The Utah woman accused of killing her husband by serving him a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule then authoring a children’s book about grief had tried changing his life insurance policy to make herself a beneficiary, records show.
Kouri Richins, 33, allegedly tried to name herself the beneficiary of her 39-year-old husband Eric’s life insurance policy instead of his sister shortly before his March 2022 death, FOX 13 Salt Lake City reported.
However, the insurance firm alerted Eric to the change in time for him to reverse it, according to the outlet, which cited search warrant documents.
Eric Richins — who shared three sons with Kouri who are all under 11 — ultimately removed his wife from the will altogether, but never told her, KUTV reported.
Tensions have since flared between Richins and her husband’s family.
Richins allegedly assaulted her sister-in-law during a party she hosted just one day after Eric’s death “where she was drinking and celebrating,” according to previous reports.
And both sides have spent the past several months in court over Eric’s $3.6 million estate, FOX 13 reported.
His family members, including the sister named Richins’ beneficiary, told police Kouri had an alleged history of violence, and past attempts to poison Eric – so much so he had warned them “if anything happened to him she was to blame,” the warrant reportedly states.
Kouri is accused of poisoning her husband with roughly five times the deadly dose of fentanyl inside the family’s Kamas, Utah home on March 3, 2022.
Police were called to the Willow Court home just after 3:20 a.m. March 4, and arrived to find Richins’ body “on the floor at the foot of his bed.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kouri Richins allegedly told police she and her husband were celebrating that night because she had sold a house. She made him a Moscow Mule vodka drink and brought it to him in their bedroom, court records show.
She “stated she went to bed and shortly after went to sleep with one of the children in the child’s bedroom because that the child was having a night terror,” the document states.
Richins told police she awoke around 3 a.m. and returned to her and her husband’s bedroom.
“She felt Eric and he was cold to the touch.”
She went on to write a children’s book about grief, “Are You With Me?” which was released a year after Eric’s death.
Police later unearthed Richins’ alleged connection to an accused drug dealer who admitted to selling her fentanyl pills, which she allegedly said she was buying “for an investor who had a back injury.”
Two weeks later, she allegedly asked the dealer for stronger fentanyl pills – “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” the warrant states.
Police said she placed two $900 orders for fentanyl pills.
Investigators also discovered Richins lied about her cell phone use in the hours before she discovered his death, police said.
Richins had allegedly tried poisoning her husband in the past.
Eric Richins told a friend he thought Kouri was trying to poison him after he got sick following a Feb. 14, 2022, Valentine’s Day dinner at their home, the document states.
He had a similar incident during an international trip years earlier, KUTV reported.
The warrant reportedly states: “According to a sister, Eric and his wife went to Greece a few years ago and after his wife gave him a drink he became violently ill and called his sister saying he believed his wife had tried to kill him.”
Richins has been charged with first-degree aggravated murder and multiple counts of second-degree possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, records show.
She is due in court on May 19.
With Yaron Steinbuch