Advertise on podcast: The Case Against Kouri Richins

How to Get Ad-Free, Advance Content from True Crime Today and Hidden Killers Podcasts Do you want to enjoy all the content from True Crime Today and Hidden Killers podcasts without ads and before everyone else? Here’s exactly how to do it: Subscribe to True Crime Today PREMIUM PLUS on Apple Podcasts. Choose either a monthly or yearly subscription. Make sure you select True Crime Today PREMIUM PLUS—this is the channel that gives you all the ad-free and advance content. Important: If you’re hearing ads, it means you’re not on the right channel. Double-check that you’ve subscribed to True Crime Today Premium Plus. Follow the True Crime Today PREMIUM PLUS channel on Apple Podcasts. This is a separate channel where all the ad-free and early-access episodes are uploaded. Remember: Regular episodes with ads will still be available on the main channels. To get the ad-free and advance episodes, you must subscribe and follow the True Crime Today PREMIUM PLUS channel. If you’re still getting ads, head over to the True Crime Today PREMIUM PLUS channel and ensure you’re subscribed there! Enjoy your exclusive content!

Kouri Richins is serving life without parole, yet the next fight over her murder conviction reaches beyond her own defense team. Two sheriffs have been indicted on allegations of interfering with the prosecution. Her lawyers pointed to the related investigation when they sought to delay a ruling on a new trial. In September, Richins filed a sealed motion seeking a pause. She argued that an ongoing obstruction inquiry could shed light on whether her trial had been fair. Prosecutor Brad Bloodworth disputed the connection, saying the later filing introduced alleged problems in a closed pretrial hearing even though the existing new-trial argument had challenged the judge’s treatment of the defense at trial.  At the center of the related inquiry is Eric Mainord, a detective who investigated the death of Eric Richins. An anonymous letter containing allegations about Mainord reached prosecutors weeks before Kouri’s trial. Accounts drawn from search warrant affidavits describe an alleged effort to damage Mainord’s candidacy against Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby. Investigators also looked at a recorded jail conversation with a man prosecutors characterized as a supporter and media adviser of Kouri Richins.  Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds have pleaded not guilty to felony obstruction charges. Rigby also faces a false-statement misdemeanor charge. Their public charging documents were redacted as a judge prepared to consider releasing them on November 4. None of those charges is itself a finding that Richins received an unfair trial.  Richins was convicted of Eric’s murder and related offenses in March 2026. Her bid to pause the new-trial case was denied and withdrawn. Tony Brueski examines the unusual path from an election-season letter to a convicted murderer’s courtroom strategy, and what the defense still has to prove to get a new trial.  Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod  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.  #KouriRichins #EricRichins #KouriRichinsCase #JaredRigby #DaveEdmunds #EricMainord #RichinsTrial #UtahNews #TrueCrime #ObstructionOfJustice

Kouri Richins' own marketing manager told her on a recorded jail call that he was helping a sheriff's reelection campaign because the lead detective on her case had 'helped create this problem' for her. That call sits inside the obstruction case that produced indictments against two Utah sheriffs, unsealed October 7, and it complicates the story her lawyers want to tell. Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice in State v. Kouri Richins. Investigators allege Rigby tried to force Detective Eric Mainord out of the sheriff's race by circulating thirteen allegations about him, allegations that would have forced prosecutors to disclose them and weakened Mainord as a witness against Kouri. The envelope, the anonymous letter that Rigby's lawyer says the charges accuse him of sending, the records request in Edmunds' name: all of it is in sworn affidavits and court filings, none of it is proven. Greg Hall met with Rigby for twenty minutes in January and says he offered campaign help for free. Prosecutors seized his phone on day seven of the trial to learn whether he helped use the allegations to hinder it. He has not been charged. Mainord was dropped from the state's witness list, never testified, and appeared only on a video the jury watched of his interview with Carmen Lauber. Kouri's lawyers argue the sheriffs' case supports a new trial whether the allegations are true or false. Prosecutors answer that the witness never testified and the judge screened the material before trial. Her last filing is due October 16, and a November 4 hearing decides whether the blacked-out indictments become public. Tony Brueski weighs whether any of this can touch a conviction built on fentanyl toxicology, a housekeeper's testimony, and a forged insurance policy. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod 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. #KouriRichins #JaredRigby #HiddenKillers #EricRichins #DaveEdmunds #EricMainord #SummitCounty #WasatchCounty #TrueCrime #ObstructionOfJustice

