCIA. 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. "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. In early February 2009, with the squads most recent homicide cleared, Nuttall and Barba began poking around for an interesting cold case. But he told Nels, Give me time to do what I have to do, and I think Ill be able to have an answer for you., If a case against Lazarus was going to proceed, it was inevitably going to end up with the departments Robbery-Homicide Division, the elite detective unit that handles the citys most sensitive and high-profile murder cases. 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. Where is Stephanie stearns now? - Answers Detectives are gossipy, he explains. But a curious detail caught Butterworths eye. One of the thorny issues still to be resolved was how and where to confront Lazarus. When Lazarus arrived in the interrogation room, Stearns and Jaramillo abandoned the story of a suspect talking about stolen art, and explained that her name had come up in a case involving an ex-boyfriend of hers, John Ruetten. Stephanie is related to Conner Mark Stearns and John T Stearns as well as 3 additional people. Because a burglary murdersomeone is going to have broken into the place, spent some time there. He walks me in, Nuttall recalls, and I drew a blank on what I was going to say. The awkward silence was broken when Loretta crossed the room to where Nuttall stood, and hugged him. Dan and Greg arent asking questions yet, because theyre still absorbing this information thats just overwhelming. When they finished, all four detectives went straight from RHD to the D.A.s office, where Bub and Nuttall briefed the prosecutors who would be handling the case. These four were the only people continuously at the Palmyra lagoon in July and August 1974, although several other craft came and went. Stearns, 39, who was convicted along with Walker of stealing the couples yacht, testified that she lied to authorities to help him escape capture but knew nothing of the murder. 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. But when you do, youre like a freaking magician.. The LAPD detective who arrested him had been 8 years old when the murder occurred. And toward the end it becomes a horror fiction book, too. At the dawn of the DNA age, Lambkins background investigating sex crimes proved an excellent foundation for homicide work. A few hours later, the vote was changed to 10-2. No one was forced to participate in the blooding, as the DNA dragnet came to be called, and few expected that the killer would volunteer himself. They settled on Sherri Rasmussens. However, Stearns murder plot was masterful. Since her arrest, Lazarus has steadfastly maintained her innocence. 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. Stephanie Garrett-Stearns named Chief Communications Officer Primitive as the IBM punch-card and mainframe-computer databases might seem today, they were cutting-edge at the time, and they nurtured Lambkins interest in how technology could be used to solve cases. The plan was for the RHD detectives to request Lazaruss help interviewing a jailed suspect who claimed to have information on an art-theft case. The detectives on the Van Nuys squad made two pacts regarding the Rasmussen case. WebStephanie Stearns was born on September 15, 1976 in Houston, Texas, USA. 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. She would bebut only technically. 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. I guess Im not one to make many waves.. 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. Burglars must have entered through the unlocked front door. In November 1987, they returned to Los Angeles and held a press conference, at which they renewed their offer of a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. In mid-April, just over two months into the new investigation, that DNA report came back negative. Both were charged with murdering Eleanor Muff Graham of San Diego, who disappeared along with her husband, Malcolm, from Palmyra atoll in August, 1974. In all, Rasmussen had been shot three times in the chest, the bullets piercing her heart, lungs, and spine. Lazarus was friendly with a number of RHD detectives, which made assigning the case a challenge. The whole family was waiting inside. When she threw out a cup and straw she had been drinking from, the surveillance team swooped in and retrieved it from the trash. We didnt have anything to establish there was any animosity.. 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. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Stearns claims to have studied mathematics, yet in her supposed log she cannot engage in simple addition. Why did Cory Williams divorce Stephanie? Her husband's body was never found. 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. She served seven months in prison and six months in a halfway house. Many people in Honolulu yachting circles recognized the Sea Wind, and after a quiet investigation, the authorities acted. 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. They said that the Grahams had invited them to a farewell dinner on Aug. 28, but that when Mr. Walker and Miss Stearns went to the Sea Wind, they found her empty. There are 30+ professionals named "Stephanie Stearns", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Kahn recalls her desire to find jurors who would be able to make sense of this new universe of DNA testimony. Laboratories became more careful with evidence; trial courts grew more familiar with DNA; and higher courts affirmed its admissibility as a matter of law. She is an actress, known for Dreamers (1999), Triple Threat (2005) and America's Most Wanted: First, they agreed that they would maintain total secrecy, and would never speak or write Lazaruss name where anyone else might hear or see it. Stearns, herself, taunts her pursuers with photographs and spurious log notes. The police said they found him using another alias in a hotel on the north edge of Hawaii Island. Someone mentioned to investigators a newspaper article about a local geneticist named Alec Jeffreys, who had developed a novel process for mapping gene variations using DNA molecules. starbulletin.com Stearns received a two-year and Mac's messenger, Curtis Shoemaker. Bugliosi's "And The Sea Will Tell" is an absolute prerequisite to this book. Stephanie? he asked. