Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Secret Sex Leads to Jail Time for Millionaire Hubby and Mistress after Wife "Commits Suicide" on African Safari

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

On a big game trip to Zambia, Bianca Rudolph is killed by a gunshot to the chest. It's ruled an accident, Or was it suicide? That's something that husband, Dr. Lawrence Rudolph says was a possibility. US investigators however, say Rudolph killed his wife in order to collect on her life insurance. Dentist Lawrence Rudolph  charged with foreign murder and mail fraud. Rudolph reportedly told authorities that he believed his wife’s gun was accidentally discharged while she was putting it in a case.  Lawrence Rudolph reportedly made claims on his wife’s life insurance policy totaling nearly $5 million. The policy was initially purchased in 1987 but was updated in 2016, the same year Bianca died. As the investigation progresses it's revealed the Rudolph has been having 20-year affair, and his mistress has issued an ultimatum.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Nicole Deborde Hochglaube - Criminal Defense Lawyer (Houston TX), Former Prosecutor, Twitter: @debordelaw, HoustonCriminalDefense.com Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Psychologist, Faculty Saint Leo University; Consultant Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, New Haven Police Department, Senior Lecturer, Director of the "Center for Advanced Policing" at the University of New Haven's Forensic Science Department Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida www.pathcaremed.com, Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine. Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories.Com, Twitter: @swimmie2009   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Lay down with a dog, wake up with the flea. Truer words were never spoken. In the last days, the mistress of a prominent dentist and a big game hunter is jailed for 17 years. Why? Because Lori Milliron, the mistress of the dentist,

did everything she could to murder the wife of Larry Rudolph. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. That's right. All you women out there dating cheating husbands, take a listen.

The girlfriend of a married dentist and big game hunter that traveled all over the world to shoot animals dead and stuff them, who fatally shot his wife of 34 years. A wife of 34 years takes the wife on an African safari and kills her. And now the mistress gets 17 years behind bars as an accessory to murder. How did the whole thing unfold? And what does the mistress have to do with it? You know, you think of dentists being meek and mild-mannered? Think again. Listen to this. Nine life insurance policies totaling more than 4.8 million dollars could be a possible motive for murder. Dr. Lawrence Rudolph ran Three Rivers Dental for decades, but he's now charged by

federal agents for allegedly scheming to defraud life insurance companies after his wife was shot and killed on a big game hunting trip in Zambia more than five years ago. In a detailed 23-page complaint, the feds say they believe Lawrence murdered his wife Bianca with premeditation in such a manner that he could falsely claim the death was the result of an accident. The claims don't come as shocking for Lisa Stanley, who used to work for Dr. Rudolph in his Green Tree office. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. As soon as I saw the name, I knew exactly who it was,

and I thought to myself, yeah, I'm not that surprised. Former employees we talked to didn't know Bianca personally, but said Lawrence's behavior in the office was alarming. I've never been afraid to go to a job until this one. You know, I just was very uncomfortable, very uneasy around him. Wow. When people are afraid to go to of the dentist? So how did Bianca Fenizio Rudolph end up dead, his wife of 34 years? That's the question. And we often hear of men taking their wives or girlfriends on an exotic trip and then somehow the girl ends up dead and the man lives. What do we know about their trip, their exotic trip to Zambia?

I mean, if you're going to commit a crime, that's a long way from home to do it. Take a listen to Hour Cut 3A, my longtime friend and colleague, Jim Murray at Inside Edition. On the last day of their two-week trip, a gunshot was heard coming from their cabin. Bianca Rudolph was found dead with a gunshot wound to the chest. According to the criminal complaint, her dentist husband told Zambian police he believed his wife had accidentally shot herself with her 12-gauge shotgun while she was packing up the weapon. The dentist came under suspicion after a U.S. embassy official said he believed that the distance between the muzzle of

the shotgun and Bianca's chest was approximately 6.5 to 8 feet, according to the criminal complaint. If true, it would make an accidental shooting unlikely. Which opens up a whole can of worms about how do you commit suicide with a long gun? Now, believe it or not, I've seen a few cases like that where the person sits down with their legs extended straight out in front of them, like on the floor. They point the rifle toward them, the long gun, and they actually pulled the trigger with their toe. Yes, it's happened. But how else can you commit suicide with a long gun? Or they concoct some type of a string or pulley apparatus so they can pull the trigger at themselves with a string, for example, but holding a long gun in your hand and shooting yourself, that's really hard to do. So how did these two meet to start with? Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. This is Jackie Howard in our cut A. Lawrence and Bianca Rudolph meet while

