AN AMERICAN WOMAN DIES FROM A GUNSHOT WOUND WHILE ON SAFARI IN AFRICA - WAS IT AN ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

"48 Hours" Investigates in "Death on Safari"

Saturday, April 16

48 HOURS and contributor Debora Patta - who just returned from covering the war in Ukraine - report on an American woman who suffered a fatal gunshot wound while on a safari vacation and the international investigation that followed, in "Death on Safari," to be broadcast Saturday, April 16 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and available to stream on Paramount+.

Lawrence Rudolph and his wife, Bianca, were getting ready to head back home after a safari vacation in Zambia, Africa in October 2016 when something went terribly wrong. The couple were experienced hunters. Lawrence, a successful dentist with several offices near Pittsburgh, Pa., told local authorities that he was in the bathroom of the couple's two-room cabin when he heard a shot and found his wife dead in the next room. Local police found Bianca Rudolph lying on the floor with a gunshot wound. Lawrence said his wife was packing up a shotgun in a soft-shell gun case. At first, he told a local hunting scout that his wife had died by suicide, but later he told investigators that the gun must have accidentally fired. After two days of investigating, Zambian police closed the case, calling it an accident.

"It boggles the mind that two experienced hunters, for this to have been an accident," says James Gagliano, a retired FBI supervisory special agent and a CBS News consultant.

There were also questions early on about how Bianca could have accidentally shot herself in the chest with such a long-barreled weapon. Kafue National Park investigator Masuwa Musese, who went to the couple's cabin after the shooting, also had concerns. He said he took his theory to the local police.

"To me," Musese says, "I suspected this to be a foul play. Because the way the firearm was lying. The way the deceased was lying. The way the bullet went through. Because, to me, to say that she shot herself, I doubt it."

Game scout Spencer Kakoma maintains that he saw Bianca Rudolph clearing her weapon of live ammunition the night before the incident.

Lawrence had his wife's body quickly cremated in Zambia, which led a friend of Bianca's to doubt this was an accident. Soon after Bianca's death, the friend called the FBI. According to an FBI complaint, she also said Lawrence was having an affair and had been verbally abusive to Bianca. The friend also told the FBI that the couple fought over money.

It took investigators five years to investigate the case. Lawrence was arrested in December 2021 for the murder of his wife. He maintains that he is innocent, and his attorneys write in a statement to 48 HOURS that the case is built "... without any real evidence, no eyewitnesses, no forensics, no anything."

So what happened to Bianca Rudolph? Patta talks with a game scout, a park investigator, a retired police commander in Zambia and others about the case.

48 HOURS: "Death on Safari" is produced by Ruth Chenetz, Mary Ann Rotondi, Susan Mallie and Jamie Stolz. Tamara Weitzman, Elena DiFiore and Michelle Fanucci are the development producers. Sarah Carter is the producer in Zambia. Richard Barber is the producer-editor. Marlon Disla, Mike Baluzy and Phil Tangel are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

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