Woman accused of murdering husband ordered back to Nevada

Monday, March 6, 2000 | 4:35 a.m.

Margaret Rudin's attorney, Robert A. George, had fought the return of his client to Nevada. He said Rudin feared for her own safety if she returned because her husband was involved with shady business associates.

Lt. Wayne Peterson, a Las Vegas homicide detective, dismissed that claim.

"The only danger she faces is being convicted," said Peterson.

State Appeals Court Justice Charlotte A. Perretta on Monday ordered Rudin returned to Nevada, confirming a decision in February by a Middlesex Superior Court judge.

Rudin, who is being held in Framingham, will be returned to Nevada within 10 days, George said.

Rudin, 56, was accused of shooting Ron Rudin as he lay in bed on Dec. 18, 1994. Mrs. Rudin reported him missing, and a month later, a fisherman discovered his burned, bullet-ridden and decapitated body near Lake Mohave in southern Nevada.

Margaret Rudin was indicted in 1997, but authorities could not find her until she was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted." Using a tip from a viewer, authorities located her post office box in Revere, and a mailman recognized her photo.

State police in November staked out an apartment she had shared for about a year with Joseph Lundergan, a retired firefighter. Troopers borrowed a pizza delivery shirt and pizza box to force their way into the apartment and make the arrest.

Rudin had left Nevada three weeks before her indictment, but George said she left to visit her daughter in Illinois, and didn't know she was about to be charged.

Lundergan said he met Rudin in Guadalajara, Mexico, where the two lived in the same apartment complex and socialized in the same circle of American retirees.

Rudin will be charged in Nevada with murder with the use of a deadly weapon, accessory to murder and unauthorized use of a bugging device. The last charge stems from prosecutors' belief that she bugged her husband's office.

Rudin denies killing her husband, whose real estate holdings were worth an estimated $11 million. She says he was involved in fraudulent real estate deals, gun running, drug trafficking and tax evasion, and was killed by one of his business associates.