Rudolph is in dental school. Bianca is an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. The couple marry in 1982, around the same time that Lawrence starts a dental firm. Bianca Rudolph joins her husband working in the practice. In 2006, Rudolph separates from his partners, forming a new dental group, Three Rivers Dental. In 2014, the couple moved to Arizona but keep the practices in Pennsylvania. Their net worth, about eight million dollars. When they aren't working, the couple likes to travel worldwide and hunt, especially in Africa. Both Lawrence and Bianca are well-respected international hunters, with Bianca occasionally undertaking excursions without

her husband. They become active members of Safari Club International, a prominent hunting organization, with Lawrence serving at one time as the club's president. Okay, the way I was raised, you don't shoot anything you're not going to eat. So I'm just wondering about all the hunting. Don't get me wrong. I believe in the right to bear arms while I support gun control, in many cases being a victim of gun

violence. To go hunting is covered in the Constitution and that's not what we're arguing about. We're arguing about murder. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. First of all, high-profile lawyer joining me out of Houston, former prosecutor Nicole DeBoerde-Hochglobe. And you can find her at HoustonCriminalDefense.com. Dr. Jory Crawson. Boy, do we need a shrink. He is a psychologist on faculty at St. Leo University, consultant with the Blue Wall Institute, and author of Operation SOS. Lisa Daddio, former police lieutenant in New Haven, senior lecturer and director of the Center for Advanced Policing at University of New Haven. Dr. Tim Gallagher, he is the medical examiner for the entire state of Florida, lecturer at University of Florida Medical School in forensic

medicine, and he is the founder and host of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. Wow, that's a mouthful, and that's just a tiny portion of his resume. But first, to Alexis Tereschuk joining me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. You know, Alexis, we've covered so many cases where the woman ends up dead and the man miraculously survives the scenario and also alexis we've covered a lot of cases where the deaths of these women happen either on the high seas or in another country some little island that many people have only heard of and can barely find on a map. But you know, to commit a crime in another country, a murder, when you pick a

country that has, let's just say, an underdeveloped police department, let's just say this is not the NYPD Homicide Task Force investigating this in zambia i'm putting the cart before the horse this i love to call you on it alexis teres chuck why don't we start at the beginning tell me everything don't leave anything out alexis okay so laurence and bianca as you said they have been hunting for decades. They take a trip to Zambia. It is about a two-week trip. They leave on their final day of the trip. Early, early in the morning, they are getting ready to leave all up there in a small one-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin. All of a sudden, a shot rings out. Lawrence says that his wife was in the living room. was in the bathroom he runs into the other room he

sees that there she is on the ground bleeding he hears he hears the shotgun so the people from as you said you know it's a hunting trip it's safari there are a lot of people there everybody comes running to their hut and she is on the ground the gun which is a long barrel shotgun is sort of tucked a little bit into a case it's like a soft-sided travel case. Alexis slow down tell me that part again part of the long gun which is a rifle is tucked in the carry case? Yes. I assume that would be the butt go ahead. So he what Lawrence has said is that she was packing up the gun because they were getting ready to leave he was in the bathroom she was packing it up and it fired accidentally she

accidentally somehow somehow triggered the trigger and it shot her right in the chest and knocked her blew her to the ground so from what you're telling me she is an experienced hunter herself. Yes. And would go on safaris without him. So she knows how to handle a gun. Yes, and in fact, she was the only one hunting. She was the only one hunting this time because she wanted to kill a leopard. They had a special permit for her to kill a leopard.

