A Utah nurse is accused of killing a friend who she had convinced was sick with cancer so that the nurse could cash in on the woman’s life insurance policy.
Kacee Lyn Terry, 38, died on Aug. 15, three days after Lone Peak police and firefighters rushed to her home in Highland and found her “unconscious and struggling to breathe,” according to a probable cause affidavit in the case.
Meggan Randall Sundwall, 47, was arrested Thursday on charges of aggravated murder and obstruction of justice in her friend’s death.
Terry was found to have died of an overdose of insulin and the sedative promethazine, the medical examiner ruled.
But she was not diabetic. Her blood-sugar level had reached 14, police said; a level of 40 is considered dangerously low.
Sundwall, a licensed registered nurse, knew giving insulin to a non-diabetic would kill Terry, the affidavit alleged.
Sundwall is accused of engaging in a yearslong plot to convince Terry that she had cancer and to let Sundwall medicate her, the police document stated.
Evidence showed Sundwall was having money problems and had wanted to cash in on a “rumored $1.5 million life insurance policy held by Kacee” that she believed she was the beneficiary of, the affidavit stated.
According to the affidavit, more than 28,000 text messages starting in December 2019 between Terry and Sundwall showed that she “believed that Kacee was very sick.”
The text messages detailed ways Sundwall could “help” Terry die and also discussed “Meggan’s money problems being solved by Kacee dying and Meggan receiving her life insurance payout,” the court document said.
On the day first responders came to Terry’s home, Sundwall had sent the victim a text message at 9:47 a.m. asking: “Do you want to take some promethazine when I get there so that you are asleep when this is happening?” police said.
The suspect and victim were alone together in Terry’s home from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., police said.
Terry’s uncle, Mark Farnsworth, called 911 after he found his niece at her home on Aug. 12 with Sundwall, who told him “that Kacee had a DNR and she did not want to go to the hospital,” the affidavit said.
The uncle told police that Terry had “major, major health issues.” At the hospital, the victim’s sisters said Terry “had terminal cancer for 4-5 years but had been doing better,” according to the affidavit.
But in reality, Terry was perfectly fine and had “no cancer and no health problems,” the affidavit said.
Sundwall was being held at the Utah County Jail as of Friday. It was not clear if she had hired or been assigned a criminal defense lawyer.
There was no answer at Sundwall’s home landline or her husband’s cell phone.
The affidavit made no mention of any proof that Terry had taken out a life insurance policy with Sundwall as the beneficiary.
“A DNR was never located and there was no paperwork designating Meggan power of attorney,” the affidavit said.
Highland is a city about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City and 18 miles northwest of Provo.
