Kouri Richins Trial: Forensic Accountant Reveals $7.5M Debt — Medical Examiner Admits Tests Never Done
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
She allegedly poisoned her husband for the money. The forensic accountant just showed the jury exactly how desperate that financial situation was.
Brooke Karrington—a thirty-year expert who reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents—testified that by March 2022, Kouri Richins carried $7.5 million in debt. Monthly payments totaled $80,000. Four payday lenders collected $2,100 from her daily. Her business account was "perpetually in the hole." December 2021 recorded 77 overdraft transactions. She was writing checks to herself that bounced.
One day after Eric Richins died, Kouri purchased a $2.9 million mansion in Midway, Utah. Seven days later, she listed it for sale. It foreclosed. The $1.35 million she collected from Eric's life insurance policies was entirely spent within three months. By September 2022, records show she had roughly $800 left.
The defense argues the financial evidence is speculative and proves nothing about murder. But their cross-examination may have accomplished something more significant: exposing an investigation they say was outcome-driven from the start.
Dr. Erik Christensen admitted tests that could have determined whether Eric was a long-term fentanyl user—urine, eye fluid, liver tissue, hair follicles—were never performed. Carmen Lauber admitted testing positive for methamphetamine, changing her story after immunity deals, and being told by a detective that "the goal is to convict Kouri for aggravated murder."
The kitchen and basement were never searched the night Eric died. The copperware used for the Moscow Mules was never tested. An empty hydrocodone bottle in Eric's nightstand was never analyzed. Investigators only returned for certain items after a private investigator flagged them.
The defense has 35 witnesses waiting. Did they peak too early—or are they just getting started?
Kouri Richins is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the big breakdown. |
| 0:02.2 | A long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden |
| 0:05.9 | Killers podcast and True Crime Today. |
| 0:09.2 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:12.2 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:16.3 | A day after her husband died, Corey Richens bought a mansion. |
| 0:22.3 | That's not a rumor. That's not a rumor. |
| 0:23.7 | It's not a theory. |
| 0:24.7 | That's a date on a closing document that a forensic accountant carried into a Park City courtroom and laid in front of a jury with 30 years of experience reading exactly this kind of paperwork. |
| 0:41.2 | March 4th, 2022, Eric Richens dies March 5th, 2022. |
| 0:45.4 | Corey Richens closes on a $2.9 million property in Midway, Utah, borrowing $3.2 million to do it, |
| 0:52.9 | walking away from the table with $87,000 and not a dollar left over for |
| 0:57.7 | renovations. One day, that's the gap between a husband's death and a real estate closing. |
| 1:07.1 | Richens has pled not guilty to the murder of her husband. She maintains her innocence, and she's presumed innocent under the law. |
| 1:13.7 | But prosecutors spend all day in that courtroom doing one thing, |
| 1:19.6 | showing the jury exactly what the financial picture looked like in the months leading up to March 4th, 2022, |
| 1:25.7 | and asking them to decide what it means. And I'm going and asking them to decide what it means. |
| 1:29.1 | And I'm going to ask you to decide what it means as well. |
| 1:32.5 | In the comments section, either on YouTube or our substack, the links are in the description. |
| 1:38.4 | Is this all innocent? |
| 1:42.3 | Did it just happen to be that Eric unfortunately died of an overdose right before a |
| 1:51.0 | critical closing for Corey's business that, you know, it was planned way before any of this |
... |
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