A Tangled Web Part 2: The Investigation

Episode #65 - A Tangled Web Part 2: The Investigation of Margaret Rudin

[Shaun] 

A quiet fishing trip on Lake Mohave took a chilling turn when a group of airmen stumbled across something unexpected—a human skull and a diamond bracelet with the letters R O N.

[John]

As the investigation into Ron’s disappearance uncovered more and more circumstantial evidence against Margaret, she quickly became the police’s odds-on favorite suspect, and they leaned in hard to their suspicions of her

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun, 

[John]

And I’m your co-host John

[Shaun] 

Just to recap part 1 before we get started. If you haven’t listened to part 1, we strongly recommend you go back and listen to that now. But briefly, Ron Rudin was a notable real estate developer who disappeared in December 1994. His employees first reported him missing when he didn't show up for work. 

Ron was known for being very meticulous and private, and very security minded. At the time of his disappearance, friends said he had become more afraid for his personal safety. Some reported he was afraid his wife Margaret was poisoning him. He executed an amendment to his trust that directed the trustees to take extraordinary measures to investigate his death if it was by violent means, and stated that anyone who was involved in his death would not be allowed to inherit anything. 

Ron was also having an affair, and Margaret knew.

Ron’s car was found in the parking lot of the Crazy Horse Too gentlemen’s club 4 days after he disappeared. The car was very dirty, with several muddy footprints in the back seat and on the floorboards. This was very unusual as Ron loved his car and kept it spotless.

There was no sign of Ron or any clues to be found in the car. 

Since Margaret allegedly didn’t report Ron missing right away, she fell under the suspicion of friends and law enforcement. Margaret muddled through the holidays with her family, as the investigation into Ron’s disappearance intensified. 

[John]

On January 21, 1995, several Nellis airmen went out on a late-night fishing trip on Lake Mohave, south of Las Vegas, along the Colorado River and the Arizona Border. The men had gathered in a very small community, a place called Nelson. 

Nelson, about 25 miles from boulder city, and about 60 miles from Las Vegas, is effectively a ghost town, with only 17 residents living there today. Back in the 1990s, it had a population of around 500. Nelson started out as a mining town and had it’s heyday back in the 1860’s but when the railroads were built in the early 1900’s the population started to decline.

Now it’s pretty sparsely populated, but it has a cool area commonly called Nelson’s Landing that gives strong Fallout video game vibes where you can also take tours of the old mines. There’s a lot of space for outdoor recreation there, so it’s not uncommon to find people hiking, riding horses, or driving ATVs in the area.

[Shaun] 

These outdoorsmen encountered a human skull along their trek to the lake, and when police arrived in the area, they located an obvious burn pit site about 35 feet uphill from the skull, with several bone fragments and remnants of metal bracing or straps. 

Investigators believed that the metal strips were once part of an antique trunk, approximately 20 inches by 36 inches in size. Nearby, , they located a diamond bracelet with the letters R-O-N.

As the skull was in decent condition with all the teeth in place, the coroner was able to positively identify the remains through dental records. The identification was not a surprise as the bracelet said it all - the remains of Ron Rudin had finally been located. 

He had been shot several times in the back of the head. Investigators also recovered three .22 caliber bullets from inside the skull as well as two bullet fragments.

Soil from the area of the burned trunk was collected and analyzed. It tested positive for gasoline, but when it was compared to soil samples from the muddy footprints found in Ron’s car, investigators could neither confirm or rule out that the source of the dirt in the car had come from Nelson’s Landing. 

According to Michael Fleeman, the coroner was unable to determine when or how Ron’s skull had become separated from the rest of the remains, but it was not burned to the same extent. In some reporting, it’s stated that Ron was “decapitated” but Fleeman’s research showed that the coroner did not see evidence of a cutting instrument or tool being used to sever the skull.

Also noted in the investigation was the absence of any clothing buckles, snaps, or zippers found in the remains of the burned trunk. 

