Dentist accused of killing wife in Africa then claimed she shot herself so he could get $4million insurance payout

Dr Lawrence Rudolph, a dentist aged 67, has been charged with killing his wife while they were on an African hunting safari and then allegedly said she shot herself so he could claim more than $4million in life insurance.

The incident happened in Zambia in 2016, and the man has now been charged with foreign murder and wire fraud in Colorado.

Rudolph had seven life insurance policies against his wife that were modified just months before her death, and had been having an affair for years prior to that, according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed in the first week of January 2021.

The payouts from the seven different insurance companies across states totaled $4.8million, according to the complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.

The couple apparently flew to Zambia in October 2016 so Bianca could hunt down a leopard. But early on October 11 of that year, scouts and gamekeepers heard a gunshot from her cabin. They arrived to find her with a gunshot wound to her chest on the ground.

At the time, Rudolph said he was in the restroom while she accidentally shot herself in the midst of packing for the hunting excursion.

The Police in Zambia ruled Bianca’s death as an accident and let her husband fly back to the US. But back in the states, Rudolph continued to see the woman he had been having an affair with, according to the FBI.

The FBI got on the case in 2016 after a friend of Bianca reported her death as suspicious because even though the Rudolphs were not happy in their marriage they did not pursue a divorce, Bianca’s friend said.

They had two children including a daughter who works at the dental firm that her father started.

Rudolph was arrested in December 2021 and is incarcerated in Colorado. He has denied the allegations and claimed that the FBI accused him as part of a witch hunt.