Larry, a dentist in the Pittsburgh area, said he was in the bathroom when he heard a gunshot and found his wife bleeding, dead on the bedroom floor. He said that while Bianca was making the shotgun, she must have fired by mistake.
Larry’s description raises questions, says retired FBI Special Agent and CBS News Advisor James Gagliano. “I have two experienced hunters in my mind, because that was an accident,” he told 48 Hours.
Game detector Spencer Kakoma says he also has questions. He insists after the hunt, the weapons emptied of ammunition.
Larry quickly burned his wife’s body in Zambia, prompting a friend of Bianca’s to disprove that it was an accident. Shortly after Bianca’s death, a friend called the FBI. According to an FBI complaint, he also said that Lawrence had an affair and that he had verbally insulted Bianca. The friend also told the FBI that the couple had a fight over money.
Investigators spent five years working on the case. Larry was arrested in December 2021 for the murder of his wife. He claims that he is innocent and his lawyers write in a statement to “48 Hours” that the case is being built “… without real evidence, without eyewitnesses, without medical examiners, without anything…”
So what happened to Bianca Rudolph?
DEATH ON SAFARI
Nearly two weeks after Bianca Rudolph’s death, while on a hunting trip to Zambia, her family and friends gathered in Arizona to remember her at her funeral. But at Larry Rudolph’s Pennsylvania dentist, there was silence in the air.
Sherry Houck: Larry never talked about Bianca’s death. Or he was telling everyone not to talk about it. Or did he do it, somewhat suspiciously.
Sherry Houck worked as a dental assistant at Dr. Rudolph’s Three Rivers Dental Group for almost eight years. The lucrative practice, with five offices in the Pittsburgh area, specializes in dental suppression, providing anesthesia to frightened patients.
Sherry Houck: I liked everything about how we treated our patients… And I really believed in what we did and – how he did it.
After years of building on his successful practice, Dr. Rudolph, Sherry says, now spends limited time in the office. He and Bianca had lived in homes in Pittsburgh and Arizona. The couple had met while Larry was attending dental school and Bianca at the University of Pittsburgh.
Megan Schiller: Larry and Bianca were married in the early ’80s, shortly after… graduated from college.
Meghan Schiller is a reporter for CBS Pittsburgh subsidiary KDKA.
Meghan Schiller: They had two children. They had Julian, who is their son, who is now a lawyer in Florida, and they had a daughter, Anna, who is now following in her father’s footsteps.
Ana, a friend of Sherry’s, is also a dentist at the doctor’s office.
Sherry Houck: Ana described her mom as an angel. She loved her mom. People who knew Bianca Rudolph described her as a very kind, affectionate person.
Sherry never met Bianca and there may have been a reason: she says Larry had an affair with the woman who ran the office, Lori Milliron.
Sherry Houck: Larry and Lori’s relationship just seemed very open; as far as I know, it probably lasted for 20 years. Or was it just – uncomfortable and you just did not say it.
In the office, Sherry saw different sides of Larry.
Sherry Houck: Larry could be great, and he could change – attitude in minutes.
This erratic behavior, says Sherry, was one of the reasons she quit her job.
Sherry Houck: It could have been … annoying. And we would call it something like Rudolph was going.
Bianca and Larry Rudolph were avid hunters who traveled the world. Larry Rudolph / Facebook
Something Larry enjoyed talking about in the office and being proud of was his hobby: hunting large prey.
Sherry Houck: Larry Rudolph and Bianca Rudolph were avid hunters. This was a huge part of their lives. . They were both well known for this.
Rudolph served for several years as President of Safari Club International, a hunting team. Travel around the world, recording messages for members.
LARRY RUDOLPH [Safari Club International video]”I’m here on the Kafue River in Zambia – I did some lion hunting… and I just have a great adventure.”
His tenure, however, will be tarnished by allegations that he had damaged the club’s reputation through alleged misdemeanors, including alleged adultery. Larry denied the allegations and sued for defamation. The case was eventually settled, but Larry was expelled as a member of the club.
But his passion for hunting lasted and in 2016, together with Bianca, they headed to a favorite location: the Kafue National Park in Zambia.
