Ina Thea Kenoyer had been with Steven Edward Riley Jr. for ten years when she decided to poison him.
Riley, 51, was convinced that a distant relative would leave him a $30 million inheritance. He traveled to the airport in Minot, North Dakota, to meet with a supposed lawyer who never showed up. Shortly afterward, he began to feel ill, and on September 5, 2023, he died. The autopsy found ethylene glycol in his body, the main component of antifreeze, mixed into his drink by the same woman who shared his life.
Kenoyer initially claimed that Riley had been drinking alcohol and suffered heatstroke, but forensic science proved her wrong. In May 2024, she pleaded guilty to murder, and in October she was sentenced to 50 years in prison, of which she must serve 25, in addition to a decade of supervised release. The money she killed him for never existed: it was merely the perfect bait in a scam.
