Lawrence Rudolph, a dentist on trial for the murder of his wife while on a hunting trip in Africa, allegedly confessed to the crime during an argument with his longtime girlfriend, prosecutors said Wednesday in a Denver court.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bishop Grewell told a jury during the trial’s opening statements that Rudolph said, “I killed my f—–g wife for you,” theAssociated Pressreported.
Rudolph was charged with murder and mail fraud in connection with the 2016 death of his wife, Bianca Rudolph, who died from a fatal shotgun blast to the chest while they vacationed in Zambia.
Prosecutors alleged he killed his wife of 34 years so he could collect millions of dollars in life insurance benefits.
Rudolph allegedly admitted to the crime while out to dinner with his girlfriend, Lori Milliron, at a Phoenix steakhouse when he learned in 2020 that the FBI was investigating his wife’s death, Grewell told the jury, according to the AP.
Larry Rudolph.Facebook
David Markus, an attorney representing Rudolph at his murder trial, denied that his client made the statement to Milliron, claiming that a witness, who allegedly overheard their conversation, was mistaken.
He told the jury that Rudolph really said, “They’re saying I killed my f—–g wife for you,” the AP reported.
“If that is what this case depends on, I can’t believe we’re going to be here for three weeks,” Markus added.
Larry and Bianca Rudolph.Facebook
Milliron is being tried alongside Rudolph. She is charged with lying to a grand jury and being an accessory after the fact.
Rudolph and his wife Bianca traveled to Zambia in 2016 so Bianca could kill a leopard. She was unsuccessful, but she did kill other animals on their three-week hunting trip.
The couple was getting ready to leave their hunting camp in Kafue National Park on the morning of Oct. 11, when Bianca died from a fatal shotgun blast to the chest.
Rudolph, a former dentist from the Pittsburgh area, told the Zambian police that he heard the gunshot while he was taking a shower and that he found his wife on the bedroom floor bleeding from the chest.
Federal authorities got involved in the case after a friend of Bianca’s told authorities on Oct. 27, 2016, that she wanted the FBI to investigate her friend’s death because she suspected foul play, claiming that Rudolph had cheated on his wife and had been having an affair at the time of her death.
According to the complaint, the consular chief at the U.S. Embassy in Zambia told the FBI he had talked to Rudolph about cremating his wife’s body.
The consular chief told the FBI he had “a bad feeling about the situation, which he thought was moving too quickly. As a result, he traveled to [the funeral home] with two others from the embassy to take photographs of the body and preserve any potential evidence,” according to the complaint.
The consular chief told the FBI that Rudolph was “livid” when Rudolph discovered he had gone to see Bianca’s body and taken photographs.
“The agents' belief that Dr. Rudolph cremated his wife’s remains to destroy evidence was proven false as her will expressly directed cremation,” the filing states. “Additionally, the government’s contention that Dr. Rudolph plotted to ‘escape rigorous scrutiny and maintain control of evidence,’ is flatly false. The Zambian investigators, who ruled the death accidental, maintained that Dr. Rudolph did nothing to improperly influence the investigation or to obstruct justice.”
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Rudolph has maintained his innocence.
“They’ve chosen speculation over science,” Markus said during opening statements, the AP reported. “They’ve chosen fiction over fact.”
source: people.com
