Lawrence Rudolph, an American dentist and hunter, killed his wife on their African safari
Lawrence Rudolph, 67, killed his wife, Bianca Rudolph, with a shotgun and defrauded multiple insurance companies, a federal jury found Monday. Rudolph cashed in more than $4.8 million in life insurance payments after her death almost six years ago.
Rudolph has maintained his innocence and believes the gun was fired accidentally.
"I did not kill my wife. I could not murder my wife. I would not murder my wife," Rudolph told jurors when he took the stand in his defence at a federal trial in Denver last week.
The Phoenix couple shared a passion for big-game hunting and had travelled to the southern African nation of Zambia in September 2016, so Bianca Rudolph could add a leopard to her collection of animal trophies. They carried two guns for the hunt: a Remington .375 rifle and a Browning 12-gauge shotgun.
Two weeks later, Bianca Rudolph was packing for the couple's return home; she suffered a fatal blast from the Browning shotgun in their hunting cabin at Kafue National Park. Rudolph told investigators he heard the shot at dawn while he was in the bathroom and believed the gun accidentally went off as she was putting it in its case, court documents said. He told investigators he found her bleeding on the floor.
But federal prosecutors at Rudolph's trial in Denver, where the insurance companies are based, described it as a premeditated crime. Prosecutors argued Rudolph killed his wife of 30 years for insurance money and to be with his girlfriend, Lori Milliron.
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