The Utah mom charged last month with giving her husband a fatal dose of fentanyl allegedly searched Google for information on Utah prisons, whether police can see deleted phone messages, and how long insurance companies take to pay out a death benefit, all after her husband’s death.
Kouri Richins, who was arrested on May 8 and charged with the March 4, 2022, death of Eric Richins, also searched for her own net worth after Eric Richins was found dead and sought information about hiring a ghost writer for a book, KTVX reported.
The 33-year-old self-published a children’s book after her husband’s death, “Are You With Me?” about coping with the sudden lost of a parent, as CrimeOnline has reported.
Kouri Richins told investigators that she made her husband a cocktail the night before he died while they celebrated her closing a real estate deal — a deal friends and family have since said Eric Richins opposed. She said she spent most of the night with one of their children and found Eric unresponsive when she returned to the couple’s bedroom.
When she was arrested last month, investigators revealed allegations that she had tried to poison her husband before the fatal poisoning on March 4 and that Eric Richins had told family members that he suspected she was trying to kill him. He had also revealed that she changed the beneficiaries of life insurance policies he and his business partner had taken out, making her the sole beneficiary. The insurance company contacted the two men, who changed it back.
Eric Richins also wrote his wife out of his will, apparently because of his suspicions, making his sister the executor and giving her power of attorney.
Other searches in her Google history included “luxury prisons for the rich in America,” “Is naloxone similar to heroin,” and “What is considered non-natural manner of death.”
Some more benign searches included “how to undo microblading,” “what kind of doctor was dr. pepper,” and “Lil Nas X married.”
Last week, the Summit County Attorney’s Office asked for and received a temporary gag order barring parties in the case from speaking to media outlets, with prosecutors noting a high number of national and international media outlets contacting them for comment about the case — as well as at least four organizations seeking to make documentary films about the case.
Additionally, prosecutors said, Richins herself had been in contact with one such filmmaker about a documentary, both directly and through a friend, KUTV reported.
Richins is due in court on Monday. Her defense has asked that she be released pending trial, saying the prosecution’s case is thin and presents no evidence that she killed her husband.
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[Featured image: Kouri and Eric Richins/Facebook]
