In October of 2016, Larry Rudolph & his wife of 34 years, Bianca, were wrapping up their trip & getting ready to head back to the U.S. after a safari vacation in Zambia, Africa.
Larry, who was a Pittsburgh-based dentist, said he was in the bathroom when he heard the blast of a gunshot. He rushed out & found his wife lying on the bedroom floor of their two-room cabin, bleeding & dead. He said that while Bianca was packing up the shotgun, it must have accidentally fired. However, game scout, Spencer Kakoma, insisted that the ammunition had been emptied from the guns.
Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent & CBS News consultant James Gagliano felt it odd that two experienced game hunters would have an accident involving a gun.
Larry quickly chose to have his wife’s body cremated in Zambia which made Bianca’s friends suspicious since as part of her Catholic beliefs, it was their understanding that she didn’t want to be cremated. This friend contacted the FBI with their concerns & also made a statement that Larry was having an affair & was verbally abusive to Bianca. She said the couple also fought over money & this friend felt that Larry would never divorce Bianca because of the money & Bianca wouldn’t leave Larry because of her religious beliefs.
Two weeks after Bianca’s death, family & friends gathered in Arizona to remember her at her funeral. The employees within Larry’s dental practice, on the other hand, were advised not to speak of Bianca on Larry’s request which they found odd. A dental assistant named Sherry Houck had worked for Larry’s Three Rivers Dental Group for eight years at that point. The lucrative practice focused on sedation dentistry & had five offices in the Pittsburgh area.
Sherry indicated that after years focusing on building his business, Larry was starting to spend less time at the office & more time between his Arizona & Pittsburgh homes. Bianca & Larry had met while Larry was in dental school & Bianca was at the University of Pittsburgh. They got married in the early 1980s shortly after Bianca graduated from college & this was when Larry started his dental practice. Bianca initially worked for the practice but spent less time there after they had their children.
They had two children, a son, Julian who is a Florida attorney & a daughter, Ana who followed in her father’s footsteps & became a dentist & works within the practice. In 2006, Larry became disabled & separated from his partners & started a new group of dental offices known as Three Rivers Dental.
Larry & Bianca often spent time traveling & hunting & as time went by, they spent more time traveling to various countries, including Africa. Before meeting Larry, Bianca hadn’t been a hunter but over time, she began hunting with Larry & became a well-respected international hunter.
In about 2012, the Rudolphs moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona but Larry maintained his practices in Pennsylvania, traveling back & forth regularly.
Sherry, who is a friend of Ana’s, said that Ana described her mom as an angel. She loved her very much & those who knew Bianca described her as a very kind & caring person. Sherry had never met Bianca & felt this was on purpose since she was aware that Larry was having an affair with Lori Milliron who managed the offices. Lori had recently given Larry an ultimatum of one year to sell his dental offices & leave Bianca.
To Sherry, it seemed that the affair was very open & she speculated, had been going on for about twenty years. It was an uncomfortable topic in the office & one that was not spoken about. Sherry described Larry as someone who could change his attitude on a dime & this erratic behavior is what pushed her to leave the job.
Sherry said Larry would throw tantrums & the office staff called this “going Rudolph.” Larry enjoyed talking about his hobby of big game hunting & both he & Bianca shared this passion. Larry served as Safari Club International President for years; this was a group that promotes hunting.
Through his term as president, many felt he tainted the club’s reputation through misconduct, including alleged adultery. Larry denied these claims & sued for defamation. The case was settled but Larry was removed as a club member.
His passion for hunting persisted & in 2016, he & Bianca traveled to Zambia multiple times. On this trip, they headed to their favorite location of Kafue National Park in Zambia with the trip planned between September 27 to October 11. This is the oldest & most prestigious park in this area of southern Africa. The park is about the size of New Jersey. One section is a protected wildlife sanctuary & in an adjacent area which is referred to as game management, allows hunting. The Rudolphs were staying in a two bedroom cabin that consisted of a bedroom & a bathroom.
