Naman Shrestha
A hunting safari trip to Zambia turned into Bianca Rudolph’s last ever adventure as she was found dead inside her hunting cabin in the Kafue National Park. Claiming it to be an accidental self-inflicted gunshot that resulted in her death, Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph was the one responsible for shooting her, but somehow managed to escape justice for several years. As the investigators gathered evidence against him, they finally apprehended him and brought him to justice. The entire case is covered in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Safari Story’ and Hulu’s ‘Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari,’ which also features details about Larry’s other alleged crimes.
Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph Was Having an Affair With Lori Milliron
Before becoming a famed dentist, Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph attended the dental school at the University of Pittsburgh, where he crossed paths with an undergraduate student named Bianca. They fell head over heels in love with each other and eventually tied the knot. While staying in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the couple gave birth to two children of their own — a daughter named AnaBianca and a son named Julian. After years of gaining experience at The Dentistry as a partner, Larry eventually started his own practice, Three Rivers Dental Group. He soon garnered such success that he opened four clinics around Pittsburgh. As their children grew up, the daughter followed in his footsteps and joined Three Rivers Dental Group while Julian became a lawyer.
Besides dentistry, Larry’s passion also lay in hunting, which he had picked up when he was merely a child, thanks to his father. This allowed him to ultimately become a part of the Safari Club International (SCI). By 2009, he had moved up the ranks and was appointed the club’s President. Soon, Larry and Bianca also joined the Weatherby Foundation. At the time, he was also involved in an extramarital affair with one of his employees, Lori Milliron, a mother of three children of her own. When the affair became public knowledge, the SCI accused him of misconduct and expelled him from the club in 2012. They even stripped him of all his hunting awards that he had earned over the years and removed him from their records entirely. Larry filed a defamation lawsuit against the club’s officers. In May 2016, the lawsuit was settled, with the SCI being ordered to pay him an undisclosed sum.
Larry Staged Bianca’s Death to Look Like an Accident
As the affair between Larry and Lori intensified and they started planning a future together, the latter allegedly gave him an ultimatum to get rid of his wife within a year or else she would leave him. In September 2016, Larry got the perfect opportunity as he and Bianca traveled to Zambia to hunt down a leopard and add it to her collection of animal trophies. They stayed at their private hunting cabin in the Kafue National Park for a couple of weeks. On the morning of October 11, the couple was packing up and getting ready to board the flight back home. That’s when Larry shot his 56-year-old wife in the chest with a 12-gauge hunting shotgun. When the authorities arrived, he claimed that she had accidentally pulled the trigger herself while trying to put the weapon in its case.
He told the police that he was in the bathroom when the gunshot rang out. Moreover, reportedly, in order to give the authorities minimal time to collect evidence from her remains, he accelerated her cremation process. As if that’s not enough, in mere weeks following Bianca’s passing and his return to the United States alone, Larry collected around $4.8 million worth of life insurance claims in order to start afresh with Lori. Starting from 2017, the two openly dated and lived together until he was finally arrested in December 2021 for murder and defrauding insurance companies, after the detectives connected him to the murder of Bianca Rudolph.
Larry Rudolph is Serving His Sentence at an Indiana Prison Facility
Following his arrest, Dr. Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. In July 2022, his trial for his wife’s murder commenced. Defending himself and maintaining his innocence, he took the stand and claimed that his wife had accidentally pulled the trigger. He stated, “I did not kill my wife. I could not murder my wife. I would not murder my wife.” He denied all the alleged motives for him to have committed the crime, be it for the insurance money or to be with Lori Milliron for good. He reportedly even went as far as to say he and Bianca had an open marriage, which many have since refuted. It also came to light that the 56-year-old had specified that she wanted to be cremated in her last will and testament, but to no avail. On August 1, 2022, the jury reached a verdict and found 68-year-old Larry guilty of all the charges against him, including one count of premeditated murder and one count of mail fraud for cashing in more than $4.8 million in life insurance claims.
After his conviction, Larry and his defense counsel filed a motion to get it overturned, but the court denied his appeal. More than a year later, on August 21, 2023, Larry was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife of 30 years on their trip to Zambia. On top of that, he was ordered to serve a concurrent sentence of 20 years for defrauding multiple life insurance companies, pay back $4,877,744 in restitution, pay a fine of $2,000,000, and pay a $200 special assessment fee. The killer also had to forfeit all the assets he had obtained after his crime.
Nevertheless, it’s imperative to note that Larry still gets around $30,000 in disability from a claim he had filed long before Bianca’s death after allegedly losing a thumb in a fight with an alligator. He claimed he was fishing in Africa early one morning when he was attacked. However, many believe this assertion to be a hoax and think that he had shot himself in the thumb on purpose, but it has never been confirmed. Larry has since filed multiple appeals to get his conviction and sentence overturned, so the process is ongoing. Currently, though, the 70-year-old remains incarcerated at USP Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Read More: Lori Milliron: Where is Larry Rudolph’s Girlfriend Now?
