Ex-bunny in Wis. murder case dies

But despite the fame garnered by her flight, Bembenek died having spent more than two decades insisting on her innocence but never fully clearing her name. Her attorney said Sunday that the effort will continue.

Bembenek, 52, died Saturday of liver failure at a hospice care center in Portland, Ore., said her longtime attorney, Mary Woehrer.

Bembenek worked briefly as a Playboy Club waitress in Lake Geneva, Wis., before becoming a police officer in Milwaukee, where she married detective Fred Schultz. Bembenek was convicted in 1982 of fatally shooting his ex-wife, Christine Schultz, after allegedly complaining about the alimony he had to pay.

Bembenek was sentenced to life in prison but maintained her innocence. In 1990, she escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac and fled to Canada with then-fiancé Dominic Gugliatto, the brother of another inmate.

In Milwaukee, more than 200 supporters - many wearing "Run Bambi Run" T-shirts - rallied to show support for her flight from the law. Bembenek and Gugliatto were captured in Ontario about three months later after the case was publicized on "America's Most Wanted."

Bembenek fought extradition for a time but willingly returned to Wisconsin in 1992. A judge said that "significant mistakes" had been made in the probe of Christine Schultz's death, and Bembenek soon struck a deal with prosecutors in which her conviction was set aside. She pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and received 10 years' probation. Her story was made into a book and a 1993 TV movie starring Tatum O'Neal, "Woman on Trial: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story."

In 2002, after completing her parole, Bembenek filed a motion seeking testing for genetic material in the case in the hope of clearing her name.

A Wisconsin appeals court in 2006 refused to let Bembenek appeal her murder conviction. More recently, she had been petitioning the office of outgoing Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle to pardon her.