Former Attorney Staged Wife's 1973 Murder, Suspected in Second Suburban Murder: Police

Originally ruled as an accidental death, authorities on Monday said 19-year-old Noreen Kumeta-Rudd was actually killed by her husband, Donnie Rudd, and not from injuries sustained during a crash in Barrington Hills in 1973.

Authorities decided to re-open the case while investigating Rudd’s possible ties to the 1991 murder of Lauretta (Terri) Tabak-Bodtke, 59, who was found dead in her home at 1627 N. Belmont Ave. in Arlington Heights. She suffered several gunshot wounds, according to Mike Hernandez, Arlington Heights Deputy Chief.

Police have not charged Rudd in connection with Tabak-Bodtke’s death but say he remains a suspect, Hernandez said.

On Monday, a Cook County judge ordered Rudd be held without bail for the 1973 murder of Kumeta-Rudd, Rudd’s second wife. Rudd, 73, was arrested last week in Sugarland, Texas, following a joint investigation by the Cold Case Unit of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Arlington Heights Police Department.

Police and the Cook County State’s Attorney reopened the case in 2012, which prompted a series of forensic and medical re-examinations, including the exhumation of Kumeta-Rudd’s body and an autopsy. This lead the Kane County Coroner to change the manner of death to homicide attributed to blunt force trauma to her head from a ruling of accidental death, Hernandez said.

Kumeta-Rudd, with a last known address of Hoffman Estates, died on Sept. 14, 1973. She was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Rudd when he allegedly veered off Route 68, which was Route 63 at the time of the crash, near Bateman Road in Barrington Hills, according to a Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office press release. When police arrived to the crash scene, Rudd was holding his young bridge in his lap in the passenger’s seat of their car and when officers tried to revive her, they found a large hole in the back of her head.

According to police reports, the Rudd’s car struck a barbed wire fence, causing minor damage to the vehicle. Officers noted approximately 165 feet of skid marks in the grass leading from the road. The skid marks were consistent with the car having driven in a straight line to its final resting point.

While being interviewed at the scene, Rudd explained to authorities that he and the victim were on their way home when another vehicle came into his lane. Rudd said that he was forced to drive off the road and the victim’s door came open, causing her ejection. Rudd also showed officers a large rock that appeared to have hair and blood on it, and stated that the victim must have struck her head on it when she was thrown from the vehicle.

After the incident, Rudd claimed that he had been forced off the road by a hit man sent to kill him by a local politician and that the victim had struck her head on the door as she fell out of the car, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office news release. An autopsy was not performed on Noreen Rudd and a coroner’s inquest concluded that the victim’s death was an accident.

When her body was exhumed in 2013, a pathologist found scrapes, cuts and other injuries to the left side of her head and concluded her injuries were consistent with several blows to the head but were not consistent with being hit by a rock on the ground, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The crash happened 27 days after the couple was married. Rudd met Kumeta-Rudd while working at Quaker Oats in Barrington while he worked as patent attorney for the business, according to a Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office press release. Rudd shared a home with his girlfriend at the time and Kumeta-Rudd had recently lost a boyfriend an an auto crash. Despite all that, the two quickly started dating and married a short time later.

Immediately following his wife’s death, Rudd returned to his former girlfriend and married her eight months later. According to prosecutors, Rudd received two payouts on two life insurance policies that were taken out on the victim. The first was a policy that all Quaker Oats employees received, which amounted to $20,000. The second was a “Voluntary Accident Insurance” policy offered as extra insurance to employees, which had been taken out at the maximum amount of $100,000, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the death of Tabak-Bodtke -- a one-time client of Rudd who was a prominent lawyer in the 1970s. Rudd was disbarred in 1994, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rudd is next expected in court on Dec. 24.