Simple Flaw In Perfect Crime

Donnie Rudd was 31-years-old when he met Noreen Kumeta, just 19-year-old, in Barrington, Illinois. After a shockingly short relationship, they were wedded in August of 1973, this was Donnie’s second of five marriages.

Donnie was a new lawyer suffering from financial problems who had previously been injured in a car accident. Life was not going well at that time. Maybe the car accident provided him a horrible idea.

Not long after their marriage, tragedy would strike on September 14, 1973, when the newlywed couple was allegedly run off the road in their Ford Pinto by another driver in the village of Barrington Hills, Illinois. Authorities came to find Donnie despondently holding his spouse in the car. The impact of the vehicular hit had allegedly ejected Noreen, smashed her head into a stone, and killed her immediately. Donnie declares that he carried her body back to the vehicle where he was carrying her when police reached there. Donnie was unscathed by the tragedy. There were no spectators.

An emergency room doctor reported that Noreen died from injuries consistent with a car accident and that no postmortem would be important. Donnie received $120,000 of life insurance. Was it an accident, or had Donnie committed a perfect crime? The thing is, you don’t get away with a crime for only a few days. You have to get away with it for the rest of your life without any mistake.

After, Two decades during his career as a lawyer, Donnie took on a client named Loretta Tabak-Bodtke whom he represented in a case. His one flaw? He boasted that he had won her court trial. But he hadn’t. Thus, he was never able to give her a financial settlement because there was no payment. Loretta was angry over this malpractice, so she reported him to a lawyer disciplinary agency. He was finally disbarred.

Loretta was discovered dead on April 4, 1991, at her home at 1627 North Belmont Avenue in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Loretta must have known her murderer because she allowed them into the home. Had Donnie murdered again? There was no proof left behind. But things began to differ for Donnie after that.

Maybe he murdered Loretta, maybe he didn’t. But that wasn’t the mistake. Had he been an honest lawyer, he would have never outraged Loretta. Had he not evoked her anger, she wouldn’t have publicized him. Had he not been reported by Loretta, his name wouldn’t have been on the police’s shortlist of people who had a reason to murder her. Donnie would never have been a suspect in his client’s murder had they not had such a controversial relationship.

But Donnie, now 48-years-old, soon became the prime suspect. Since the authority was almost confident he was capable of Loretta’s killing, they took a closer look review on the old 1973 death of his late wife Noreen Kumeta. He was possibly capable of murdering her too!

That directed to the exhumation of her corpse in 2013 when specialists found that her injuries were consistent with repeated blows to the skull, NOT a car accident. It was obvious that Donnie had committed that crime, alone on that road with his young spouse and no witnesses. Prosecutors even guessed that Donnie completely wooed and very unexpectedly married the teenage girl with the single motive of killing her for the life insurance cash.

On September 13, 2018, a 76-year-old Donnie Rudd was sentenced to 75–150 years in jail after a first-degree murder conviction. He had gotten away with murder for 45 years! But one irrelevant, immoral act as a lawyer that created an angry client solved the whole thing. His nearly half-a-century cover-up was uncovered.

It’s almost an injustice that he’ll be capable of parole in 2029. But it’s possibly justice that he has colon cancer and has decided not to accept medication. He won’t survive jail.

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