ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – A Houston-area man has pleaded not guilty to killing his 19-year-old wife more than four decades ago in suburban Chicago.
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports that 73-year-old Donnie Rudd entered the plea Friday in the death of Noreen Kumeta Rudd.
Rudd is being held on $4 million bond at the Cook County jail. He was arrested last month in Sugar Land, Texas, about 15 miles southwest of Houston.
Prosecutors allege Rudd beat his wife to death in 1973 and made it appear she had died in a car accident to collect $120,000 in life insurance. The case was ruled a homicide after an autopsy of her exhumed remains determined her injuries were consistent with multiple blows to the head, and inconsistent with being thrown from a vehicle.