USA
Woman publishes children’s book on grief after husband dies – now she’s being charged for his murder
A yellow police tape in the US that reads “Crime Scene do not cross”
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In the US, a 33-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of killing her husband with fentanyl in March 2022. She had previously published a children’s book about grief management, which she had also spoken about on television.
When her husband Eric R. died last year, Kouri R. was left alone with her three young sons. The 33-year-old from Utah, USA, decided to find something positive out of her grief and just over a year later published a book for children about grief, dedicated to her late husband.
What initially sounded like the terrible stroke of fate of an inspiring young woman to many outsiders now took a drastic turn. According to US media reports, Kouri was arrested on Monday on suspicion of having murdered her husband himself. She is accused of giving him a lethal dose of fentanyl, a prescription narcotic that is more potent than heroin.
According to her version of events, on the evening of March 3, 2022, she and Eric celebrated a professional sense of achievement from Kouri. So she served him a Moscow Mule. Later she was in her son’s room because he was having trouble sleeping and only returned to the shared bedroom at 3 a.m. There she found her husband lying on the floor, his body was already cold, which is why she called 911. Eric could not be revived by rescue workers and was pronounced dead.
Wife is said to have bought fentanyl from a friend
An autopsy showed the 39-year-old had died of a fentanyl overdose. About five times a lethal dose could be detected in his body. In the USA, more and more people have been dying from the synthetic opioid fentanyl for years, and the painkiller is often misused as a drug.
Now some court documents have become public, which show that weeks before her husband’s death, Kouri is said to have bought several strong painkillers from an acquaintance, including 15-30 fentanyl pills. This should emerge from the telephone data of the 33-year-old. Six days after she last bought pills from him, her husband Eric died.
However, he is said to have fallen ill on Valentine’s Day 2022, a few weeks before his death, after having dinner with Kouri. According to court documents, he later informed friends that his wife wanted to poison him with the food. He is also said to have expressed doubts to his family: he even warned them that it would probably be his wife’s fault if anything ever happened to him, the documents say. A few years ago, Kouri brought him a drink during a vacation after which he became very ill. Eric had been planning to divorce his wife for a long time. Because of their knowledge, according to “NBC” reports, his family asked investigators to investigate Kouri’s role in Eric’s death more closely.
The accused previously spoke on television about her book on grief
Investigators are also said to have found that two months before Eric’s death, she is said to have tried to change his life insurance in her favour. But this attempt failed.
In addition, discrepancies are said to have been noticed in the statements she made to the police shortly after her husband’s death. For example, she testified that she left her cell phone in the bedroom with Eric. However, later data analysis was able to prove that her cell phone was unlocked and moved several times at the time, and that messages were sent from it that were later deleted.
grief in the family
Tino & the comfort tiger travel through the land of mourning – a children’s book about death
The book, which Kouri published in March this year, is about a boy whose father suddenly dies. She also promoted the book in a television interview, in which she also mentioned how sudden and unpredictable Eric’s death was. The book is no longer available on Amazon.
Sources:NBC I, NBC II, New York Times, CNN