Kouri Richins signaled she was ‘single and available’ on TV show: expert

Utah mom Kouri Richins signaled she was “single and available” during a TV appearance to promote her book about grief after allegedly killing her husband, according to a body language expert.

Richins, 33, wrote the children’s book “Are You With Me?” after the fatal poisoning of her husband, Eric Richins, 39, in March 2022. She appeared on ABC4’s “Good Things Utah” last month to plug it.

Showing up without her wedding ring was what body language and human behavior expert Patti Wood told the US Sun called a “strong choice.”

“Writing a children’s book about grief after losing your husband and promoting it without still wearing a wedding ring is an interesting choice,” Wood told the outlet.

“Everybody grieves differently, some widows want to hold on to the symbol of the union they can see, feel and touch all the time, and some don’t,” she said.

“Nonverbally, she is not just promoting the book, but the fact that she has processed her grief enough to advertise that she is single and available,” Wood added.

Kouri allegedly poisoned her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow Mule in March 2022 — then penned the tear-jerker book about coping with grief.

“My husband passed away unexpectedly last year. March 4 was a one-year anniversary for us. He was 39,” she said on the local TV program.

“It completely took us all by shock. We have three little boys, 10, 9 and 6, and my kids and I kind of wrote this book on the different emotions and grieving processes that we’ve experienced in the last year,” Kouri told the hosts.

Wood noted the widow displayed a variety of nonverbal tics that could have suggested she was trying to hide something.

For example, Richins used the phrase “you know” dozens of times during the interview in what could have been a secret ploy to protect herself, the expert told the US Sun.

The expert acknowledged the repeated utterances may have been part of Richins’ normal speech patterns — but also opined she might have been making a desperate cry.

Wood also pointed out that phrases that “cut up communication” can reveal a “lack of honesty.”

“So when you make a definitive statement, typically when you’re telling the truth, there’s strength and delivery that goes from the first word to the end of the sentence,” she told the outlet.

“When you’re saying it and there’s no interruption, that’s one of the indications of a true statement,” Wood said. “So when you have an interrupter like ‘you know,’ it’s breaking up a sentence. It makes it easier for you to lie.”

“It’s not a straight-off indication of deceit, but it does make it easier because it’s harder for (the listener) to distinguish,” Wood said.

Eric Richins suspected his wife was carrying on an extramarital relationship before she allegedly poisoned him, according to family attorney Greg Skordas.

Skordas told The Post that despite Eric Richins’ alarming suspicions, he stayed with his wife to spare their three young sons from growing up in a broken home.

“He lived for those boys,” Skordas said. “I believe he would have stayed in a less than desirable relationship if it meant he could do right by them.”

Eric Richins had previously told a friend he believed his wife was trying to poison him after he became sick following a Valentine’s Day dinner the month before his death, according to court documents in the battle for his $3.6 million estate.

He died a day before his wife closed on a $2 million deal to buy a 22,000-square-foot home — a deal for which he had refused to pay, according to documents obtained by KPCW.

Kouri Richins has been charged with of first-degree aggravated murder and multiple counts of second-degree possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and is due back in court on May 19.