[John]

Detectives went and spoke to Margaret on January 23, 1995, to notify her that they had identified Ron's remains. According to the detectives, Margaret displayed no visible signs of emotion. They said  “Rudin just stared at one of the detectives for a second; and then she put her face down in her hands and covered her face.” 

They noticed she kept rubbing her knuckle in her eye, and they concluded she was doing this to try to make herself cry. Detectives stated that Margaret never asked the detectives how Ron died or the circumstances of his death.

One described the interaction, saying, "It was just so bizarre. We have made hundreds of death notifications without exception, except for Margaret, there's always some kind of a reaction, some kind of emotional reaction." 

From that point on, law enforcement considered Margaret their primary suspect. 

It makes me wonder there a “right way” you can react when you receive news like this? 

On this week’s Swing Shift, we are going to talk more about that, so make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it. 

[Shaun] 

Based on their suspicions, law enforcement started to have Margaret follow and surveil, and they were even able to get a tap on her phone. The trustees of Ron’s estate offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the successful prosecution of the person responsible for his disappearance. 

As the police were watching Margaret and continuing to investigate and build a case against her, Metro got a break when a man named Augustine Lovato came forward to police at the urging of his mother. Augustine told them he had been hired by Margaret to make changes to the home she shared with Ron soon after his disappearance. 

Augustine said that on December 20, Margaret hired him and his cousin to help move items out the home’s guest house and the antique store into a storage unit but before they began working at the store, she asked them to come to her home and help her get her Christmas Tree up and decorated. 

Margaret mentioned Ron was missing, and likely on a hunting trip, but Augustine said she didn’t seem overly upset. She made a few phone calls they overheard where she mentioned Ron was missing, and Augustine said she sounded a little upset, perhaps, but not hysterical. They then moved several items into storage as planned, but the job wasn’t done. 

Margaret asked them to return the next day, but only Augustine could make it. According to him, he didn't see Ron at the house that day, and he continued to move boxes from the antique store to the storage facility. He said he was asked to do some cleaning after that, including scrubbing the carpeting in front of the home’s washer and dryer. 

Augustine said the carpet was dirty from foot traffic but also there was a large, 2-and-a-half-foot spot that was the color of brown dirt. He said it didn’t match the rest of the stains, and that there were several half-dollar size stains of the same color in the area as well. 

He said the carpet was already wet from someone attempting to clean it. He said he scrubbed for a half hour to get the spots out. 

[John]

Augustine then discussed a deal with Margaret where she would pay him directly instead of through the temp agency he worked through. That would let Augustine pocket more of the money and Margaret saved a little by hiring him directly.. but she didn’t call him again.

He started going by her antique store, hoping to run into her. In early January, he went into her store and asked her if they had found her husband and if she had any work for him. She told him that she did have some, and he went to her house on January 12. He also noted that when he saw her at the store, that her eyes appeared to be bloodshot as if she wasn’t sleeping

Margaret asked him to help her remodel her and Ron’s bedroom into an office. Conflicting accounts that claimed that Margaret wanted to turn the bedroom into a coffee house or a tea service cafe. 

Augustine claimed that she asked him to remove all the furniture from the room and cut out the 9-by-12-foot area of carpeting directly underneath the bed. 

According to Augustine, as he cut the carpet he noticed dark reddish brown stains and a strong odor that he associated with the “smell of his dogs after they had been chewing on rabbits.”

After he began working on the carpet, he claimed that Margaret told him that she had gotten good news from her attorneys and, therefore, he should remove all of the carpet because she was going to recarpet the entire bedroom. 

While removing the carpet, Augustine said he noticed several reddish brown splatters on a large glamor shot photo of Margaret that was hanging over the area where the bed had been. 

He also told police that when he returned to do some additional work several days later, the master bedroom was newly carpeted, and the glamor shot portrait had been moved to the guest room. The reddish-brown splatters were no longer in the photo. He said that Margaret returned to the residence with a U-Haul truck, into which he loaded the mattress, box spring, and a cardboard wardrobe closet. 

Later, at Margaret's request, he unloaded the items in an alley and abandoned them there. 

