Murder and Mimosas Podcast
A true crime podcast with a focus on lesser known crimes and the background of those who commit these heinous acts. Each case is told with a bit of southern sass, but with tons of in depth research and respect for those lost. Join this mom and daughter duo as they sip their mimosas while diving into tragic cases. New episodes every Saturday, just in time for brunch (and a mimosa of your own)!
Murder and Mimosas Podcast
Deception and Demise: Unraveling the Richins' Tragic End
What if a simple Valentine's Day sandwich could unravel a tale of love, lies, and financial betrayal? Join us as we navigate the tumultuous journey of Eric and Kouri Richins, from their whirlwind romance to a perfect family life shadowed by an ominous prenup request. Though their life seemed idyllic, Kouri's search for personal fulfillment hinted at deeper complexities beneath the surface.
Eric's sudden and suspicious death sets off a chilling series of events. We explore Eric's haunting suspicions of foul play, confided to friends and family, only to be compounded by Kouri’s conflicting accounts and unusual behavior. Her eagerness to access Eric's safe and her ambitious mansion-flipping plans fuel theories of financial motives and infidelity. Adding to the intrigue, testimony from Carmen Laubar and key pieces of evidence paint a grim picture of Kouri’s potential involvement in Eric’s demise.
Finally, we discuss the ethical dilemmas surrounding Kouri's grief book and the civil suit filed by Eric's family, highlighting the long-term impact on their children. Engage with us on social media, share your thoughts, and suggest future cases. Stay tuned for more gripping stories on Murder and Mimosas, where we promise to keep your mimosas bubbly and your mysteries intriguing.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/estimated-tax.asp
https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/slain-husband-of-kouri-richins-was-very-much-in-love-with-his-wife/
https://nypost.com/2023/05/15/inside-the-home-kouri-richins-allegedly-killed-husband-over/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kouri-richins-utah-family-sues-house-mold-update-rcna111488
https://www.abc4.com/gtu/a-childrens-book-to-aid-in-coping-with-grief/
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DarkCast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 2:Bringing you murder stories with a mimosa in hand. With a mimosa in hand, murder, mimosas is a true crime podcast, meaning we talk about adult matters such as murder, sexual assaults and other horrendous crimes. Listener discretion is advised. We do tell our stories with the victims and the victims families in mind. However, some information is more verifiable than others. However, you can find all of our information linked in the show notes. Welcome back to Murder and Mimosas. I'm Danica and I'm Shannon.
Speaker 2:Today's case plays out a little like rags to riches to rags in jail type of love story, one, really, that no one wants wants. But it ended up happening in real life. So this is a story of eric richens. So eric co-owned a masonry business. He made frequent stops to home depot with his crew. Of course that's what most construction workers do. He ended up on a first name basis with most of the Home Depot crew in Park City, utah, and he kind of had the eye on one of the cashiers named Corey, but he was a little gun shy about asking her out. However, with a little encouragement and push from another cashier and his construction crew, he went to her line to check out and finally he takes the plunge and the two are going on a date, they become inseparable, as many do in that new phase of relationship, that kind of puppy love Sometimes it's called the honeymoon phase where you just can't get enough of each other.
Speaker 2:And before long Eric is down on one knee asking Corey to marry him, and she said yes. But before they were married, corey was pregnant with a little bundle of joy, a sweet baby boy. They weren't upset about this, though they didn't really mind. They're ecstatic about building out their family, having this new baby. You know this is the start of like their life together. They did still have a wedding day after their little boy was born. Now, before Eric had met Corey, he had already bought a beautiful five-bedroom, four-bath, 4,890-square-foot home in Utah, which I'm trying to figure out why a single man needs that much space, but whatever. Now the couple actually had their wedding in the backyard of this beautiful home and on their wedding day, eric's mother pulls Corey aside and wants her to sign a prenup before they get married.
