The Grief Author

Summary

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Crime Scene Podcast — "The Grief Author"

Date: May 14, 2026
Host(s): Jonathan Hirsch & Cooper Moll
Podcast by Sony Music Entertainment

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Episode Overview

This episode of Crime Scene dives deep into the tragic and twisting case of Corey Richins, a Utah realtor who gained public sympathy after her husband Eric Richins' sudden death—before being accused and found guilty of his murder. The hosts, Jonathan Hirsch and Cooper Moll, unravel how Corey built a public persona as a grieving widow, even writing a children’s book about loss, only for investigators to uncover a shocking alternate reality involving fraud, an affair, and a calculated poisoning.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Crime: Eric Richins' Sudden Death

[05:06–08:43]

• March 4, 2022 – Camas, Utah: Eric Richins, 39, is found dead by his wife Corey in their bed.
  • Corey calls 911 at 3:00 a.m.; Eric is declared dead at the scene.
  • Corey claims he died of a brain aneurysm.

“Turns out the real crime scene was my monthly phone bill.”
— Jonathan Hirsch, satirically introducing the episode [00:44]

• Despite no initial suspicion, Eric’s family expresses doubts given his age and lack of health issues.
• The autopsy reveals five times the lethal dose of fentanyl—street, not prescription, grade—found in his system.

“With the information available to me at the time of the autopsy, the decedent did not have a history of any kind of drug use...there should not have been any fentanyl or norfentanyl present.”
— [Medical Examiner quoted by Jonathan Hirsch, 07:26]

2. Unraveling the Marriage & Financial Motive

[11:32–20:55]

• Corey Richins (33): Attractive, mother of three, realtor.
• Eric was prudent with money, co-owner of a successful masonry business.
• Corey’s business was a financial disaster:
  • She racked up $1.6–$7.5 million in debt, used hard-money lenders, bounced 236 checks, and incurred $6,000 in overdraft fees.

“She put my parents bankruptcy history to shame here.”
— Cooper Moll [14:02]

• Corey secretly took out a $250,000 line of credit on the family home and forged documents, without Eric’s knowledge.
• Eric starts to protect himself—moving assets to a trust managed by his sister, revising his will, naming his sister as life insurance beneficiary, and quietly consulting a divorce attorney.

“Instead of filing for divorce, he decided to protect himself legally…”
— Jonathan Hirsch [17:24]

• A prenup existed: in divorce, assets split 50/50, but in event of Eric’s death, Corey stood to inherit the business.

“I smell a motive here.”
— Cooper Moll [20:10]

• Corey had begun an affair with employee Robert Josh Grossman.

3. Prior Attempts & Clues Overlooked

[21:18–24:45]

• Valentine’s Day 2022: Corey packs Eric a lunch; he becomes violently ill, requiring an EpiPen, and later jokes Corey may be poisoning him—comments dismissed by others.

“When a man says something like, ‘Oh, my wife’s trying to kill me,’ it’s taken less seriously than when a woman...says that.”
— Cooper Moll on gendered reactions to dark humor, [23:20]

• Night of the murder: Corey claims she left Eric to tend to a child’s nightmares, returning hours later to find him dead.
• Within days, Corey tries to break into the family safe; upon learning she’s cut out of the trust, she physically assaults Eric’s sister.

4. Financial Moves Post-Death

[24:51–29:49]

• Corey quickly collects nearly $1.3 million in life insurance, much spent on debts and an ill-fated $2.9 million mansion purchase (which quickly foreclosed).
• Forged additional insurance documents days before Valentine’s attempt.

“She burned through the entire payout…in about six months.”
— Jonathan Hirsch [29:49]

5. Family-Led Investigation & The Break

[30:07–34:44]

• Eric’s family, doubting the official story, hires PI Todd Gabler, who goes above and beyond:
  • He uncovers extensive communications between Corey and the family’s housekeeper, Carmen Lauber—a convicted felon with a drug distribution history.
  • Lauber admits Corey requested prescription pills and then fentanyl. She supplied Corey twice, the second time providing a more lethal batch.
• Digital evidence: Corey googled prison information and how much fentanyl is lethal, signaling awareness of potential consequences.

