A Utah mom of three who wrote a children's book about grief following the death of her husband last year is now charged with his murder.
Kouri Richins, 33, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
According to court documents obtained by the Associated Press, Richins called 911 in the middle of the night on March 4, 2022 and said she found her husband Eric unresponsive after he drank a cocktail she made. Now, prosecutors are accusing Richins of poisoning her 39-year-old husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl.
It's not clear if Richins knew she was under investigation for her husband's death. Just one month ago, she appeared on KTVX-TV during a segment called Good Things Utah to promote her book. She told the station that her husband of nine years died suddenly and that his death "completely took [them] all by shock." To help her children cope with the loss, they wrote the book together.
"Just because he's not present here with us physically, that doesn't mean his presence isn't here with us," she said in the interview. "Dad is still here, it's just in a different way."
Since being charged, the 41-page book has been pulled from Amazon.
Also, shortly before she was arrested, Richins posted a video of her husband and children on Facebook and wrote about how hard life has been without him, NBC News reported.
"The cards I have been dealt seems like a game that just can't be played," she posted, per NBC, adding the hashtag "pleasecomehome." The post has since been removed.
The night of her husband's death, Richins told police she brought him a drink in bed around 9 p.m. to celebrate closing on a house for her real estate business, CNN reported citing court documents. She left the bedroom and slept in one of her sons' rooms because he was having a night terror, she told authorities. When she returned to her bedroom around 3 a.m., she found her husband "cold to the touch" and called police, court documents show.
A medical examiner would later determine that Richins' husband died of a fentanyl overdose -- and had nearly five times the lethal dosage in his system.
Investigators turned their attention to Richins and discovered that she had been communicating with someone who initially sold her prescription pain pills at some point between December 2021 and February 2022, CNN reported. Weeks later, Richins allegedly asked the acquaintance for pills so strong, she called it "the Michael Jackson stuff." The source told police they supplied Richins with 15 to 30 fentanyl pills for $900, according to court documents.
Three days later, Richins' husband became very ill after eating a homemade Valentine's Day dinner and later told a friend he thought his wife was trying to poison him, CNN reported.
About two weeks later, Richins allegedly made another deal with her drug connection to obtain more fentanyl pills for $900. Six days later, her husband wound up dead, per CNN.
Richins is due in court on May 19 for a detention hearing. Her husband's relatives have filed for guardianship of their three sons, ages six through 10, KTVX reported.
If convicted as charged, Richins faces 25 years to life in prison.
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