[Shaun] 

He also claimed that while he was at the house, he heard a gurgling sound coming from the primary bathroom, where he observed a reddish-brown blob bubbling out of the bathtub drain. 

Augustine also produced a box that Margaret had asked him to mail to her mother. He explained that it was in the back of his car, and he had forgotten about it. When his mom found it, she said, you’re not mailing this and had him bring it to the police. 

Police were hoping it may contain the gun used to kill Ron, so they got a warrant and inspected the box. However, nothing they found inside implicated Margaret in a crime. 

Inside, they found a letter to her mother & some cosmetics and also found what appeared to be love notes and a photo of a man named Yehuda Sharon. 

These items led investigators to believe there may have been a romantic relationship between them, and that he may have been involved in Ron’s murder. Police did investigate Sharon, so more on him in a little bit. 

Margaret’s younger sister Dona also spoke with police and provided them with evidence that could be considered suspicious or incriminating. She claimed that on December 25, 1994, Margaret hired a locksmith to break into Ron’s office, and she, Margaret, and their sister Barbara spent several hours gathering various documents that Margaret said she would need, including numerous financial documents, documents relating to the suicide of Ron's former wife and documents reflecting that a family member of Ron's former wife had years earlier made a death threat against Ron.

Dona also claimed that, around this same time, she helped Margaret gather several documents from inside a desk in the antique shop. The documents included a notebook with an entry in Margaret's handwriting itemizing Ron's total assets. 

During these searches, Dora told police she had found a certificate from a firearm safety course that Margaret had completed in November 1993, along with a note presumed to be in Margaret’s handwriting stating "it's you or him; get him first."

[John]

On the evening of January 27, 1995, the police, armed with a warrant, searched Margaret's residence and discovered minute splatters of a blood-like substance in several locations in the former master bedroom. They also found blood-like splatters on the box spring that had been recovered from the alley and on the glamor shot portrait, which the police had recovered from a frame store which, at Margaret's request, was placing new glass on the portrait. 

While the police were searching Margaret's house, she was seen by police surveillance driving towards the home and then driving away, presumably after seeing several police cars. The police followed Margaret as she left the area and drove to her sister’s house. Dona claimed that Margaret told her the police were looking for a trunk, a gun, and a glamour-shot portrait. 

Afterward, Margaret drove to Yehuda Sharon's home. The next morning, he drove her to the airport and she boarded a flight to St. Louis, Missouri to attend Ron’s funeral.

Over the next year, two different court proceedings regarding Ron started to snowball. Las Vegas Metro detectives and the prosecutor’s office were performing forensics and interviewing witnesses to build a criminal case against Margaret. 

At the same time, Margaret was also involved in a civil suit over Ron’s trust. The DA, expecting that evidence might come out in the civil suit that would bolster their case, especially if Margaret testified, held off on a grand jury indictment of Margaret until after the civil matter was resolved. 

There were 3 executors of Ron’s estate who also happened to be the only other three beneficiaries named in his will other than Margaret who was allocated 60%. Harold Boscutti, would get 15 percent, Sharon Cooper, 10 percent; and Roman Grinfelds,15 percent. No other family members, nieces, nephews, or friends, were recognized by Ron in his estate planning. 

We mentioned last week that in the will Ron stipulated that anyone who was responsible for his death would inherit nothing, and unsurprisingly, In January 1996, the three other trustees sued Margaret attempting to prove that she had killed Ron and therefore should not inherit any of his money. If that happened, they would essentially split his fortune three ways instead of settling for 10 or 15%

Pending the lawsuit, they had her car seized, shut off the electricity to the house, and eventually evicted. Margaret started living in hotels and continued to sell antiques and jewelry, and even worked at the front desk of the lodge on Mount Charleston to pay for her personal expenses. 

The trustees claimed they were “in the right” because they were doing what Ron directed, but it seems like quite a conflict of interest to us.

[Shaun] 

The trustees were incredibly suspicious of Margaret, noting her strange behavior before Ron disappeared and her erratic actions after Ron was found dead. They were aware of the listening devices she’d placed in Ron’s offices, and according to the trustees, Ron was very afraid that Margaret would kill him. 

