Mother publishes book about grief for her sons — after she allegedly murdered their father

A Utah woman who wrote a children's book to help her sons deal with the death of their father has now been arrested and charged with their father's murder.

Kouri Richins, a 33-year-old mother of three young boys in Kamas, Utah, about 45 minutes east of Salt Lake City, has recently gone on local television to promote her new children's book, "Are You with Me?" Richins claimed she wrote the book after her husband passed away "unexpectedly" in March 2022 and she could not find adequate resources to help her children deal with loss.

"I went on Amazon and Barnes & Noble to try to find something to help us cope at night," Richins said on a recent segment of "Good Things Utah." "Nights are the hardest. I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night, and I couldn't find anything that suited them. So I was like, 'Let's just write one."'

However, it now appears that Richins' public grief may have been an act and that she may actually have caused her husband's "unexpected" death. On March 3, 2022, Richins and her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins, were celebrating Kouri's recent success flipping houses. Kouri claimed she had made Eric a cocktail, brought it to their bedroom at around 9 p.m., saw him consume it, and then left to comfort one of their children, who had been experiencing a night terror. She fell asleep in the child's room but woke around 3:30 a.m. and returned to the master bedroom, only to discover that Eric was cold to the touch. She immediately called 911.

Police doubted Kouri's version of events almost from the beginning. She claimed she had performed CPR on Eric, but his mouth was covered in blood. Then, stories began to emerge that Eric had recently had several health scares that had convinced Eric that Kouri had been trying to poison him. He told his sister several years ago that he had become violently ill after consuming a drink Kouri had made for him while on a family vacation. More recently, he had experienced a severe allergic reaction to a Valentine's Day dinner Kouri prepared for him just a few weeks before his death. The month before that, Kouri had unsuccessfully attempted to have Eric's life insurance policies changed so that she was the sole beneficiary.

A medical examiner later determined that Eric had overdosed after "orally" ingesting "five times the lethal dose" of fentanyl, a police report said. Though family and friends had never heard that Eric had a drug problem, Kouri later claimed that he had suffered an addiction to painkillers when he was in high school but had not had a problem since. No painkillers were recovered from the Richins' residence.

In addition, an acquaintance identified on court documents only as C.L. told police that she had furnished Kouri with dozens of narcotic pills in early 2022. At first, C.L. supposedly gave Kouri some hydrocodone, but within weeks, Kouri was asking for something "stronger." She wanted "some of the Michael Jackson stuff," C.L. told police. So, on two different occasions in the days and weeks leading up to Eric's death, C.L. said she gave Kouri 15-20 fentanyl pills. Kouri allegedly paid C.L., who has been arrested multiple times for drug-related offenses, a total of $1,800 for the pills.

On May 8, 2023, Kouri Richins was arrested and charged with aggravated murder and three counts of possession of drugs with intent to distribute. She is scheduled to appear in court on May 19.

It appears that Amazon has since removed "Are You with Me?" from its site. It had been available for $14.99. The dedication page reportedly read, "Dedicated to my amazing husband and a wonderful father." "[This book] follows the story of a child who has lost their father, but who is reminded that his presence still exists all around them, just like an angel watching over them," it said elsewhere.

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