Speaker 1:That's a little tacky. I mean, I understand wanting to protect your son and all, but really On their wedding day.
Speaker 2:I do think it could have been handled differently and I'm wondering like does Eric know that his mom's doing this, or is his mom just like doing this on the sly, on the side? Because I feel like this should be a conversation between Eric and Corey, not Eric's mother and Corey.
Speaker 1:So I would assume that his mother would know that it may not hold up in court if she claims that she signed it under duress or that she didn't understand it and didn't have time to look over it with an attorney.
Speaker 2:Eric had been married previously. He had gotten married in 2005 and then divorced in 2009. And sadly, he didn't have a prenup in his first marriage and, from what I can gather, their marriage dissolved because his wife at the time had an extramarital affair and she took him to the cleaners. So there's that. Plus, you know he is a co owner of a business, so it is a good thing to have when you have something like that. Now, with the agreement, if Eric were to die, corey would still get everything. It was more of just like a safeguard of if they were to divorce. Now, remember, she's a cashier and she actually is not even working anymore once they got married because she is going to be a stay at home mom and you know he's well off as a business owner, so that's where they are. She doesn't have any money coming in Well so did she sign it.
Speaker 2:So she did. Now most of us on our wedding day are thinking of like eternal bliss, of course, and we feel like we'll always feel this way, like divorce isn't something you think about on the day you're getting married.
Speaker 1:So she signed it imagine setting sail on an adventure where the waves whisper the tales of criminals.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the True Crime and Halloween Cruise, a unique blend of vacation and investigation where history's dark secrets come alive on the high seas. A seven-day cruise on the Margaritaville F sailing out of Tampa, florida, october 19th through the 26th 2025.
Speaker 1:Join us, as well as everything scary and murder, murder news to three amazing ports Jamaica.
Speaker 2:Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We hope to see you there. To book your spot on the cruise. You want to do that through Salty Kiffin's Travel? The link is found in our show notes. To book your spot on the cruise you want to do that through Salty Kisses Travel? The link is found in our show notes. Now the couple go on to have two more sons and they really have like the life most people dream of. They travel very often. Eric is a very involved father and although Corey doesn't need to work because Eric's pulling in about a million a year, she just has the drive to work.
Speaker 1:I get that. I mean we're both working moms and for some women you just have more that you want for an identity than just being a mom. Not that I'm saying that being a mom isn't amazing, because it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely understand it too. I did the stay at home mom for a bit and I was not a fan of feeling like I was at home all the time and I wasn't really being productive, and so I get it Not not wanting to be a stay at home mom, like that's okay, it's not for everyone, and the ones that do it, mom, like that's okay, it's not for everyone, and the ones that do it, like kudos to you, it's tough. Now, corey, she decides to start buying houses to flip, and she usually has about three houses at a time. I'll say that just because you can start a business doesn't mean you should. And while Eric excelled at it, corey not so much. She was hemorrhaging money from all of this, but this didn't let like it didn't stop her. We've heard you have to spend money to make money, and Corey seemed to really take this to heart. I don't exactly know, like, how their finances are set up. So Eric discovers that Corey has somehow gotten a $250,000 home equity line of credit on their house.
Speaker 1:Wait, did he end up putting her name on the deed? I mean, I thought that was the whole point of the prenup.
Speaker 2:No, he had not put her name on it and I'm really unsure and unclear how she was able to manage this. Now this is where I say I don't know how their finances were set up, but in the research it says that she withdrew at least $100,000 from his bank account and spent more than $30,000 using his credit cards, according to court records. I don't know how this worked. From this calling it his on the court records, I assume her names weren't on these accounts. But it also claims that Corey was appropriating distributions made from Eric's business for the purpose of making federal and state quarterly tax payments, but was not actually paying the taxes. This totaled out to be $134,346. What this means is that, since Eric was an independent contractor, they don't have taxes automatically withheld from their check, but they have to make quarterly tax payments that they send it in on their income on their estimate. From my understanding, she's just pocketing this money instead of sending it in.
