Tragic twist in case of North Dakota man poisoned over $30m inheritence by jealous girlfriend: ‘It was a scam’

A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions appears to be brewing in North Dakota

A jealous girlfriend has been charged with poisoning her boyfriend with antifreeze as he went to collect a $30m inheritance check — but his family claim they had both been scammed.

Steven Edward Riley Jr., 51, fell ill as he went to the Minot Airport on September 3 to collect the surprise multi-million dollar payday.

Police say his girlfriend Ina Thea Kenoyer, 47, had poisoned him, leading to his death two days later, a gruesome act cops said was driven by “financial motives.”

Construction worker Riley had big plans for the millions he was to receive, but apparently didn’t want Kenoyer to share in them and had planned to break up with her.

But, according to Ryan Riley, the victim’s 21-year-old son, the couple had unwittingly fallen victims to an online scam and there never was any money.

According to Ryan, his dad had received an email from a person who claimed to be a lawyer of an unknown “distant relative” and organized to meet him at Minot Airport to sign off on the cash.

“He wasn’t suspicious before he went to the airport, but he was convinced he had inherited the money and was going to receive it when the supposed lawyer landed,” Ryan told The Post.

“He planned on getting acres of land, giving me and some of my brothers a chunk. Then opening his own auto shop.

“But the supposed lawyer never showed up. It was a scam. It was a stranger who managed to trick my dad into believing it was true, unfortunately.”

Ryan added Kenoyer also believed Riley, a father-of-five adults sons, was going to receive the unexpected windfall and it was “her motive” for allegedly killing him.

“They weren’t too happy [and] my dad wanted to leave her for a while,” he said.

“She just never worked and was leeching off of him.

“She was extremely lazy and never did anything.

“[My dad] was a very caring person and would go out of his way to help those around him.”

Ryan, who is in the military and based in Texas, said he took emergency leave to rush to North Dakota when he learned his dad was in hospital and visited his home following his death.

“It was very nasty conditions,” he said.

“Dog waste almost everywhere, dirty clothes scattered all over the house, trash seemed to be endless, nothing there was clean.”

Kenoyer told investigators she was entitled to some of Riley’s inheritance as his common-law wife and planned to split the money, which she estimated to be about $30 million, with his son, police records show.

However, North Dakota does not recognize common-law marriages so her claim would have been dubious from the start. 

Riley became ill when he went to meet with the lawyer to collect the massive inheritance sum, witnesses told investigators, according to police documents.

Captain Dale Plessas, Investigation Commander of Minot Police Department told The Post Wednesday: “Both Steven an Ina believed the $30 million inheritance was real, but we have no indication that it would have ever been paid out.”

Kenoyer didn’t call 911 until the next day — when paramedics arrived to find Riley unresponsive in his Minot home.

He died in hospital the following day.

A police affidavit alleges Kenoyer told authorities Riley had suffered from heat stroke when he became ill, but an autopsy later found that his death was caused by poisoning from ethylene glycol, the main chemical used to make antifreeze, which police allege Kenoyer fed him.

According to cops, investigators searching the couple’s home located a Windex bottle containing what was suspected to be anti-freeze. 

A beer bottle and plastic mug, also suspected of containing anti-freeze, were located in the garage. 

Kenoyer seemingly had an up-and-down relationship with Riley and had previously written about her apparent disdain for him in a series of Facebook posts, The Post can reveal.

In 2021, she posted a picture of him and wrote: “I hope you all get what you deserve you f.”

Another photo she posted of Riley included the caption: “Watch out for this man, he’ll bleed you dry and spit you out.”

“I wish I was worried about this man,” a third post on the account with a different picture of Riley read.

Kenoyer is being held without bond at the Ward County Detention Center and is representing herself, court records show.

Her next court appearance is slated for December 7. She faces a maximum sentence of life without parole.

“This case was extremely complex,” Investigations Commander Capt. Dale Plessas said on Monday.

“Thank you to everyone who provided us with information that helped our investigators piece this together.”

The alleged killing is the latest in a string of domestic poisonings across the nation by scorned partners hoping to cash in on their victims’ fortunes.

Last week, a poison specialist and former doctor at the famed Mayo Clinic was charged with poisoning his wife amid marital difficulties — allegedly trying to have her body cremated immediately while planning to cash in a $500,000 life insurance policy.

Meanwhile Utah mother Kouri Richins is still awaiting trial for allegedly slipping her husband a deadly fentanyl-laced Moscow mule the day before cashing in on a $2 million mansion she hoped to flip that he refused to pay for.