So this was her special trip to kill the leopard. That was her goal this time. crime stories with nancy grace the wife of prominent dentist larry rudolph wife of 34 years he mothered two children by rudolph shot in the heart by her own husband lawrence rudolph while the two were away on a hunting trip in Zambia. Now, Rudolph claimed his wife accidentally shot herself while she was packing to head back home. That's right, Rudolph. I guess your wife was packing her scope and her long gun in her suitcase when she shot herself. How do you shoot yourself with a long gun anyway? I guess you'd have to pull the trigger with your toe or set up a very elaborate self-shooting process. Well, that didn't happen. He did it. He did it. But then, to make matters worse, the high-profile

dentist out of Pennsylvania then fraudulently claimed $4. million dollars in life insurance payouts according to the FBI. Now his bottle blonde mistress Lori Milliron is looking at hard jail time for helping in the scheme so her lover could collect millions of dollars of life insurance. You know, there's a special place in H-E-L-L. For those that kill for pecuniary or money interest, as a matter of fact, that is very often an aggravating circumstance that can lead a murder from being a simple homicide to a death penalty case, lying in wait, or murder for a pecuniary or money interest. And that's exactly what happened here. Now, of course, this woman, the mistress, tells the judge she's innocent. But the judge announced the lengthy sentence was well-deserved based on the fact that Milliron encouraged the heinous act, according to the evidence.

Bianca Rudolph was shot in the chest, the bullet coming from her personal shotgun. Lawrence Rudolph told the Zambian police he had been in the bathroom when he heard the gunshot. Rudolph said he found his wife lying on the ground bleeding and believed that the gun had gone off while Bianca Rudolph was trying to pack it into its case. Lawrence Rudolph said he believed the gun was still loaded from the previous day's hunt. Hmm, still loaded. I mean, any expert marksman does not leave a gun loaded,

much less point it towards yourself when it's loaded. Enter Dr. Tim Gallagher. You know, the renowned medical examiner I told you about earlier, the medical examiner for the entire state of Florida. Dr. Gallagher, could you put in regular people talk, Dr. Gallagher? What is a trajectory path? Well, a trajectory path is the path or the track that the bullet takes when it exits the muzzle of the firearm. You know, in this case, we're talking about

a shotgun. And a shotgun is different than a handgun and a rifle. In a rifle and a handgun, when you pull the trigger once, one bullet comes out of the firearm. A shotgun is different. When you pull the trigger once in a shotgun, many, many bullets or projectiles or lead shot come out of the shotgun all at once. And they come out in a very clustered tight pattern kind of like a bunch of grapes and then as they fly through the air they just spread apart

a little bit more and uh judging by how much the projectile spread apart, you can determine how far those those that lead traveled after it left the gun and hit the body. So you can determine the range of fire from the bullet wound or the projectile wounds and your knowledge of ballistics so this is a area of forensic called ballistics and this is typically what they do on a daily basis check for range of fire how far was the victim from the gun when the gun was discharged dr gallagher what you just said was like an aria it was just beautiful i feel like the mormon tabernacle choir just let loose in this studio well thank you nancy well i can listen to you talk all day long i bet juries love you come on to come on down to the conference one year now hey let me rephrase what you just said and tell me if I've got it right. So with a shotgun,

which is unlike a rifle or handgun, it's a long gun, it shoots out a spray of buckshot. And the closer you are to the muzzle, the tighter together the pellets will be. The further away you are, you get more of the spray it'll be a wider uh gunshot wound correct the spray will be much wider pattern you're absolutely right and i guess you'd also look for stippling which would be burning on the skin if the muzzle of the

gun is contact and um you would look for gunshot residue on the victim's hands. Jump in. You're right. I mean, that's true. But one thing we have to know here is that the gun may have been fired through the gun case. And if there's an intermediary target, the range of fire distance becomes less precise. You have to adjust. So was the gun shot through the case? Was the case made of canvas? Was it made of plastic? Could have been metal in the case? So all those would affect the range of fire. And that has to be determined into your equation. And it would diffuse the pellets. Understood. I don't have any evidence that the gun case was shot in any way. Jackie,

