The late husband of a murder suspect had thought that his wife had attempted to poison him several times prior to his death, documents note.
Kouri Richins is a mother who wrote a book to help children deal with grief. This was after her husband, Eric Richins, died in 2022. On Monday, she was charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. This is in connection to her husband’s apparent murder.
On March 3, 2022, 33-year-old Richins put a deadly amount of fentanyl in Eric’s beverage. He died hours following that.
Richins told detectives that she had made her husband a Moscow Mule that evening. This was because she had been celebrating a real estate deal for her company. She said that later she discovered her 39-year-old husband, Eric, unconscious and called authorities.
A medical examiner determined that Eric died of a fentanyl overdose. He had five times the lethal amount in his body.
When a search of their home was conducted, an electronic device was taken, and it showed messages between Richins and someone else, regarding the purchase of drugs.
When Richins’s acquaintance was questioned, they disclosed that Richins had bought hydrocodone from them between December 2021 and February 2022. Weeks after that, Richins called the acquaintance again, requesting a stronger drug, some “Michael Jackson stuff.” That’s when Richins then bought 15 to 30 fentanyl pills that cost about $900.
After eating a sandwich on Valentine’s Day, 2022, Eric became sick and hives appeared. He then told a friend that he believed that his wife had put something in his food. He is also said to have told relatives that if anything happened to him, to hold his wife accountable.
Before he died, Eric’s relatives say that he was planning to file for divorce and had altered his will and life insurance to ensure that his sister would be the beneficiary.
In March 2023, Richins released a children’s book, regarding grief, called, “Are You With Me?” The description says that it is about creating peace and comfort for children who have experienced the death of a loved one.
Reports also indicate that Richins has a sequel to this book, called, “Mom, How Far Away Is Heaven?”
