Larry Rudolph.Photo: Facebook
A dentist and big-game hunter is accused of killing his wife on a hunting trip to Zambia so he could collect millions of dollars in life insurance benefits.
Lawrence Rudolph, 67, is charged with foreign murder and mail fraud in the 2016 death of his wife, Bianca Finizio Rudolph, PEOPLE confirms.
“Now, more than five years later, the government is seeking to manufacture a case against this well-respected and law-abiding dentist. Dr. Rudolph looks forward to his trial, where he will demonstrate his innocence.”
According to the criminal complaint, the couple traveled to Zambia in late September 2016 so Bianca, also a big-game hunter, could hunt a leopard. They were getting ready to leave their hunting camp in Kafue National Park on the morning of Oct. 11, 2016, when Bianca was shot in the chest with a Browning shotgun.
Lawrence allegedly told the local 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.
“Lawrence told the Zambian police he suspected the shotgun had been left loaded from the hunt the previous day and that the discharge occurred while she was trying to pack the shotgun into its case,” the complaint alleged.
Zambia law enforcement ruled her death as an accidental discharge but federal authorities were not convinced.
According to the complaint, the consular chief at the U.S. Embassy in Zambia told the FBI he had talked to Lawrence about cremating his wife’s body.
“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,” the complaint alleged.
He told investigators that Lawrence was “livid” when he discovered the consular chief had gone to see his wife’s body and taken photographs.
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 Lawrence had cheated on his wife and had been having an affair at the time of her death.
“[Friend] said Lawrence had been verbally abusive in the past and that the two had had fights about money,” the complaint states. “Friend also said she believed the cremation to have been against Bianca’s wishes because Bianca was a strict Catholic who had once expressed disapproval that friend’s husband was cremated. Similarly, friend stated, ‘Larry is never going to divorce her because he doesn’t want to lose his money, and she’s never going to divorce him because of her Catholicism.'”
“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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An arrest warrant was issued for Lawrence on Dec. 22. He was indicted in early January in Colorado, where one of the insurance companies involved is based, according to theCharlotte Observer.
Lawrence has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 28, according toTribLive.
source: people.com
