When Kouri Richins first appeared on the popular morning show Good Things Utah, she sat seriously with her hands laced on her knees. In a dark brown jacket and jeans, she explained that her husband “passed away unexpectedly” a year ago (March 2022) and that it “completely took us all by shock.” She was hawking a children’s book she wrote about the death called Are You With Me? and talked candidly about grief. Just two months later, she would be in jail for his murder. Here’s her story.
Before her husband Eric’s death, Kouri worked in real estate and had a house-flipping business. She was reportedly deeply in debt and rapidly careening toward financial ruin. The couple had three young sons together, but she was reportedly having an affair with another man.
She started her real estate business in 2019 and she struggled to make it profitable. To help with the money, she took out a home equity loan for $250,000. Eric didn’t find out about the loan until he went to the bank in 2020. A handwriting expert would later say that there was a high probability she forged his signature.
In all, she was about $3.1 million in debt. Eric owned a successful masonry business and was worth in the neighborhood of $5 million. In January of 2022, she took out some life insurance policies allegedly by forging her husband’s signature. They were worth around $2 million, and Eric had no idea. The couple had a prenup, and Kouri allegedly believed she would get the money under its terms. However, Eric secretly put most of his estate in his sister’s name, indicative that he sensed something sinister was amiss.
Around the same time, Kouri bought fentanyl pills from a housekeeper, and on Valentine’s Day she allegedly poisoned her husband’s bagel sandwich and left it in his truck with a love note. She then spent the day with her secret lover. The next day she texted her affair partner and said “if he could just go away … life would be so perfect.”
Eric got so sick he broke out in hives, and gave himself a shot with his son’s EpiPen. He then passed out, and when he woke up, he phoned a friend and said he thought his wife tried to poison him.
Two weeks later, Kouri texted the man she was having an affair with and promised they’d be together soon. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said “she assured her paramour, ‘life is going to be different. I promise, hang in there until Friday.’ On Friday, Eric Richards is dead.”
Perhapes learning from her alleged first attempt, she bought more fentanyl and this time made her husband a vodka drink with five times the lethal dose, prosecutors said. He passed away in his sleep while she spent time with her children. When asked by investigators what happened, she said her husband ate a fentanyl-laced gummy.
Court documents show that she also used a burner phone and searched the internet for “can cops.uncover deleted.messages iphone,” “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as,” and “what is a lethal.does.of.fetanyl.”
Kouri spent the year after Eric’s death writing her children’s book, then she appeared on the Utah morning news show to promote it, appearing cold and calculating. During a bail hearing after her arrest, her sister-in-law called her “desperate, greedy and extremely manipulative.”
“We have watched as Kouri has paraded around portraying herself as a grieving widow and victim while trying to profit from the death of my brother — while trying to profit from a book about his death and trying to get life insurance,” she said in court.
Kouri was denied bail and has been in prison the last 15 months. She’s charged with 11 counts, including attempted murder, some forgery counts, intent to distribute a controlled substance, and mortgage and insurance fraud. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.
She remains defiant toward prosecutors despite her defense team withdrawing from the case, citing “an irreconcilable and nonwaivable situation.” In her first comments since her arrest, presented by Dateline True Crime Weekly, she said she was ready for a fight.
“I’m anxious. I’m anxious to prove my innocence. I’m anxious to get to trial. And I’m ready to give this one heck of a fight. … You took an innocent mom away from her babies, and this means war.” Her trial is expected to begin April of 2025.