Speaker 1:None of this makes sense to me. I mean, her husband was doing really well, so why steal from him? Why not, I don't know like maybe ask for his advice for running a business, since he's doing a really good job at it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if maybe it's pride or she just feels like you know, hashtag girl boss, she can do it on her own, even though she can't. No, maybe she just doesn't want to ask for help. I don't know.
Speaker 1:But she can't be dumb enough to think he's not going to notice this kind of money missing. Or was he?
Speaker 2:He did notice it missing and he did confront her. And she claims that she would pay it all back and maybe she thought she would pay it back before he ever confront her. And she claims that she would pay it all back and maybe she thought she would pay it back before he ever noticed, but that didn't work out. Now, in October of 2020, eric decides he needs some legal help. By this point, his mother's already passed away and in his previous marriage he was already burned once. He doesn't want that to happen again, so he starts by consulting a divorce attorney, but he's not really set on the idea of divorce, right? He has three boys and he really wants to make his marriage work for their sake, but he's not a dummy.
Speaker 2:He gets with an estate planning lawyer as well, and he's changing some things up, mind you, since he is considering divorce not sold on it, but it is an option that he is considering, maybe the best route. He doesn't discuss any of these changes with Corey. Instead of Corey getting everything should he die, he sets up a living trust to be under the control of his older sister, katie. Now, in this trust, he transferred his partnership interest from his business and he made the trust the beneficiary of his $500,000 life insurance policy should something happen to him. This really, this one really gets me Okay. As I said, eric is a co-owner in a business and, as a lot of partners do, they also have life insurance policies on each other, each policies of $2 million, with the beneficiary being the other partner.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you don't want the business to go under if something happens to one of you, right?
Speaker 2:In January of 2022, corey logs into this policy and changes herself to the beneficiary. Now, thankfully, there's one of those alerts that are sent out. You know that says changes were made to your policy. This is not you. Please notify us, and Eric gets the alert and changes it back.
Speaker 1:I get that and I am out of there. I do not want to know what you have planned for me and I do not want to find out.
Speaker 2:And maybe that's the true crime people in us, because weomercial saying that. But that's not all. Valentine's Day 2022. Corey makes Eric a sandwich for lunch. You know real sweet, very wifey material. She even writes a cute little love note because it's Valentine's Day and she puts it in the seat of his truck for him so he can have it for lunch. Well, you know, lunchtime rolls around and Eric eats it and then proceeds to break out in hives struggling to breathe, and he actually uses his son's EpiPen on himself. I'm wondering why he had that if his son's not with him, but it's all another thing. Now, I couldn't find what he may have been allergic to, but it sounds like it was clearly something and something that maybe he should have had his own epi pen for autumn's oddities is a strange and unusual podcast made by the strange and unusual me, autumn Gruby.
Speaker 3:Each week, I'll be taking you through some of the creepiest cases true crime has to offer. It won't only be true crime. I'll also be covering cryptids, haunted places, haunted things and the true stories that inspired horror movies. Listen every Monday and Friday for new episodes and remember if it's creepy and weird, you'll find it here.
