“Investigators stuck to their early theory that Rasmussen must have been killed by unidentified Latino male suspects during a botched burglary. That theory eventually would be proven wrong by DNA in a saliva sample gathered from a bite mark on the victim’s left forearm.”

“In the end, the DNA evidence proved too difficult to overcome. After little more than a day of deliberation, the panel of eight women and four men found Lazarus guilty.”

SERI was able to recover a DNA profile from a 1986 swab of the bite mark found on the victim. This profile provided evidence critical to closing a long-standing cold case. Read the Los Angeles Times article about it here.