ALL FOR NOTHING

$30M Inheritance That Led to Man’s Fatal Poisoning Was a ‘Scam’: Report

Steven Edward Riley Jr. was “convinced he had inherited the money” after receiving an email from a person claiming to represent a distant relative, his son said.

A North Dakota woman is accused of fatally poisoning her boyfriend with antifreeze in what may have been a plot to snatch part of $30 million he believed he had been left by a relative—but the man’s son says that the couple were both tricked by a stranger, and that there never was any inheritance. “It was a scam,” Ryan Riley told the New York Post. Ina Thea Kenoyer, 47, was charged with murder on Monday in the September death of Ryan’s father, Steven Edward Riley Jr., 51. Ryan said his father had received an email from someone claiming to represent a “distant relative,” telling Riley they would rendezvous at a nearby airport to organize the transfer. “He was convinced he had inherited the money and was going to receive it when the supposed lawyer landed,” Ryan said. “But the supposed lawyer never showed up.” The Minot Police Department previously said that investigators believe Kenoyer had “financial motives” to murder her boyfriend of 10 years. A representative told the Post: “Both Steven and Ina believed the $30 million inheritance was real, but we have no indication that it would have ever been paid out.”