North Dakotan Woman Accused Of Poisoning Her Boyfriend With Antifreeze For His $30 Million Inheritance

Ina Thea Kenoyer, a North Dakotan resident, has been accused of poisoning her boyfriend, Steven Edward Riley, with antifreeze.

Riley died on September 5. Kenoyer was charged with murder on October 30.

She originally told the authorities that her boyfriend suffered a heat stroke, though an autopsy soon revealed he died of poisoning from ethylene glycol, the main ingredient of antifreeze.

Prosecutors say the murder was part of a plot to claim her share of his $30 million inheritance to which she believed that she was due as Riley’s common-law wife.

On the day before Riley died, emergency workers were called by Kenoyer to the couple’s home in Minot, where the victim had been found unresponsive.

The victim was taken to a local emergency room and transferred to a hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he died.

The court affidavit states that Riley’s friends and relatives said that they believed his girlfriend had poisoned him with antifreeze.

There was strife within their relationship, according to investigators. The victim was going to receive a large inheritance of around $30 million and was planning on leaving his girlfriend as soon as he received it.

The court affidavit mentions that one of Kenoyer’s friends had seen that she was distressed because her victim wanted to get his inheritance and abandon her.

Despite Kenoyer’s belief that she was in a common-law marriage with her boyfriend, North Dakota does not recognize common-law marriages. Kenoyer was incensed when investigators explained this fact to her.

On the evening before Riley was hospitalized, he was at an airport to meet with a lawyer to settle his receipt of the inheritance.

The victim had been joined by his girlfriend and his friends, who stated he started feeling sick and drunk despite not having consumed any alcohol. He then brought up having stomach pain and nearly collapsed.

“Witness stated they wanted to obtain medical treatment for John Doe, but Ina Thea Kenoyer was adamant that John Doe was suffering from heat stroke and just needed to go home and rest after the airport,” the affidavit states.

While being questioned by investigators, the suspect informed them that her boyfriend drank all day on September 3 and suffered from heat stroke the day before.

A toxicology report revealed that Riley did not have any alcohol in his system at the time of his death.

Authorities searched their house and found a Windex bottle in the living room. Court records indicated that the bottle contained green liquid thought to be antifreeze.

Investigators found a glass Coors Light beer bottle and a plastic mug in the couple’s garage, both thought to contain antifreeze.

Kenoyer offered the investigators different scenarios in which Riley could have ingested the antifreeze by accident, such as smoking a cigarette that was dropped into antifreeze in the garage. She even suggested that heat stroke symptoms can copy poisoning.

The investigators mentioned that the victim was alone with his girlfriend at home for a minimum of 12 hours after the airport incident.

Kenoyer now faces an AA felony murder charge, the most severe murder charge in North Dakota, and she is being held without bond.