A multimillionaire Pennsylvania dentist and big game hunter was found guilty of murder and mail fraud on Monday for shooting and killing his wife while on a safari vacation in Africa over six years prior.
After a three-week trial in a federal courtroom in Denver, a jury convicted Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph, 67, guilty of murdering his wife of 34 years, Bianca Rudolph.
As a result of receiving $4.8 million in life insurance payouts after his wife’s death in October 2016—which he claimed was accidental and self-inflicted—he was also found guilty of mail fraud.
Jurors agreed with the prosecution’s theory that Rudolph killed his wife deliberately in order to collect the life insurance proceeds and begin a new life with his 20-year mistress.
On October 11, 2016, while on a hunting expedition in Zambia, Rudolph allegedly shot his wife. Years later, he was overheard yelling, “I killed my f-king wife for you!”, were out to dinner, amid a disagreement with the other woman, Lori Milliron.
Since the pair had been in an open relationship since 2000, which let them to have sexual interactions with others, Rudolph’s attorneys claimed that he lacked motivation to murder his wife for Milliron.
They also claimed that since he was wealthy more than $15 million at the time, he had no need for the life insurance benefits that were placed in a trust for the couple’s children. The insurance companies’ investigators came to the conclusion that the gunshot was unintentional, and they paid the family around $5 million as a result.
According to the prosecution, Milliron, who oversees Rudolph’s dentistry practice in the Pittsburgh region, learned about the murder only after it had already taken place. They charged her with misrepresenting the case and her relationship with Rudolph before a federal jury.
The same jury also convicted her guilty of obstruction of a grand jury, two charges of perjury before a grand jury, and accessory after the fact to murder. On two further counts of perjury, she was found not guilty.
Rudolph might get the death penalty or a maximum sentence of life in prison.
