A Muscatine woman has been sentenced to two years in prison for wire fraud after she added herself to a neighbor’s life insurance policy and then reported that the neighbor died.

Kimberly Nicole Hollingshed, age 37 of Muscatine, was sentenced on March 8. According to a press release, in February 2022, she accessed her neighbor’s term-life insurance policy and created an online profile for the policy without the neighbor’s permission. Hollingshed then changed the victim’s policy and added herself as a policy beneficiary.

In April 2022 Hollingshed falsely reported the victim died and began the process to claim death benefits, even though the victim was alive in April 2022 when Hollingshed electronically uploaded and submitted a falsified death certificate to the insurance company and was paid $100,138.87 by the company. During the same period, Hollingshed used the fraudulent funds to buy three motor vehicles and other personal property. She was ordered to pay restitution and serve three years of supervised release at the conclusion of her prison sentence.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The case was investigated by the Iowa Insurance Fraud Bureau and the Muscatine Police Department.