Two Utah news anchors say they feel "duped" and "sickened" after interviewing Kouri Richins, a Utah mom and children's book author accused of murdering her husband last year.
Deena Manzanares and Surae Chinn, the hosts of KTVX's "Good Things Utah," interviewed Richins in March about her children's book after she wrote in to the show.
"I definitely feel like we were duped, in a sense," Chinn said.
Richins' book "Are You With Me?" was listed on Amazon for $14.99 and described as "a must-read for any child who has experienced the pain of loss, and for parents who want to provide their children with the emotional support they need to heal and grow."
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But the hosts said Richins appeared cold when she appeared on the show despite using lots of exclamation points and a "heart emoji" in her email to the executive producer of "Good Things Utah."
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"Sitting down with her, we both felt… she was a little bit cold. She wasn't super emotional. But again, we're trying to show our guests in the best light. We're trying to be on their side," Manzanares explained.
Manzanares added that after the interview with Richins, she asked the now-murder suspect what she thought happened to her husband, Eric Richins, and Kouri said she believed it was "COVID-related" and that her husband had a "lung issue," which contrasts starkly with what prosecutors are alleging.
Utah prosecutors allege that Kouri, after having financial disagreements with Eric regarding the sale of a $2 million mansion she wanted to flip, poisoned her husband to death on March 3, 2022.
A transcript from March 4, 2022, when authorities arrived at the Richins' home in Kamas after Kouri called 911 to report that Eric was not responding, shows that the 33-year-old told deputies she and her family "all just got over COVID."
"My husband is active. He didn't just die in his sleep. This is insane," she told authorities at the time.
Manzanares and Chinn said Richins described her husband's death as sudden but didn't expand on his cause of death, which they thought was unusual, even more so now that she has been charged in his death.
"How were you able to take care of your kids; write a book, too; grieve with your kids; and then come on a show to promote the book that you also wrote?" Chinn recalled wondering at the time.
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After the interview aired in April, Manzanares said the show got an anonymous email the next morning, saying, "YOU KNOW SHE KILLED HER HUSBAND!!!" which they thought was "bizarre" and "alarming," but they did not think much of it because they frequently get "crazy" emails.
Then, Manzanares got a message on Facebook saying Kouri was a suspect in her husband's death.
After the formal charges against Kouri were announced in May, the hosts were shocked.
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"I'm sickened now that, OK, she sat on our couch, she talked about grieving, and we showed so much compassion and empathy for what seemingly look like a mourning widow," Chinn said.
Chinn also suggested that Kouri may have known she was a suspect by the time she had reached out for an interview and book promotion because authorities had already searched her house and questioned her on multiple occasions.
"That's what I think is scary," Manzanares said, "and that's what makes me question what it is she's dealing with, whether it's a mental illness, it's a personality disorder. I have no idea. But what makes somebody behave in that way and then put on whatever facade she had put on to appear as the quote unquote, grieving mother. It's truly mind-blowing."
Kouri is accused of spiking her husband’s Moscow Mule with fentanyl, an opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, while celebrating a home sale in March 2022.
The next day, Kouri allegedly closed a deal on the Wasatch County mansion "alone," after her husband had been pronounced dead.
She was denied bail during a Monday hearing in a Summit County courthouse.