“The Internet is forever, people.”
— Cooper Moll, on Corey’s incriminating search history [34:05]

• Corey also asked her lover, Josh, if he had killed anyone and how it felt—Josh breaks off their relationship soon after Eric’s death.

6. Building the Prosecution’s Case

[36:36–47:01]

• Corey publishes a children’s book (“Are You With Me?”) about grief, promotes it on TV as helping her sons cope—later revealed to be ghostwritten as image management.
• Arrested May 8, 2023 for Eric’s murder—prosecution’s case built on:
  • Testimony from housekeeper Carmen, secret lover Josh, a forensic accountant, detectives, and evidence painstakingly collated by the PI.
  • "Walk the Dog Letter": Written by Corey from jail, instructing her mother to provide false testimony framing Eric as a secret drug addict, which the judge partially admits into evidence.

“Allow me to present you with a guide to how to get me out of the situation by lying.”
— Jonathan Hirsch, on the letter’s contents [40:46]

• Defense Attack: They claim Carmen cooperated to save herself, PI acted outside legal protocols, and raise alternative medical causes.
• Verdict: Jury returns guilty verdict on 5 counts (aggravated murder, attempted murder, insurance fraud, forgery) in under 4 hours.

“It is precisely what you’d expect in that situation. Guilty on all five counts, aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, forgery.”
— Jonathan Hirsch [47:02]

7. Aftermath & Broader Questions

[47:49–end]

• Ongoing civil litigation by Eric’s estate ($13 million for wrongful death, theft, misuse of likeness).
• Discussion of possible appeal grounds—admissibility battles, defense claims.
• Sentencing hearing (life sentence without parole possible) coinciding with the episode recording; a follow-up segment is teased, featuring Annie Elise.
• Final reflections: The case raises questions on the limits of circumstantial evidence and on society’s fascination with stories that blend domesticity with hidden darkness.

“He even joked out loud that Corey could be somebody capable of killing him and warned his family…And yet here we are.”
— Cooper Moll and Jonathan Hirsch [50:18–50:31]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What does it mean as a human being to encounter a story like the one we’re seeing today?...It’s almost the story of somebody trying to control the narrative of their own crime.”
  — Jonathan Hirsch [03:58]

• “She was borrowing from more than 25 hard money lenders...It was like a financial disaster spiraling for years.”
  — Jonathan Hirsch [12:52]

• “After the Valentine’s Day incident, when Eric got violently ill, Corey tells Carmen those pills weren’t strong enough…”
  — Jonathan Hirsch [32:47]

• “If someone I was dating asked me if I’d ever killed anyone...I’d be really freaked out.”
  — Cooper Moll [34:44]

• “I think in his heart of hearts, like Eric knew...he was doing everything to protect himself legally. And it just wasn’t enough.”
  — Cooper Moll [49:55–50:31]

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Timeline of Events (Selected Timestamps)

| Timestamp | Event | | --------- | ----- | | 05:06–05:38 | Discovery of Eric Richins’ body; 911 call. | | 06:33–07:18 | Autopsy reveals fentanyl poisoning. | | 11:55–15:07 | Deep dive into Corey's business and debt problems. | | 17:14–20:10 | Eric’s secret legal protections and motives. | | 21:18–24:02 | Valentine’s Day poisoning attempt revealed. | | 24:06–26:38 | Night of the murder, safe incident, immediate aftermath. | | 29:49 | Corey burns through $1.3 million life insurance in months. | | 30:13–34:44 | PI Gabler uncovers Carmen as the fentanyl source; digital evidence.| | 36:36–39:49 | Corey’s children’s book, arrest, and charge breakdown. | | 40:18–41:32 | "Walk the Dog Letter"—witness tampering attempt from jail. | | 42:48–47:01 | Prosecution’s witness list and trial highlights; guilty verdict. | | 49:01–50:54 | Discussion of sentencing, appeals, and Eric’s premonitions. |

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Final Reflections

Jonathan and Cooper discuss the troubling dualities revealed in this case: the face-value image of a wholesome, upwardly-mobile family in a quiet town, and the psychological and legal maze beneath. They underscore how Corey tried to shape public perception—from her statements to her book—while working to cover up calculated criminality.