Speaker 2:A lot of this sounds like a lifetime movie and it's going to get even more lifetime-y. So Eric tells his friends that he thinks his wife is trying to poison him. And it's not like one of those jokes where your wife's cooking sucks and the smoke alarm goes off every time she cooks and you laugh it off and you're like, oh, you're trying to poison me. No, like he legit thinks his wife is trying to poison him. But he also tells his sisters. If something happens to me, corey did it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I hate when I hear this and sadly we hear this so much in true crime. If you suspect someone is trying to hurt you, especially if you think they may kill you, get your butt up out of that situation.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying if a friend comes to me and says, seriously, I think my significant other is trying to poison me, and their next words out of their mouth are I'm calling the police and getting the hell out of Dodge. I'm going to knock them upside the head because that's just blows my mind. So March 3rd 2022, we have some conflicting information, so we like to give you both sides and let you decide, and that's what we'll do today. Corey's mother, lisa Darden, tells 48 Hours that on that day, corey, she and Eric were celebrating because she was going to be closing on a house that cost $2 million, which I mean I'd celebrate. This house was 22,000 square feet, and the house was started in 2017, but never completed. The floor plan has a swimming pool, a golf simulator, indoor volleyball court, a rock climbing room, two kitchens, a room with a virtual reality experience, eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, plus an additional 3,300 square foot caretaker's home on the property. Now Eric's family said he didn't want this house at all and told Corey he still needed like another $2 million just to fix it. To him, this is a money pit.
Speaker 2:So Corey says that she put the kids up to bed around nine o'clock and she and eric had drinks about 9 15 and she fixed him a moscow mule. They just gone to bed around 9 30 when one of her, one of their sons wakes up with a nightmare. So she goes and lies down with him to calm him down, wakes up about 3 am that morning, goes into bed to cuddle eric but something is off. When she gets into bed he's like freezing cold to the touch. So she thinks okay, must be a little chilly and just puts a blanket on him. But something's off His body just feels weird. So she calls 911 and they advise her to do CPR. She says she pulled him off the bed with the sheets and then the paramedics took over from there, but they were unable to revive him. Shannon, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:First of all, you have three boys and you put them in bed at nine o'clock and then you're drinking by 915. So I want to know how that's possible. I mean, it's been a while since I've put kids to bed, but I had two of you and I didn't have y'all in bed and have a drink in my hand by 915. That's for sure. So then, second, you have drinks at 915 and then bed at 930. This one also isn't adding up for me. I mean, did you just shotgun these drinks? Then the last thing is at 9.30, your son wakes up from a nightmare. It's hard to get in room sleep, for after like 30 minutes it's possible, but it's not common. And how fast did this kid go to sleep anyway?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the inconsistencies for me are very glaring, but that was her story and she was sticking to it. Also want to add that paramedics said that there was so much blood in his mouth that they feel like it's highly unlikely that she ever did CPR. Now, as I stated earlier, corey was about to close on this mansion. She's gonna buy to flip. Her husband dies in the middle of the night, but that doesn't stop her from going in the next day and signing the paperwork for this house, which again seems glaringly obvious as a red flag. To me it's super off-putputting. I mean, I understand that we all grieve differently, but you couldn't have pushed it a day or two.
Speaker 2:So just two days after Eric's passing, his sisters are at his house and Corey is calling someone in to drill open the safe.
Speaker 2:And at that time is when Katie, the sister who's in charge of the trust, is saying no, you know, like I don't, I don't think you should, you don't own that and you don't like you don't have anything to do with that right, this, we know, is all news to Corey because she thinks she's getting everything. And is it this time that Katie drops his bombshell on her? Like you're not, you know, like you have no control over any of it. Corey punches Katie in the neck, in the face, and Katie fires back with some assault charges. Corey pleads no contest to the misdemeanor and the judge advises her that if she completes a 90-day mental health counseling that he will dismiss this. But she doesn doesn't do it, and we'll talk a little bit more about consequences of that later Now. While the family's frustrated because they told the police what Eric said that if something happens to him it was Corey there's no arrest, and so they decide to do the next best thing and they hire their own private detective.
Speaker 1:I'm sure the police wish that that's all it took to arrest somebody, but it doesn't work like that. Also, they haven't gotten back an autopsy report yet, or have they?
Speaker 2:Right, um, yeah, it doesn't work that way. Otherwise people would be jailed all the time because someone said something. But the medical examiner said Eric had five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system. They asked Corey if Eric has a drug addiction. She said he usually has a THC gummy before bed to help him sleep which, by the way, are totally legal in Utah.
