Mistress of dentist who shot wife on African safari learns fate in murder cover-up
Lori Milliron was convicted for helping her boyfriend and boss, Lawrence Rudolph, cover up the murder of his wife
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After a wealthy Pennsylvania dentist was convicted last year for murdering his wife on an African safari trip, his mistress has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for her role in a cover-up of the slaying, according to federal court documents.
Lori Milliron, 65, was convicted last year on two counts of perjury, being an accessory to a murder after the fact and obstructing a grand jury for helping her 67-year-old boyfriend and boss, Lawrence Rudolph, cover up the murder of his 57-year-old wife, Bianca Rudolph.
"Lori, you have taken my parents," Anabianca "Ana" Rudolph, Bianca and Lawrence's daughter, said directly to Milliron at her Friday sentencing. "Despite everything you have done you will never take my soul. This might be difficult to understand ... because you don’t have one."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Milliron was charged alongside Rudolph for the 2016 murder of his wife of 34 years during a trip to Zambia. The dentist claimed after his wife's death that she accidentally shot herself with a rifle while packing their belongings after a trip to Kafue National Park.
WEALTHY DENTIST FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING WIFE ON AFRICAN SAFARI TRIP
Bianca, left, and Lawrence "Larry" Rudolph are pictured on a trip before her October 2016 murder in Zambia. (Facebook)
Prosecutors said otherwise, noting that Bianca could not have shot herself because the bullet wound to her heart was consistent with a shot fired from 2.5 to 3 feet away from her body.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lawrence Rudolph was convicted in July 2022 of murdering her.
Milliron's defense attorney, John Dill, told Fox News Digital that she plans to "appeal not only the sentencing but the underlying jury verdict" sometime this summer.
WEALTHY DENTIST IN LOVE TRIANGLE DENIES KILLING HIS WIFE ON AFRICAN SAFARI TRIP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The sentence for her is excessive," Dill said. "She's convicted of, essentially, two counts of perjury, which form the basis of the accessory count. Obviously, [there is] a long of anger toward Dr. Rudolph and a lot of feelings about Dr. Rudolph bled over…to the trial and the sentencing."
A photo of Bianca and Lawrence Rudolph with their son on a hunting trip. (Facebook)
Dill added that there as an "implication" Milliron was directly involved in Bianca's murder or the planning of her murder, which he said is not true.
"We know what the facts are, so we haven't given up," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DENTIST ON TRIAL IN DENVER FOR DEATH OF WIFE DURING 2016 AFRICAN SAFARI
Milliron must also pay $250,000, which prosecutors argued was appropriate given the lavish lifestyle Rudolph's dental assistant-turned-mistress lived over the course of their affair. Milliron's defense team has noted that she raised three adult children with no child support and met Rudolph in the early 2000s.
Larry Rudolph posing with an elk he shot on a hunting trip. He was accused of murdering his wife, Bianca Rudolph, so he could be with his mistress. (Facebook)
Their "affair waxed and waned over twenty years and had been kept a secret from Rudolph’s children," her attorneys said in a 2022 filing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The defendant received tens of thousands in cash before Bianca’s murder. After the murder, she had all of her needs satisfied as part of a cosseted lifestyle that involved international travel, long weekends at second and third homes in Cabo San Lucas and Idaho, ‘regular’ status at an expensive steak restaurant, and a place by Rudolph’s side at a mansion in Arizona. The defendant self-reported having $10,000 in cash on hand at her arrest," U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan said in a June statement.
The defendant also stayed at Mountain Shadows resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, while awaiting trial, and "[d]uring the trial, she used a company credit card for deluxe accommodations at the Denver Ritz-Carlton and other luxury hotels and ran up expensive tabs at area restaurants," they wrote.
Lori Milliron stayed at Mountain Shadows resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, while awaiting trial. (Google Maps)
Ana Rudolph, however, said Friday that Milliron "plotted to eliminate" her mother seven years ago, and Judge William J. Martínez agreed, arguing that the defendant's 17-year sentence was appropriate because evidence presented in a Denver County courtroom pointed to Milliron "encouraging" the crime.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The judge added that Milliron seemed "unrepentant" while viewing evidence in court during her trial.
Ana and her brother, Julian, stood by their father during his trial last year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lawrence and Bianca Rudolph's son, Julian, left, and daughter, Anabianca, back right, stood by their father during his trial last year. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Rudolph's sentencing hearing has been postponed.
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After his wife's death, the dentist cashed in on about $4.8 million in life insurance policies a day before her funeral. He bought a house in Arizona with Milliron that same month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rudolph, who owned a successful dental franchise in Pittsburgh, had a net worth of $15 million that he did not want to split with his wife in the event of a divorce, according to prosecutors.
Fox News' Rebecca Rosenberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.