Why Was Children’s Book Author Kouri Richins Charged with Her Husband’s Murder?

Following her husband’s March 2022 death, Kouri Richins appeared to be a grieving widow trying to keep it together for her three little boys who unexpectedly lost their father.

The 35-year-old mom, who claimed her husband, Eric Richins, died from a brain aneurysm at their home in Kamas, Utah, channeled her agony into penning a children’s book on grief titled Are You With Me?

Kouri told Good Things Utah in April 2023 she was inspired to write the story “to try and understand not only how to grieve as a widow, as a wife, but also with my kids” and “how to help them understand what just happened” to their father.

“I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night, and I just could not find anything,” she added.

One month later, in May 2023, Kouri was arrested for murder when an autopsy confirmed Eric, 39, didn’t succumb to a brain aneurysm, but rather a lethal dose of fentanyl purportedly laced in a cocktail she prepared for her husband hours before he was found dead.

Kouri stands accused of one count of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud and one count of forgery in connection with Eric’s death.

She pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors allege Kouri laced her late husband’s Moscow mule with five times the lethal amount of fentanyl the night he died on March 4, 2022.

The state alleges Kouri was motivated to kill Eric for “pecuniary gain because she was in financial distress.” “She also did so because she planned a future with her paramour and divorcing Eric Richins would leave her without any proceeds from his home or business and possibly without custody of their children,” court documents reviewed by A&E Crime + Investigation read.

Her trial commenced in February 2026. She faces up to life in prison.

Behind closed doors, Eric and Kouri’s marriage was crumbling and marred by infidelity.

Authorities claimed Kouri was unhappy and having an affair with another man.

On February 15, 2022, according to court documents, she texted her lover, “If I was divorced right now and ask (sic) you to marry me tomorrow, you would?” and “I just want to lay on the couch and cuddle you! Watch a murder documentary and snuggle!”

Days later, she followed up with, “If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect! I love you.”

One month after Eric’s death, Kouri messaged her paramour: “I think I want you to be my husband one day,” prosecutors alleged.

According to KSL-TV, Eric’s family said that he was planning to divorce Kouri before he was allegedly killed.

The Richins appeared to live a privileged life.

Eric co-owned a successful stonemasonry business, while Kouri worked in real estate and flipped homes, the Tribune reported. But the couple often argued over money, and Kouri was millions of dollars in debt. A forensic accountant testifying on the state’s behalf in March 2026 that, as of March 2022, the month Eric died, Kouri was $7.5 million in debt.

In October 2020, Eric alleged to an estate planning attorney that his wife partook in “ongoing abuse and misuse of his finances,” charging documents stated.

A month later, he removed Kouri as the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy and transferred their home and his company interest into to a trust overseen by his sister.

In January 2022, Kouri secured a life insurance policy on Eric and named herself the beneficiary. She forged his signature on the application, prosecutors alleged.

According to the arrest warrant, Eric and Kouri “were arguing over buying a nearly $2 million property she wanted to 'flip.' He was planning on telling her that he wasn't going to sign the papers. The day after Eric's death, his wife allegedly signed the closing papers on the home,” KSL reported.

Kouri allegedly tried to poison Eric to death with fentanyl three times prior to his death.

He told his family before he died that “if anything happened to him, she (Kouri) was to blame,” investigators alleged in the warrant. “According to a sister, Eric and his wife went to Greece a few years ago and after his wife gave him a drink, he became violently ill and called his sister saying he believed his wife had tried to kill him. On Valentine's Day of 2022, his wife brought him a sandwich, which after one bite Eric broke into hives and couldn't breathe.”

Less than a month later, Kouri allegedly struck again.

During the early morning hours of March 4, 2022, she called 911 to report that her husband was unresponsive.

He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The night before, Kouri alleged she made Eric a Moscow mule to celebrate her closing on a house for her business, and he drank it in their bedroom. She claimed she went to sleep in one of their children’s rooms because he was experiencing a night terror. When she came back to her and Eric’s bedroom in the middle of the night, her husband was “cold to the touch” and she called for help.

An autopsy and toxicology report showed Eric died from opioid poisoning.

Authorities suspect Kouri prepared Eric a fentanyl-laced cocktail with five times the lethal amount of the drug, causing his death. They allege she procured the fentanyl through the family's former housekeeper who sourced it from a drug dealer, citing cell phone evidence and court testimony.

The housekeeper claimed she acquired fentanyl four times in early 2022 at Kouri’s request, according to CNN.

While prosecutors have portrayed Kouri as a money-hungry husband killer who was hell-bent on starting a new life with her lover, the defense has maintained she’s a woman navigating life as a single mother who’s mourning the loss of her children’s father. The defense has pointed the blame at Eric and argued he was a man who used drugs to cope with pain.

The trial remains ongoing.