The episode closes with the open question of whether circumstantial evidence is ever truly enough, and an invitation to continue the conversation as new legal twists emerge.

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For extended discussion and further case updates, listeners are directed to join the hosts on Patreon and stay tuned for the sentencing recap with guest Annie Elise from Serialist Lee and 10 to Life.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

And I'm Cooper Maul.

[A]

And together each week, we're going to bring you the most remarkable cases and crimes. Now and throughout history, we're going to dive into all the aspects of the case investigations, criminal and legal, all the different angles. But most importantly, we're going to tell you the story beat by beat, line by line. This show is a part of the binge, which is Sony's true crime podcast network of limited run shows that I lead up where you might hear me from time to time. And Cooper, think of this as all the things that you love about twisty turny limited run narrative series in a single episode. Okay, Cooper, we have long awaited the discussion of this case and I just wanted to say that this episode is quite timely as the sentencing hearing for Corey Richards is happening as we speak. We're going to tell you the whole story of what happened with Cory, and then we're going to come back with a very special guest to respond to the sentencing hearing. Okay, so many of you are familiar with the Corey Richards case. It's perhaps the biggest crime story of the year so far.

[B]

Definitely.

[A]

And it's a remarkable story that doesn't happen even every year or every era. But I think at the heart of it, like all of the stories that we do on crime scene, we are looking also at sort of the moral tale component of these crime cases. What does it mean as a human being to encounter a story like the one that we're seeing today? We try to be thoughtful about this. And if I'm thinking on what sort of the bigger picture story of the Corey Richards case is, I would say it's almost the story of somebody trying to control the narrative of their own crime. And in a lot of the stories, you know, that we've done, it's almost like we see what appears to be a sequence of events that should be prosecutable, bring justice for the family, but then the evidence doesn't quite line up. I'm like thinking about like Mountain man as an example of that, you know, but in this case, it's almost like the inverse of that where the evidence tells a very different story than the story that the perpetrator is telling.

[B]

Let's get into it.

[A]

Okay, so our story begins on March 4, 2022 in Camas, Utah, a small community in Summit county, which is about like 40 miles east of Salt Lake City. It's about 3 in the morning and Corey Richins calls 91 1. Her husband Eric is cold to the touch and he's not breathing. Emergency responders arrive. Eric Richards is 39 years old and he's declared dead on the scene.

[B]

So at this point, there's no reason to think he died of anything other than natural causes.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

Died in his sleep.

[A]

Right, Correct that. And that's how Corey presents it. She tells people that he died of a brain aneurysm. And from the jump, the Summit County Sheriff's office treat this as a non suspicious death. But Eric's family, also from the jump, sort of had questions.

[B]

Yeah, them and me both. I mean, he was only 39 years old.

[A]

It's such a random thing. Right.

[B]

I know that brain aneurysms, you know, can happy happen at any age. They are totally random. But did he have any risk factors, like any health problems that made him more predisposed to an aneurysm?

[A]

No, he wasn't sick. And the people who knew him best, his partner Cody, his sister Katie, they couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong.

[B]

I mean, certainly an autopsy will get to the bottom of it.

[A]

Yeah, and the autopsy tells a totally different story. Right. The medical examiner finds that Eric had approximately five times the lethal concentration of fentanyl in his system.

[B]

Geez. I mean, the smallest amount of fentanyl could kill you. I mean, you see in those kind of like anti drug ads, it's like the tiniest amount on a pin. Right. I mean, that is intense. If you didn't have any health problems, clearly isn't like a prescription dose gone wrong.