A recorded jail call connects the pieces of Kouri Richins’ latest post-conviction move — and the trail leads back to someone who sat in her corner at sentencing. Prosecutors are calling her sealed court filing ‘a misleading pretext,’ and the investigation she’s trying to use as ammunition may involve her own associate. Kouri Richins was convicted of aggravated murder for poisoning her husband Eric with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. She attempted it first on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich. Two weeks later, she mixed it into a cocktail. Eric didn’t survive. The jury found her guilty on every count, and she’s now serving life without parole. After conviction, Kouri’s defense filed a motion for a new trial, arguing the judge was biased. When a different judge rejected the bid to disqualify him, the defense owed prosecutors a response on the new trial motion itself. Instead, they filed a sealed motion to pause everything — citing an ongoing obstruction investigation into a local sheriff who allegedly tried to use anonymous allegations against the detective who helped build the murder case. Prosecutors responded publicly. What they revealed: the sealed motion introduces completely new judicial bias claims that have nothing to do with the original new trial arguments. The new claims involve a closed pre-trial hearing — not the conduct the jury saw. Greg Hall — the man prosecutors describe as Kouri’s admirer and media advisor — spoke at her sentencing and told the court she volunteered at soup kitchens. On a recorded jail call, Hall said he helped the sheriff’s reelection campaign ‘primarily because Mr. Mainord helped create this problem with Ms. Richins by investigating her.’ The detective Hall targeted never testified at Kouri’s trial. His credibility was never before the jury. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #HiddenKillers #truecrime #MisleadingPretext #SealedMotion #fentanyl #ParkCity #lifewithoutparole #postconviction

Kouri Richins appeared by video from the Utah State Prison on August 28. A judge told her she owes $1,369,581 — every dollar she collected from her husband’s life insurance policies after poisoning him with fentanyl. Her attorney didn’t challenge the number. The judge sent the balance straight to the state’s debt collection office. The money is already gone. The prosecution’s forensic accountant testified that Kouri spent $1.35 million within three months of receiving it. She had $7.5 million in debt, $80,000 a month in lender payments, and four payday lenders collecting daily. By September 2022, she had $800 to her name. She was declared too poor to hire attorneys. Summit County taxpayers paid for her defense. Prison wages in Utah cap at $1.75 an hour. Working full time at that rate, she could pay off the restitution in about 376 years. And the restitution is only part of what’s ahead. Twenty-six fraud charges are pending in a separate case — prosecutors allege she ran a years-long scheme involving forged documents, laundered money, and a best friend who lost $45,000 and her home. October 9 is the next court date. This episode explains what the restitution order means, where the money actually went, and what the fraud trial is designed to prove about who Kouri Richins was long before the night Eric Richins died.Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #Restitution #MurderConviction #SummitCountyUtah #TrueCrimePodcast #JusticeForEric #LifeWithoutParole

Everyone knows Kouri Richins poisoned her husband. The jury said so in three hours. She’s serving life without parole. But the murder conviction is one case. The fraud is another. And the fraud case tells a story the murder trial couldn’t fully tell on its own — the story of who Kouri Richins was to every person she touched, not just Eric. Twenty-six felony charges are pending against her in a separate filing in Summit County. Prosecutors allege she secretly drained a quarter million dollars from Eric’s premarital home through a power of attorney he didn’t know she’d used. She allegedly built a house-flipping business on that stolen money, forged his bank documents to secure more loans, and wrote herself bad checks to keep the accounts looking clean. By the end of 2021, according to charging documents, her business owed more than twenty-five lenders and was burning through debt faster than it could generate revenue. Then came the moment that reveals more about Kouri Richins than any verdict can. According to prosecutors, she signed a rent-to-own agreement with her closest friend, collected forty-five thousand dollars as a down payment, spent every dollar on her own debts, and let the friend’s family get evicted when the lender foreclosed. That was January 2022. Two months before Eric was dead. This episode goes charge by charge through the financial operation prosecutors say was running beneath the surface of Kouri Richins’ life — the prenuptial clause, the trust Eric secretly built to protect his sons, and the debt spiral that led to the night he didn’t wake up. END_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/TrueCrimePod Disclaimer: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 #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #FraudCharges #MurderConviction #SummitCountyUtah #TrueCrimePodcast #JusticeForEric #LifeWithoutParole

