Every once in a while, you learn about one of those chilling, real-life murder mysteries that feels exactly like a novel. This is one of those times. Let’s dive in to one of the most intriguing recent cases involving a children’s book author and the murder of her husband.
Trigger warning: Be advised as this article contains heavy subject matter, including murder and drug (fentanyl) overdose. Visit this website for more information and resources about the dangers of fentanyl.
In early 2023, Kouri Richins honored her late husband’s legacy by penning a sweet children’s book entitled Are You With Me?, intended to guide her three young kids through the grief of their father’s passing. Just months later, Kouri was charged with her husband’s murder.
On March 4th of 2022, in Park City, Utah, the Richins family were celebrating a huge success for Kouri’s real estate business. Little did they know that by the end of the night, Eric Richins would be dead. It is alleged that before the night ended, Kouri mixed her husband a Moscow mule, dosed it with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, and then went to bed. He was dead by three AM.
So, what happened? How did all this start? Let’s dig a little deeper.
Kouri Was In Too Deep
In 2019, just three years before her husband Eric’s death, Kouri Richins decided to start a house-flipping business. In order to do this, though, Kouri needed to take out a pretty sizeable loan. So she took out a $250,000 home equity line of credit on a house her husband owned in Summit County. According to court documents, Eric was entirely in the dark about this information until a year later when he stumbled upon the evidence during a random visit to his bank.
This means that Kouri must have forged her husband’s signature on the loan documents, illegally obtaining $250,000 in his name. Additionally, Kouri had taken out almost two million dollars in life insurance—on her husband.
On the day Eric died, Kouri was more than three million dollars in debt.
The Valentine’s Day Incident
Shockingly, this wasn’t Kouri’s first attempted “mariticide”—court documents show that just weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day, Eric called a friend in a hazy panic. “I think my wife tried to poison me,” he spluttered. According to prosecution, Kouri had laced Eric’s favorite sandwich with fentanyl and left it for him as his lunch. She then left her home to spend the entire day with the man she was having an affair with.
After taking a single bite of the sandwich, Eric broke out in hives and fell extremely ill. He immediately suspected his wife. That begs the question, what made him think of Kouri rather than some spoiled food or a sudden allergy? Would an innocent woman be the subject of such blatant accusations?
According to Kouri’s former housekeeper and fentanyl dealer, Carmen Lauber, it was just 12 days after this incident—six days before Eric’s death—that Kouri approached Carmen with a request to bring her “something stronger.”
Who is Carmen Lauber?
Aside from Eric and Kouri Richins, there is one more important player in this investigation: Carmen Lauber. As one of the key witnesses, former housekeeper Carmen has provided fundamental evidence against Kouri, confessing to prosecution that she sold Kouri fentanyl on multiple occasions that Kouri may have later used in the attempts on her husband’s life.
Ironically, this ideally incriminating information provides a great motive for the defense. Kouri’s lawyers argue that Carmen is being untruthful about Kouri’s purchase of the fentanyl because she knows that confessing the information will encourage leniency with her current drug charges. No fentanyl was ever actually found in the Richins home, making the evidence entirely circumstantial and making it easy for the defense to place suspicion on Carmen.
The Defense Is Grasping At Straws
Interestingly, Kouri’s initial team of lawyers have completely withdrawn from her case. Her new lawyers are leaning hard on the “circumstantial evidence” angle, as Carmen Lauber seemingly has a reasonable motive to lie about Kouri’s involvement in fentanyl purchase and usage.
The prosecution, however, has a gold mine of information and potential evidence to use in their case against Kouri.
The People vs. Kouri Richins
Katie Richins, the victim’s sister, has submitted a petition alleging that Kouri Richins had ample motive to murder Eric. She knew that Kouri was in major debt; Kouri’s two million dollar life insurance policy on her husband is looking less and less like financial protection and more and more like motive.
It’s also alleged that Kouri had assumed that she would inherit Eric’s estate after his death. The combination of profits from the life insurance and the estate inheritance may have been enough to drag Kouri out of the gaping financial hole she had dug for herself.
Money is a fairly common motive for homicide, so the monetary gain Kouri thought she would gain from Eric’s death may have been enough to convince a judge to take the case to trial. However, prosecution had one more trick up their sleeve.
The Phones
Aside from covering up an affair and taking out an illegal loan, Kouri had also suspiciously purchased and used several burner phones. For what exactly, we’re not sure, but what forensics uncovered from those phones cracked this case wide open.
Analysis of these phones provided evidence of unhinged searches for things like “women utah prison,” “if someone is poisoned what does it go down on the death certificate as,” “can cops uncover deleted messages iphone,” “how long does life insurance companies take to pay” and “what is a lethal dose of fetanyl.”
But that’s not all. Just a day after the first alleged attempted homicide of her husband, Kouri texted her lover, “If he could just go away… life would be so perfect.”
Things are not looking good for the defense.
And to think, Eric almost made a decision years ago that could have stopped this ugly progression of events in its tracks. In late 2020, some of Kouri’s actions apparently aroused suspicion in her husband. Eric consulted an attorney in October of that year with the knowledge that Kouri had been taking out loans and making enormous financial decisions without telling him. He discussed with that lawyer the possibility of divorce— which never happened —and a complete erasure of his wife from the will.
Kouri never received her supposed inheritance. Eric had quietly left most of his estate to his sister, cutting Kouri out completely. Kouri Richins pleaded not guilty to all counts of aggravated murder, assault, drug charges, mortgage fraud, forgery, and insurance fraud, and her trial will begin on April 28, 2025.
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