no. So, wow, this is quite the, you know, this woman should have been a contortionist for the circus because she somehow managed to get the butt end of the shotgun in the, I'll just say leather carrying pouch or canvas, whatever it was,

and shoot herself before the muzzle could be put in. Wow, that's certainly a feat. Lisa M. Daddio, former police lieutenant and Haven PD, now director of Center for Advanced Policing. Lisa Daddio, how many suicides have you seen with a long gun? None. It's not, it's very difficult to do, given a lot of different things. The length of the barrel, just how long you would need to be unless you rig it somehow in order to kill yourself. And so in 20 years of doing investigations, and whether it was me or the people that worked for me,

we never had a single case. Wow, never. Never once. Never once. When you say it would be difficult to rig it to commit suicide with a long gun, how could it be done? You know, there are uh well documented cases where uh people prop it up in such a way where they like put a string on the trigger and then they pull the string in order to kill themselves um theoretically causing the gun to go off um

that's been kind of the most common and then there's been other like contraptions that they actually make because they're so determined on killing themselves via a shotgun, which as you can imagine causes catastrophic permanent and death injuries. No matter where you get it, if you get it center mass and up, you know, your body, parts of your body are shredded um so those that are really kind of set on killing themselves utilizing a long gun a shotgun a rifle um have designed ways to do it uh versus where it would be just much easier with the handgun but you can survive with the handgun you know another factor lisa daddio is that the victim in this case, Bianca, is only 5'4".

So even then, it makes it much more difficult. I mean, unless she has like these super, you know, not human arms that are, you know, four feet long. How the heck is she killing herself and hitting herself in the chest? Again, I can't say it enough. Lay down with the dog, wake up with the flea. That's exactly what Milliron did when she launched into a sex affair with a married dentist. A married dentist of 34 years and two children. But at trial, when graphic images were shown and the family's painful testimony came out, the judge denounced that Milliron, the judge announced Milliron seemed remorseless. She didn't care about the photos of a dead body. She didn't care about the family's suffering and pain.

She's also convicted of false misleading testimony to a grand jury about the money and her relationship with Rudolph. Well, I can tell you what that is. S-E-X, sex. The lawyer for Milliron claimed the prison sentence was excessive you know what i think i think she and her lover should go to jail when the victim gets out of her coffin there what about that the victim bian children, united in the courtroom with heartbreaking testimony.

And they told their father's mistress how she destroyed their family. The daughter, Anna Rudolph, testified that Milliron plotted to eliminate her mother. As a matter of fact, the daughter, Bianca's daughter, Anna, said, and I quote, Lori, you have taken my parents, but despite everything you've done, you will never take my soul. That might be difficult to understand, Lori, because you don't have one. Wow, that had to hurt. Oh, wait, according to the judge, it didn't because the mistress seemingly had no remorse whatsoever. A jury of six men and six women sided with prosecutors who stated the dentist pre-planned to murder his wife in cold blood, then launch a new life with Milliron, his longtime mistress. She, Milliron,

was also found guilty by that very same jury of being an accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of a grand jury, and two counts of perjury before the grand jury. How did the whole thing unfold? He wanted his wife's body cremated immediately. I know that Nicole DeBoer Hotzglow, former prosecutor, now high-profile defense attorney out of Houston, would claim this means absolutely nothing. The fact that he wanted his wife's body cremated right there in Zambia. Forget about bringing her body home for a burial. Uh-uh. Mm-mm.

He wanted to bring her back in a plastic bag. Okay, take a listen to our cut. See, again, our friends at Crime Online. Lawrence Rudolph called the U.S. Embassy in Zambia. While discussing funeral options, Rudolph tells officials that he wants Bianca Rudolph's body cremated. She is just three days after the shooting. The U.S. Embassy's consular chief alerted the FBI, saying he thought the situation was moving too quickly. So the chief, along with two embassy officials, traveled to a local funeral home to take photos of the body to preserve evidence.

