The Case Against Kouri Richins

Eric Richins told his family. He called his sister Katie from overseas years before his death and said Kouri Richins had tried to harm him. He consulted a divorce attorney. He rewrote his will. He restructured his estate so his three sons would be protected. He told the people closest to him that if anything happened to him, Kouri was responsible. And he went home every night.Katie testified at sentencing that Eric stayed because he was terrified of what would happen to his boys if Kouri got equal custody. He believed he was the only thing standing between her and them. A father who saw the danger clearly and decided that being inside it was safer for his children than leaving them alone with it.Valentine's Day 2022 showed how he held it together. He called two friends the same afternoon. One heard a joke about an allergic reaction — they were laughing. The other heard fear. Eric told him straight: he believed Kouri was trying to poison him. Same event. Two realities. He wasn't in denial. He was living in both versions at once because that was the only way to keep functioning inside something he hadn't escaped yet.His children's statements at sentencing revealed what the household looked like from the inside. Locked rooms. A brother sneaking food to a sibling. Animals dying because nobody cared. Children who called her "Kouri," not Mom. Every one of them asked the judge for the same thing: keep her away forever. What Eric was trying to protect and what was already happening under the same roof — the gap between those two things is devastating.Then Kouri got her forty-five minutes. She rolled her eyes during their words. She sobbed when her family praised her. She told her sons the verdict was an "absolute lie." She admitted the affair. She called the marriage a love that "never failed." And she told three frightened boys: "Never apologize for something you didn't do." Eric died trying to shield those children. Kouri used the podium to plant something in their minds designed to grow for decades. That's the final act of a psychology that cannot concede — aimed at the only audience she thinks she can still reach.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #FentanylPoisoning #Psychology #HumanShield #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #ParkCityUtah #SummitCounty #JusticeForEric

Eric Richins' family made a phone call that changed this case. Todd Gabler had spent 34 years as a private investigator — every single case for the defense. He'd never crossed to the other side. The family hired him on a civil matter. What he found in the phone records made it impossible to stay there.Kouri Richins was in constant contact with a housekeeper who had a criminal record and was failing drug tests in court — in the months before and after Eric died. Law enforcement hadn't pulled those records yet. Gabler flagged it and kept going. Nearly 50 interviews. Multiple vehicles tracked. A body of evidence that would eventually help crack open a criminal investigation that had stalled. This is the first time the man who was inside this case before anyone was charged has told the story from the beginning — the call, the records, the moment it became clear what direction the evidence was pointing.That investigation led to a conviction. What came after the conviction is why this story isn't over. Before she was even sentenced, Kouri wrote a message that ended up in the prosecution's filing. She promised to expose everyone connected to the case. She said, "They picked the wrong one." She said, "They haven't seen anything yet." She allegedly wrote a letter from jail telling her brother to testify falsely. She's accused of witness intimidation. Her own thirteen-year-old told the court he's afraid she'll come for him.Eric Faddis walks through what someone serving life without parole can still do from inside — mail, phone calls, proxies, people on the outside who believe she's innocent. He explains the legal tools available to wall her off and where the gaps still are. Kouri Richins is locked up forever. Her thirteen-year-old is still afraid. That gap between the sentence and the safety is the whole story.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #ToddGabler #LifeWithoutParole #EricFaddis #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #ParkCityUtah #WitnessIntimidation #JusticeForEric

Todd Gabler has closed a lot of case files in 34 years. Over a hundred homicide investigations. Testimony in more than a dozen murder trials. He knows what it feels like to finish the work and move on. But the Kouri Richins case wasn't like the others.This was the investigation that put him on the prosecution's side of a courtroom for the first time in his career. The one where he showed up on a cane after neck fusion surgery and refused pain medication so he could think clearly on the stand. The one where he spent a year going through a dead man's phone, walking through his house, sitting across from people who watched his marriage disintegrate — and building the case that would ultimately send his wife to prison for life without parole.In the final part of this three-part conversation, Gabler opens up to Tony Brueski about the personal toll. What the verdict felt like. Who Eric became to him. Whether crossing the courtroom for the first time changed how he views everything he's done on the defense side. And whether this is the file that stays open in his head long after the paperwork is done.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #ToddGabler #EricRichins #TrueCrime #PrivateInvestigator #HiddenKillers #UtahMurderTrial #KouriRichinsVerdict #TrueCrimePodcast #KouriRichinsSentencing

Kouri Richins' third most frequent phone contact in the months her husband died wasn't a friend, a colleague, or a family member. It was her housekeeper — a woman with a drug-related criminal history who was testing positive in drug court. Todd Gabler found that in the billing records before anyone with a badge did.Then he pulled the phone records. Between January and May 2022, Kouri Richins was in near-constant communication with a woman named Carmen Lauber. Lauber was the family's housekeeper. She also had an extensive drug-related criminal history and was testing positive in drug court around the time Eric died. Gabler flagged it immediately and started investigating Lauber before the Sheriff's Office had identified her as relevant to the case.From there, the scope of the investigation expanded in ways Gabler hadn't anticipated. Nearly 50 interviews. GPS tracking on multiple vehicles. An entire side of the family that wouldn't speak to him. And a growing body of evidence that was pulling a career defense investigator across the courtroom for the first time in his life. In Part 1 of this three-part sit-down, Gabler walks Tony through the beginning — how a civil assignment became the foundation of a criminal prosecution.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #ToddGabler #EricRichins #TrueCrime #FentanylPoisoning #PrivateInvestigator #HiddenKillers #UtahMurderTrial #CarmenLauber #TrueCrimePodcast

