A woman from Utah charged with murdering her husband spoke about his death in a chilling interview on local TV last month.
Kouri Richins, from Summit County, was arrested on Monday (8 May), more than a year after the death of her husband Eric.
Eric died on 4 March 2022, after Kouri called the police in the middle of the night to report that her husband was 'cold to touch'.
When questioned by police, Kouri said that she had made Eric a mixed vodka drink and took it to their bedroom, before going to tend to one of their children in their own room.
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Kouri claimed she found her husband unresponsive when she returned, and when deputies arrived at the home, they found Eric at the foot of his bed.
An autopsy later revealed Eric had died as a result of a fentanyl overdose, with the medical examiner reporting that he had approximately five times the lethal dosage of the drug in his system.
During an investigation into the death, an acquaintance of Kouri told police that the wife had asked them to get her some 'prescription pain medication'.
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Police discovered that Kouri was provided with 15-30 fentanyl pills, with Eric becoming 'very ill' after having dinner with his wife at home.
Court documents say Eric 'told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him'.
Now, 14 months after Eric's death, Kouri has been charged with aggravated murder, as well as three charges of possession with intent to distribute.
It comes just a matter of weeks after Kouri appeared on TV promoting her new book Are You With Me?, which was written to help her kids cope with the death of a loved one.
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Speaking on ABC4's Good Things Utah on 6 April, Kouri described her husband's death as 'unexpected'.
"It completely took us all by shock. We have three little boys, 10, nine and six, and my kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we’ve experienced in the last year," she said.
When asked how she and her children have coped with the death, Kouri said she 'went on Amazon and Barnes and Noble to try to find something to help us cope at night, nights are the hardest'.
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“I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night and I couldn’t find anything that suited them, so I was like, ‘Let’s just write one,’” Kouri added.
She also told the hosts she researched 'how to grieve as a widow' while also looking at coping mechanisms for her children.
Kouri concluded: "Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us.
"Dad is still here, it’s just in a different way."
Callum Jones