[A]

Maybe it's like the how do we find out where this came from? Right. Is the sort of next question. And then they are able to establish pretty quickly that this was an illicit sort of street fentanyl, the kind of stuff you would get from a drug dealer. But Eric doesn't have any known history of drug use.

[B]

So from the medical examiner's perspective, this is not an accident.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

So with the information available to me at the time of the autopsy, the decedent did not have a history of any kind of illicit drug use or prescription medication abuse. So the fentanyl level should have been zero. There should not have been any fentanyl or nor fentanyl present.

[A]

We should talk about fentanyl for a second here. Because it is more powerful than morphine, as we all know, it is measured in micrograms. Like we were talking earlier about that sort of pin drop being enough to be deadly. But it also notably doesn't leave any visible marks when you overdose. There's no distinguishable signs that this is different from say a natural cardiac event.

[B]

Yeah, the nearly like perfect quote unquote poison for anyone maybe planning a murder. Right. I mean, like you said, there's nothing visually suspicious.

[A]

It just seems like a sudden death that Happens right on the scene. So in the hours after Eric's death, they didn't notice anything that looked suspicious because of this. It just appeared as though this man died in his sleep. And it wasn't until the toxicology report that it sort of cracked the whole thing wide open.

[B]

So now investigators need to answer this really basic question, which is how did this guy with no drug history end up with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system? Yeah, naturally, they're going to look at his spouse.

[A]

Right. It's like a classic version of the refrain. It's always the husband, it's always the wife.

[B]

Exactly. So tell me a little bit about his wife.

[A]

Yeah. Corey Richards. She's 33 years old. She's brunette. She wouldn't look out of place in an L.L. bean catalog. And so often, I think these are the kind of cases that also catch fire in the public's imagination. She's sort of this, like, traditionally attractive woman.

[B]

And people next door. Yep.

[A]

Sort of preoccupy themselves with that aspect of it. But they also had this very wholesome family dynamic that I think made this all the more surprising.

[B]

Like, these could be our friends and neighbors, Right?

[A]

Exactly. What a nice couple. How could that possibly have happened? She'd been married to Eric for eight years at this point. They had three sons together, and she ran this real estate company where they, like, flipped houses. And so by the time the toxicology report comes back, investigators have already heard that things between the two of them aren't as, you know, cookie cutter as it would appear to be from the outside. It makes it very difficult to ignore Corey as a suspect. Coming up, a marriage drowning in debt, a husband quietly finding an out, and a Valentine's Day that ends with Eric Richens fighting for his life.

[B]

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[A]

Yes.

[B]

The toxicology reports come back saying he had five times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system. So Jonathan, I need you to take me back a little bit because I feel like to understand what happened in that bedroom on March 4th, I feel like I need to understand who these people were and a little bit more about their marriage, starting with Eric.

[A]

Yeah, so far we know this sort of unfathomable death happening to somebody who didn't appear to be in any sort of health emergency or crisis and you know, his wife and their family, it's very successful. But Eric was a co owner of like a stone masonry company, C and E Stone masonry. It was a business that he built from the ground up. Uh, he had a business partner that we mentioned, Cody Wright, and described him as like the steady one. You know, he was careful with money, he was reliable. He's the kind of person that you counted on. Uh, and he and Corey had married in June of 2013. Um, to the outside world they looked successful. You know, they had this beautiful home in a mountain community, three boys, you know, these thriving businesses.

[B]

Yeah, I mean was, they're both business owners. Was Corey's. How was Corey's business doing?

[A]

Corey's business had some issues and that sort of gets us into some new territory here. Corey's company, KRR Realty, that was the company she used to handle real estate, renovation, resell, places. It on paper looked very entrepreneurial, but in reality it was like a financial disaster and had been spiraling for years. She was borrowing from more than 25 hard money lenders simultaneously. These are like private individuals and companies that charge high interest rates because the borrower can't get like conventional financing. They're over leveraged or they don't have, you know, enough assets. If you remember those of you binge fans that can go back into the catalog to recall there was a series we did called Lady Mafia that was about a hard money lender, among other things that got her into quite a bit of trouble and some prison time. Sara King, she was the subject of Lady Mafia and she got sort of wrapped up in this business that definitely has some shady elements to it, you know.