Kouri Richins wants a new trial. She was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted murder, insurance fraud, and forgery in the fentanyl poisoning of her husband Eric Richins. She was sentenced to life without parole on what would have been Eric's forty-fourth birthday. Her three sons asked the court to keep them safe from her. And seven weeks later, her attorneys filed a fourteen-page motion claiming the judge and the prosecution denied her a fair trial. Tony Brueski goes through the entire filing. The defense says Judge Mrazik acted as "a second adversary." They say prosecutors violated pretrial guardrails on financial evidence. They compare the case to Alex Murdaugh's overturned conviction in South Carolina. The episode shows why that comparison fails — the Murdaugh ruling rested on jury tampering by a court officer that has no parallel in the Richins case. The judge has stepped aside from ruling on the motion. A new judge will decide whether the conviction stands. The episode covers what that means, what happens next, and what the motion reveals about who Kouri Richins actually is when the system doesn't give her the answer she wants. Inside: the three prongs of the filing, the financial evidence the defense calls prejudicial and the prosecution calls the murder's motive, the text Kouri sent an admirer after the guilty verdict, the courtroom footage from sentencing day, her forty-five-minute speech, and the twenty-six financial felonies pending in a separate case. Eric's sons used her first name in their statements. One said what she did was "very sick." Another said he would never feel safe if she were free. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #KouriRichinsNewTrial #JusticeForEric #NewTrialMotion #ParkCityUtah #AlexMurdaugh #LifeWithoutParole

Kouri Richins sat in a courtroom while her own children — all under fourteen — described locked doors, threats against their pets, and a mother they no longer call "mom." Every one of them asked the judge to put her away forever. And Kouri rolled her eyes. This look back, with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, sits with what those reactions revealed. The judge had asked for no outward reactions. She couldn't hold it for four minutes. As Eric's sister Amy described having urged her brother to leave the marriage, Kouri mouthed "what?" to her lawyers and made faces. As her own family stood to call her a good person, the tears came — reserved, it seemed, entirely for herself. Scott reads each reaction: what the contempt means, what the eye-rolling reveals, and what it tells us when a mother's response to her children's fear looks indistinguishable from her response to a minor annoyance. Then the boys' words, read by their counselors. The youngest said hearing her name makes him feel "hateful and ashamed." The oldest, just nine when his father died, wants her locked away because he's afraid she'll come for them. The middle son, prosecutors said, was a material witness whose account of that night contradicted hers. And through all of it, the woman convicted of poisoning their father looked annoyed. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting, with Scott's analysis framed as professional insight into behavior rather than a clinical diagnosis. This is what it looks like when someone reveals themselves without saying a word. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #ShavaunScott #RichinsSentencing #VictimImpact #UtahMurder #TrueCrime #BehavioralAnalysis #ParkCity #TheRichinsCase

The most devastating voices at the Kouri Richins sentencing weren't the lawyers. They were her children. This look back sits with the hearing where three boys, through their therapists, told a Park City courtroom what life with their mother had actually been like — and what they needed to happen now. They described fear. Locked rooms. A home where they had to take care of each other because the person who was supposed to wasn't. The older boys said they feared for their safety if she were ever released; a younger son indicated he'd finally feel safe and happy with her in prison. And as those words were read, Kouri was seen rolling her eyes and making faces. Then her own family rose to call her devoted and innocent, and the tears came — reserved, it seemed, for her own suffering. That contrast became the defining image of the hearing. On what would have been Eric Richins' forty-fourth birthday, Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced her to life without parole. She spoke for more than half an hour, telling her sons to "be like your dad" — the father she was convicted of taking from them — insisting their memory of what happened was wrong, and asking them not to give up on her. She never acknowledged a single thing they'd described. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting. The clearest verdict in that room may not have been the judge's at all — it was three children asking to be kept safe from their own mother. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #RichinsSentencing #EricRichins #LifeWithoutParole #UtahMurder #TrueCrime #ParkCity #VictimImpact #TheRichinsCase #HiddenKillers

