Mom of Utah author accused of poisoning husband possibly 'involved in planning' his death, police say

FIRST ON FOX — To an outsider, Kouri and Eric Richins had it all: nine years of marriage, three sons, successful careers and a decent-sized roof over their heads in Kamas, Utah. But after Eric, who owned a successful masonry business, died unexpectedly of fentanyl poisoning at age 39 in their home on March 3, 2022, Summit County authorities and prosecutors began to uncover a darker image of the seemingly perfect family.

In May 2023, a Summit County Sheriff's Office detective submitted a search warrant affidavit expressing his belief that Darden may have been 'involved in planning and orchestrating Eric's death,' based on her own connection to a suspicious death in 2006. 'In investigating Kouri Richins’ associates, it was discovered that in 2006, Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden was living with an adult female with whom she was having a romantic relationship.

Eric Richins' estate-planning attorney, Kristal Bowman-Carter, said he 'made and requested several unusual to highly unusual choices and provisions to his estate plan' prior to his sudden death, including the decision to take Kouri off his will and made his sister and father the beneficiaries instead, court documents state.

At our meeting, he told me he had two primary goals. His first goal was to protect him in the short-term from fairly recently discovered and ongoing abuse and misuse of his finances by his wife Kouri Richins. … His second was to protect the three young sons he and Kouri had together in the long-term by ensuring that Kouri would never be in a position to manage his property after his death,' Bowman-Carter wrote.

Kouri shouted, ‘What’s wrong with you people?’ and ‘How could you do this to me?’ and ‘This is my house,’' Bowman-Carter said. 'I explained to her that the Trust owned the house and told her, ‘This is not your house.’' The Summit County Sheriff's Office referred Fox News Digital to the Summit County Attorney's Office. The attorney's office declined to comment on the affidavit.

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