Slaying suspect finally back in Vegas

Keith Paul

Monday, March 20, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

Indicted murder suspect Margaret Rudin this morning was in the one place she's been trying to avoid for nearly three years -- the Clark County Detention Center.

Rudin, accused of killing her millionaire husband Ron Rudin, was brought back to Las Vegas from Massachusetts handcuffed and shackled after riding about 2,750 miles on a private prisoner transport. She was booked into the jail Sunday at 9:18 a.m.

The cross-country trip Rudin made normally takes a week to two weeks or sometimes longer on the TransCor America private prisoner buses and vans, but the company expedited her trip.

"We moved her faster, because (Metro Police) wanted her back there quickly and because of the notoriety she's gotten," said John Zierdt, president of the Nashville-based TransCor America. "It normally would have taken 10 to 14 days and that's an average. There are some that could have taken longer."

Rudin traveled in a transport van until she could be transferred to a large bus that rolls 24 hours a day with five guard/drivers, Zierdt said.

She was spared moving about the country locked away in a small van eating fast food and spending nights in local jails that is the typical TransCor traveler's experience.

Rudin is charged with killing her husband Dec. 18, 1994, the day he disappeared. Rudin reported him missing a couple of days later. A month later his bullet-riddled, burned and decomposing body was found by a fisherman near Nelson's Landing at Lake Mojave.

In April 1997 a Clark County grand jury indicted her on murder charges. By that time Rudin had left Las Vegas and police could not find her.

Rudin was arrested in November in Revere, Mass., after the syndicated television show "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment about her.

Rudin fought extradition for nearly six months. Two Metro homicide detectives flew to Massachusetts hoping she would talk about the case, but she wasn't talking.

Once she had exhausted her court options in Massachusetts, Metro Police decided to use TransCor to bring her back and spare the expense and time of flying two detectives to accompany her.

"Using (TransCor) saves man-hours and money," said Sgt. Shane Robb of Metro's fugitive detail. "They have a very good (security) record and only hire those with police or corrections experience."

Zierdt said the van transportation poses less of an escape risk than flying prisoners back, because airlines do not allow shackles on flights, and detectives have to rent a car to go from the airport to the jail.

In the TransCor vans and buses prisoners always are handcuffed and shackled.

But that doesn't mean TransCor hasn't had escapes. Convicted murderer and child molester Kyle Bell escaped from a TransCor bus at a New Mexico truck stop in October. He had loosened his shackles and crawled through an emergency exit on the bus' roof. He was recaptured three months later in Dallas.

Since the Bell escape, black boxes have been placed over the handcuff keyholes so prisoners can't pick the locks, Zierdt said. Bus hatches also have been double-checked to ensure they are locked.

Metro has enough faith in TransCor's ability that the company handles just about all transports of suspect back to Las Vegas -- about 400 transports last year at a cost of about $185,000, Robb said.

The company has about 100 12-passenger vans and 10 large buses with barred windows that travel about 12 million miles a year moving about 70,000 prisoners around the country, Zierdt said.

Each of the vans and buses are sectioned into compartments that also have locked doors to secure the prisoners, he said. Each van and bus also has a global positioning system so the whereabouts of the vehicles are always known.

Rudin's trip back to Las Vegas apparently was uneventful.

"Because she was on 'America's Most Wanted' and all the notoriety, we considered her an escape risk," Zierdt said. "So we expedited her return."

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com.