by Debbie Burke
In March 2022, Eric Richins died suddenly, two months before his 40th birthday, leaving his three young sons grieving. His obituary described him as a devoted family man married to the “love of his life,” Kouri. His funeral was held at the Henefer (Utah) LDS Church.
After his death, Kouri wrote and self-published a children’s book entitled Are You With Me? She claimed her motive for writing the book was to help her children through their grief but also to help other families dealing with loss of a loved one.
She promoted the book on a Utah radio station. According to the interview, “The book is based on questions that her children asked in the months after their dad died.”
Kouri planned to publish another grief-themed children’s book: Mom, How Far Away is Heaven?
But her literary career was cut short when she was charged with murdering her husband. She was accused of spiking his Moscow Mule with Fentanyl that, according to the autopsy, was five times the lethal dose.
Her motive for that act wasn’t as altruistic as writing a grief support book.
Kouri reportedly believed she would inherit the successful businessman’s estate. She had also taken out multiple life insurance policies on him while having an affair.
But Eric had discovered the love of his life had run up more than a million dollars in debts and he had cut her out of his will years before.
Kouri was charged with insurance fraud, forgery, and aggravated murder for pecuniary gain, as well as attempted murder for a previous unsuccessful attempt to kill Eric on Valentine’s Day, 2022.
The evidence against Kouri included her phones and other devices that showed damning online searches:
“what is a lethal.does.of.fetanayl,” “can cops.uncover deleted.messages iphone,” “women utah prison,” “if someone is poisned what does it go down on the death certificate as,” “death certificate says pending, will life insurance still pay?” and “luxury prisons for the rich in america.”
When they married in 2013, the couple had a prenup agreement that kept Eric’s prior assets separate, including the home the family lived in. Kouri’s financial deceptions included: taking out a quarter-million-dollar home equity line of credit on that residence without Eric’s knowledge; running up charges on his credit accounts; and diverting money that was earmarked to pay taxes. She also changed beneficiaries on a life insurance policy from Eric’s business partner to herself. The insurance company became suspicious and alerted Eric who removed her as beneficiary.
The Richins’s housekeeper, who received immunity for her testimony, stated that in the months prior to Eric’s death, Kouri asked her repeated times to buy illicit drugs, including Fentanyl. The housekeeper obtained drugs through acquaintances and delivered them to Kouri.
On Valentine’s Day, Kouri left Eric a sandwich in his truck with a “love note.” Soon after he ate it, he broke out in hives, and had trouble breathing. He used an EpiPen to treat himself and reportedly told a friend he believed his wife had tried to kill him.
During the three-week trial, more than 40 witnesses testified for the prosecution. Defense attorney Wendy Lewis claimed the prosecution’s investigation was “sloppy” and “driven by bias.”
“Everything about this investigation was led by [Eric Richins’] family. They started on day one, and they continued until trial,” the defense attorney said. “They are the ones who initially hired and paid for experts. Their private investigator gave information to the police.”
The jury of two women and eight men only took three hours to find Kouri guilty on all counts.
On May 13, 2026, Eric’s 44th birthday, Kouri was sentenced to life without parole.
This video includes the victim impact statements from her sons that their therapists read for the court.
Letters she wrote to her sons from prison have reportedly been returned unopened.
The book Are You With Me? has been removed from sale by Amazon. Goodreads still includes reviews of it. The majority are one star.
A big thank you to Lindsey Hughes for alerting me to this true crime story.
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TKZers: Crime writers often joke about worrying their online searches look suspicious to law enforcement. Do you have suggestions for authors doing research that could appear incriminating?
Numerous people are in prison now because of their search histories especially when combined with store security cameras. It is hard to hide. One thing is to keep your research and tie it to a project. Don’t Google what poisons show up in a standard autopsy without a character killed with poison. The standard search retention is two years. I would need to check with my law enforcement friends if that is still true.
Oh, there is always just divorce the SOB. Less likely to get time for that.
Thanks for that info, Alan. In prison, she’ll have time to write another book.
OJ Hat time
Assuming I wanted my search history to not be found I would use a Linux Live Boot and then a public wifi. Then I would connect through a public VPN. I would leave my cell phone at home. A subpoena would show the history. But when I turn off the computer it dissapears. The VPN further hides the connection. Someone used the Starbucks on 3rd street wifi to look up how to tie a noose. Connecting that to me. pretty hard.
Sneaky!
Re preventing your research from becoming an indictment. A few months ago, I was reading an article about the history of witch burnings, one of whom was Joan of Arc. That has got to be a bad way to die. Out of curiosity, morbidly I suppose, I wondered how long it took for a human being burned alive to die, thus ending the agony. So, I queried the Web. I got a response but also a severe admonishment that I shouldn’t be contemplating these things either for myself or for others. That lecture took me by surprise. I reworded the question and got no warning against self harm or harm to others. But it never dawned on me that research questions like that that ultimately get thrown in the trash could come back to haunt me. Hmm.
Michelle, numerous incidents of suicide and self-harm were reported following interactions between chatbots and people with mental health issues. I suspect this is the reason behind the lecture to you.
What a cold-blooded woman. Her poor kids.
Right, Elaine, kids always suffer the most. So sad.
The AIs I used to gather information about realistic ways an atomic weapon might be put into a safe mode gave me some serious admonishments about the subject. I eventually found that the Chinese AIs were not as restrictive. I’m sure some agency logged the attempt, and after reviewing my search history, assigned someone to keep an eye on me. That means there’s a federal employee dying of boredom as I write this.
When I was researching a different topic, one of the AIs questioned my mental state. In that case, I was actually glad, I thought the AI handled the situation very well.
Interesting to hear you also experienced AI scolding, Marshall. Problem is, the people who truly want to do harm aren’t going to pay attention to a chatbot’s warnings anyway.
In my case I never did figure out how to get the answer I wanted until I went to an overseas AI. I don’t remember if it was Qwen or DeepSeek but they balked at first and then gave me a credible sounding procedure that was highly detailed. As it turned out I didn’t use it due to time constraints in the scene.
I know I watch far too much true crime, because I knew about this case long ago. Thing is, true crime often has so much story behind it. I’m not talking about tiresome serial killers, but the unexpected perpetrators. Mothers, churchgoers, police, doctors, meek employees…
Tracey, the unexpected killers can be truly chilling. Thanks for stopping by.