In March of 2022, Kouri Richins found her husband dead in their bedroom. According to her, after a party where her husband had mixed alcohol and THC, she delivered him one more drink in their bedroom and then had fallen asleep with their son in his room. When she returned to their shared bedroom around 3 am, she found him unresponsive on the floor. She then called 911.
In the year that passed, she wrote a children’s book that she hoped would help her children, as well as others, find their way through the grief that comes with losing a loved one. The book was titled Are You With Me?
However, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office arrested Kouri Richins this past Monday for the murder of her husband, Eric Richins. Kouri has now been charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance, with recently released court documents showing evidence of an illegal purchase of fentanyl a few months before her husband’s death. The documents also say that Richens’ husband became ill around Valentine’s Day of last year, and that he told his family that he believed she was trying to poison him.
The medical examiner has since released that Eric Richins had five times the legal limit of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death and other court documents have stated that Kouri made multiple purchases of oxycodone and fentanyl in the months prior, having the drugs delivered to a home that she was attempting to sell.
Also stated in the initial warrant was information that Kouri had logged into the joint insurance policy owned by Eric and his business partner in January 2022, just weeks before he died. And a few weeks after his death, Kouri sued Eric’s sister for control of his estate, claiming that the couple’s prenup entitled her to his money and the family home.
However, that civil case will take a backseat to the criminal charges that Kouri now faces, and if she is found guilty, it will likely fall under the purview of Utah’s Slayer Law, which stops killers from profiting from their crimes.