[B]

So Corey was using new debt to service old debt.

[A]

Exactly. That is exactly right. And she couldn't keep up with the burden of it. So between 2021 and 2022, she attempted 236 transactions that were overdrafted. Oh my God. I mean she put my parents bankruptcy history to shame here. She totaled more than $300,000 during those transactions and incurred nearly $6,000 in overdraft fees.

[B]

Nuts. I mean I thought when I was younger I held the record for most

[A]

overdraft fees like Guinness Book of Records level. Right. If that isn't even a category. Like we should find out. A forensic accountant who later investigated the case said Corey's bank account was perpetually in the hole.

[B]

Yes, that sounds like an accurate description.

[A]

Yeah, I mean I love it with these quotes. We sometimes pluck with these people that are just like so matter of fact, at the time of Eric's death, she owed somewhere between 1.6 and $7.5 million, depending on how you count it.

[B]

I mean that kind of debt is just incomprehensible to me. And it's probably, you know, makes you feel extremely anxious and there's a lot of secrets around debt. Right. I mean, was Eric aware of any of this?

[A]

He was aware of some of it. But the story does get a little darker and back to your point about like the business and sort of like how terrifying that is. There is sort of a high wire act element to house flipping. You know, my wife and I at one point we, you know, had a home that we renovated that was up in the mountains up here in the San Bernardino's and then we sold it. And so I think we learned a lot about like what that business looks like. And it is not an easy business to run because you buy a fixer upper or whatever, some home that you think that you can renovate and sell at a higher rate. That comes with all the things that a fixer upper might have. You know, you get in there and you like open up a wall and there's you know, maybe animals living in there. You get down under the foundation and there's no foundation. Like there are things that you uncover along the way that can just spiral. So around 2019, Corey's definitely in the hole. As was said, she opened a $250,000 home equity line of credit on their house. So this is now inching closer and closer to the family. This isn't just a business venture gone wrong. They're starting to take money out against the house. Right. She named Eric as the lending party on here and also the power of attorney, but didn't tell him about it. So there's some relationship issues that are bubbling up too where she's kind of. This business is starting to get out of hand, but she's also not communicating to her husband about what's going on. And while Eric was still alive, his brother in law found this document in the Summit county property records. It wasn't like something that was brought up later after the fact. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, I don't know, Jonathan, if. I think if my spouse had gone behind my back and did all that, I. I would probably be considering divorce. Yeah.

[A]

According to the testimony, he was very upset and sad. But instead of filing for divorce immediately, he decided to protect himself legally because maybe he just didn't feel like there were some boundaries here that there needed to be. So in 2020, he creates this revocable trust that, you know, is there in case he should die or become incapacitated in February of 2021. The next year, he transfers the entire business, his masonry business and everything surrounding it into that trust and names his sister as the trustee, not Corey.

[B]

Okay, so Eric was planning what would happen in case he died.

[A]

He was, yes. He updated his life insurance policy as well to name his sister Katie as a beneficiary. He quietly changed his will. He met with a divorce attorney, and he didn't say anything publicly about all of this. And he didn't call it quits officially with Corey just yet.

[B]

You know, I totally get. Relationships are complicated and I typically reserve comment on them.

[A]

Totally.

[B]

In this case, I can't help but wonder just given how much he had already known about this financial betrayal and these ongoings behind his back.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Why Eric continued to stick around.

[A]

Yeah. You wonder. It's like, why did you file this away under, like, the millions of stories that we come across? They're like, why didn't you just get a divorce?

[B]

Yeah. And I know with kids and, you know, shared assets, it's. It's a little bit more complicated.

