The husband of 33-year-old Kouri Richins, Eric, passed away on March 4, 2022 at their home. A year after his death, the woman became an author of a book for children, in which she spoke about grief and how to cope with grief after the loss of a loved one. She dedicated the book to "a wonderful husband and great father of our children."
The widow told investigators that on the eve of her husband's death, they were celebrating a buying transaction for her business. She made the Moscow Mule cocktail for the man and brought it to the bedroom, where Eric drank it. Richins later allegedly fell asleep in the child's room, as the child suffered from nightmares and she spent time with him. She found her husband dead in the morning.
The autopsy showed that Richins died of a fentanyl overdose. The drug level in blood was five times higher than the lethal dose of this substance. The man presumably took the drug orally. The police found that Eric had previously told his friend that he suspected his wife of trying to poison him after dinner on Valentine's Day a few weeks before his death.
The police arrested the widow on charges of premeditated murder and three counts of possession of illegal substances with intent to sell. The police found a correspondence with an acquaintance in Kouri's mobile phone. During interrogation, the acquaintance said that the woman was contacting him from December 2021 to February 2022 and asked for prescription painkillers. Four days before Eric's death, the man gave Kouri from 15 to 30 fentanyl tablets, for which she paid $900.
The Richins' murder case is in court. The book written by the suspect was withdrawn from the market.
It was found in court that in the years prior to the incident, Kouri Richins had bought four life insurance policies for her husband without his knowledge. The total amount of benefits was to be two million dollars.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/utah-childrens-book-author-murder-trial-4ccd544ee3a68e14d59c70bd11c11bdc
Photos are from open sources.