During the funeral home visit, Dr. Rudolph suggested that Bianca may have committed suicide. The funeral home visit troubled embassy officials. The consular chief, a 20-year U.S. Marine veteran, told investigators that the angle of the wound was straight on the heart, not angled as it would be from a self-inflicted shot from a long arm. The chief also pointed out that the wound did not appear to be caused by a tight group of pellets. When a shotgun fires buckshot, the pellets spread out as they travel to a target. Up close, the pellets would be tight. There were also no gas burns on the body, which are typical for gunshot wounds at point-blank or near point-blank range. The

consular chief also noted that Bianca had a second injury to the chest caused by wadding from a shotgun cartridge. Now, it's really interesting that he immediately wants his wife cremated. Now, Nicole DeBoer-Hotschklob, you yourself are the one that told me that she was Catholic. Now, what does that have to do with anything? Well, her friends and family say that that is not what she would have wanted, that she would not have wanted to be cremated. And I've also learned that, in fact, there was a family member or close friend of the couple who tried to talk to him about not having her cremated, and he persisted. So I think these are going to be difficult circumstantial pieces of evidence for the defense, but they certainly don't mean that he killed her on purpose. Take a listen to our friend Royce Jones at CBS.

Bianca's death was ruled an accident by Zambian law enforcement and that Lawrence Rudolph told police he suspected the gun discharged while she was packing it into its case. We reached out to Dr. Rudolph's attorneys. They all say this is outrageous. Dr. Larry Rudolph loved his wife of 34 years and did not kill her. They go on to say that the government is seeking to manufacture a case against this well-respected and law-abiding dentist. Straight out to Alexis Tereschuk with CrimeOnline.com. So Alexis Tereschuk, they had been married 34 years. is that correct? They had 34 years. They had two children

together. One of their adult children actually worked in the dental practice with dad, with Larry. Wow. Okay. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. As my friend Gomer Pyle

would say. Take a listen to our cut 3b jim array with inside edition the investigation was launched after a friend of bianca's told the fbi she suspected foul play because dr rudolph was allegedly having an affair with the manager of his dental office outside pittsburgh the dentist's alleged mistress reportedly gave him an ultimatum of one year to sell his dental offices and leave Bianca. An ultimatum, Alexis Tereschuk? Did you leave a little, one of the facts out? An ultimatum? A mistress that he works with? I mean, really? Could somebody just surprise me one time and and not be the secretary or the assistant? I remember one case, the husband's having a midlife crisis and he starts an affair with the cashier at the GNC

where he's buying all sorts of vitamin supplements to enhance his manhood. You know, surprise me for one time for Pete's sake. Alexis, a sex affair? And it wasn't just for a month or two. It was about a decade. And in fact, he and this girlfriend, they traveled out of the country all the time. They would constantly go to Cabo San Lucas. They went in 2010. They went twice in 2011. They went again in 2013, 14, 15, and in July 2016, before Bianca's death, just a few months later. And then after she died, just a few short months after she died, three months after she died,

they went back to Cabo again, he and the girlfriend. It was, there was barely a blip of time where he wasn't, where he was mourning his wife dying. Tell me that timeline one more time again. So Lawrence, Dr. Rudolph, and the girlfriend, they traveled to Cabo San Lucas, which is in Mexico, beautiful, beautiful resort on the West Coast. Very nice. They went in 2010. Then they went twice in 2011. They went again together in 2013, 2014, 2015.

And then in July of 2016, just months before Bianca's October 2016 2016 death they went to cabo san lucas then again in february of 2017 that's right after she's killed she died yes that's like three months after she's dead he takes his mistress to cabo okay dr Croson, we need to shrink. What is wrong with men? Don't they think we'll notice he's taking his mistress on an international trip while his wife was just killed?

That's easy to track, too, and looking at his thought process... No, my question is what's wrong with men. That was my question. Oh, well, we're just... Why don't you just do what my husband does? I've actually given up asking this. When he does something, I say,

what is wrong with you? And he goes, everything. And when he says that, I'm kind of like, there's nowhere I can go with that. I have to stop. It ruins the whole argument. Everything. I mean, this guy is a dentist for Pete's sake, or as Alexis Tereshchuk keeps calling him,

Dr. Rudolph, and he doesn't think we're going to find out about the sex at the dentist office? Oh, okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sex at the dentist office. I wish I hadn't even said that. I didn't know those three words should be put together. Sex in dentist office, four words. Oh, he didn't think we'd find out about that, Jory Crosson?