Speaker 2:So Corey's facing not only the legal issues with assault, she's suing Eric's sister in hopes that she can be made the trustee, and I mentioned she has this real estate business where she flips houses and a family that she sold a home to in 2019, the Wrights, who thought they were buying their dream home, are also suing her. So they began getting sick and noticed mold in their son's bedroom, along with water that's pulling in there. The couple ended up having to move out, although they're still paying on this house, but there are hazardous levels of mold in the home. They tried to get in touch with Corey many times, who said she did a total remodel, but to no avail. They can't get a hold of her. She ghosted him, so their only resource was to sue. Now Val Maynard, the previous owner, told Dateline that when Katie I'm sorry, corey came to see the house. He told her that the house needed lots of repairs and told her that it had water damage.
Speaker 1:Did the couple get a home inspection though?
Speaker 2:Well, they did but none of the issues were detected at the time. It's pretty easy to throw a Band-Aid on something. No, now, while Corey's busy with court dates, work and being a mom to three, she decides that she has all this spare time that she should write a children's book on coping with grief, called Are you With Me. So, shannon, you know I'm a teacher. I love a good children's book. I'm always buying children's books.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know you are constantly, constantly buying children's books.
Speaker 2:Yes. So this book depicts a man allegedly her husband, or at least a man who looks very similar to her husband as an angel watching over a little boy. She goes on Good Things Utah and promotes her book and after the interview the two co-hosts are talking to her and asking how her husband passed, and she says complications from COVID. The two, of course, are not aware that she's a suspect in her husband's death or that he died of a fentanyl overdose. They said you know. The following day after the show aired, they received an anonymous email that read you know she killed her husband.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is crazy and that would give me chills.
Speaker 2:Right. This had been just a little over a year since Eric's death, but not long after the interview is when Corey is arrested for Eric's murder. So let's talk about some of the things that the search warrant reveals. We both love to get backstories on how people grew up, you know, try to find why they ended up in these crazy situations or why they've, you know, done the things they've done that have created the chaos that they find themselves in. I was a little frustrated because I couldn't find much about Corey which isn't too unusual because this is a newer case hasn't gone to court yet. That will probably come out in trial. But then I read this and I'll read it directly from the warrant in investigation Corey Richen's associates, it was discovered that in 2006, richen's mother, lisa, was living with an adult female with whom she was having a romantic relationship.
Speaker 2:In April of that year, her romantic partner died unexpectedly. An autopsy report of the female partner showed that her immediate cause of death was drug poisoning from an overdose of oxycodone. Further investigation showed that Lisa had been named as a beneficiary of her partner's estate a short time before her death. The female did have current prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly struggled with abusing her meds. She, however, was not in a state of recovery from addiction at the time of her death. Based on my training and experience, this would likely rule out the possibility of an accidental overdose. End quote.
Speaker 2:Now Corey and her mother are very close. They talk on the daily you and I do too, but you were never a suspect in a murder and I've never been a suspect in a murder. So could this be a coincidence? Possible, unlikely, but possible. Or did cory think that her mom got away with murder and cooked up the idea of let me try? We don't know, but it seems very suspicious. But what's crazy to me is like at least with her mom. The mom's partner was at least had a prescription for oxycodone. Eric didn't take fentanyl Like where did it come from? So in the search warrant they say they talked with Carmen Labar, who was Corey's housekeeper on the properties that she flipped. Carmen has several counts of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, as well as a theft, dui, burglary and aggravated assault.
Speaker 1:So this could be where she scored the drugs I'm assuming Police think so.
Speaker 2:In 2023, she is arrested for a traffic offense. While she's in custody, detectives question her about giving Corey drugs drugs. She admits that she did give cory fentanyl pills on two different occasions and she claims cory paid her nine hundred dollars each time. I don't know anything about drugs, but that seems pricey. You know, as you true crimers know, they always put in the warrant that they're going to take your electronics and, true to form, this is what's on the warrant and they find her phone and her search history, which includes the following Can cops force you to do a lie detector?
