US Claims, Dentist Killed Wife on African Hunting Trip

Bianca Rudolph, an American big game hunter, came to Zambia with her husband in 2016, aiming to add a leopard to her trophy collection. 

Ms. Rudolph, however, never returned home. According to court records, she died from a deadly shotgun blast "right on the heart" at a secluded hunting cabin where the couple was staying.

Lawrence Rudolph, her 34-year-old husband, told police that a Browning 12-gauge shotgun accidentally discharged as she was packing it away. Authorities claimed he raised their suspicions when he requested that her remains be burned as soon as possible. 

The consular section head at the US Embassy in Lusaka, "told the F.B.I. he had a terrible feeling about the scenario, which he believed was moving too quickly," Donald Peterson, an F.B.I. special agent, said in a recently released criminal affidavit.

Dr. Rudolph, a dentist in Greensburg, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh, earned over $4.9 million in life insurance payments in the months following Ms. Rudolph's death, which the F.B.I. now claims he arranged. 

According to released court records, Dr. Rudolph, 67, was detained in late December and charged with one crime of murder of a US person in a foreign country and one count of mail fraud.

The F.B.I. and US consulate officers concluded that Ms. Rudolph was shot from a distance of 6.5 feet to eight feet based on the gunshot wound. They decided that it was exceedingly improbable that she had accidently pressed the trigger on the shotgun when they attempted to recreate the shooting.

Now, more than five years later, the government is seeking to manufacture a case against Mr Rudolph.