This case is both creepy and tragic, and there are three young children whose lives have now been utterly destroyed. Utah mother Kouri Richins, who apparently has worked quite a bit to profit off the “sudden” death of her husband just over a year ago, is now charged with his murder.

The death of Eric Richins occurred on March 4, 2022. According to local news, he was declared dead after Kouri Richins called 911 to report that her husband was “unresponsive” and “cold to the touch.”

On March 4, 2022, at approximately 3:22 a.m., Summit County first responders responded to an unresponsive man at a home near 280 Willow Court.

“When they arrived, they found Eric on the floor at the foot of his bed,” court documents stated. “Life-saving measures were attempted, but Eric was declared deceased.”

In a police interview, Kouri said that she and Eric were celebrating the closing of a house for her business before heading to bed. She said she made a Moscow Mule for Eric, and he drank it.”

According to court documents, Kouri left their bedroom to tend to one of their children and ended up sleeping in the child’s room.”

“(Kouri) said she awoke around 3 a.m. and came back to her and Eric’s bedroom. She felt Eric, and he was cold to the touch. That is when the defendant called 911,” stated court documents.”

Tellingly, Eric Richins had suspected that his wife had tried to previously poison him, and she had tried to make sure that she was the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy just months before he died.

In the years before his death, Eric told his family he feared his wife was trying to kill him. There were two occasions when Eric became violently ill after having drinks or dinner with his wife.”

One of Eric’s two sisters told police he had called her three years ago from Greece where he and Richins were on vacation together.”

He claimed Richins had given him a drink that made him violently ill and said he believed she had tried to kill him.”

In January 2022, she changed Eric’s joint life insurance policy, which he shared with his business partner Cody Wright, so that she was the only beneficiary, a warrant states.”

When the insurance company told the partners, who own the business C&E Stone Masonry, of the change, they were able to change it back.”

After finding out 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 scared she might ‘kill him for the money’, a warrant states.”

The arrest warrant states that Eric Richins died of a massive fentanyl overdose, and that Kouri Richins obtained the drug from someone previously arrested for dealing.

What makes this case more than just a local crime, or even a murder for insurance money, is the way that Kouri Richins has attempted to profit off her husband’s death. She published a children’s book on grief, dedicated it to her late husband, and promoted it on local television.

Video of that appearance shows her referring to her husband’s death as a ‘shock’, and talking wistfully about how she was guiding their three sons through grief.”

‘My husband passed away unexpectedly last year. March 4 was a one year anniversary for us, He was 39.”

‘It completely took us all by shock,’ she said.”

‘We have three little boys, ten, nine and six, and my kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we’ve experienced in the last year.'”

She said she was motivated to write the book after searching Amazon and Barnes and Noble and finding ‘nothing’ to help them ‘cope’.”

‘I went on Amazon and Barnes and Noble to try to find something to help us cope at night, nights are the hardest. I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night and I couldn’t find anything that suited them, so I was like “let’s just write one.”‘

The book, called “Are You With Me?” has now been pulled off Amazon (all the links to the book in news stories lead to “page not found” and a search turns up no matching results), but images of the book’s front and back covers, plus the dedication, can be seen here, as well as clips from her local TV interview, which also appears to have been pulled from YouTube. The real kicker is that Kouri Richins had apparently planned on releasing ANOTHER book on grief this month, entitled “Mom, How Far Away is Heaven?” Sounds like she had quite the plan for marketing herself as an author for children’s books on grief. YIKES.

Now, all of this has yet to be proved in court, though the evidence at hand seems pretty damning. However, if the arrest warrant is accurate, then this woman seems like an utter sociopath who found a way to profit off murdering her husband once she didn’t get the insurance money that she thought she would. The worst and most tragic part of this story are the three young boys who have been effectively orphaned by their mother’s alleged actions. They’ve lost their father and are still processing those emotions, and now their mother has been charged with his murder. Those children will need a lot of family support and therapy in order to process the horror of what has happened to them. Is there a book to explain to a ten, nine, and six year old that Mommy poisoned Daddy for the money, and then exploited your grief for her fame and profit? Maybe that should be Kouri Richins’s next book, since she’s so “motivated” to write books for her sons.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click