Murder suspect slips away again

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1998 | 10:46 a.m.

After almost five years, authorities lost another opportunity last week to bring closure in the death of Las Vegas millionaire Ron Rudin after his accused killer slipped through the hands of Arizona police.

"Justice for Ron Rudin is going to have to wait," said Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon after learning the slain Realtor's fugitive wife had eluded capture in Phoenix.

The story of Ron Rudin's death and the search for Margaret Rudin was aired recently on a national television show, and the program resulted in a call to police in Phoenix saying she had been living in cell-sized YMCA room for the past two months.

Guymon said a policeman picked the woman up last week and took her to the police station, but she denied she was the Nevada fugitive and showed identification and a Social Security card in another name.

After two hours, said the frustrated prosecutor, she was freed.

The 55-year-old woman summoned a limousine, picked up the only thing she had with her -- her purse -- and disappeared.

A couple of days later, her rent at the YMCA ran out and when authorities entered the room, they found her personal belongings, a couple of pieces of identification in Margaret Rudin's name and a set of keys with a tag reading "Property of Ron Rudin," Guymon said.

"I'm sick about it."

Metro Police homicide Det. Phil Ramos said Tuesday that Rudin had been working in a gift shop at a hotel.

Guymon said the woman's choice of living accommodations would indicate she is broke, but that is contradicted by the fact she left the police department in a limousine.

Rudin's burned and bullet-riddled body was found near Nelson's Landing on the Colorado River on Jan. 22, 1994, nearly a month after the 64-year-old man disappeared. His 1993 Cadillac was found in an alley behind the Crazy Horse Too Topless Saloon on Industrial Road.

During a 1996 civil trial, Mark Solomon, an attorney for Rudin's trust, charged that the couple's marriage was on the verge of collapse, and after Ron Rudin had gone to sleep on the night of Dec. 18, 1994, Margaret Rudin fired four or five bullets into his head.

The civil trial, and the evidence anticipated to result from it, was supposed to have solved the crime, but it ended prematurely in a settlement.

The deal is purported to have left her with considerably less than the 60 percent she sought of his $11 million estate. Her cut has been estimated at no more than $500,000.

After the murder, a Clark County grand jury considered the case against the woman but declined to hand down an indictment. When a second grand jury reconsidered the case in early 1997, the panel members had a dramatic new piece of evidence to consider -- the murder weapon.

In April 1997, they handed down an indictment of Margaret Rudin, but by then she had fled Las Vegas.

The .22-caliber pistol that pumped several bullets into Rudin's head was found by chance on July 21, 1996, in 15 feet of water at Lake Mead. It had been carefully wrapped in plastic, which kept it from corroding.

The serial number showed it to belong to Rudin, and ballistics tests showed it to be the murder weapon, authorities said.

In June 1997 "America's Most Wanted" first aired the story on national television, but leads about the defendant's location didn't pan out. Authorities at the time said they believed she was in Mexico.

The recent re-airing of the tale prompted last week's close encounter, but Ramos said he believes she has once again fled to Mexico.