Celebrated for book about husband’s death in the US – now charged with the murder of

Author Kouri Richins, 33, gave her husband his favorite sandwich on Valentine’s Day.

According to prosecutors, it was laced with the lethal drug fentanyl.

A month later he was dead.

And the widow wrote a children’s book about grief.

Show more

chevron-down

Outwardly, Eric, 39, and Kouri, 33, were a happy couple with three children and successful careers.

They lived in a small town in the mountains near Park City, Utah, and look in love in many of the photos that have now gone public.

Lying dead at the foot of the bed

But during the last period of his life, Eric Richins lived in fear of his wife. According to friends, he has become increasingly paranoid, writes CBS News.

In March 2022, Kouri Richins called 911 at 3 a.m. from home and reported finding her husband cold and lifeless at the foot of the bed.

When the ambulance arrived, he was dead.

At the autopsy, five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid whose effect can be a hundred times stronger than heroin, was found in the 39-year-old’s body.

Kouri Richins told investigators she mixed a drink for her husband and took it up to the bedroom.

Then she had gone and laid down in one of the sons’ beds to put the boy back to sleep.

Wrote a book about grief

She found her husband in the middle of the night when she returned to their bedroom. Her theory was that Eric himself dissolved the tablets in the drink.

The police suspected that someone killed Eric Richins by cheating him of the drug.

But it was only in September of last year that the suspicions against the “mourning widow” were strong enough for her to be arrested and later charged for his death.

During her year at large, Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book about grief.

The book is an illustrated fairy tale about a father with wings who watches over his young son after death.

Conceived murder plan

She was praised for the book, which was recommended to all children who needed to process grief after losing a loved one, writes CBS News.

After the arrest, the book has become part of the prosecutor’s evidence. It is believed that Kouri Richins had a well thought-out murder plan.

The case has still not gone to trial and the 33-year-old has denied all charges.

Now new charges have been brought against her.

The writer is suspected of having tried to kill the husband once before, a month before his death.

Drugs in a sandwich

The suspicions relate to a sandwich she bought and left with a loving note in his car on Valentine’s Day 2022.

After eating the sandwich, Eric Richins suffered a severe rash and passed out.

Before he died, he desperately tried to combat the symptoms by injecting himself with his son’s severe allergy pen.

When Eric woke up, he called two friends with fear in his voice, according to their witness interviews with the police.

– I think my wife tried to poison me, he said.

The prosecution’s star witness is a cleaning lady who says she sold the fentanyl tablets to Kouri Richins.

Wanted stronger pills

The first time was a few days before Valentine’s Day.

Richins later contacted the cleaning lady and stated that “the pills were not strong enough” and that she needed more and stronger pills of the drug.

In addition to the testimony, the police have also managed to recreate previously deleted text messages that the women sent to each other.

The motive is believed to have been financial.

Without her husband’s knowledge, Kouri Richins took out a life insurance policy on him where almost 20 million kroner would be paid out in the event of his death.

She is also said to have made a number of decisions regarding the couple’s personal finances without Eric knowing, which prompted him to contact a divorce lawyer in October 2020.

If they were divorced when he died, she would neither get anything out of his life insurance nor inherit her husband’s successful construction company, writes CBS News.