The author of a grief book who is now accused of murdering her husband allegedly fought with him over a deal to buy a new home, fresh documents have revealed.
Kouri Richins, 33, reportedly used a fentanyl-spiked cocktail to kill her 39-year-old husband Eric Richins last year.
KPCW got hold of search warrants that suggested Ms Richins wanted to flip a 20,000 sq ft mansion, something her late husband thought was too expensive.
The documents revealed that the property was a source of disagreement in their marriage.
“The couple was under contract at the time of Eric’s death in March 2022. Public search warrants say it was going to cost them nearly $2m and that Eric thought it was too expensive,” said the KPCW report.
The documents stated the husband’s family members thought he planned to tell Ms Richins they weren’t buying the mansion.
A day after her husband died, on 5 March 2022, the author closed the deal.
The documents also revealed that the family planned to tell her that she was being cut out of his will, “making her financially unstable”.
Two weeks after Richins’ death, the wife put the home back up online with an asking price of about $4.8m.
Court documents stated that Richins believed his wife had tried to poison him before, and that she attempted to change his life insurance policy just before his death, according to FOX13.
Richins came from a prominent Mormon family in Kamas, Utah, while his wife wrote a children’s grief book called Are You With Me?
Her arrest warrant stated she allegedly spent $1,800 for 60 fentanyl pills which investigators said she described to a drug dealer as “the Michael Jackson stuff”.
Phone records allegedly showed she claimed to be buying the painkillers for an “investor” who had a back injury, and initially asked for hydrocodone, before later demanding “something stronger”.
Police claimed she first spent $900 on 30 pills. While her husband became “very ill” after a meal on Valentine’s Day, he survived.
“Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him,” the documents read.
The arrest warrant claimed she went back to the dealer and bought another 30 pills for $900 and allegedly used them to murder her husband on 4 March by putting them in a Moscow Mule drink.
Officials determined the cause of death was a fentanyl overdose with five times the lethal dosage found in his body.
Court records showed that, over the past few months, Ms Richins has been attempting to have her husband’s sister removed as a trustee for his estate, which is valued at $3.6m.
She was arrested on Monday and booked into Summit County Jail where she has been held without bond. She has been charged with murder and drug possession and is set for a detention hearing on 19 May.
