Where this saga began: Husband and wife went to Africa to hunt big game. The husband had local workers construct a special cabin for his wife at the remote gaming camp. While packing to return home, she died from a shotgun blast (long-barrel) to her chest. The local authorities ruled it an accident.
After returning to the United States, the dentist and his lover went on with life as the public couple they’d wanted to be for years. Unfortunately for them, people close to the deceased wife believed the dentist had killed her.
The FBI opened an investigation into the American citizen’s death in a foreign country. Experts found many details askew with the crime. First, whoever fired the weapon had done so from three feet away from her body. Money is often a motive in spousal murders. Here, the dentist returned from Africa and filed claims for nine separate life insurance policies on his wife totaling over $4.8 million. They also had a witness statement from a person who sat near the dentist and his lover at a restaurant and overheard the couple fight. During the fight, the dentist blurted out, “I killed my f***ing wife for you.”
The dentist and his mistress were both charged for crimes relating to the wife’s death. A jury found the 68-year-old former dentist guilty of foreign murder and defrauding insurance companies. The judge sentenced him to life in prison, pay the entire sum received from the life insurance policies in restitution, and fined him an additional $2 million.
An FBI Special Agent associated with the case, said,
“The defendant in this case thought he could murder his wife overseas and get away with it. He was wrong….”
Through the investigation, the FBI learned the mistress had given her lover an ultimatum—divorce his wife. He’d said he couldn’t afford to. The dentist’s lover lied to the grand jury about their relationship. And about why he’d regularly given her sizeable sums of money—saying he was a generous man.
Before the fatal hunting trip, the mistress gave propofol (strong sedative) to the dentist to take on the Africa trip to drug his wife.
The long-time mistress’s jury found her guilty of being an accessory after the fact, obstruction, and two counts of perjury. A judge sentenced the 65-year-old woman to 17 years in federal prison where there is no early release and fined her $250,000.
A U.S. Attorney associated with the case said,
“We thank all who have worked tirelessly to ensure that this defendant would not evade responsibility for her role in this terrible murder.”
After their sentencings, both have requested a new trial. The judge denied both.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, People, Law & Crime, The Denver Gazette