Mother-of-three who wrote a mourning book to help her boys after her husband died has been charged with murder

A mother of three who wrote a children’s book about grief to help her sons cope with their father’s death has been charged with murder.

Kouri Richins was arrested Monday in Provo, Utah, on suspicion of poisoning her husband Eric at their home last year.

A medical examiner said they found five times the lethal dose of fentanyl – a painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine – in Eric’s body after he died on March 4 last year.

Richins allegedly told police she made Eric a Moscow Mule and gave him a THC gummie to celebrate selling a house for their real estate company.

She claims she left him alone afterwards and went to sedate one of their three children, returning to their bedroom at 3am to find him unconscious and “cold to the touch.”

After his death, Richins wrote ‘Are you with me?’ – a picture book to help children deal with the death of a loved one. She did television interviews to promote it and shared it on social media.

Now the police say she poisoned him with fentanyl. They have yet to confirm her alleged motive, but say she previously changed his life insurance policy to make herself the sole beneficiary.

Eric’s family told investigators shortly after his death that they suspected Richins had murdered the father of three children. He had “warned them that if anything happened to him, she was to blame,” according to search warrants seen by KPCW.

Richins had told police she had resuscitated Eric after finding him unconscious in their home, but the fire department and medics who arrived at the scene said this was unlikely as blood was coming from his mouth.

And in the years leading up to his death, his family has claimed that Eric thought Richins was trying to kill him. There were two occasions when Eric became violently ill after drinking or eating with his wife.

One of Eric’s two sisters told police he called her three years ago from Greece, where he and Richins were vacationing together. He claimed that Richins gave him a potion that made him violently ill and said he thought she had tried to kill him.

And in January 2022, Richins changed Eric’s joint life insurance policy, which he shared with his business partner Cody Wright, so that she was the sole beneficiary, according to a warrant.

When the insurance company notified the partners, who own the C&E Stone Masonry company, of the change, they were able to change it again.

After learning that Richins had tried to change his life insurance policy, Eric changed the beneficiary of his will and his power of attorney to his sister without telling his wife because he was afraid she would “kill him for the money,” according to a warrant. .

But a month later, court documents show Eric had an allergic reaction to a meal with Richins on Valentine’s Day last year. He couldn’t breathe and passed out after using an EpiPen and taking Benadryl.

According to court documents, Richins had purchased $900 worth of fentanyl pills from an acquaintance for the Valentine’s Day meal, and two weeks later asked for another $900. Days later, Eric died of an overdose.

After Eric’s death, Richins claimed him was addicted to painkillers in high school, but had no substance abuse problems since then.

But friends and family told police they had no idea Eric was addicted to any kind of drug, and officers found no painkillers in the family home.

In addition to the murder charge, Richins also faces charges for alleged possession of GHB – a narcolepsy drug commonly used in recreational settings, including dance clubs.

The allegations are based on officers’ interactions with Richins that night and the account of an “unnamed acquaintance” who claims to have sold her the fentanyl.

Two months ago, Richins advertised her children’s book on local TV, telling a segment called “Good Things Utah” that she wrote it to help her three boys cope with the grief of losing their father.

She called her husband’s death unexpected and described how it rocked her and her three boys.

For kids, Richins said, grieving was about “making sure their spirit always lives in your home.”

“It’s – you know – explaining it to my child just because he’s not physically here with us doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she told the presenters, who praised her for being a great mother.

Richins’ lawyer, Skye Lazaro, declined to comment on the allegations.