CBS’s 48 Hours explores the death of an American shot while on safari in Zambia, Africa on the Saturday, April 16, 2022 episode airing at 10pm ET/PT. “Death on Safari” examines the events surrounding Biana Rudolph’s death and delves into the investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of Bianca’s dentist husband, Lawrence, in December 2021.
Lawrence claims he had nothing to do with his wife’s death.
48 Hours contributor Debora Patta spoke with a game scout, a park investigator, and a retired police commander in Zambia in an attempt to answer the question: was Bianca’s death the result of an accident or murder?
CBS released the following description of “Death on Safari:”
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.
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.
