A widow who wrote a children’s book on how to deal with grief after her husband’s passing has now been charged with his murder.
Kouri Richins, a mum-of-three from Utah, was arrested on Monday for allegedly poisoning her husband, Eric Richins. He died last year at their home in Kamas on March 4 2022.
“According to court documents, an investigation into her husband’s death began on March 4, 2022, just after 3:20 a.m., when Summit County deputies responded to a home at 282 Willow Court on a report of an unresponsive man,” KUTV reported.
When the authorities reached their place on Willow Court on March 4 last year, Eric Richins was found dead at the foot of his bed.
As reported by KSL-TV, “When they arrived, they found Eric on the floor at the foot of his bed,” court documents stated. “Life-saving measures were attempted, but Eric was declared deceased.”
Now, a year after his tragic death, his 33-year-old wife, Kouri, has been charged with aggravated murder and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it.
Speaking in an interview with the police, the Utah author said she and her late husband were celebrating the closing of a house for her business when she made a Moscow Mule for him to celebrate the moment. He drank it and went to bed.
According to the court documents, when Kouri left the room to check on their children in the other room, she sat there for some time as she was tending to one of her kids and ended up sleeping in the children’s room.
“(Kouri) said she awoke around 3 a.m. and came back to her and Eric’s bedroom. She felt Eric, and he was cold to the touch. That is when the defendant called 911,” court documents stated.
The author told the police that she even left her phone in her bedroom with Eric. However, contrary to her statement, her phone records showed that the cell phone was active while she was in her kids’ room.
“In addition, tolls on the defendant’s phone show that messages were sent and received during that time. These messages were deleted.”
After a medical examiner performed an autopsy on Kouri’s husband, it was determined that he “had taken the fentanyl orally at approximately five times the lethal dosage,” per KSL-TV.
Further investigation revealed that Kouri asked one of her acquaintances to get her ‘prescription pain medicine for an investor’ between December 2021 and February 2022.
“Police found that the acquaintance had multiple counts of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and other drug-related charges.”
“(Kouri) told (the acquaintance) to leave the pills at a house defendant was flipping in Midway, Utah. (The acquaintance) left the pills at the house, and the defendant left cash for them,” stated court documents.
The acquaintance added that Kouri contacted them again two weeks later and requested for something stronger like fentanyl.
“In February 2022, the acquaintance contacted a dealer in Ogden, Utah, and got 15 to 30 fentanyl pills. Kouri went to the acquaintance’s home in Summit County and paid them $900.”
After getting her hands on fentanyl, she poisoned her husband, and he became ill after their Valentine’s dinner in February 2022.
The couple were married for nine years and shared three children together. After Eric’s passing, Kouri wrote a book about how she lost her husband so unexpectedly and her struggle with processing loss.
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