Kouri Richins told her sons to forgive. Prosecutors say she spent every day before that speech attacking the people around this case from inside her jail cell — and the sentencing memo has all of it.A fake dating profile made for the lead detective and posted online. What prosecutors call false reports filed against the family raising her boys. Hired a lawyer to go after her sister-in-law. Federal firearms charges pursued against Eric's father — for removing his dead son's guns to keep them safe. A marijuana report on Eric's sister. Bar complaints against the prosecutors that went nowhere. According to the memo, not one of those actions had merit. Every one had a name attached to it. Prosecutors called her character "irredeemable." Then she stood in court and preached forgiveness.Cameras caught her scoffing and rolling her eyes while her own sons' impact statements were read. Those boys described locked rooms, dead animals, and taking care of each other because nobody else would. When her family took the podium and called her innocent, the tears showed up instantly — reserved entirely for herself.On what would have been Eric Richins' forty-fourth birthday, Judge Mrazik sentenced her to life without parole. Kouri spoke for forty minutes. She told her boys to "be like your dad" — the man she was convicted of killing. She told them their memories were "an absolute lie." She told them to stop trusting the people keeping them safe. She didn't acknowledge a single word her children said.After the conviction, prosecutors obtained a message Kouri sent to an "admirer" that ended with a winking emoji and five words: "They haven't seen anything yet."One of her sons is nine. His message was shorter. "Once she is gone, I will feel happy."Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #RichinsSentencing #SentencingMemo #LifeWithoutParole #DARVO #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #ParkCityUtah #JusticeForEric

Kouri Richins' boys couldn't stand up in that courtroom and say what they needed to say. They're too young and too scared. So they wrote it down and asked their therapists to read it for them.What they wrote is devastating. One boy talked about waking up to sirens and not being able to do anything. Another described becoming a parent to his younger brother — feeding him, walking him to the bus — because no one else in that house was doing it. The youngest described being locked in his room over and over, needing his sibling to bring him food, and watching his animals die because nobody cared enough to keep them alive. Every single one of them asked the judge for the same thing: keep her in prison forever. They said they feel safe now. They said that safety disappears the moment she walks free.Kouri sat there and scoffed. She rolled her eyes while her own children's pain was read into the record.Then she got up and talked for fifteen minutes. About herself. Her marriage. Her love for Eric. She never once mentioned what the boys wrote. She told them to "be like your dad" — the man she was convicted of killing. She hinted his death wasn't what prosecutors say. And she told three terrified children that she's coming home.Tony Brueski goes through every word — the impact statements, Kouri's reactions, and the full speech she gave from that podium. What she said will make your blood boil.FOOTER LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.HASHTAGS#KouriRichins #EricRichins #KouriRichinsTrial #ImpactStatements #Sentencing #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #UtahCrime #CourtRoom #Justice

Kouri Richins looked at her three boys during sentencing and told them she'd fight her conviction "no matter how long it takes." She called the verdict an "absolute lie." She said "we're going to make this right." But her own children had already told the judge exactly what they wanted — their mother locked away forever. The oldest, now thirteen, said he's afraid she'd come after him and his brothers if she ever gets out.So when a woman serving life without parole makes promises from the defense table, what's really happening?Eric Faddis has been on both sides of the courtroom — years as a felony prosecutor, now defending people facing the same charges. He breaks down every legal option Kouri's team could pursue on appeal and gives a straight answer about which ones have any chance and which ones are just words.The defense called no witnesses. Kouri didn't testify. The jury took less than three hours. The question isn't whether she'll fight — it's whether there's anything left to fight with.Footer Links:Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer:This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags:#KouriRichins #EricRichins #FentanylMurder #TrueCrime #LifeWithoutParole #UtahMurderTrial #ParkCity #AppealDenied #HiddenKillers #TrueCrimeToday

Three boys just told a judge they're afraid of their mother. They asked for life without parole. They described a childhood they don't miss. And then Kouri Richins stood up and promised those same boys she'd be back.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott breaks down the 45-minute sentencing speech that told three traumatized children their reality is wrong, their feelings have been manufactured by the family protecting them, and the mother they fear is coming home. Shavaun examines the psychology of each major element — the "be like your dad" refrain, the redefinition of mutual infidelity as love that "never failed," the framing of a jury verdict as a personal injustice, and the closing instruction to never apologize for something you didn't do.The question Shavaun answers: was that speech aimed at her children, or was it aimed at herself? And does the answer even matter if those boys hear it?Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #Sentencing #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #CourtRoomSpeech #Psychology #BehaviorAnalysis #TrueCrimeCommunity #Justice