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. You can see if hes for real.. Just for like five minutes or something, Jaramillo added. Even as forensic technology was taking great leaps forward, the investigation into Sherri Rasmussens murder remained stalled. The two men agreed to talk by shortwave radio at 7 P.M. on Mondays and Wednesdays. We were looking for a bright jury, she explains. He escaped from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in Washington State in July 1979 and is still at large. Her mother, Rose King, and sister, Peggy Faulkner, of San Diego, were quoted in media coverage of the murders as having grown up here. According to Bugliosis book, Dorothy Young of La Mesa is an older sister of Bugliosi. Moreover, he believed strongly that the LAPD had a moral obligation to do its best to solve cold cases. Still, as the Van Nuys unit continued to dig, other details fell uncomfortably into place. The unknown factor was how long she would wait before invoking one or both. Her boyfriend, Buck Walker, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to life in prison. 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. Walker, 48, was convicted of killing Eleanor Graham in 1985 and was given a life sentence. TheAtlantic.com Copyright (c) 2023 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. The results stunned everyone. 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. Using the LAPDs annual statistics, Lambkin tallied the numbers. The call was from a technician at the crime lab. There was no way to know who in the division might be acquainted with her, and they didnt want to dirty her good name in the likely event that she didnt have anything to do with the murderor tip her off in the unlikely event that she did. 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. Cursed Paradise: Directed by Mike Sheridan, Joe Venafro. I thought I could help, she said, wiping away tears. A credenza drawer had been yanked out and its contents, mostly documents, dumped on the floor. Lambkin, by comparison, had been working with biological evidence for years, and was already convinced of DNAs potential. All over the world, newspapers hailed the breakthrough and marveled at the ways DNA forensics might revolutionize detective work. Nationally and in San Diego, the trials made headlines. A century later, the unit could not do much about that one. 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. He moved to the island of Hawaii in 1972 and took up with Miss Stearns. 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. A woman acquitted on charges that she helped her boyfriend murder a yachtswoman on a remote Pacific atoll in 1974 says her faith in the American judicial system has been reinstated.. WebStephanie Stearns was convicted, after a jury trial, on two counts of theft of personal property within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, violations of 18 U.S.C. Frieda - And the Sea Will Tell (spoilers) - Houzz 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. 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. Soon, all that either of them find is trouble. Seven months after Sherri Rasmussens death, half a world away from Los Angeles, DNA was used in a criminal investigation for the first time. When he was charged with drug sales in 1973, he swore he would never return to the California prison. Whereas Van Nuys once recorded 30 to 40 homicides a year, nowadays it averages five to seven. Phillip Stearns was born on June 2, 1984, in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. 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. (Most egregious were her August 5th log remarks about "drooling and dreaming" anticipating possession of the SEA WIND on execution of the Grahams.) 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. In 1986, a young nurse named Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in Los Angeles. He escaped from prison after 42 months. Im Dan Jaramillo. Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. In 2006, Lazarus was assigned to the departments Art Theft Detail, a plum post with a degree of prestige rare for Los Angeles police work. Several months and thousands of blood samples later, the police received a curious tip. Attorneys say Stearns was told by Walker that the Grahams drowned while fishing in their small boat in a shark-infested lagoon at Palmyra Island, 1,100 miles southwest of Hawaii. When the two LAPD detectives pulled up to the house, Nels came out to the driveway to greet them. Stephanie Stearns Center Manager at Hanesbrands Inc. Arlington, WA. The inescapable conclusion for both police and terrified residents was that a serial predator was hiding among the local population. 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.. Knowing she was married to someone else, they told her, theyd selected a place where they could speak privately, away from gossiping colleagues. 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. I said, We need to talk about everything. 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. 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. After considerable political machinations, the LAPDs new Cold Case Homicide Unit went operational in November 2001. 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. 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. 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. Move on with your lives, he advised the Rasmussens. New evidence has led to a murder charge against her. In Los Angeles, the first two defendants told by prosecutors that DNA evidence would be used against them promptly pleaded guilty. The jury deliberated 2 1/2 days. The police were certain that he had killed both girls. In an indoor crime scene, obviously, the longer you are there, the more you dowhether youre sexually assaulting, burglarizing, moving around ransackingyou increase the chance for good fingerprints.. We were teetering, Bub recalls. The defense today attacked the federal murder case against When Ruetten, an engineer, had come home from work at 5:55 p.m., hed known instantly that something was wrong.
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