The trip lasted ten days & Bianca was on a mission to hunt a leopard. They spent their time with local game scout, Spencer Kakoma who indicated that they were very happy together during the trip. They were affectionate, laughing, hugging & kissing. Being a married man himself, Spencer admired the love he noted between them & said that there was no tension that he saw. They had brought two guns with them, a Remington .375 Rifle & a Browning 12-gauge shotgun. It was the Browning gun that killed Bianca.
Spencer said that Bianca didn’t get her wish of hunting a leopard. At 5:30 am on October 11, 2016, the Rudolphs were packing to leave. After they’d finished their last hunting outing, they emptied their guns of ammunition before going into the cabin since it was daily protocol. Spencer said he watched Bianca remove the ammunition from her gun with his own eyes.
Spencer was working about thirty yards away in the camp’s dining hall when he heard a gunshot. He rushed into the cabin & found 56-year-old Bianca Rudolph on the floor, bleeding from the left side of her chest. The gun was partially in a soft-sided case & Larry was next to her, sobbing & inconsolable & trying to lift Bianca up. He ran & gave Larry a medical kit but the bleeding was unable to be stopped.
Spencer said that through his sobs, Larry said that he wanted to kill himself because his wife had committed suicide. Larry told Spencer that while he was in the bathroom, his wife had committed suicide. He was so distraught that he ran to a nearby river & threatened to drown himself.
After Spencer was able to calm Larry & bring him back inside the cabin, his story changed & he told Spencer that Bianca must have accidentally discharged the gun while putting it back inside the case. Spencer couldn’t understand how this was possible since he watched her empty it of its ammunition. He was sure that the gun must have been reloaded.
Spencer & Larry went to the local police station & Larry was interviewed by now retired Police Commander Roston Yeyenga for about thirty minutes. Larry said that Bianca had accidentally shot herself. His story was believable at the time because Commander Yeyenga wasn’t there.
Investigators went to the scene & Commander Yeyenga was told that their findings matched Larry’s story. The shotgun was found about three feet from Bianca’s body & had discharged while in the case. Larry said he’d tried to resuscitate his wife.
The report indicated: Dr. Lawrence Rudolph rushed to the bedroom to find his wife lying on the floor bleeding. The findings further suggest that the firearm was loaded from the previous hunting activities, causing the firearm to accidentally fire. Investigators found one round in the shotgun at the time of the shooting.
A Zambian forensic pathologist determined that Bianca had died from hemorrhagic shock, macerated left side of the heart & a perforated lung from a gunshot wound.
Sherry, from the dental practice said that Larry didn’t tell their children, Ana or Julian, about their mother’s death for nearly a week. When Ana found out, she was obviously devastated & had questions about what happened. She had not been told where her mom had been shot.
A ballistic expert & former Special Agent at the Drug Enforcement Agency reviewed documents from the case & said that the blast from the gun would have been ferocious. Spencer indicated that Bianca had screamed after the gun went off, screaming, “Ah!” He’d reached the cabin within fifteen seconds & Bianca was already dead.
Spencer had questions from the get-go in terms of Larry’s version of events. He told Spencer he had been in the bath when the gun went off & raced out to find Bianca dead. However, when Spencer entered the cabin, not only was Larry fully dressed but he was also wearing shoes. Again, Spencer estimates it took him about fifteen seconds to reach the cabin.
Local police indicated that Larry said he was wrapped in a towel when Spencer arrived. An investigator from the Kafue National Park, Masuwa Musese had questions about what he observed when he entered the couple’s cabin. He saw the wound to her chest & the gun nearby & wondered how she could have accidentally shot herself in the heart with a long-barreled gun. He suspected foul play because of the way both the gun & Bianca’s body were lying & the way the bullet had entered. He voiced these suspicions to the police & they assured him it would be investigated.
Larry spoke with the U.S. Embassy in Zambia eleven hours after Bianca was killed, asking when he could have her body cremated. Bianca’s remains were allowed to be released for cremation which was done on October 14, three days after her death. When the case was published in a local paper & issued an accidental death, even readers had their immediate suspicions. It was Bianca’s friend’s concerns that she voiced to the FBI on October 27 about Larry choosing cremation despite the fact that Bianca did not want this that set the chain of events in motion two weeks later. Larry said that both he & Bianca had always planned to be cremated as well as the fact that it was “challenging” to transport her body back to the U.S. which would require the purchase of a lead-lined coffin. Larry had actually paid extra to expedite the process. It was pointed out that Larry had to frequently arrange transport of the animals he hunted back to the U.S. which is cumbersome & expensive.
