Kriti Mehrotra
It was October 11, 2016, when everything turned upside down for the Rudolph family as Bianca Theresa Finizio Rudolph was found dead while on a hunting excursion in Zambia, Africa. The truth is her death was initially presumed to be a tragic accident, as explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Safari Story’ and Hulu’s ‘Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari,’ yet the FBI ultimately deemed it a brutal murder following years of investigations. After all, what they uncovered was nothing but a complex web of lies, greed, deception, as well as betrayal that spanned years, enabling them to finally bring this matter to a close in 2022/2023.
Bianca Rudolph Was Found Dead in a Cabin in the Kafue National Park
Anna Sciardiglia and Oreste Vincent Finizio welcomed Bianca Theresa Finizio Rudolph into their lives on December 4, 1959, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She grew up surrounded by their unwavering affection as well as support. Therefore, by the time she’d graduated from high school, she had the innate confidence to do whatever her heart desired, so she chose to attend the University of Pittsburgh for a Bachelor’s degree. That’s when she first came across Lawrence “Larry” Patrick Rudolph, just for them to soon really get to know one another, fall head over heels in love, and eventually even tie the knot on September 4, 1982.
Bianca and Larry initially settled down in their hometown of Pittsburgh, which is where they welcomed two beautiful children, AnaBianca and Julian, all the while building a dental practice empire. The former took care of their household and supported her husband through every tumultuous period he faced, whereas the latter became the proud owner-operator of Three Rivers Dental Group. In fact, by the time the 2010s rolled around, they had managed to accumulate a significant fortune, which they were pumping into a second home in Arizona, real estate, and experiences.
Bianca and Larry were actually both passionate big-game hunters, so a lot of their experiences together involved travels or hunting expeditions, especially to the Kafue National Park in Zambia. In fact, that’s where they were in October 2016 because she had hoped to finally get a shot at a leopard, but alas, she never spotted one despite her husband also being a primary observer this time around. Then came the early morning hours of October 11, which turned everything upside down as a single shotgun blast rang out from inside the Rudolph cabin, only for Larry to subsequently be heard crying. His wife of 34 years lay unmoving at the foot of the dresser in the living room, right next to the bathroom, with a fatal gunshot wound to the left side of her heart.
Bianca Rudolph’s Death Was Initially Believed to be an Accident
Almost as soon as the gunshot rang out, a local game scout named Spencer Kakoma, who was fortunately nearby, rushed to the cabin, just to find Larry slumped and crying over Bianca. According to reports, the husband’s first words to him were, “My wife has committed suicide,” followed by “What am I going to tell my children?” in an almost inconsolable sob not long after. As if that’s not enough, he had reportedly also indicated he wanted to throw himself in the river rather than continue on without his wife, and he wished he had been outside with her rather than in the shower when the Browning shotgun possibly went off.
Spencer allegedly claimed that although Larry asserted he was in the shower when he heard the gun going off, he was dry, clothed, and wearing shoes by the time he had run inside moments later. However, later on, the dentist apparently clarified that when he said shower on the fateful morning, he meant the washroom in general, where he’d been stuck with what he described as “the shits.” Local investigators then arrived at the scene, but by the time they questioned a calmer Larry, he changed his narrative from a suicide to an accidental death because he believed his wife wouldn’t have taken her own life, owing to all she had going for her.
Larry stated that he and Bianca were happy and comfortable in every way, shape, and form as empty nesters, so an accident was the only thing that made sense to him, and the authorities seemed to agree. In fact, they closed the case from their side within mere days upon ascertaining her cause of death as an accidental gunshot wound to the chest, following which they took him to a funeral home. By this point, the dentist had made arrangements for cremation as well as gone to the embassy to discuss the transport of her remains, yet he hadn’t told his children about what had happened. He only did so while on his way back to the US.
A Thorough Investigation by the FBI Resulted in Convictions for Bianca Rudolph’s Murder
Although the Zambian officials had closed Bianca’s case as an accident, the FBI decided to look deeper into the matter after being informed of the ordeal and getting several calls from concerned individuals. That’s when it came to light that not only did Larry gain $4.8 million from the life insurance policies his wife had, but that he was also having an affair with an employee, Lori Milliron. He was given the payout from the policies when he applied for them within weeks, owing to the matter officially being closed, with the life insurance companies also noting that Bianca’s death had been ruled a suicide in Zambia, where the incident occurred.
However, as agents began carefully zeroing in on Bianca’s life to uncover the truth, they heard claims of Larry allegedly being verbally abusive and having several extramarital affairs. Then, a friend also came forward to allege they didn’t believe Bianca would have wanted to be cremated since she was a devout Catholic, but it turns out she had specified in her will that she wanted to be. The most incriminating evidence against Larry, though, came from Spencer. The dentist had suspected that the shotgun had been left loaded from the previous day of hunting and that his wife’s finger possibly slipped on the trigger while she was packing it. Yet, the game scout claimed he was sure he had seen Bianca clear out live ammunition from the shotgun the previous night itself.
This wasn’t enough for investigators to take any action against Larry, so they simply continued to keep an eye on him as the years passed. He and Lori Milliron became an official couple and frequently traveled, including a trip in 2017, not long after Bianca’s death. However, it wasn’t until they got an expert to conclude that there was no way Bianca’s finger could have reached the shotgun’s trigger if the face of it was to her chest that they finally made their arrests. While Larry was charged with murder as well as mail fraud, Lori was charged with five counts of lying under oath, one count of obstructing justice, and one count of accessory to murder. They both stood trial in the summer of 2022 and were found guilty, for which they were sentenced in August 2023.
