When Las Vegas millionaire Ron Rudin mysteriously disappeared in 1994, his wife Margaret didn't report him missing for two days and chose not to attend his funeral.

But three years would pass before investigators had enough evidence to win a murder indictment against Margaret Rudin. By that time, the soft-spoken widow had vanished herself.

It took investigators two years to catch up with Rudin, and now prosecutors say they have a mountain of evidence to convict her of killing her real estate mogul husband.

A jury will decide if Rudin is the wrongly accused grandmother she portrays herself to be — or a cold-blooded murderer who shot her husband, decapitated him and charred his remains.

THE MARRIAGE

Ron and Margaret, both previously married four times, reportedly met at church and got married only months later in 1987.

Ron and Margaret Rudin

According to Margaret Rudin, the marriage was a relief after a year of turmoil marked by a divorce from her fourth husband, a hysterectomy and her father's death. But this happiness dissipated once she learned of her new husband's shady business deals, a drinking problem and an obsession with guns, she claims.

Court papers reveal a rocky marriage. Prosecutors allege that Margaret Rudin attempted to kill her husband more than three years before he disappeared, firing a gun at him in April 1991 — in the same bedroom where prosecutors believe he was later fatally shot in the head. In the 1991 incident, however, the bullet hit a painting that hung on their bedroom wall.

The house where Ron Rudin lived — and died, police say

That same year, police say, Rudin began bugging her husband's office after suspecting that he was having an affair with one of his former employees, Sue Lyles. She detailed her suspicions in handwritten notes about the recordings.

According to prosecutors, Rudin and Lyles discussed anonymous letters sent to Lyle's two children telling them that their mother was having an affair with Rudin.

Lyles believed the letters were written by Margaret Rudin because one was mistakenly addressed to "Melissa Lyles." According to Lyles, the only person who ever called Natalie Lyles by the name Melissa was Margaret Rudin.

THE CRIME

Investigators believe that Rudin was shot as he lay in bed in his posh home on Dec 18, 1994. They point to blood found spattered on the ceiling of the bedroom and evidence that a mover come into the home to remove a blood-stained carpet.

Rudin reported her husband missing two days after his alleged disappearance.

On Jan. 21, 1995, three fisherman discovered his burnt body near Lake Mohave. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide when an examination of his skull revealed at least four holes made by .22 caliber bullets.

Lake Mead, where the murder weapon was discovered

More than a year later, in July 1996, a scuba diver discovered a Ruger semiautomatic pistol at the bottom of Lake Mead that had been reported missing from Ron Rudin's collection since 1988 — shortly after his marriage to Margaret Rudin. Ballistics tests proved the gun was the murder weapon.

By April 1997, authorities finally had enough evidence to win a murder indictment against Rudin. But by then, the widow had already disappeared.

LIFE ON THE LAM

Weeks before the indictment, businessman Yehuda Sharon dropped off his friend Margaret Rudin at McCarran International Airport. Sharon says he was unaware that Rudin was leaving town for good. The blue-eyed blond sported a black wig and began wearing brown contact lenses.

According to police, Rudin returned briefly to her hometown Chicago, where she still had relatives, before taking off to Phoenix. There, she was almost caught after a former co-worker in a hotel gift shop reported seeing her, having watched a segment about her on America's Most Wanted. Investigators let her go, however, because they were unable to positively identify her.

Margaret Rudin as a brunette

She then left for Guadalajara, Mexico. Rudin says she was never in Chicago and that police are wrong about the dates she was in Mexico. But she clearly returned to the U.S. and succeeded in eluding police for two more years.

Going by the name Leigh Brown, Rudin lived a quiet life in the blue-collar community of Revere, Mass. For two years, she resided with retired firefighter Joseph Lundergan, who has said he knew nothing of her sordid past.

According to Lundergan, Rudin told him that her husband was killed by an Israeli terrorist named "Yehuda."

Another America's Most Wanted tipster eventually led authorities to a post office box in Revere. With the help of a mail carrier and a pizza delivery man, investigators zeroed in on the apartment she shared with Lundergan.

Despite being caught, Rudin has called her flight a "liberating experience." She told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "I loved it. It was exciting I had lots of adventures."

THE PROSECUTION'S CASE

Prosecutors have a wealth of evidence they believe will convince a jury of Rudin's guilt — chief among it her own handwritten notes and diary entries.

Rudin wrote about her discontent with her marriage, her beliefs that her new husband was cheating on her and her hopes of getting a divorce and financial settlement.

Prosecutors also point to the handwritten notes about conversations she allegedly recorded in her husband's office without his knowledge. Her own sister testified about the recordings before a grand jury.

According to Sue Lyles, who testified at a civil proceeding about Ron Rudin's estate, Rudin told her the day before his disappearance that he believed he was being poisoned. He had also written a letter requesting that, if he died a violent death, the matter be thoroughly investigated and the suspect be cut out of the will. The civil proceeding ended when Margaret Rudin agreed to accept little more than half a million dollars from his estate, barely enough to cover her legal expenses.

The prosecution is also armed with forensic evidence, including the gun, blood samples inside Rudin's car found abandoned behind a strip bar, blood splatters on the bedroom ceiling and walls and Rudin's charred remains. Found near the body was a trunk containing a piece of Ron Rudin's jewelry. According to police, the trunk was strikingly similar to one Margaret Rudin formerly had in an antique shop she owned.

One witness says Margaret Rudin hired him to remove a blood-stained mattress and carpet from the bedroom and that he saw a brown-colored liquid in the bathtub drain. The jury can also expect to hear from Sharon, who was granted immunity, and about Rudin's two-year flight from Mexico to Massachusetts.

THE DEFENSE'S CASE

Margaret Rudin claims that police have neglected the possibility that her husband was killed by a disgruntled business partner.

Represented by attorney Michael Amador, Rudin also refutes prosecutors' motive that she killed her husband to keep his fortune, arguing that one of her former husbands had even more money than Rudin's $11 million, but that marriage ended in divorce, not death.

"Over the seven years they were married the Rudins had many arguments, not unlike many married couples, but they always made up," stated one defense motion to dismiss the charges.

The motion points a finger at Ron Rudin's business partners Sharron Cooper and Harold Boscuitti — charging that both were "far from being honest business people."

While Margaret Rudin stood to gain 60 percent of her husband's estate, Cooper and Boscuitti were designated to receive a portion.

According to the document, Cooper's share went down when Margaret Rudin's share increased — and Cooper had control of Rudin's estate shortly after his disappearance.

The motion also hints at another defense strategy, citing an unnamed 1994 event that was "serious enough to have resulted in the murder of Ronald Rudin."

The defense further blames police for failing to investigate Cooper and Boscuitti.

THE STAKES

If convicted, Rudin could receive a life sentence. Jury selection is scheduled to begin February 26 before Judge Joseph Bonaventure, the same judge that presided over the murder trial of casino mogul Ted Binion.

While awaiting trial, Rudin shared a cell with Sandy Murphy, Binion's former girlfriend who, along with her lover Rick Tabish, was convicted of murdering him. Also sharing the cell was Jessica Williams, who was recently convicted of a fatal accident that claimed the lives of six teens. The trio of blondes were reportedly split up when Rudin complained of "inappropriate behavior" between Murphy and Williams.

Jury selection began February 26, and the trial is expected to last approximately five weeks.