Utah woman's hopes of flipping mansion flop after murder charge
In the early morning hours of March 4, 2022, Kouri Richins says she found her husband Eric unresponsive in their bed. She said his death was an accident, but a year later she was arrested and charged with murder. The circumstances surrounding Eric Richins' death are investigated in "The People v. Kouri Richins," an all-new "48 Hours" reported by contributor Natalie Morales and airing Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Kouri's family says she lost more than just the father of her three young sons and husband of nine years. She also lost a huge business deal worth millions.
Kouri owned a real estate business specializing in buying and flipping houses for a profit. Her mother Lisa Darden says it was a constant rotation of new projects, and at any one time Kouri could be working on three different properties, "I would say on average." Darden had watched Kouri build the business from the ground up and says Kouri was proud of her success. Greg Hall was her friend and marketing director. He says the reason for Kouri's success was that she had something that a lot of people don't. "A lot of times you find an individual that is intelligent, but no common sense or common sense and no intelligence. She had both. She was a brilliant young lady," said Hall.
Before Eric died, Darden says Kouri was working on the biggest house-flipping deal of her career. The project was a 10-acre estate in Heber City, Utah, not far from the famed Park City ski resort. It was prime real estate. "I think this was kind of her dream when she got into this idea of flipping houses was to be able to do properties like this," Kouri's attorney, Skye Lazaro, told Morales as they toured the property.
The 20,000-square-foot mansion and its 4,000-square-foot guesthouse were originally built in 2017 but never finished. Kouri discovered the abandoned project in 2019 and made an offer on it along with a group of investors for $3.9 million. According to Lazaro, Kouri's plan with the property was to "turn it into a recreational hotspot, given this is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world and, hopefully, sell it at a profit." And Kouri's mother says that potential was jaw-dropping. "Her and Eric sat down with an accountant one time, and he said, if you can get it done and stay under budget, you could walk away with $12 million," said Darden.
Darden says Kouri and Eric were excited about the opportunity and were celebrating finalizing the closing of the mansion the night Eric died. "Eric's saying, let's have a shot. Come on, let's celebrate Kouri," she said. And the celebration continued. Kouri told investigators she poured Eric another drink later that night, a Moscow mule, before the couple went to bed. It was hours later that Kouri said she found Eric unresponsive in their bed. The next day Kouri closed on the property, according to court papers.
But the spokesman for Eric's family, Greg Skordas, says Eric did not want Kouri to buy the mansion. "I don't think he was ever in favor of that," Skordas said. Just days after Eric died, his family told an investigator "Eric and his wife were arguing" about buying the house. Eric's family believes Kouri was determined to go forward with the project, despite Eric's opposition.
When Kouri Richins was arrested and charged in her husband's death, her hopes for the project -- and the potential $12 million payday -- came to an end. The mansion was put back on the market and recently sold for $3.75 million.
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