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A North Dakota man who police say was fatally poisoned with antifreeze by his girlfriend for a $30 million inheritance would not receive any money because he was the victim of an online scam, his son says.
Ina Thea Kenoyer, 47, killed Steven Edward Riley Jr., 51, by giving him poison on September 3, the day he met with a lawyer to collect the huge sum, police records state.
“It was a scam,” Riley’s son Ryan said The New York Post in a new interview. ‘He was convinced that he had inherited the money and that he would receive it when the so-called lawyer arrived. But the so-called lawyer never showed up,” Ryan added.
In response to the Post’s story, a spokesperson for the Minot Police Department said they have no evidence the inheritance was real, but investigators believe both Riley and Kenoyer thought it was legitimate.
Ryan further told the Post that his father had been planning to break up with Kenoyer for some time. He described his father as “caring” but said he had run out of patience with the suspect, calling her lazy and adding that she had never had a job.
Police believe Kenoyer (right) had ‘financial motives’ to kill Riley (left) after inheriting $30 million
Kenoyer (pictured), who has denied the charges, faces life in prison without parole
Steven Riley (pictured) died after ingesting antifreeze, an autopsy of his body has revealed
‘She was extremely lazy and never did anything. (My father) was a very caring person and did everything he could to help those around him,” the grieving son said.
According to his Facebook page, Ryan is in the United States Army and is based out of Fort Hood, Texas. After hearing his father was sick, he rushed home to North Dakota where he was able to see him before he passed away.
”Rest in peace daddy… I had a feeling it was her with how everything turned out, but damn, I wish we had made plans to see each other sooner. I hope she gets what she deserves for taking you from this world,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
In his interview, Ryan said the home his father and Kenoyer shared was in disrepair with dog feces everywhere.
“Dog poop almost everywhere, dirty clothes scattered all over the house, the trash seemed endless, nothing was clean,” he said.
Investigators believe Kenoyer had “financial motives” after learning Riley planned to end their relationship once he received the inheritance.
Kenoyer told investigators she believed she was entitled to the fortune as his common-law wife, a status North Dakota does not recognize. Riley planned to share the inheritance with his son.
Riley became ill on September 3, but his partner did not call 911 until the next day, witnesses told police.
Ina Thea Kenoyer (photo) was charged on Monday with poisoning her boyfriend
When paramedics arrived, they found Riley unresponsive in his Minot home and he was rushed to Trinity Hospital in Minot.
He was later taken to a hospital in Bismarck, where he died the next day.
Kenoyer told authorities that Riley had been drinking heavily and had suffered heatstroke the previous day.
An autopsy revealed that he had not been drinking and had died after ingesting antifreeze.
During a police search of the couple’s home, a Windex bottle containing suspected antifreeze was found.
In the garage were a beer bottle and a plastic mug, both suspected of containing antifreeze.
Kenoyer denied the allegations in a series of rambling Facebook posts.
“To the Shafer who almost hit me, he’s not married, hello hunny. “I wish I was looking for someone, but no, I’m a one-man woman, a nice person, and Steve Riley is the only man I ever wanted,” she said in a post three days before she was charged with murder.
Kenoyer faces AA murder charges, the most serious murder charge in North Dakota, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
She is being held without bond at the Ward County Detention Center and is representing herself, court records show.