Viswa Vanapalli
When Bianca Rudolph died in October 2016, it was ruled an accident. Her husband, Lawrence, seemed to move on with his life after that. However, federal authorities looked into Bianca’s death and later believed it was no accident. They felt Lawrence was responsible, and part of the reason was an affair with his former office manager, Lori Milliron. CBS News’ ‘48 Hours: Death on Safari’ and ABC News’ ’20/20: The Last Hunt’ highlight the complex case and its developments.
Who is Lori Milliron?
Bianca died during a hunting trip with Lawrence to Zambia, Africa. She was found with a shotgun wound in her chest, and Lawrence had her cremated quickly. However, several tips received by the FBI suggested it was more than just an accident. One of Bianca’s friends called the authorities weeks after her death to report something disturbing. According to her, Lawrence had been having an affair at the time of the incident.
The woman Lawrence was seeing at the time was Lori Milliron. She used to work as a manager at his dental practice in Pennsylvania. A former employee who worked there until February 2016 stated that she had conversations with Lori back then. According to her, Lori mentioned that she had been in a relationship with Lawrence for about 15-20 years. Furthermore, she had given him an ultimatum; the dentist had to sell the offices and leave Bianca within a year. However, Lori denied that claim. It was later revealed that Bianca confronted Lawrence with evidence of his extramarital affair, and then he allegedly told her that he would leave Lori.
The authorities learned that Lori moved in with Lawrence within months of Bianca’s death. Furthermore, they offered $3.5 million for another house in the same area. Records showed that on the day of Bianca’s funeral in October 2016, Lawrence bought a flight ticket for Lori to Arizona, where he lived. While that was later canceled, he purchased another ticket three days later for a different woman to fly to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Then, according to a bartender in an Arizona bar, Lawrence said, “I killed my [expletive] wife for you” to Lori during an argument at the bar in January 2019. Furthermore, Lori’s bank accounts saw several cash deposits totaling more than $200,000 by 2017. However, she claimed not to remember these deposits and didn’t know why her salary increased; Lori only said that Lawrence was very generous. The authorities believed these were false and misleading statements.
Lori Milliron is Behind Bars Today
In February 2022, Lori was charged with nine counts of accessory after the fact, obstruction of a federal grand jury, and perjury. The authorities believed that she provided false testimony regarding certain payments that Lawrence made to her. At the time, Lori couldn’t explain why Lawrence paid her substantial amounts in cash in 2016 and 2017 other than to say he was generous. She further stated not remembering if she threatened to end their affair in the past.
In April 2022, a judge ruled that Lori and Lawrence would stand trial together. She surrendered to the authorities in Arizona in February 2022. Then, in August of the same year, she was found guilty by a federal jury of being an accessory after the fact to the murder, obstruction of justice, and two counts of perjury in Colorado. She was acquitted on three other counts of perjury. Therefore, on June 23, 2023, the 65-year-old was sentenced to 17 years behind bars, along with an order to pay a maximum fine of $250,000, meaning she’ll remain behind bars for a long while yet.
Read More: How Did Bianca Rudolph Die?
