A registered nurse in Utah allegedly convinced a woman that she had terminal cancer, injected unprescribed insulin into her, and killed her with that method while plotting to collect more than $1m from the victim’s life insurance, according to police.
Meggan Randall Sundwall faces charges of first-degree felony aggravated murder as well as obstruction of justice after her recent arrest in the death of Kacee Lynn Terry, 38, authorities said in documents that spell out the unusually grim case and were reported by various Utah news outlets.
As investigators tell it, Sundwall, 47, believed she was the beneficiary of a $1.5m life insurance policy held by Terry, who was purportedly her friend. They exchanged tens of thousands of text messages since 2019 in which Terry evidently believed she had cancer, with Sundwall sharing how she would kill herself if she were in Terry’s position, court documents alleged.
Police said the pair also texted about Sundwall’s having money problems and how they would be solved by receiving money from Terry’s life insurance policy, which investigators portrayed as “rumored”.
Sundwall even allegedly offered to help Terry die – which she did, in August.
Investigators became suspicious of Sundwall after Terry’s uncle called first responders to Terry’s home for a medical emergency. Terry’s uncle told police he found her unresponsive in her bedroom in the community of Highland, as Utah’s Deseret News reported.
Sundwall, who was in the room and reportedly said she was the only other person there that day, claimed Terry had been unconscious and unable to breathe “for a couple of hours” – and, having a do not resuscitate order, would not want to go to the hospital.
First responders took note of a diabetic needle at the scene and took Terry – who was not diagnosed with diabetes – to a local hospital. Doctors determined that her blood sugar level was 14, or well below the life-threatening figure of 40, as KUTV noted.
Medical staff pronounced Terry dead three days later, leading to an autopsy which determined that she neither had cancer nor other health issues. Terry had died from an overdose of the allergy medication promethazine, what was probably insulin – which treats diabetes – administered to her from outside her body, and other drugs, the medical examiner in charge of the autopsy concluded.
Police said they interviewed a forensic pathologist who said administering insulin to a person was the only way to get a blood sugar level as low as the one Terry had, according to the Deseret News.
Terry had also never prepared a do not resuscitate order, and she had not ever given Sundwall power to make medical decisions on her behalf, said the court documents cited by the Utah news stations KUTV and KTVX.
Police said they later found evidence that Sundwall had pursued information about Terry’s life insurance after her death while also deleting more than 900 texts from her phone in an apparent attempt to mislead investigators.
Nonetheless, police said they discovered a text from Sundwall to Terry earlier on the day she was hospitalized asking: “Do you want to take some promethazine when I get there so that you are asleep when this is happening?” They also said they had evidence establishing that Sundwall had been seeking to persuade Terry to “end her suffering” with a fatal dose of insulin, as the Deseret News reported.
Court documents reportedly do not elaborate on why Terry believed she had cancer.
Police charged Sundwall with Terry’s murder on Thursday. Court records show she was ordered held without bail pending a pretrial hearing.
In Utah, first-degree felony aggravated murder could carry between 25 years and life in prison.
Prosecutors also have the option of pursuing the death penalty against anyone charged with that crime in particular. But, in Sundwall’s case, prosecutors had not immediately said whether they were considering doing so.
Sundwall has had a nursing license since at least 2007, Utah state records show. Records do not list disciplinary actions against her and show she graduated with an associate’s degree from Utah Valley State in 2006.
Terry’s obituary says her survivors include her sister, her brother-in-law and their children. It describes Terry as someone who enjoyed the outdoors, hunting and camping. She never birthed children, but she loved babysitting, “filled the role of mom to many kids” and hoped to one day “have her own family,” the obituary said.
The obituary said Terry landed a job helping adults with disabilities after she was introduced to a company named Chrysalis. Her declining health left her “unable to work like she had in the past, but she was able to find great comfort from the companionship of her dog Bella”, according to the obituary.
