Kouri Richins, a 33-year-old mother of three, allegedly poisoned her husband with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl.
KPCWA Richins family photo with Kouri Richins, her husband and their three sons.
Police have arrested a Utah author who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s untimely death. The charges include one first-degree count of aggravated murder and three second-degree counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
The defendant, Kouri Richins, is a 33-year-old mother of three and was married to Eric Richins, a member of a prominent family in the Summit County area of Utah.
The couple had been married for about nine years before Eric Richins died and had three sons together.
To the outside world, their marriage seemed relatively normal. Eric Richins owned a successful stone masonry business and Kouri Richins worked as a real estate agent.
But on the night of March 3, 2022, the Richins family experienced a tragedy.
Kouri Richins called 911 shortly after three in the morning. On the phone, she told dispatchers that her husband was “cold to the touch”, as reported Associated Press.
When officers arrived, Kouri told them she had made a drink for her husband to celebrate a recent house closing. She also said that Eric took a THC candy, KPCW news reported.
After serving him the drink, Kouri reportedly spent a few hours in one of her son’s rooms to help soothe his night terrors before returning to his and Eric’s room. There she found him unconscious on the floor.
After the sudden death, medical examiners performed an autopsy on Eric’s body and found he had died of a fentanyl overdose.
According to medical examiners, Eric had more than five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system.
Given these autopsy results, authorities grew suspicious of Kouri, but needed time to gather evidence to prove that she had poisoned her husband.
Kouri Richins/Facebook Kouri Richins with her husband, Eric.
In the year following her husband’s death, Kouri published a children’s book titled are you with me? The story explored grief and how to deal with it as a young child.
Kouri has recently spoken about the book and the loss of her husband on podcasts and talk shows.
While appearing on the show good things utahKouri said she always makes sure her husband’s spirit is alive in her home.
“Just because he’s not present here with us physically doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she explained.
Kouri dedicated the book “to my amazing husband and a wonderful father”.
As Kouri Richins has made a name for herself as a grieving widow and up-and-coming author, the police are building a case against her for murder.
With a warrant in hand, police seized Kouri’s electronic devices and began meticulously examining their contents.
On Kouri’s phone, police discovered that she had contacted a friend looking for prescription painkillers.
“[I want] some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” Kouri wrote in a text, as reported by Fox8 News. Specifically, Kouri was interested in fentanyl, and her friend obliged by giving her 15 to 20 fentanyl tablets.
Along with the suspicious text messages, Eric’s family reportedly raised their concerns about Kouri with the police shortly after his death.
According KPCWthe family said Eric “warned them that if anything happened to him, [Kouri] was to blame.
Amazingly, Eric’s family even pointed out that Kouri tried to poison Eric on at least two other occasions.
One of Eric’s two sisters told police he called her while on vacation with Kouri in Greece. As the pair relaxed and enjoyed their time together, Kouri allegedly handed Eric a drink which left him violently ill.
On February 14, 2022, Eric reportedly suffered an allergic reaction at the table and passed out. When he woke up, he was sure his wife was trying to kill him.
Further damning evidence came from Eric’s life insurance company. In January 2022, Kouri reportedly changed the beneficiary of the policy from one of Eric’s friends and business partners to herself. When the company contacted Eric about this change, he immediately reversed it.
Additionally, Eric changed the beneficiary of his will and power of attorney from Kouri to his sister. Court documents also mention that Eric was about to start divorce proceedings when he died.
Kouri reportedly discovered that she had been cut from the will after Eric’s death, and she soon began to sue Eric’s family for what she considered her rightful share of her late husband’s assets.
With a financial motive for the crime and physical evidence linking Kouri to her husband’s death, the police arrested her at her home.
Currently, Kouri is facing murder and drug charges. Her next day in court will be May 19, when a judge will decide whether she should remain in jail until her trial begins.
After reading the story of Kouri Richins, learn the story of the unsolved Tylenol poisonings of 1982, in which seven people were killed by unknowingly swallowing a cyanide pill hidden among the Tylenol. Then read about Richard Klinkhamer, the man who wrote a book detailing the gruesome ways he could have killed his missing wife – only to be framed for her murder years later.
