Kouri Richins Trial: Memes, Recanted Testimony, and the 15-Minute Gap
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 107 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I'm rich."
Three memes allegedly found on Kouri Richins' phone the morning her husband Eric's body was removed from their home. Their three sons were still upstairs, unaware their father was dead.
The prosecution's opening painted a devastating picture: $4.5 million in debt, an affair with Josh Grossman, Caribbean vacation plans for one month after Eric's death, nearly two million in life insurance taken out without his knowledge. And a fifteen-minute gap—Kouri's phone allegedly unlocked six times before she dialed 911. First responders noted Eric seemed like he had been dead a while.
But the defense exposed cracks in the foundation. The key fentanyl supplier has recanted. Carmen Lauber allegedly changed her story only after police threatened prison time—and has now been granted immunity. Her own dealer signed an affidavit claiming he sold OxyContin, not fentanyl. The Moscow mule glasses were never tested. No pills were ever recovered. The house was never searched for fentanyl. The death certificate lists manner of death as unknown.
Defense attorney Kathryn Nester played Kouri's 911 call—raw, sobbing, barely coherent—and closed with an optical illusion showing either a young woman or a witch. The state would show them the witch, she said. She'd reveal a widow.
Eric's sister testified Kouri was composed and business-focused while the family collapsed in grief. Eric's friends will testify he called them eighteen days before his death and said he thought his wife tried to poison him.
Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta analyzes where the prosecution is vulnerable—and where the defense has real opportunity.
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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. |
| 0:12.3 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:15.3 | After Eric Richens died, Corey didn't retreat. |
| 0:18.3 | She called 911, spoke to investigators, gave media interviews, |
| 0:21.9 | even published a children's book about grief while touring to promote it. Well, I mean, |
| 0:26.5 | if you consider visiting the local, you know, good day show at 10 a.m. touring. For 14 months, |
| 0:33.2 | she maintained innocence until her arrest in May of 2023. |
| 0:37.8 | You remember this? |
| 0:38.5 | She was free for quite a while. |
| 0:40.6 | Robin Drake is with us. |
| 0:43.4 | Robin Tempo tells that framework is described to catch exactly this. |
| 0:50.1 | The verbal and nonverbal deviations that reveal when someone is actively deceiving. |
| 0:56.6 | We're going to break down how investigators likely read Corey in real time and what her public |
| 1:02.3 | performance is revealed and how the courtroom will expose them. |
| 1:07.4 | I want to get into the book here. |
| 1:09.2 | That's one of the most discussed aspects of the case where |
| 1:12.3 | people are like, what, what is this about? It's the children's book author. It's the one, |
| 1:16.8 | can you hear me? In March of 23, it was a year after Eric's death and two months before her arrest, |
| 1:24.3 | Corey published, or Are You With Me, featuring Eric as an angel wingwinged father watching over their sons and then did that little promotional tour on local TV. |
... |
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