A family friend said she introduced Utah murder suspect Kouri Richins to her husband at a Home Depot years ago – and expressed shock about how the apparent fairytale romance ended.
“I pray to God this isn’t true,” Linda King told KUTV about Richins’ arrest for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric to death in March 2022.
“Their family was so beautiful. Everything was picture-perfect — but I guess it wasn’t,” she said.
King said she and Kouri were working as cashiers about 10 years ago at a Home Depot where Eric was a frequent customer and took notice of her co-worker.
“You could never forget his laugh,” King told the outlet. “I loved that laugh so much. He would come into my line all the time.”
She said she encouraged Eric to ask Kouri out after noticing he was apparently smitten.
Linda King said she introduced Utah murder suspect Kouri Richins to her husband, Eric, and expressed shock that the mother of three is now accused of murdering him. KUTV
Kouri Richins was arrested for allegedly poising her husband Eric to death in March 2022. Kouri Richins/Facebook“I said [to] go over there and check out with her, you know, so they did, and they ended up having a date,” King told KUTV. “From then on, they were like glued to each other. It was perfect, I thought.”
She said Kouri eventually left the giant retailer but that they kept in touch.
“It seemed like they were my children. I was proud of them. That’s how I felt about them,” King said.
The mother of three wrote a children’s book on grief to help her children deal with their father’s death. Amazon
Police charged Richins with charged with first-degree aggravated murder and three counts of second-degree possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. APShe said she was devastated when Kouri told her that Eric died of a brain aneurysm last year – even though the cause of death has been determined to be a deadly dose of fentanyl.
“I thought, well, that’s what it was. Poor Eric,” King said, adding that she even bought Kouri’s new book about dealing with the loss of a loved one, “Are You With Me?”
“It makes me sick to my stomach to think about that,” she told the station. “Like, she couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that. She had too much. It’s more than super shocking. I really feel numb.”
Richins told King that Eric died of a brain aneurysm, even though the cause of death was determined to be a deadly dose of fentanyl, according to reports. Kouri Richins/Facebook
“It makes me sick to my stomach to think about that,” King told the station. “Like, she couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t do that. She had too much. It’s more than super shocking. I really feel numb.” KUTVKouri has been charged with first-degree aggravated murder and three counts of second-degree possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
An autopsy found that Eric died of an oral overdose of fentanyl — with a level in his system that was five times the lethal dosage.
Kouri’s attorney Skye Lazaro declined to comment on the case to The Post.