Kouri Richins' children asked a judge to keep her locked away forever. Minutes later, she stood up and told them she's coming home. This look back sits with both — the words three boys wrote, and the response their mother gave. Their statements, read by therapists because the boys still can't face her, described a childhood most people can't imagine: locked bedroom doors, a mother they said was drunk almost daily, threats made against their pets, an older brother quietly feeding and looking after a younger one because no adult would. They wrote about a father who'll never coach another game or teach them to drive. And every one of them asked the court for the same thing — keep her away, because they finally feel safe, and that safety disappears the moment she's free. Kouri's response didn't acknowledge a single thing they said. Not the locked doors. Not the threats. Instead she spoke for more than half an hour about herself — her marriage, her love story, her fight to come home — told the boys to "be like your dad," the man she was convicted of killing, hinted his death may not have been what prosecutors said, and promised children who are afraid of her that she'll be back. Reporting later surfaced a message she sent after the verdict, vowing to expose everyone involved and warning they'd "seen nothing yet." We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting. This is the hearing where the distance between what those children needed and what their mother offered them was laid completely bare. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #RichinsSentencing #UtahMurder #TrueCrime #VictimImpact #FentanylCase #CourtSpeech #TheRichinsCase #HiddenKillers

After Eric Richins died, Kouri did something that still unsettles people: she put out a children's book about a father who dies and watches over his children, then went on morning television and performed the grieving widow for a national audience. Prosecutors said she killed him. This look back sits with that need to control the story — and pairs it with one of the eeriest parallels in true crime. Oregon novelist Nancy Crampton-Brophy took the same impulse to its furthest edge. Years before her husband Daniel was shot and killed at the culinary school where he taught, she published an essay titled "How to Murder Your Husband" — surveying methods, musing that a killing meant to free her shouldn't cost her jail time. The essay was kept out of her trial for being too old, and a jury convicted her of second-degree murder anyway. She'd owned the same model of gun used in the killing, driven her own minivan past the scene, and published her fascination with spousal murder under her real name. The throughline this segment draws is uncomfortable: the person who needs to be seen as clever, or sympathetic, or in control of the narrative often can't stay invisible. Kouri wrote herself as the grieving mother. Nancy wrote herself as the murder expert. Both stepped into spotlights that ultimately helped expose them. We revisit where the Richins case stood at the time of our reporting and treat both convictions as the legal findings they are — while sitting with the strange, recurring pull these cases share toward self-exposure. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #NancyCramptonBrophy #EricRichins #AreYouWithMe #TrueCrime #UtahMurder #NarrativeControl #WidowPerformance #MurderConviction #TheRichinsCase

The jury wanted to find her not guilty. That's not spin — that's close to what the foreperson said. The panel came in sympathetic, hoping Kouri Richins was innocent, looking for a way out. They deliberated about three hours and couldn't find one. That may be the most telling detail of the entire case: eight people who didn't want to convict still came back unanimous. The evidence didn't just clear the legal bar — it defeated wishful thinking. So what happens now? This look back breaks down everything that comes next, starting with the appeal. Her attorneys have potential grounds: a denied venue change, multiple mistrial motions, evidentiary rulings throughout. But the trial judge was meticulous — when Kouri waived her right to testify and the defense rested without a single witness, he confirmed both decisions on the record, closing off appellate arguments before they could be raised. Former prosecutors call it an extraordinarily difficult appeal to win. Beyond it sits a separate case of more than two dozen pending financial felonies — mortgage fraud, money laundering, bad checks — that hasn't even gone to trial. And then the deeper question: what does a guilty verdict do to someone who built an identity around a false narrative? She published a children's grief book dedicated to the husband she was convicted of poisoning. Prosecutors say she wrote a six-page letter from jail that amounted to instructions for a relative's testimony — a claim she denied, calling the papers privileged. When the story needs protecting, the pattern is to construct something. A verdict may not stop that; it may just become the next chapter. We revisit where things stood at the time of our reporting. This is far from over. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #KouriRichinsVerdict #EricRichins #KouriRichinsAppeal #FentanylMurder #UtahMurder #TrueCrime #WhatHappensNext #GriefBookMurder #TheRichinsCase

