American woman author convicted of murder in husband’s fentanyl poisoning death. Motive will shock you

A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death was convicted of aggravated murder in his death by poisoning him with fentanyl. Jurors on Monday also found Kouri Richins guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after the death of Eric Richins in March 2022 at their home outside the ski town of Park City.

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drank. They say Richins was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that if her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million. They also say she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side.

After her husband’s death, Richins self-published a children’s book about grief to help her sons and other kids cope with the loss of a parent.


She was also convicted of other felony charges, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out.

Richins’ defense attorney said Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to procure opioids for him. Kouri Richins, however, told police earlier in a video that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.

Children’s book becomes a tool for prosecutors

Shortly before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published a children’s book about grief to help her sons process the loss of their father. She promoted the book “Are You with Me?” on local TV and radio stations, which prosecutors have pointed to in arguing that Richins planned the killing and tried to cover it up.

Summit County Sheriff’s detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting company to write the book for her.

O’Driscoll said the sheriff’s office received an anonymous package shortly after Richins’ arrest that contained the book and a note: “There are two sides to every story. This is a true Kouri, a devoted wife and adoring mother. Thought you should know.”

Investigators later learned from Amazon that Richins’ mother sent the package.

Jury hears letter found in jail cell

Prosecutors showed the jury excerpts of a letter found in Richins’ jail cell that they said appears to outline testimony for her mother and brother. In the six-page letter, Richins instructs her brother to tell her former attorney that Eric Richins confided in him about getting fentanyl from Mexico and “gets high every night."

Defense attorneys have said the letter contains a fictional story Richins had been working on. They have argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and asked his wife to procure opioids for him.

However, Richins told police on the night of her husband's death that he had no history of illicit drug use, according to body camera footage shown in court.