The mother of the Utah children’s book author accused of masterminding her husband’s murder is under investigation in the case after detectives discovered the mother’s former romantic partner also died under similarly suspicious circumstances. A search warrant unsealed on Tuesday revealed that investigators found out last year that Kouri Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, had a girlfriend die from an oxycodone overdose in April 2006. Darden had been named the beneficiary of her estate “a short time before her death,” the affidavit states. Detectives reviewing Richins’ phone records also found that she and her mother had expressed “disdain” for Richins’ husband. “Based on Lisa Darden’s proximity to her partner’s suspicious overdose death, and her relationship with Kouri, it is possible she was involved in planning and orchestrating Eric’s death,” the filing concludes. Eric Richins was found unresponsive in March 2022, with an autopsy subsequently showing that he’d consumed about five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl before his death. A spokesperson for Eric Richins’ family told KSTU that the revelation of Darden’s potential involvement was unsurprising “because we always felt that Kouri's mother was in some way involved in this.” He added, “The parallels are really, very similar and kind of spooky.”
