Two Utah news anchors said they felt “cheated” and “sickened” after interviewing heartbreak author Kouri Richins, who is now charged with the murder of her husband with a fentanyl-tainted Moscow Mule.
Deena Manzanares and Surae Chinn, hosts of KTVX’s ‘Good Things Utah’, also revealed the 33-year-old mother of three from Utah blamed Covid for her death during her ‘cold’ chat and “stumbling” on the air with the channel in March.
Former Mormon real estate agent Richins has been held in Summit County Jail since her May 8 arrest and charged with felony homicide, aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Prosecutors claim she killed her husband of nine years Eric Richins with a poisoned cocktail on March 3, 2022, before publishing an illustrated children’s book about an angelic father watching over his sons.
The 39-year-old farmer was found dead at the foot of his bed at their home in the town of Kamas, near Park City, on March 4 last year.
Former Mormon real estate agent Richins, pictured with her late husband, has been held in Summit County Jail since her arrest on May 8, charged with felony homicide, aggravated murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance
His illustrated children’s book about an angelic father watching over his sons, Are You With Me? was on sale for $14.99
Manzanares and Chinn told Fox News they felt disturbed about their interview with the mourner on April 4 last year in light of what has transpired since.
“I really feel like we were duped, in a way,” Chinn said. “I’m sick now that she sat on our couch and talked about grieving.
“We showed so much compassion and empathy for what seemed like a grieving widow.”
Richins first approached Good Things Utah to ask to be a guest on the show in an email which Manzanares said was ‘all about promoting her children’s book’ – adding that she ‘seemed’ thrilled to get those 15 minutes of fame.”
Manzanares described Richins’ on-set behavior as “cold” and “stumbling” – but the hosts attributed this to his struggle with grief.
“She was a little cold, she wasn’t very emotional, but we’re trained to show our guests in the best light, we try to be around them, and I think, she’s probably numb, that didn’t s only happened a year ago,” she said.
“She was nervous, she was tripping over her words, I thought it was nervous being on live TV – but now I think she was nervous because she was lying.”
Manzanares added that when the camera stopped rolling she asked Richins what she thought had happened to her husband – whose cause of death was then ambiguous – and she replied: ‘Oh we think it was Covid-related, he had a lung problem’.
Eric’s family told investigators shortly after his death that they suspected Richins of killing the father of three. Pictured: Kouri and Eric Richins with their three children
Mosow Mule ‘killer’ Kouri Richins, who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death, reportedly Googled ‘luxury prisons for the rich’ after his murder
Kouri Richins, the mother of three accused of poisoning her husband in Utah, appeared calm as she listened to arguments for and against bail
Shortly after the interview aired, the show received messages warning them that Richins was “not all she appears to be,” with an anonymous email telling them: “You know she killed her husband?”
The hosts said they thought the warning was “weird” and “didn’t think about it at all” because they were used to receiving the “occasional crazy emails”.
“Never in a million years would I have thought all of this would happen in the next few months,” Manzanares said. “It’s really shocking.”
Richins, who has three sons – Carter, 9, Ashton, 7, and Weston, 5 – allegedly killed her husband of nine years on March 3 last year and was promoting his mourning book at 14.99 $, Are You With Me? the month before his arrest on May 8 this year.
Police believe she gave Eric, who was a ranch farmer, a lethal dose of fentanyl disguised as a Moscow Mule – a cocktail that included vodka, ginger beer and lime juice.
According to a search warrant, Kouri obtained the drugs by texting a friend asking for “Michael Jackson” stuff in an apparent reference to fentanyl, claiming they were for a real estate investor who had a chest injury. back.
Jackson was killed in 2009 by a cocktail of prescription drugs like OxyContin and Demerol.
Prosecutors said that in previous months, Richins had attempted to become the sole beneficiary of her husband’s life insurance policy.
But Eric had changed his will and power of attorney to give his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, 38, full control because according to a police warrant he feared his wife would “kill him for money”.
In May, the DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Kouri had launched a lawsuit against her family in the weeks following her death to secure an estate valued at more than $3.6 million.
She claimed Eric tried to ‘defraud’ her by secretly transferring the family home, all personal property and interests in the masonry business he ran with his friend and partner, Cody Wright, into a trust owned by his sister in November 2020.
Richins also took out multiple life insurance policies on him worth nearly $2 million and attempted to “drill into his safe” just 48 hours after his death, his family said.
KTVX’s ‘Good Things Utah’ hosts Deena Manzanares and Surae Chinn spoke to Richins about her book on the show on April 4 last year – before she became the prime suspect in the murder trial from her husband.
A medical examiner said he found five times the lethal dose of fentanyl – a painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine – in Eric’s system after his death on March 4 last year. Pictured: Richins and Eric with one of their sons
Prosecutors say Eric discovered his wife had taken out a $250,000 home equity line of credit and spent it in the months before his death.
Richins and her husband had argued over her plan to buy and flip a $2million 10-acre home, pictured here, in the days before her death.
She also allegedly tried to poison him on several other occasions, including in February 2022, when Eric broke out in hives after consuming a sandwich that Richins had placed on the seat of his truck next to a word of love on valentines day.
In the days leading up to Eric’s death, the couple had also argued over Richins’ plans to buy and flip a $2 million home in the days before, according to court documents.
On March 4 – the day before the alleged murder – Kouri signed the closing papers on the 10-acre property and invited her friends to a party at her house where she drank and partied, as shown by affidavits for the warrants of search.
This week, Richins broke down in tears in court as she claimed prosecutors had no evidence against her.
Third District Judge Richard Mrazik ruled she posed a ‘substantial danger’ after prosecutors called a series of witnesses claiming she committed a ‘disturbingly calculated’ murder.