Utah author of children’s book about grief charged with murder

SALT LAKE CITY — After her husband died last year, she wrote a children’s book about grief. Now she is accused of his murder.

Kury Richins was arrested Monday in Utah and is accused of poisoning her husband with a fatal dose of fentanyl at their home in Camas, a small mountain town near Park City.

Prosecutors say Richins called authorities in the middle of the night in March 2022 to report that her husband, Eric Richins, was “cold to the touch.” The mother of three told officers she made her husband a vodka drink to celebrate him selling the house and then went to put one of their children to sleep in the bedroom. She later returned and, finding her husband unresponsive, called 911.

A medical examiner later found five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

In addition to the murder charge, Richins is also charged with alleged possession of GHB, a narcolepsy drug often used in recreational areas, including dance clubs.

The charges — which are based on the officers’ interactions with Richins that night and the account of an “unnamed female acquaintance” who claims he sold her fentanyl — came two months after Richins appeared on local television with an ad called “Are You With Me? » a picture book she wrote to help children cope with the death of a loved one.

For a segment called “Good Things, Utah,” Richins is called her husband’s death was unexpected and described how distraught she and her three boys were. For children, she said, grieving is “making sure their spirit is always alive in your home.”

“It’s, you know, explaining to your child just because he’s not physically here with us, doesn’t mean he’s not here with us,” she told the hosts, who praised her for being an amazing mother.

Richins’ attorney, Sky Lazaro, declined to comment on the allegations.