I don't think he really cared because if you look at how long he had been doing it and getting away with it. Ten years? Yeah. Is that right, Alexis? Ten years? It was a routine behavior for him. Yep, almost a decade. At least they started traveling to Cabo San Lucas in 2010. But they could have, it may have been longer.

One of his other employees who left said that the person, the woman, confessed that they had been together for between 15 to 20 years. Which is almost his entire time that he was married. I mean, they had been married for 34 years. What, did he have a mistress on day one, Alexis? I mean, it seems like, but well, I don't know if he had a different mistress, but this one was very soon after. And can you tell me, is it true that within 12 months, in less than 12 months, he moves her into the marital home?

Is this true? Yes, that is what the investigators determined. And in fact, people were calling her his new wife. They say they're not quite sure if they ever got married, but she definitely was living with him. So in less than a year, he's moved her into the home. And within a couple of months, he's taking her off for another sex-soaked trip to Cabo. Wow, a jury's going to love that. We're trying to find out more. Was it just sex that was the motive? Take a listen to our cut to a Melanie Gillespie at NBC.

Former employees we talked to didn't know Bianca personally, but said Lawrence's behavior in the office was alarming. I've never been afraid to go to a job until this one. You know, I just was very uncomfortable, very uneasy around him. The FBI said the embassy in Zambia grew suspicious and looked into Bianca's death. FBI agents found those life insurance policies were adjusted and updated just a few months before their hunting trip. The agent said the primary beneficiary of each of these policies was a revocable trust established by the Rudolphs on or about April 25, 2016. The terms of that trust made Lawrence the ultimate beneficiary. Witnesses told investigators Lawrence was having extramarital affairs,

allegedly with a former office manager who moved in with him in January of 2017, just months after Bianca's death. Not only that, take a listen to our cut E from CrimeOnline.com. After Bianca Rudolph died, a friend contacted the FBI in Pretoria, South Africa, suggesting that Bianca's death was foul play. The friend claimed that Lawrence Rudolph was verbally abusive and the couple had fought over money. What's more, she claimed Lawrence Rudolph was verbally abusive and the couple had fought over money. What's more, she claimed Lawrence Rudolph was having an affair. She also pointed out that Bianca Rudolph was a strict Catholic and would not have wanted to be cremated. Would not have wanted to be cremated. And what better place to commit a murder than far, far away from home?

What about Elisa Daddio, a former police lieutenant, now director of the Center for Advanced Policing? Why is it when couples go away, suddenly the woman ends up dead and the husband makes it home? It's easier to get away with in countries like, and I hate to say, but in certain countries, it's much easier to get away with that type of crime. Why do you hate to say it is true? Because their police forces are not used to investigating

homicides. It's just that simple. Like where I grew up in Bibb County, out in the middle of middle Georgia, there were many less homicides than are in New York City or in inner city Atlanta. The reality is detectives are trained in the field. And when they don't see a lot of complicated homicides, then they don't know how to investigate them. It's just, it's not a slight in any way. It's reality, Lisa Daddio. You're right, Nancy. And so that's why we're seeing it happen outside of the United States. Laws are different. Penalties are different. Investigative techniques are different. And in this case, it was believed he got away with murder. You know, I'm just thinking about the way this whole thing went down. Take a listen to our cut D. The consulate chief estimated that

