SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — Medical examiners found traces of Kouri Richins‘ anti-psychotic medication in her husband’s system during an autopsy following his death in March 2022.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband then wrote a children’s book about grieving, looks on during a bail hearing Monday, June 12, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
The new detail was made public Thursday after search warrants in the high-profile case were unsealed.
Prosecutors charged Kouri Richins with aggravated murder after she allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric, with a drink containing five times the lethal dose of fentanyl.
However, one search warrant showed that a small amount of Quetiapine was also found in Eric Richins’ stomach during the autopsy. Kouri told detectives that she had been prescribed the anti-psychotic as a sleeping aid, but the medical examiner’s office said that is not the intended use of the medication.
READ MORE: Judge denies Kouri Richins’ request to dismiss charges
The search warrant was filed to learn why Kouri was prescribed the Quetiapine.
Since the arrest of the children’s book author in May, the case has become a worldwide sensation that has only become bigger with allegations of Kouri Richins instructing her family on how to testify, along with details of how she had made changes to Eric’s life insurance policies before he was killed.
After learning of the changes to his policies, along with learning his wife had taken nearly $135,000 from his business, prosecutors said Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Salt Lake City, an E.W. Scripps company.
