Utah nurse arrested after allegedly killing woman for life insurance money

A Utah nurse was arrested Thursday by an officer with the Lone Peak Police Department after allegedly killing her friend because she thought she would receive life insurance money, according to arrest records. She is suspected of first-degree felony aggravated murder and third-degree felony obstruction of justice, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

The nurse was booked in Utah County Jail, according to its website. A Thursday order from 4th District Judge Anthony Howell says she is to be held without bail.

The Salt Lake Tribune typically does not name suspects if charges haven’t yet been filed in court.

According to the affidavit, first responders arrived at a Highland home on Aug. 12, 2024, to find 38-year-old Kacee Lyn Terry unresponsive after her uncle called in a medical emergency.

He had found her in her bedroom alone with the nurse, who hadn’t contacted first responders and who told him Terry had a ‘do not resuscitate’ order in place, according to the document. Later, the arrest affidavit states, no such order could be found.

On the scene, the affidavit says a paramedic found a diabetic needle, though Terry was not diabetic.

Later, her family told detectives the nurse had been trying to kill Terry with insulin for years, the document states.

Terry was transported to a hospital in Lehi, and according to the document her blood sugar level was at 14 when she arrived, and anything under 40 “is considered life-threatening.”

In the intensive care unit, the document says Terry’s sister told providers that she had terminal cancer for four to five years. The affidavit says an autopsy, however, “revealed no cancer and no health problems. There was nothing terminally wrong.”

The document says Terry never regained consciousness and died on Aug. 15, 2024, after doctors declared her brain dead.

According to the affidavit, the nurse believed she was to receive $1.5 million through Terry’s life insurance policy.

On Terry’s phone, the document says investigators found more than 28,000 text messages between the two dating back to December 2019. The affidavit states the messages show the nurse believed Terry was very sick and told her ways she would end her life were she in her shoes, offering to “help” her die.

It also referenced how the life insurance money could solve the nurse’s financial problems that she faced with her husband for years. According to the document, the nurse had recently lost her job.

The affidavit says a forensic pathologist interviewed by investigators said the only way Terry’s blood sugar level could drop to 14 was if someone administered insulin to her.

At the scene where Terry was found unconscious, the affidavit says investigators found a blood glucose monitor with 19 readings within 10 hours on Aug. 12, 2024. They continually dropped in measure.

That morning, before she arrived at Terry’s home, the affidavit says the nurse sent her a text asking “Do you want to take some promethazine when I get there so that you are asleep when this is happening?” A later report from the state’s Office of the Medical Examiner determined Terry’s death to be caused by “an overdose of Promethazine, probable exogenous insulin, and other drugs,” the affidavit states.

At 1:59 p.m. that day, the document says the nurse sent her mom a text saying she couldn’t get Kacee to wake up. Along with not calling for medical help, the affidavit says she did not provide “life-saving care” and it was another seven hours before Terry’s uncle called for help.

After Terry died, the document says the nurse “deleted over 900 texts from her phone in an effort to hide information from investigators” and tried to find her life insurance policy through emails and calls.