After her husband’s death, she wrote a children’s book about bereavement. Now she is charged with his murder

Kouri Richins’ husband was found dead at the foot of their bed last March. The woman testified that around 9 p.m. she brought a Moscow Mule cocktail to Eric Richins’ bedroom and then went to bed with her son in his room. She was supposed to return around 3am to find a man lying on the floor. The body was already cold. About a year after her husband’s death, Richins published the children’s book Are You There With Me? about mourning and coping with the loss of a loved one.

Investigators now say the woman killed her husband by giving him a lethal dose of illegal fentanyl. This month they charged her with aggravated murder and illegal possession of a substance with intent to distribute. Court documents contain information detailing a series of illegal fentanyl purchases in the months leading up to Richins’ death, as well as possibly other poisoning attempts.

On Valentine’s Day he choked after eating a sandwich, on vacation he was damaged by a drink

A few weeks before Eric’s death, the Richins celebrated Valentine’s Day with a dinner at home. “Shortly after dinner, Eric became very ill … He told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him,” the court documents read. After eating a sandwich prepared by his wife, he reportedly felt very bad, including shortness of breath. He had to, among other things use your son’s epi-pen to ease an allergic reaction. Then he was unconscious for several hours.

The deceased’s sister also mentioned a holiday in Greece a few years earlier, during which her brother was supposed to suddenly feel very bad. It happened moments after he drank a drink prepared by his wife. A big bone of contention was also the purchase of a house worth 2 million dollars, which the man did not want to agree to. The family says that this led to numerous arguments, and the day after her husband’s death, Kouri signed the purchase agreement.

It was Eric Richins’s sister who, unbeknownst to his wife, had been made a life insurance beneficiary some time ago. He was reportedly seriously considering divorce and trying to gain custody of the children. It turns out that Kouri Richins tried to change this state of affairs to become her only beneficiary. Richins was arrested on Monday and remains in custody without bail. The first hearing in her case will take place on May 19.

She claimed that her bereaved sons helped write the book

An autopsy and toxicology report revealed that 39-year-old Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose. According to the medical examiner, he had about five times the dose considered lethal in his system. Investigators obtained a search warrant and confiscated the wife’s phone and several computers in their home. They discovered that Kouri Richins was communicating with someone identified in the file as CL. This person has an extensive police record, including drug-related crimes. From her, the woman was to buy fentanyl. She was to ask for about “what they found in Michael Jackson” and buy 15-30 fentanyl pills for $900 on Feb. 11, then more. Six days later, the woman called 911 in the middle of the night, reporting her husband’s death.

Although she testified that she left the phone plugged in next to the bed and did not take it to her son’s room, analysis of the phone proves otherwise. “Between the time the defendant said she went to the nursery and when she called 911, the status of her phone shows that it has been locked and unlocked multiple times, and the phone’s traffic has been logged. In addition, the charges on the defendant’s phone show that messages were sent and received at that time. After that, they were deleted,” the court documents read.

Richins, who was supposed to be working on the book for months, spoke last month on “Good Things Utah” on local TV station ABC4 that mourning was an important element of her book. She claimed that her three sons helped her write it, sharing their emotions after the loss of their father.