Mother of Kouri Richins, Utah grief creator accused of poisoning husband, might have had position in loss of life, officers say

The mom of a Utah grief author accused of spiking her husband’s drink with a fatal dose of fentanyl might have had a job within the loss of life, based on investigators.

A detective with the Summit County Sheriff’s Workplace additionally revealed that Kouri Richins‘ mom, Lisa Darden, is related to the “suspicious overdose” loss of life of Darden’s former accomplice in 2006.

Darden has not been charged with any crime. She couldn’t be reached by NBC Information at telephone numbers listed for her.

The main points have been revealed in a just lately unsealed search warrant affidavit by a detective investigating the March 4, 2022, loss of life of Eric Richins. He was discovered lifeless in his Kamas, Utah, residence after he and his spouse celebrated her closing on a house for her enterprise, authorities have mentioned.

A medical expert mentioned Eric Richins had 5 instances the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system and that it was “illicit” and never medical grade.

The search warrant affidavit mentioned that as investigators interviewed folks near the couple, they realized that in April 2006, Darden’s accomplice died unexpectedly.

The accomplice was a lady “with whom she was having a romantic relationship” and lived with, based on the doc.

An post-mortem confirmed that the lady’s “fast reason for loss of life was a drug poisoning from an overdose of oxycodone,” the doc acknowledged.

Additional investigation confirmed that Darden had been named as the beneficiary of the lady’s property “a short while earlier than her loss of life,” it mentioned.

The detective wrote within the doc that the lady did have prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly struggled with abusing her medicine.

“She, nevertheless, was not in a state of restoration from dependancy on the time of her loss of life,” the detective wrote. “Based mostly on my coaching and expertise, this could probably rule out the potential of an unintentional overdose.”

The affidavit went on to say that investigators realized that Darden was on the Richins’ residence the night time they celebrated Kouri Richins’ enterprise deal. In addition they discovered conversations between Darden and Kouri Richins during which Darden expressed her “disdain” for her son-in-law, based on the affidavit.

The detective wrote that “based mostly on Lisa Darden’s proximity to her accomplice’s suspicious overdose loss of life, and her relationship with Kouri, it’s doable she was concerned in planning and orchestrating Eric’s loss of life.”

Kouri Richins’ lawyer, Skye Lazaro, slammed the allegations. Lazaro shouldn’t be representing Darden.

She mentioned the loss of life of Darden’s accomplice was the results of an alleged opioid dependancy and something that means in any other case is “a baseless conspiracy principle.”

“Summit County is nicely conscious that opioid dependancy and fentanyl overdose is a rampant downside all through the nation,” Lazaro mentioned in an emailed assertion Tuesday. “The truth that Ms. Darden’s vital different was one of many hundreds of thousands that suffered from, and finally succumbed to, opioid dependancy is hardly ‘suspicious.’ It’s tragic, and sadly, fairly frequent.”

She continued: “The truth that Ms. Darden was the beneficiary of her romantic accomplice’s life insurance coverage coverage can also be not distinctive. It solely demonstrates that her circumstances aren’t any totally different than most households in America.”

Kouri Richins was arrested last year on fees of aggravated homicide and three counts of possession of a managed substance with intent to distribute.

She has denied the allegations and is in custody awaiting trial.

This text was initially printed on NBCNews.com