[A]

Yeah. I feel like the older I get too, as I, you know, I'm in my 40s, like, I have married with kids, and, you know, I see some of my friends come to this pass in similar situations, and just to disentangle your whole life becomes a very complicated issue. And I'm sure that probably played into it. And maybe to an extent, he wanted to make sure everything was like, set up and safe for his kids should he decide to get a divorce from this person.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, but you've got her, like, doing these, you know, shady behind the scenes dealings.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then him also having the, you know, getting his ducks in a row behind the scenes.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Got to be some kind of unspoken tension inside of this home. Right.

[A]

And you have to imagine, too, that this is like, a conservative community in, you know, a suburb in Utah. Like, this is not necessarily a place where, you know, people are going to be chomping at the bit to get a divorce the second things go haywire.

[B]

Definitely.

[A]

There's another aspect to this, too, which is they did sign a prenup, at Eric's mom's insistence. And this prenup, of course, they, like, split their assets 50, 50 if there's a divorce. But there was a death clause there, too, which was, if Eric died, that business Cher would pass on to Corey.

[B]

All right, I smell a motive here.

[A]

Yeah, you're starting to see something there. Right. So Corey knew about that clause. And after Eric died and after she found out about the trust that he had left and the share of his sister and all of that, she filed a civil lawsuit and claimed that Corey was entitled to the full $2 million of the business interest under the death provision in her prenup. The prosecutors and Eric's estate argued that the trust transfer superseded it. So there's, like, a messy legal contradiction there that they have to sort out. But the courts largely agreed that this money doesn't go to Corey. So not only was she financially desperate, here's the other thing. She was in love with somebody else.

[B]

Oh, okay, so this is just going from. From bad to worse.

[A]

Yeah. And this is partially, I think, why this story captured people's imagination. The guy's name is Robert Josh Grossman. He was an Iraq war veteran who's 43 old. He'd relocated to Utah in part to pursue some real estate deals with Corey. He was under her employ.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And there's evidence of texts between the two of them throughout early 2022, including one from the night Eric died, in which Corey had sent Grossman, quote, love you.

[B]

Okay, so between the affair and the asset transfers, I'm kind of feeling like all this is. Is definitely building toward something.

[A]

Yes. And even though she's seeing this other guy, she hasn't gotten a divorce yet. Eric is not trying to get a divorce necessarily. He's consulting people. They're kind of putting on the appearance that this relationship is still ongoing, that they're married, that they're in a relationship. So On Valentine's Day, 2022, she packed a lunch for Eric, and it had a sandwich and a Valentine's Day note. Later that day, Eric became violently ill while driving, and he broke out in hives. He blacked out he had to use an EpiPen. His business partner, Cody, testified that Eric had called him from the truck. And there was, like, fear in his voice, like, unlike anything he had heard before. Why is it you remember that phone call, the fear in his voice, the urgency of the situation, the seriousness of what was going on. Had you ever heard Eric sound like that before? The only other times I heard that urgency and that fear, when he called me telling me that his mother had passed away in. In the hospital. Yeah. And then after he got sick from eating this packed lunch, Eric would later joke to the people around him that Corey was trying to kill him. And the people he said that to at the time sort of just laughed it off as a joke, you know?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, you know, Jonathan, there's like, research on this, the way these, like, dark jokes land depending on the gender of the person who's telling them. Right. So, like, yeah, when a man says something like, oh, my wife's trying to kill me. Right. It's taken less seriously than when a woman might say that to her peers. Right, Right. So I can't help but think, you know, you know, here's Eric saying, you know, the writings are on the wall here. Help.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it fell on deaf ears because he just seemed like just any other guy who's kind of just being jocular about his wife. Right.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, that's a really interesting point.

[B]

And then just two weeks after this Valentine's Day.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Is when he's found dead. So take me back to that night.

[A]

So that night, Corey brought a Moscow Mule cocktail for each of them to the bedroom. She told Eric they were celebrating a real estate closing. This was like the early hours of March 4, when his body was, of course, found and he was dead. And in the immediate aftermath, Corey does call 91 1.

[B]

Did he just walk up? He wasn't breathing. And I just turned over, but it was so cold.