Margaret found their assertions to be ludicrous. While it was true Ron had been paranoid, he had revised his trust and increased her share by 20% - from 40% to 60% - less than a year before he disappeared and during the course of the same meeting that he allegedly told the trustees he was afraid he was being poisoned. Logically, if he thought she meant to harm him or if he felt it couldn’t trust her, he wouldn’t have done that. 

Much to the disappointment of the Clark County DAs, the lawsuit was settled before Margaret took the witness stand. A settlement was reached between Margaret and the trustees in which she reportedly received $600,000, or a little over $1 million today. 

Later that year, on July 21, 1996, a scuba diver discovered a .22 caliber Ruger handgun while diving near Pyramid Island at Lake Mead. Fortunately, the gun had been wrapped in several plastic bags that were secured with rubber bands, so it was well preserved. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ballistics later confirmed that the weapon was used to kill Ron. 

Police subsequently learned that the gun had actually been registered to Ron in 1980. According to records obtained from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Ron had reported the gun missing in October 1988. He had also sent a letter to the Bureau stating that he suspected his wife had packed his gun with her belongings while preparing to move out on one of the occasions that the couple either separated or considered divorce. 

Police also naturally connected the fact that Ron’s remains were burned inside an antique trunk to the fact that Margaret ran an antique shop. They went through her old invoices to determine that she had purchased a trunk that would fit the size and style of the one believed to be used in the disposal of Ron’s remains. 

[John]

With the murder weapon found and police believing it could have been in Margaret’s possession, it was only a matter of time. On April 17, 1997, Margaret was indicted by a Clark County grand jury for the unauthorized surreptitious intrusion of privacy by listening device, murder with use of a deadly weapon, and accessory to murder. 

When police went to arrest her, she was nowhere to be found, and the attorney who represented her in the civil suit claimed he had no idea where she was. 

Margaret was on the run for more than two years and was featured on 'America's Most Wanted' three times. The show referred to her as a 'black widow' and like a 'chameleon' in her ability to change her appearance and evade law enforcement. Margaret was known to wear wigs or dye her hair. 

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a tip from the show led to Las Vegas police coming very close to catching Margaret in September 1998. 

A viewer called police to report that a Phoenix hotel worker named Anne Boatwright looked very similar to the fugitive they had seen on the show. 

Phoenix police questioned Boatwright for two hours, but they didn’t have a picture of Margaret. The woman provided a valid Arizona state driver’s license, and after hearing her story, they let her go. 

Vegas police quickly confirmed that the Anne Boatwright they spoke to in Phoenix was in fact Margaret Rudin. Authorities determined that she had been staying at a local YMCA and had been telling people her husband was killed and she was in a battle over the estate. Any doubt of her identity was gone after she left behind a keychain with the logo 'Ron Rudin Realty.' 

[Shaun] 

The close call was frustrating, but it prompted the trustees of Ron's estate to authorize a $ 5,000 reward for information leading to her arrest. A friend of Margaret’s named Roma Scott would collect that reward after providing Las Vegas Police with the information that Margaret could be found living with a retired firefighter named Lundergan at an apartment in Revere, Massachusetts.

Along with the tip, Roma also sent authorities seven boxes she said Margaret had sent her in October 1999. The contents of the boxes included Margaret’s diaries, two bloodstained handkerchiefs, and a wallet that belonged to Ron Rudin. The wallet, which contained credit cards and a driver's license that had expired in 1987, had been reported stolen by Ron years before he died. 

Acting on Roma’s tip, in November 1999 Las Vegas police and the FBI contacted the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section with the information, which prompted the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and the Revere Police Department to begin surveillance of Lundergan's home. 

While staking out the apartment, Massachusetts police noticed a pizza delivery man on his way to the home. They stopped him, took the pizza and had an officer pose as the delivery man to avoid any violent confrontation with Lundergan, who had a registered firearm in the home. When the officer rang the doorbell, the police rushed in and encountered Margaret hiding in the bathtub. She allegedly said to them, “This is about Vegas, isn’t it?”