Every long con depends on one thing: silence, forever. And forever turns out to be a very long time. This look back uses the Kouri Richins conviction as the starting point for a hard truth about these crimes — the people who build a life on a buried secret almost always watch it come apart, because the people who know never stay silent for good. Kouri's case proved it in real time. The friend. The boyfriend. The housekeeper. One by one, the people around her talked, and the story she'd constructed collapsed under their testimony. To understand why that's the rule and not the exception, this segment turns to one of the most chilling parallels in modern true crime: Denise Williams. Her husband, Mike, vanished on a December duck-hunting trip in 2000 — the official story was that he'd drowned and been taken by alligators. Denise collected more than a million dollars in life insurance, and years later married Mike's best friend, Brian Winchester, the man who would eventually admit he shot Mike and buried him miles from home. They raised Mike's daughter together and built a life on his grave. Mike's mother spent years being told she was paranoid, and kept fighting anyway. She was right. Winchester eventually cracked — his own survival mattered more than the secret — confessed, and led investigators to the body. Denise was convicted; her conspiracy conviction was upheld on appeal, and she remains imprisoned. We revisit where the Richins case stood at the time of our reporting and draw the line between the two: every long con requires permanent silence, and someone always, eventually, decides to talk. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #DeniseWilliams #MikeWilliams #BrianWinchester #LongCon #TrueCrime #UtahMurder #LakeSeminole #TheRichinsCase

Everyone assumes the people who end up with a dangerous partner are vulnerable or naive. The Kouri Richins case tells a different story — and this look back sits with the harder, more unsettling version of it. Eric Richins was capable, successful, and by all accounts a man with his life together. According to prosecutors, that's exactly what made him a target. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, who has spent more than thirty years working with both survivors and perpetrators of intimate partner violence, joins to break down the opening playbook of someone operating with narcissistic or borderline traits — and why the people who seem least likely to fall for it often do. What love bombing actually feels like from the inside. How the earliest stages of a relationship like this are engineered to slip past your defenses. Why moving fast, building intense dependency, and rushing major milestones aren't signs of passion but mechanisms of control. Using this case as a real-world framework, Scott traces the targeting, the mirroring, the performance, and the moment the mask first starts to crack. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting and keep the focus on the human pattern underneath the headlines — framed as professional insight into behavior, not a diagnosis of any one person. If you've ever watched a true crime case and wondered how someone didn't see it coming — or lived something like it yourself — this conversation is built for you. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #NarcissisticAbuse #LoveBombing #IntimatePartnerViolence #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #UtahMurder #ToxicRelationships #TheRichinsCase

The defense wanted the jury to picture Kouri Richins as a wife trapped by a controlling husband. The paper trail in this case points somewhere else entirely — and this look back walks through what the record reveals, and the quiet, devastating thing Eric did when he discovered it. According to charging documents, court records, and forensic accounting testimony, the financial picture was staggering: a $250,000 line of credit secretly taken out on Eric's premarital home using a power of attorney, money funneled into a real estate business that ballooned to roughly $7.5 million in debt, falsified records used to chase loans, $45,000 taken from a friend who was later evicted, and a lawsuit from buyers who say they were sold a mold-contaminated home. By the time Eric died, the walls were closing in financially. And Eric's response wasn't rage. It was a quiet visit to an estate-planning attorney, where — per the indictment — he cited "recently discovered and ongoing abuse and misuse of finances," then restructured his estate to protect his three children and place his assets beyond his wife's reach. He stayed in the marriage. He said nothing publicly. According to prosecutors, about a year and a half later, he was dead. This segment is Tony's take on what the documented record actually shows, with every figure tied to its source — and the unsettling pattern it traces. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting. 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/TrueCrimePod 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. #KouriRichins #EricRichins #FinancialFraud #UtahMurder #TrueCrime #CourtRecords #TheRichinsCase #ForensicAccounting #TrueCrimeCommentary #HiddenKillers