Meghan Schiller: Kafue National Park is considered a big toy paradise. … The oldest and most famous national park in this region of South Africa. To put it in scale, it is the size of New Jersey.
In 2016, the Rudolphs traveled to a favorite location, the Kafue National Park in Zambia. CBS News
The park has a section that is a protected wildlife refuge — and an adjoining area, referred to as game management, that allows hunting. On the trip, the Rudolphs stayed in a two-room cabin consisting of a bedroom and a bathroom.
Meghan Schiller: Bianca finally wants to chase a leopard. . He tried for years to hunt a leopard.
The trip lasted about 10 days. A moment that was happy, according to Spencer Kakoma, the local game detector that accompanied the couple.
Spencer Kakoma: They laughed with each other, kissed each other, hugged each other
Debora Patta: Did you think they were a happy couple?
Spencer Kakoma: I – I was still – admired it because I’m also married.
Debora Patta: And did you see any tension between Larry and Bianca Rudolph?
Spencer Kakoma: No, I did not see any tension
Bianca never shot a leopard. And on the last day of the safari, before the Rudolphs go to their cabin, Spencer says, as is the daily protocol, the guns emptied all the ammunition.
Debora Patta: And did you see Bianca Rudolph clear her gun of real ammunition?
Spencer Kakoma: I saw – Bianca Rudolph doing that. . It was cleaned, or it was clean. There was no – ammunition that was there.
Debora Patta: Did you see it with your own eyes?
Spencer Kakoma: Yes
It was the end of the Rudolph hunting trip to Zambia. They were supposed to be packing their things and getting ready to fly home. But then Bianca Rudolph suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
According to Zambian police, on the last day of their safari, October 11, 2016, Larry Rudolph claimed that Bianca was putting a gun in the bedroom of their two-room cabin when she heard a shotgun explode from the bathroom. CBS News
Spencer was working about 30 meters away when he heard the gunshot and ran to the cockpit, finding 56-year-old Bianca Rudolph dead on the floor, shot in the heart. The weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun. Spencer says the gun, partly in a soft case, was next to her. And Larry Rudolph looked inconsolable, crying.
Spencer Kakoma: He cries, he cries, “Let me commit suicide because my wife has committed suicide. She has committed suicide. I want to commit suicide as well.”
Spencer says Larry initially claimed that Bianca had committed suicide by deliberately shooting herself while he was in the bathroom. And he says Larry was so upset that he ran into a nearby river saying he wanted to jump and drown. Spencer says he calmed Larry down and they returned to the cabin. But now, Larry had a different version of events. It was no longer suicide, but that Bianca accidentally shot herself while picking up her gun.
Debora Patta: Were you surprised that a shot was fired?
Spencer Kakoma: Yes. This is one of the things that made me suspicious. . I saw Bianca Rudolph remove ammunition from their weapons.
Debora Patta: So how do you think ammunition got into the shotgun?
Spencer Kakoma: I think there must have been someone who loaded it.
Debora Patta: Someone loaded this gun…
Spencer Kakoma: Yes.
Things do not add up for Spencer. He and Larry Rudolph went to the local police station. Rudolph interviewed retired police chief Roston Yeyenga for about 30 minutes, and Larry told him that Bianca had accidentally shot herself while putting down her gun.
Roston Yeyenga: He heard a gunshot and a scream; he said he ran to the bedroom and then found his wife lying in a pool of blood. [was it face down?]
Debora Patta: Did you believe him?
Roston Yeyenga: I believed him because I was not there. I was not there.
Commander Yeyenga sent his investigators to the scene, who told him that it matched Dr.’s description of the events. Rudolph. It was believed that the shotgun, which was found about 3 feet from Bianca’s body, had been unloaded while it was in its holster and reported that Dr. Rudolph had tried to resuscitate his wife.
Debora Patta: Was it decided that this was an accident?
Roston Yeyenga: Yes – that’s the report we received.
The police report, which comes two days after Bianca’s death, concluded:
“Dr. Lawrence Rudolph rushed into the bedroom alone and found his wife lying on the floor bleeding.” … “The findings further suggest that the firearm was full of previous hunting activities… causing the firearm to fire accidentally”.
James Gagliano: It’s a little surprising to me that they would make this definitive, declarative statement that …
