Kouri Richins is accused of murdering her husband. Now police believe her mother may have helped her.

When Kouri Richins’ husband Eric suddenly died, the mother of three projected a picture of grief to the outside world. A grief so deep, she even wrote a book about it—the children’s book, Are You With Me, which she said she wrote to bring peace and comfort to children who’d lost loved ones. 

And the world rallied beside her, showering her in love and support. That is, until she was charged with his murder, more than a year after his death. 

Richins was accused of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl, lacing his cocktail with the deadly drug, in the hope of benefitting from the $2 million insurance policy she’d taken out on his life. 

Watch: 5 Things About Grief No One Really Tells You. Post continues after the video.

Two years after Eric Richin’s murder, the case has taken another turn. Police now believe Richins may have taken inspiration from her mother, whose own partner died of a drug overdose in 2006.

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office in Utah believes there may be a connection between the two deaths, claiming the earlier overdose may have paved the way for Eric’s murder. 

“It is possible she was involved in planning and orchestrating Eric’s death,” Detective Jeff H. O’Driscoll reportedly said of Richins mother, Lisa Darden.

On the night Richins allegedly poisoned her husband, the pair were celebrating a real estate deal with a few cocktails. Darden was also there. 

In an affidavit obtained by People Magazine, O’Driscoll alleges that Darden’s history with the death of her partner suggests she may have been involved in the orchestration of Eric’s murder. 

“In investigating Kouri Richins’ associates, it was discovered that in 2006, Richins’s mother, Lisa Darden was living with an adult female with whom she was having a romantic relationship,” O’Driscoll said via the affidavit. 

The woman also died unexpectedly, with her autopsy revealing “poisoning from an overdose of oxycodone” as the cause of death. 

“Further investigation showed that Lisa Darden had been named as the beneficiary of her partner’s estate a short time before her death.”

Although the woman, who wasn’t named, struggled with drug addiction, she was reportedly in a state of recovery at the time. 

“Based on my training and experience, this would likely rule out the possibility of an accidental overdose,” the detective wrote. 

While Richins has maintained her innocence, court documents allege she’d been in touch with a friend to request pain medication for a client with a back injury. 

She then got in touch again requesting something stronger, allegedly asking for fentanyl and referring to it as “some of the Michael Jackson stuff”. 

Three days later it's alleged Eric fell ill and broke out in hives. 

"Eric believed that he had been poisoned," court documents read. "Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him."

Concerned, Eric then secretly replaced his wife as the beneficiary of his will and as Power of Attorney. 

One of Eric’s sisters later told authorities he was concerned his wife might “kill him for the money”. 

Two weeks later, after Richins bought an alleged $900 worth of Fentanyl again, she rang emergency services at 3am saying she had found her husband “cold to the touch”. 

She initially told police she’d made her husband a Moscow Mule vodka cocktail before heading to one of their son’s bedrooms to sleep because he suffered from night terrors. 

When she returned to their bedroom in the early hours, she found her husband unresponsive. Richins then allegedly stole $25,000 USD cash from his pyjamas. 

Shortly after Eric’s death, one of his sisters went to the police station, alleging Eric told her Richins had previously tried to poison him while on holiday in Greece years ago.

Eric had “warned them that if anything happened to him she was to blame.”

Richins is also charged with three counts of second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute.

She has not yet pleaded to the four charges. The next hearing will be on September 1.

Feature image: Facebook.