The case became an active international investigation after concerns regarding Larry & Bianca’s relationship were voiced. Hours after Bianca’s death, the consular chief at the U.S. The Embassy in Zambia had his concerns & spoke with Larry. Because Larry seemed to be in such a rush to have his wife cremated & to leave the country, it seemed highly suspect.
The consular chief just so happened to be a former Marine who had decades of experience with weapons. Little did Larry know but he was able to inspect Bianca’s body before it was cremated on October 13. He took photos & measured the shotgun & the wound. Based on Bianca’s body, he did not believe that she could have shot herself. To him, it appeared as if someone was holding the shotgun several feet away when it was fired. The consular chief shared his notes & photos with the FBI & an inquiry into Bianca’s death was underway. When Larry discovered that he had gone to the funeral home to review & photograph Bianca’s body, he was described as livid.
Because the investigation was taking place outside the U.S., a lot of problems can be presented & the case takes time; the FBI worked on the case both in the U.S. & in Zambia. In the meantime, Larry carried right on with his life.
Five years went by when Spencer was contacted by the FBI. Over the years, they’d interviewed numerous people, reviewed documents, photos & conducted forensic testing. The evidence concluded possible foul play & a complaint was filed that indicated that Larry was Bianca’s murderer.
Retired Police Commander Roston Yeyenga indicated that when their officers arrived on the scene, they found Bianca’s body lying face up & that Larry seemed to be devastated. He saw tears in his eyes & at the time, no one suspected that he was responsible for his wife’s death.
It was suspicious that an experienced hunter such as Bianca would have pointed the muzzle of the gun toward herself as she packed it away, ignoring safety protocol. Even believing the weapon was unloaded, an experienced person would never, under any circumstances, point the muzzle of the gun at their own body or that of another person.
According to the complaint, the FBI interviewed a Zambian ballistics expert who performed drop tests to see if the gun would fire if dropped. The gun was repeatedly dropped from about four & a half feet high onto cement & never misfired. They also did tests using the same make & model gun that killed Bianca & used a soft-sided case like Bianca had with a study of people the same height as Bianca with similar arm lengths to determine if she would have been able to reach the trigger while packing the gun inside the bag. Fifteen women Bianca’s size were tested & none were able to reach the trigger. Bianca stood at 5’4” & based on an analyzed photos, her longest possible right arm length was estimated to be 28.75 inches. The FBI used a prop gun; Bianca’s gun was approximately 31.1875 inches from trigger to muzzle. The woman used in the demo was just able to reach the trigger but it was very difficult. The soft-sided gun case was not a tight fit & the gun would have easily slid into the case & there would have been no need to force the gun into the case.
The conclusion was that it was possible but very difficult & would only happen had Bianca been leaning over the gun which would have been in direct contact with her body. Had that been the case, a contact shot would be the only possibility. A 12-gauge shotgun shell contains pellets & with a contact shot, the pellets would have time to spread & would instead go into the tissue in a tight group, the same diameter as the gun barrel. Photos of Bianca’s body indicated that the pellets covered approximately 6 centimeters in diameter, roughly two & a half inches which was a pattern that would be impossible had the muzzle of the gun been placed directly against her body.
In order to form the pattern seen in the photos of Bianca’s body, the gun would have been fired from a distance of between 2 & 3.5 feet. This concluded that Bianca had not been killed by accidental discharge.
Within weeks of Bianca’s death, Larry had moved Lori Milliron into his Paradise Valley, Arizona home. His business was thriving & the couple split their time between Pittsburgh, Arizona & their vacation home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
In December of 2021, more than five years after Bianca’s death, the prosecutors & the FBI decided that they had enough information to charge Larry. At the time, Larry & Lori were at their vacation home in Cabo when local authorities arrested Larry. Mexican police executed a warrant for Larry’s arrest for the murder of Bianca & for mail fraud for collecting Bianca’s life insurance. After her death, Larry received over $4.8 million in nine separate policies. Bianca died on October 11 & the first claim was submitted on October 31, less than three weeks later. After Bianca’s death, Larry purchased two luxury cars, an Aston Martin DB-11 & a Bentley Bentayga. His properties & cars were worth millions.
