A 60-year-old dentist from Pennsylvania has been charged with insurance fraud after his wife died while on a fishing trip in Zambia.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has written in an indictment that they believe the dentist killed his wife, according to NBC.
The wife died of a bullet to the heart from a rifle. The same man claims that his wife died of a wet bullet when she was about to unload her weapon. The FBI believes he shot her.
It was part of an attempt to deceive the insurance company into diverting life insurance money, by lying and on false grounds by claiming that the death was an accident, the FBI wrote in the indictment.
More than 40 million kroner
The man is said to have defrauded himself of nearly $4.8 million, the equivalent of more than 40 million kronor, in insurance money.
The background must be that he wanted to start a new life with the woman who had been his lover for many years.
Police in Zambia concluded that the death was an accident. The FBI was notified that the dentist had asked the Zambian authorities to quickly cremate his wife’s body. Thus, local agents immediately traveled to the mortuary where the body is located to take pictures of its injuries.
The photos show, according to the FBI, that the bullet was fired from such a long distance that it was unable to fire itself.
Not accused of murder
He is not charged with the murder, because the murder took place outside the borders of the United States and local authorities have already concluded that the death was an accident. Therefore, he was charged with aggravated fraud by a bank in Colorado, USA. Fraud of this magnitude is punishable by 20 years in prison.
According to NBC, both the dentist and the deceased wife were very experienced hunters. It is said that they were in Zambia trying to shoot a tiger. They were unsuccessful, but they were said to have shot a number of other animals in flight.
A friend of the couple told the FBI that the man was on vacation with his lover in Cabo San Lucas in 2010, twice in 2011, in 2013, 2014, 2015 and in July 2016.
The friend believes that the couple has several reasons not to divorce only.
– He never divorced her because he didn’t want to lose his money, and she never divorced him because she was Catholic, the friend told the FBI.