[A]

Detective Jamie Woody of the Summit County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene. And according to Corey's account to police, the couple went to bed at around 9pm and around 9:30, she got up to comfort one of their sons was having a nightmare. She stayed in bed with him until about 3. She went back into the bed at 3 in the morning, and that's when she found him. Stiff, ghost white and not breathing. Eric's sister Amy arrived at the home and immediately told Detective Woody that Eric had warned the family that Corey might try to kill him.

[B]

That would certainly make my ears perk up as an investigator.

[A]

But then, despite that the detective observed no obvious signs of foul play because of the fentanyl overdose. Right. No drugs were visible in the home or in vehicles. There was nothing stashed in trash cans that had been emptied by the housekeeper. The case was just classified as a non suspicious death at first. Then two days after Eric died, Corey hires a locksmith to drill into the family safe in the house. Eric's sister Amy arrived at the house at this time, she had something that she needed Corey to hear, which was Eric had changed his estate plan. That revocable trust with the masonry business inside of it now named Katie as the trustee, not Corey. And the cash in the safe was no longer legally hers.

[B]

Corey did not like that.

[A]

According to witness testimony, Corey became enraged. She punched Amy in the neck and on the face.

[B]

So the day that she found out she wasn't getting this inheritance, she also commits assault.

[A]

Yes, exactly. But despite being cut out of this estate, she collected almost $1.3 million in life insurance payouts within the month of Eric's death from policies that she had opened up secretly over the years, naming herself as the sole beneficiary.

[B]

So, Jonathan, there's a version of this story that someone could interpret that she had been prepping this for quite a long time.

[A]

And she's also very chaotic in terms of, like, her business and other dealings, like who knows what other messiness. Like we're zeroing in on the life insurance and all of that. But it, there's. It's. At this point, it still feels like, huh, there's really something going on here. But I think the argument is like, how sure are we of that reality? In January of 2022, she had also allegedly forged Eric's signature on an application for an additional $100,000 policy that went into effect 10 days before the Valentine's day attempt.

[B]

So what did she actually do with all this money that she was collecting?

[A]

Oh, she's got a lot of creditors, right?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yep. And so most of that money went straight to them, but some of it went elsewhere. Corey signed closing papers on a $2.9 million mansion in Midway, Utah, on March 4.

[B]

That's the very day that Eric died.

[A]

Yes. And they were supposed to be celebrating a real estate deal.

[B]

So closing papers, though.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That to me, insinuates that she had been making moves on this purchase.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Far before even Eric died. She knew she'd be inheriting money.

[A]

Yes. Even if you buy a house in cash, right out the gate, close on it, you don't get closing papers that same Day. That's just. Doesn't. That does not happen. That's not the way it works.

[B]

Awfully implicating.

[A]

Yes. So on top of all this, the purchase wasn't exactly the smartest move. Yeah, according to records, because, I mean, that shouldn't surprise anybody at this point, but the property required an additional $3 million in renovation. So she was really, like, swinging for the fences with this one. Yeah, there's, you know, information that we later received text messages and correspondences. She apparently had said, quote, it's definitely out of my league, but the margins are so insane that I had to pick it up and figure it out. Haha. Help. This was a note that she sent to investors asking her. Asking them to fund her Midway mansion renovation.

[B]

Just shows how impulsive her decision making is.

[A]

Yeah, she seems so maybe this was sort of a casual way that she talked with people, but clearly pretty flippant about the whole thing. She didn't have the cash, so the week after she acquired it, she tried to sell it. She just flipped it or attempted to. No offers. So it foreclosed within three months of collecting 1.3 million from Eric's life insurance policies. Records show she had about 800 bucks.

[B]

So she burned through the entire payout.

[A]

Yeah, in about six months. It was essentially gone.

[B]

So were investigators on any of the suspicious activity?

[A]

You're trying to be. But after the tox screen comes back, the official investigation's kind of like stalled out. Months go by without a big break.

[B]

So how does this finally get traction to become the case we all know it to be now?

