A registered nurse in Utah allegedly satisfied a girl that she had terminal most cancers, injected unprescribed insulin into her, and killed her with that technique whereas plotting to gather greater than $1m from the sufferer’s life insurance coverage, in line with police.
Meggan Randall Sundwall faces expenses of first-degree felony aggravated homicide in addition to obstruction of justice after her latest arrest within the demise of Kacee Lynn Terry, 38, authorities stated in paperwork that spell out the unusually grim case and had been reported by numerous Utah information retailers.
As investigators inform it, Sundwall, 47, believed she was the beneficiary of a $1.5m life insurance coverage coverage held by Terry, who was purportedly her good friend. They exchanged tens of hundreds of textual content messages since 2019 by which Terry evidently believed she had most cancers, with Sundwall sharing how she would kill herself if she had been in Terry’s place, court docket paperwork alleged.
Police stated the pair additionally texted about Sundwall’s having cash issues and the way they might be solved by receiving cash from Terry’s life insurance coverage coverage, which investigators portrayed as “rumored”.
Sundwall even allegedly supplied to assist Terry die – which she did, in August.
Investigators turned suspicious of Sundwall after Terry’s uncle referred to as first responders to Terry’s residence for a medical emergency. Terry’s uncle advised police he discovered her unresponsive in her bed room in the neighborhood of Highland, as Utah’s Deseret Information reported.
Sundwall, who was within the room and reportedly stated she was the one different individual there that day, claimed Terry had been unconscious and unable to breathe “for a few hours” – and, having a don’t resuscitate order, wouldn’t wish to go to the hospital.
First responders took be aware of a diabetic needle on the scene and took Terry – who was not identified with diabetes – to a neighborhood hospital. Medical doctors decided that her blood sugar stage was 14, or properly under the life-threatening determine of 40, as KUTV famous.
Medical employees pronounced Terry lifeless three days later, resulting in an post-mortem which decided that she neither had most cancers nor different well being points. Terry had died from an overdose of the allergy medicine promethazine, what was most likely insulin – which treats diabetes – administered to her from exterior her physique, and different medicine, the medical expert in control of the post-mortem concluded.
Police stated they interviewed a forensic pathologist who stated administering insulin to an individual was the one method to get a blood sugar stage as little as the one Terry had, in line with the Deseret Information.
Terry had additionally by no means ready a don’t resuscitate order, and she or he had not ever given Sundwall energy to make medical selections on her behalf, stated the court docket paperwork cited by the Utah information stations KUTV and KTVX.
Police stated they later discovered proof that Sundwall had pursued details about Terry’s life insurance coverage after her demise whereas additionally deleting greater than 900 texts from her telephone in an obvious try and mislead investigators.
Nonetheless, police stated they found a textual content from Sundwall to Terry earlier on the day she was hospitalized asking: “Do you wish to take some promethazine once I get there so that you’re asleep when that is taking place?” In addition they stated that they had proof establishing that Sundwall had been looking for to influence Terry to “finish her struggling” with a deadly dose of insulin, because the Deseret Information reported.
Court docket paperwork reportedly don’t elaborate on why Terry believed she had most cancers.
Police charged Sundwall with Terry’s homicide on Thursday. Court docket data present she was ordered held with out bail pending a pretrial listening to.
In Utah, first-degree felony aggravated homicide might carry between 25 years and life in jail.
Prosecutors even have the choice of pursuing the demise penalty in opposition to anybody charged with that crime specifically. However, in Sundwall’s case, prosecutors had not instantly stated whether or not they had been contemplating doing so.
Sundwall has had a nursing license since at the very least 2007, Utah state data present. Data don’t listing disciplinary actions in opposition to her and present she graduated with an affiliate’s diploma from Utah Valley State in 2006.
Terry’s obituary says her survivors embrace her sister, her brother-in-law and their kids. It describes Terry as somebody who loved the outside, looking and tenting. She by no means birthed kids, however she beloved babysitting, “crammed the position of mother to many children” and hoped to at some point “have her circle of relatives,” the obituary stated.
The obituary stated Terry landed a job serving to adults with disabilities after she was launched to an organization named Chrysalis. Her declining well being left her “unable to work like she had prior to now, however she was capable of finding nice consolation from the companionship of her canine Bella”, in line with the obituary.
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