Online Reporter
UTAH. – A wife who wrote a book about grief after murdering her husband included tips on keeping his ‘spirit alive’ and making sure the lives of children remain as ‘normal as possible’.
Kouri Richins 35, wrote the book titled ‘Are You with Me?’ a year after she killed her husband Eric Richins, 39, by lacing a Moscow Mule cocktail with fentanyl on March 4, 2022.
The mother of three, an estate agent from Utah, planned to start a new life with her handyman lover and wanted to claim her husband’s US$4million estate after his death.
For more than a year, Richins pretended to be a grieving widow, writing a children’s book which offered advice on how to deal with death.
It allowed her and her children to come to terms with their new reality, she claimed.
Struggling with US$7.5m debt owed to more than 20 payday loan and high-interest lenders, she even appeared on local television and radio programmes to promote the book – described as a ‘must-read for parents who want to provide their children with emotional support’.
On one appearance, the adulterous mother, who was found guilty on five charges on Tuesday and is facing life in prison, offered advice on how to keep a loved one alive following their death.
A year after she killed her husband at their family home, she told local TV show Good Things Utah: “It’s about the three Cs, connection, continuity and care.
“Making sure connection is the major one. Making sure their spirit is always alive in your home and memories are always brought up. And doing things that your loved ones loved to do, whether it’s riding bikes or their favourite dinner.”
Richins, who previously tried to lace her husband’s sandwich, was having an affair with handyman and military veteran Robert Josh Grossmann and confided in friends about feeling ‘trapped’ in her marriage. Jurors heared from one friend who testified Richins said that “in many ways it would be better if [Eric] were dead.”
Just weeks before Eric died, Richins took out a new life insurance policy on her husband.
A handwriting expert testified it appeared to have been forged.
“The morning Eric died, she had a plan on how to spend Eric’s money, not realising it was trust money,” prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said.
Unknown to Richins, Eric had placed his money in a trust for his young sons and appointed his sister as the trustee.
Richins told police she found her husband dead in their bed before an autopsy discovered Eric died from a massive fentanyl overdose, with more than five times the lethal limit in his system, after he drank the homeade cocktail.
At the time of his death, Richins’ finances were ‘imploding’ and her real estate business was in tatters.
She told police they had been celebrating her closing a deal on a US$2.9m mansion in with some homemade Moscow Mule cocktails and a lemon drop shot. In May 2023, her facade crumbled when Richins was arrested and charged with her husband’s murder.
In texts before Eric’s death, she spoke of her dream that she could be together with her handyman. With her husband gone, prosecutors argued Richins believed she would finally be able to start afresh with her lover and also get her hands on a much-needed cash injection. – Mailonline
Mathew Masinge