Bianca Rudolph had been shot from between six and a half and eight feet away. A separate inquiry by a Colorado medical examiner concluded that it would be physically impossible to accidentally fire the shotgun in its carrying case and produce an entrance defect noted on the body of Bianca Rudolph. The medical examiner determined the tip of the carrying case was at least two feet away from Bianca Rudolph when it discharged. What's more, at just five feet four inches tall, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Bianca Rudolph to reach the trigger of the weapon, even if it was placed in the case with the muzzle pressed against her chest. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Think about what the wife, Bianca, went through. She was shot with a Browning shotgun in a cabin far away from home in Zambia, just as the couple were

planning to come home. It was around 5 a.m. October 11. Gamekeepers and scouts hear a gunshot come from the cabin. When they get there, they find Bianca lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest. Now, of course, the husband claimed she did it to herself. It was an accident. But prosecutors claimed Rudolph murdered his wife-to-be with mill iron who had been his mistress for 20 years. Can you believe this? He says he was in an open marriage. As I tell my husband, open marriage, open cas casket david lynch no this woman did not know anything about any open marriage and now she's dead and the mistress is heading to jill where she needs to be what exactly happened between the long time sex affair with the office manager and the money motive millions of dollars and the forensics

i'm just surprised that it was initially ruled to be accidental how did that happen well there were the investigation was very sort of quickly ended he He's a very, very wealthy man who's obviously been going on these trips for years and years. You know how rich people are. The more money they have, the more they don't want to share it. And he, well,

he did kind of share his money a little bit because a witness has come forward and said that he was actually paying bribes to people in Zambia to expedite the cremation of his wife. Did it work? Well, it did, yes. She got cremated very quickly.

And so she, and it would have just, nothing would have happened, but the U.S. Embassy, the person that was contacted from the U.S. Embassy was very concerned that this was happening so quickly. So the embassy sent someone to the funeral home to take pictures of her body. And in fact, they got these photos. And these are what are being used now as proof because, and he was furious when this happened. The officer, in fact, said he was, quote, livid that the embassy staff had taken photos and the investigator of his wife's dead body.

How did it go again, Alexis Tereschuk? the funeral home gets the body and then what happens well so the doctor called the embassy and said my wife has died um and then he's like i i need to get her out of the country really quickly so i'm very concerned you know the consular chief at the embassy said um lawrence identified himself he said she died of a gunshot wound. And he said, you know, we've got to get her cremated and out of here very quickly, which seemed a little suspicious. So the consular chief called the funeral home. And then he the funeral home said we are scheduling the cremation for the next day. But this raised a flag for the embassy employee.

He said this he had a bad feeling about this he just thought it was going too quickly after having a conversation with larry who said you know let's go let's go let's get it get her cremated let's get her out of here um and so he decided to take it upon himself and he took two other employees from the embassy and they went to the funeral home and they took the photos and so I'm understanding that the husband, the dentist, was furious. You said that also. Yes. He was, quote, the livid that they had taken the pictures of her.

And the consular chief, he said, come to the embassy. I will meet with you. But he declined. And so the interesting thing was the dentist was complaining. He was saying, it's going to be so hard to take the body back to the United States. You need a lead-lined coffin to do so. And it was very difficult and very expensive, and that's why he just wanted to get her cremated. But they investigated.

He has taken many of these large game animals back to the United States, and they have to be transported in a similar fashion. You can't just stick them in your overnight bag and stick them in the cabin of the airplane so he is very familiar with dealing with this and it's you know it's not easy but certainly if you wanted to take your wife's body home so that your children could see them before you cremate mommy that that was something that could happen but he was complaining saying it was much too complicated and difficult, even though he'd been doing it for decades with animals.

Alexis Torres shot CrimeOnline.com. Isn't it true that he allegedly also paid at least one tour guide to state, as a witness, how the tour guide saw the body in their bungalow? Yes, that is what it's claimed, that he paid this tour guide to say that she was on the ground, that the gun was facing and was just a few feet away from her. Throwing around money doesn't seem to be helping him. Speaking of money, you know, the smarter people are, you'd think the better they could cover their tracks.