[John]

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that authorities believed that after leaving Nevada, Margaret made it to Chicago where she stayed for a few months. Then to Phoenix, where she worked in a hotel gift shop to support herself. 

Though she had received money from the settlement of Ron's estate, friends said it had been used on legal fees. After her near capture, she left for Guadalajara, Mexico, where she met Lundergan.

A month later, she showed up on his doorstep in Revere with her suitcases. She moved in, and they eventually developed a close relationship. Lundergan had been injured previously, so she became his caretaker. She cooked his food, picked up his prescriptions, and helped with anything else he needed. 

Lundergan spoke to reporters about his knowledge of Margaret’s past and her status as a fugitive. He said that she had told him she was on the run from a terrorist named "Yehuda," who was a former Israeli secret agent working for trustees of Ron's estate. She also said that the trustees needed her killed so they could have full access to his money.

Lundergan told reporters that he didn’t think Margaret killed her husband and said, "My feeling is that she's physically incapable of that kind of crime, and psychologically and emotionally (incapable), too." He said at one time he thought she may have been on the run from Las Vegas authorities, but didn’t think it was anything so serious. 

Margaret was well-liked in the small town of Revere. According to local residents, who knew her as Leigh Simmons or Leigh Brown, she would copy and post fliers concerning domestic violence prevention. She would hug children she barely knew. She was, ‘a very sweet lady,' and 'You won't find anyone who'll say a bad thing about her.’ 

Her upstairs neighbor, Carol Reagor, said that she believed that Margaret had to have been running from an abusive boyfriend who wanted to kill her. Carol told the RJ that Margaret had said, “If anyone comes knocking for me, you don't even know me, you understand?”

[Shaun] 

Again, Yehuda Sharon’s name comes up in this case, and what Lundergan had to say sounds more dramatic than the reality about Sharon. While those close to Margaret claimed he was her lover, he said the two did not have a romantic relationship. 

He said that he was a financial advisor who helped her regarding the lawsuit over the estate. He reviewed financial documents for Margaret, for a fee. He also said that he never served as an Israeli secret agent, nor did he work for trustees of Ron’s estate. Sharon operates a business where he sells and transports oils to churches. 

Police strongly suspected that the petite 51-year-old Margaret could not have committed Ron’s murder alone. Ron weighed about 220 pounds and was 6 feet tall. Margaret would not have been able to lift and transport Ron in a trunk, and carry him down the hiking path to Nelson’s Landing. She had to have help from someone, and detectives believed that someone was Sharon. However, 

Sharon had a strong alibi and testified before two grand juries that he knew nothing of Ron Rudin's death. 

Police and prosecutors did not give up on believing Sharon was involved, once they learned that on the evening of December 19, 1994, he rented a large passenger van from a rental car agency in Las Vegas, and that he had told the rental car company to remove the back seat from the van. 

Sharon explained that he rented the van to pick up a shipment of holy oils from a business in Santa Fe Springs, California. Sharon returned the van on December 23, 1994, with 348 miles logged. Sharon told investigators that he drove to California on December 22, 1994, but that he never reached his planned destination because he decided to turn around midway due to a trucker's comment that it was raining in California. He even had a dated receipt from an AM PM gas station in Barstow from the morning of December 22. 

He was quoted as saying, “What happens in Las Vegas stays in Vegas, but this was in Barstow.” 

[John]

Margaret fought extradition back to Las Vegas but was unsuccessful. On March 31, 2000, she was arraigned in the Eighth Judicial District Court and pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

Next week, we will get into all the details about this trial and the ultimate outcome for Margaret Rudin, who would come to be known as “The Black Widow of Las Vegas.” You might think you know how it ends, but unless you’ve been keeping up with the case, you definitely dont

Also make sure you’ve liked and followed Sins and Survivors on whatever platform you’re listening on so you get the notice when Part 3 is released.

As always, we want to thank you for listening and remind you that what happens here, happens everywhere.