Speaker 1:Luxury prison for the rich in America. If someone is poisoned, what does it go down on a death certificate? As how to permanently delete information from an iPhone remotely.
Speaker 2:Not gonna lie, ours probably looks worse.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure ours probably look even worse, but we already know the answers to all these, so we're not looking any of this up, that's true.
Speaker 2:What also transpires is they find out that cory's having an affair with their handyman that does work on the houses that she renovates, 41 year old robert grossman. This affair went on for about eight months after eric's death. Robert lived in one of of Corey's condos and she ended up evicting him, and Robert was homeless for a while. He lived out of his truck and Corey supposedly out of the truck that Corey supposedly gave him. She was texting with him on the night of Eric's death and had deleted her text, which we all know can be recovered. One other important thing they discover is that cory said she went and got in bed with one of her sons. She tells the police that she had her phone plugged up in her bedroom. Police see, however, that she was on the phone throughout the night, hence the text to her lover.
Speaker 2:They have all of this, but her attorney said this isn't enough to go to trial. But the judge said nah, fam, it's enough. They're looking at her trial to be somewhere around May of next year. So we're not saying by any means she's guilty. Really, I guess we should have said everything allegedly. We know you're innocent until proven guilty and the jury may not see things the same way you or we see things, and I know I was in shock with the Casey Anthony trial, so you really never know what the verdict will be.
Speaker 1:This isn't the proverbial smoking gun, as they say, but there is a lot of damning evidence, and I will be looking for this verdict to come out. I'm still curious about the $2 million house, though. Does she still have it?
Speaker 2:Well, let me just update you on everything since Eric's death. So she turned around and put the house back on the market with nowhere payers, for $5 million dollars, I believe, which to me is crazy because, yeah, it sat on the market for two years before she bought it at two mil. She did end up selling, without anything else done, for 3.75 million, which is a really great return, having done zilch. So the richens, the sisters, have a 1313 million civil suit against her. They claim wrongful death and found even more that she had stolen from Eric, such as two retirement accounts worth about $55,000 that were set up by his mother and grandmother. They also want to prevent Corey from promoting and selling her book, where they say she used Eric's likeness. They also want all the money she received from the book, because if she killed him, she's getting a lot of money from a grief book after murdering someone.
Speaker 2:Yes, she's has also been charged with witness tampering. She wrote a six-page letter to her mother, which was found and confiscated in prison. It instructed her mother to tell her brother to testify that eric was getting drugs and pills from mexico, and she also asked her mother to smuggle her in crest white strips because her teeth are getting dingy from all the coffee she's drinking. It's a real problem. Once confronted with this, she claimed she was writing a book about being in prison in Mexico, and this was the beginning of her book.
Speaker 1:Okay, what she honestly can't believe anyone would have bought that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see how this plays out and let's just hope that their kids aren't screwed up for life because of all of this. I don't know what kind of mother she was, but I can't imagine writing this book with your kids on how to grieve their father if you're the one that caused all the pain.
Speaker 1:That's really screwed up and reminds me of that Nancy woman who wrote the book on how to murder your husband and get away with it. But she didn't get away with it. She didn't get away with it.
Speaker 2:Oh, true Truth can be stranger than fiction. And that's all we have for you today. But on one note, we will say that the book is no longer available. The children's book to be purchased. Amazon is where it was being sold, I believe, and Amazon has taken it down, so it's not available to be purchased any longer. But other than that, we'll just have to see how this plays out in the trial next year and we'll keep you updated as we know more.
Speaker 1:We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.
Speaker 2:If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermimosas on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermimosas on TikTok, twitter, and if you have a case you'd like us to do, you can send that to murdermimosas at gmailcom. And lastly, we are on Facebook at Murder and Mimosas Podcast, where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please write and review us on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.