Woman kills boyfriend with poison after believing he stood to inherit $30 million

A North Dakota woman has been sentenced after she admitted to fatally poisoning her boyfriend because she believed he was going to inherit $30 million. 

Ina Kenoyer, 48, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation on Wednesday, Oct. 16 after pleading guilty to murder in May, according to online Ward County court records. 

She was also ordered to pay $3,455 in restitution to the victim’s family. 

Kenoyer was arrested on a felony murder charge on Oct. 30, 2023, nearly two months after the poisoning de@th of her longtime boyfriend, 51-year-old Steven Riley Jr. 

Kenoyer put antifreeze into some sweet tea she made for Riley on Sept. 3, 2023 and he d!ed two days later, authorities said. 

Prosecutors said Kenoyer poisoned Riley, whom she had been dating for 10 years, after he reportedly received information that he was going to inherit $30 million. 

According to court documents cited by the Minot Daily News, friends of the couple told investigators that Riley planned to break up with Kenoyer once he received the purported multi-million dollar inheritance. But investigators claim the inheritance was a scam and that they haven’t identified the person who communicated with Riley about it, the Minot Daily News reports. 

On Sept. 3, 2023, Riley planned to meet with a lawyer at an airport to discuss the inheritance, authorities said. But later that day, he became ill. 

Authorities said his friends tried to get him medical treatment but Kenoyer insisted that he was suffering from heat stroke and they took him home to rest, the outlet reported. 

When a friend checked on Riley the next day, Kenoyer told them he had gone to a walk-in clinic. However, no clinic or hospital records showed that Riley had been treated, according to the outlet. 

As the days passed, Riley’s condition worsened and authorities were eventually called to Riley’s home on a report of an unconscious person, the outlet reports, citing authorities. He was airlifted to a hospital, where he d!ed on Sept. 5, 2023. 

An autopsy determined Riley died of ethylene glycol poisoning, the Minot Daily News reports. Following Riley’s de@th, friends told police that Kenoyer had previously made comments about poisoning Riley with antifreeze. 

When speaking with investigators, Kenoyer claimed that Riley had been drinking alcohol all day on Sept. 3, 2023, and that he suffered from heat stroke. However, no alcohol was found in his system during the autopsy. 

According to court documents, Kenoyer admitted to knowing about the inheritance, which she believed she was entitled to a portion of as his common-law wife. But their state doesn’t recognize such relationships. 

After searching the home, authorities said they found several items, including a Windex bottle containing a green liquid suspected to be antifreeze, the Minot Daily News reports. Kenoyer later confessed to adding it to Riley’s sweet tea to disguise the taste. 

Riley’s son, Ryan Riley, faced Kenoyer in court at her sentencing, sharing how hard the loss has been on him. 

“To have you take away someone so important, it’s just hurtful,” he said, per the Minot Daily News. “I can’t even find the words to describe how I feel and how much it burdens everyone. I just wish none of this ever happened. I never expected to lose my dad to something so selfish.”