The verdict is in. Kouri Richins is guilty of charges that she poisoned her husband with fentanyl. But this part that still lands like a gut punch — She wrote a children's book about his death and went on television to promote it. The jury took three hours. Three hours to convict her on all counts. Apparently, they didn't need much time.

But verdicts don't raise kids.

Her three sons were 9, 7, and 5 when Eric Richins died. They're preteens now, living with his family, trying to grow up under the weight of something most adults couldn't carry — a father gone, a mother in prison, and somewhere out there, a book she wrote using their grief as the raw material.

This episode isn't about Kouri. It's about what research and case history actually tell us about children who land in exactly this position. We look at betrayal trauma — the specific psychological damage that happens when the person who was supposed to protect you was also the threat — and we pull the thread on two cases that rhyme with this one: Susan Wright's kids, quietly absorbed into their father's family after her 2003 conviction, and Betty Broderick's sons, who grew up split down the middle on whether their mother deserved to die in prison.

Kouri's case has one element none of the comparisons do. The book. She wrote it. She sold it. She used her sons' loss as the vehicle — and according to testimony, it's part of what put her away.

Those boys will be searching their own story for the rest of their lives. There's no chapter for what comes next.

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 #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #GriefBookMurder #FentanylPoisoning #BetrayalTrauma #UtahMurder #TrueCrimePodcast #ChildrenOfConvictedKillers

Eric Richins knew something was wrong. He documented it. He restructured his estate, told his attorney he was protecting his children from his wife, and took legal steps to put his fear on the record. And then he died in that house anyway.

This week on Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, and retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke examine the human story underneath the Kouri Richins conviction — and the parallel case of Mike Williams, whose wife Denise held her version of this story together for seventeen years before it broke.

Mike Williams vanished on a duck hunting trip in December 2000. His mother Cheryl was told she was paranoid for fighting the official story. Denise collected $1.75 million in insurance and married the man who killed her husband. They raised Mike's daughter together. Cheryl kept fighting for seventeen years. She was right. The con broke when Brian Winchester decided his own survival mattered more than Denise's secret.

The Kouri Richins case broke the same way. The friend. The boyfriend. The housekeeper. People who were inside the orbit of this relationship and stayed quiet — until a Utah courtroom gave them no other option.

Shavaun Scott brings her clinical expertise to the piece of this story that matters most to anyone who recognizes it from the inside. The love bombing at the beginning. The coercive control in the middle. The gaslighting that makes the person being harmed question their own perception of reality. And the exit — the most dangerous moment in any relationship like this, the point at which prosecutors allege Eric Richins' quiet move toward freedom may have preceded the night he died.

Eric documented his fear. He tried to protect his children. He deserves to have the full picture of what happened to him understood.

This is Part 5 of The Perfect Wife.

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 #PerfectWife #ShavaunScott #RobinDreeke #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JusticeForEric #CoerciveControl

Eric Richins restructured his estate roughly eighteen months before he died. He told his attorney exactly why: to protect his children from his wife. He knew something was wrong. He documented it. He took legal steps to protect the people he loved. And then he died in that house anyway.

A jury just said his wife killed him.

This week on Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski breaks down the full weight of what this verdict means — for Eric's family, for the children at the center of this case, and for everyone who followed it. Because the verdict is not the end of this story. It is a chapter.

The jury that convicted Kouri Richins walked into that deliberation room, by their own public account, hoping to find her innocent. Juror Laura said it on national television: they wanted the door out. They deliberated for three hours. They came back unanimous. That is not a close call reluctantly resolved. That is eight people who wanted to acquit her being unable to do it — because Eric's documented fear, his restructured estate, his attorney's testimony, and the full financial and behavioral pattern of this case would not allow it.

Kouri Richins wrote a children's grief book built around losing a husband. She sold it to families who were in real pain. A jury just found that the entire public persona she constructed after Eric's death was built on top of a murder. She reportedly wrote a six-page letter from jail attempting to script testimony for her own brother. The story always needed protecting. That need did not stop when the handcuffs went on.

She will appeal. There are twenty-six pending financial felony charges still to come. And sentencing on the murder conviction is scheduled for May 13th — what would have been Eric's 44th birthday.

His family has waited a long time for this. The fight for him is not finished.

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 #JusticeForEric #GuiltyVerdict #KouriRichinsVerdict #FentanylMurder #GriefBookMurder #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #KouriRichinsAppeal