The defense argued that there was no financial motive since Larry’s dental practice alone was worth $8 million & altogether, he was worth $27 million
Within days of Larry’s arrest, Larry was extradited to Denver & a grand jury was gathered to hear evidence about the case. Ana, Larry’s daughter, was devastated about the arrest. Lori Milliron followed Larry to Denver & was called before the grand jury.
Two weeks after his arrest, the grand jury handed down their indictment & it was believed that the investigation would show that Larry killed his wife to collect millions in insurance money. The other motive was the ultimatum that Lori had given him.
In February of 2022 64-year-old Lori Milliron faced federal charges alleging that she provided false & misleading testimony to the grand jury. One month after her testimony, she was arrested & accused of lying about her relationship with Larry & what he said in the days & months after Bianca’s death. She faces as much as 30 years in prison. There are no allegations to indicate that she was involved in what happened to Bianca in 2016.
Lori is currently on home detention in Arizona & maintains a connection with Larry, still running his dentistry business but she is forbidden to contact him. Lori signed a pre-trial affidavit that indicated that she & Larry were involved romantically & this was something that Bianca was aware of.
On Monday, August 1, 2022, Larry was found guilty of murder & mail fraud after a three week trial & awaited sentencing. Larry has maintained his innocence but evidence showed that it was impossible to suffer from a self inflicted wound to the heart with the weapon that killed Bianca which was shown to have been shot from 2-3.5 feet away from where she would have stood based on the pattern of the wound. Prosecutors alleged that Larry made the decision to kill his wife to regain control over his life after Bianca asked for more say in their finances & also demanded that Lori be fired. A bartender from Phoenix testified that they overheard Larry saying, “I killed my f–’ing wife for you!” during an argument they were having in early 2020. The bartender, Brian Lovelace testified that the music was playing so he had been unable to hear the words that were said before this. Rudolph himself testified that he said, “Now they’re saying I killed my f–’ing wife for you!” after he learned that the FBI was investigating him.
Prosecutors allege that Larry’s wealth was built on fraud. In 2006, he shot off his thumb in Zambia in order to collect millions of dollars in disability money. They also allege he cheated his dental patients, creating the need for root canals by not doing fillings or by drilling holes in their teeth while they were under sedation.
On Friday, June 23, 2023 Lori Milliron was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for being an accessory to the crime. Relatives spoke out during her hearing & said that she had destroyed their family. Ana Rudolph felt that Lori had plotted to eliminate her mother & spoke directly to her, saying, “Lori, you have taken my parents. Despite everything you have done you will never take my soul. This might be difficult to understand because you don’t have one.” Lori has since filed an appeal.
On Monday, August 21, 2023 Larry was sentenced to life in prison & faces more than $15 million in penalties. His lawyers plan to appeal the conviction .
Julian & Ana Rudolph have opted to not speak much publicly about their mother’s death. They’re fighting for some of the financial penalties that the government wants their father to pay, asking that the court treat them vs. the insurance companies as the victims of insurance. In a court filing, they’ve indicated that they’ve suffered considerable financial harm & are entitled to restitution since his two adult children control his finances now. The government estimated that Larry is worth $15 million but a defense expert during the trial said his current worth is now less than $10 million. The prosecution argues that the adult children are not being punished & they also aren’t entitled to unjust enrichment from their father’s criminal schemes.
References:
- FBI Affidavit
- CBS News: Pennsylvania dentist accused of killing wife during 2016 hunting trip in Africa for insurance money
- CBS News: Wealthy dentist Lawrence Rudolph found guilty in wife’s death on 2016 African safari
- CBS News: Larry Rudolph, wealthy dentist convicted of killing wife on African safari, sentenced to life in prison
- CBS News: Wife of Pittsburgh dentist dies from fatal gunshot on safari – was it an accident or murder?
