NEWS / Utah woman charged with forging death certificate to collect insurance proceeds

A 32-year-old woman from the Salt Lake City of West Jordan, Utah, has been charged in the 3rd District Court with forging a death certificate and making a fraudulent insurance claim. The woman previously filed an insurance claim on August 28, 2023, presenting a fake death certificate to corroborate her report that a man who had her listed as his life insurance beneficiary had been killed in a car crash in Mexico. The relationship between the woman and the man has not been revealed.

According to the woman, the accident occurred on July 18, 2023, and the man died on August 10, 2023.

“In support of her claim, (she) submitted or caused to be submitted, several documents to Minnesota Life Insurance Company including a death certificate, cremation authorization and police report for (his) alleged death,” the charges read, as quoted by KSL.

The woman also filed a disability claim stemming from her allegation that the man had been in a coma before he passed away.

The insurance company hired another company to look into the woman’s claim and discovered that the death certificate and other documents were “fictitious”. The charges note that a domestic violence incident involving the woman and the purportedly deceased man occurred the same day of his supposed accident, with a police report of the incident as corroborating evidence.

The woman is scheduled to appear in court on September 23, 2024.