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Kouri Richins’ husband was found dead at the foot of their bed last March.
She’d just closed on a house for her business, she told investigators at the time. Around 9 p.m., she brought her husband, Eric Richins, a celebratory Moscow Mule cocktail in the bedroom of their home in Kamas, Utah.
She left to sleep with their son in his room and returned around 3 a.m. to find her husband lying on the floor cold to the touch, she told authorities. About a year to the day her husband died, Richins published a children’s book, “Are You With Me?” about navigating grief after the loss of a loved one.
But investigators now allege she killed her husband of nine years with a lethal dose of illicit fentanyl. This month, they charged her with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Newly released court documents detailed a series of illicit fentanyl purchases in the months leading up to his death.
Kouri Richins, 33, allegedly bought the drugs from an acquaintance identified as C.L. in court documents. Weeks before her husband’s death, the Richins had marked Valentine’s Day with a dinner at home.
“Shortly after the dinner, Eric became very ill. … Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him,” court documents say.
Kouri Richins was arrested Monday and remains in custody. CNN has reached out to her attorneys for comment.
He had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system
An autopsy and toxicology report revealed that Eric Richins, 39, died of a fentanyl overdose. He had about five times the lethal dosage in his system, according to a medical examiner.
