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

"48 Hours" Investigates in an Encore of "Death on Safari"

48 HOURS and contributor Debora Patta report on an American woman who suffered a fatal gunshot wound while on a safari vacation and the international investigation that followed in an encore of "Death on Safari," to be broadcast Saturday, Sept. 10 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+. Lawrence Rudolph and his wife Bianca were getting ready to head home after a safari in Zambia, Africa in October of 2016 when something went wrong. The couple were experienced hunters. Lawrence Rudolph, a successful dentist with offices near Pittsburgh, Pa., told local authorities 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 Rudolph said his wife was packing up a shotgun in a soft shell gun case. At first, he told a local hunting scout his wife had died by suicide, but later told investigators the gun must have accidentally fired. After two days of investigating, Zambian police closed the case calling it an accident. It took U.S. investigators another five years to investigate the case. Lawrence Rudolph was arrested in December 2021 for the murder of his wife. He maintains he is innocent, and his attorneys wrote in a statement to 48 HOURS that the case is built "... without any real evidence, no eyewitnesses, no forensics, no anything."

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