Not necessarily true. Take a listen to Royce Jones, CBS, our cut four. Federal investigators allege Rudolph killed his wife and had her cremated in Africa in a scheme to collect millions in life insurance claims tied to her death. According to the criminal complaint, Rudolph allegedly made claims through seven different insurance companies totaling more than $4.8 million in payouts. Investigators go on to say that Rudolph had his attorneys use FedEx to mail claim-related documents to one of the insurance companies. The complaint also states

the earliest life insurance policy to cover Bianca was purchased around 1987 and that the policies in which Lawrence Rudolph was the primary beneficiary were updated and adjusted in 2016, the same year Bianca died. You know, to you, Dr. Jory Crawson, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University, to adjust your wife's life insurance policy just before a rifle accident in Zambia, isn't that a little bit too much for a jury to swallow? Yeah, and to think also, he put it in a trust that he controlled. I mean, again, thinking like, you know, I would consider him thinking that he's considering he's covering his tracks by putting it in a trust. Yet, you know, the trust is under his total control.

And take a listen to our cut 1A our friend Sheldon Ingram at Pittsburgh Action News. In 2016 it says Rudolph killed his wife Bianca Rudolph during an African safari in Zambia. He told authorities it was an accidental shooting as Bianca packed away a shotgun and it went off. But forensic analysis, they say, do not match that story. And investigators also say Rudolph collected $4.8 million in life insurance after his wife's death. Those policies were updated the same year before her death in October of 2016. Investigators also say they were told by a friend of Rudolph's wife that he had an active affair with another woman at the time of Bianca's death. You know, to Nicole DeBoer-Hodgeglobe joining us from Houston, the reality is,

while this seems very nefarious, how hard is it going to be to prove all of this ballistics without a body and without the appropriate investigative photos and measurements? That's a great point. And the reality is, I think this is where the defense team has its strongest argument. They don't have the ability to go back and analyze the forensics because there were no forensics. There were a few photographs and photographs can really look different based on perspective. And that's why you'll see in the complaint, the FBI has spent such a huge amount of time going back and trying to reconstruct these photographs.

Still, though, the data just can never be there. Take a listen to our cut five from Pittsburgh Action News. Tom Garris. A federal grand jury is charging the owner of Three Rivers Dental with foreign murder and mail fraud. The FBI claiming that Lawrence Rudolph killed his wife in 2016 on that hunting trip in Zambia in order to collect nearly five million dollars in life insurance money. Now, the FBI also says the owner of the dental practice had a longtime relationship with a manager at the practice. That woman is said to have given Rudolph an ultimatum to sell the dental offices and to

leave his wife, Bianca, within a year. The ultimatum, the money, the mistress, the forensics, what does it boil down to? A federal grand jury or investigation does not a conviction make. Well, he was taken into custody ultimately. Take a listen to our cut one. Dr. Lawrence Rudolph owns Three Rivers Dental, and he greets all callers with a recorded automated message. But tonight he is in federal custody in Colorado accused of murdering his wife. No one in his five offices are talking, which includes locations in Greensburg and Green Tree. His arrest is detailed in a 21 page affidavit from the FBI. It details how he allegedly killed his wife to collect more than $4 million.

With a life insurance policy. And that's not all. Take a listen to what the defense says. Hour cut six from KDKA. Dr. Larry Rudolph's attorneys. Call this case manufactured. Saying it's so weak. They're keeping a nearly 70 year old man.

With a severe heart condition. In jail. All as part of what they're calling. nearly 70 year old man with a severe heart condition in jail all as part of what they're calling an fbi witch hunt in court documents just released attorneys claim the couple signed a prenup saying he wouldn't lose much during a divorce and also claiming his dental franchise three rivers dental is valued at close to eight million dollars claiming he had no financial reason to kill his wife local law enforcement in africa rolled it an accident and allowed for cremation days after her death now fbi agents believe bianca could not have physically pulled the trigger investigators

believe his wife's life insurance policies some adjusted in the months leading up to her death tell a different story a nearly nearly $5 million story. The dates show Dr. Rudolph received the money in under one month's time. He got the money in under one month's time after her death. And don't be feeling sorry for this guy because he's 70 years old. He's still young enough to take his mistress to Cabo for a sex-soaked weekend. Again, our friends at Crime Online. Larry Rudolph convicted of first-degree murder and mail fraud. Rudolph is still in jail awaiting his sentencing. His mistress, Lori Milleron, now sentenced to 17 years in prison as an accessory to the murder of Bianca Rudolph.

Justice unfolding in a Pennsylvania courtroom. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.