[A]

Yeah, so the sheriff's office isn't what cracks this case open. It's actually Eric's family.

[B]

I mean, like we said, it's always the family.

[A]

It really is. So through their real estate attorney, they hire a PI, a guy named Todd Gabler, to sort of help them figure out the mess of Eric's money. And on its face, Todd's job is like, civil. It's not a criminal job. Right. He's supposed to help them with the property and the real estate disputes with Corey. But in reality, he's the one who builds this homicide case quietly. Right. He's been a PI for 34 years. He's worked close to a hundred homicide cases in that time. And over the next two years, he kind of does this slow, deliberate, obsessive work that cops don't always have the bandwidth for. He records 40 to 50 interviews. He pulls Eric and Corey's phone billing records, and when he lays those calls and texts out On a timeline, one number will not stop popping up. Besides Eric and Corey's mom, no one contacts Corey more than a line tied to their housekeeper, Carmen Lauber, a convicted felon with a history of drug distribution.

[B]

Okay, so I'm assuming that Todd starts seeing Carmen not as some, you know, just background noise, but a critical key to this case.

[A]

Yes. So he goes back to the Richens house on multiple occasions. He finds things deputies missed and calls the sheriff's office back out with warrants. He even messages investigators about when to talk to Carmen, warning them she's on the ropes in drug court and would be compliant if they move quickly. He's really quite the consultant here. In April of 2023, Summit county deputies search the housekeeper's home. They find drugs and a firearm, and she's arrested at that time.

[B]

So suddenly, Carmen is kind of the first person in this tale, staring down some serious prison time. Potentially, yes.

[A]

She faces those charges, she cuts a deal. She'll cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for immunity from the U.S. attorney's office. Wouldn't we all?

[B]

Yeah, I would not pass that up.

[A]

She sure doesn't. And she spills. So, in early February, 2022, Corey first comes to her saying she needs pain pills for an investor and pays her about 600 bucks. Days before Valentine's Day, Corey comes back and says she needs something stronger. Carmen goes to her dealer, buys roughly 20 fentanyl pills for a thousand dollars, and hands them over.

[B]

So that explains why Eric got so sick on Valentine's Day.

[A]

Correct. After the Valentine's Day incident, when Eric got violently ill, Corey tells Carmen those pills weren't strong enough and pays another thousand dollars for a second, more potent batch.

[B]

So the original plan was supposed to go off on Valentine's Day.

[A]

It's dark, isn't it?

[B]

And so, clearly, that didn't work out. So she upgrades.

[A]

Yes. And then after Eric's death, Carmen calls Corey and asks the obvious question. Which is, did these pills have anything to do with what happened? And according to Carmen, Corey tells her, no, that Eric died of a brain aneurysm.

[B]

I mean, that's the same thing she told everybody else. So with the help of the PI And Carmen's testimony, this case is, like, finally coming together?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

What else does the PI Dig up?

[A]

Well, he finds GPS records and cell phone data corroborating Carmen's account of every pill purchase. Investigators recovered deleted data from both Corey and Carmen's phones, and they examined the financial records, insurance documents, the Internet search history. Apparently, after Eric's death, Corey had searched women, Utah prison. I guess she was just trying to see what her future home might be.

[B]

I mean. Yeah, it's like. It's. It's like part of her new. The consequences she could potentially face.

[A]

Yes. Or quote another one. This is great. Can cops force you to do a lie detector test?

[B]

The Internet is forever, people.

[A]

And then just, you know, a little spitballing here. What is a lethal dose of fentanyl? I mean, seriously, like, you didn't think this would come back?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, okay. And then there's one more days. After Eric's death, Corey's longtime lover Josh testified she'd asked him if he had ever killed anyone. And how it felt.

[B]

If someone I was dating asked me that, I'd be really freaked out.

[A]

Yeah, that sounds like a red flag right there. If Corey hoped she and Josh would marry after her husband was out of the picture, that didn't happen. Yeah, I mean, Josh, I've seen.

[B]

Dodged a bullet.

[A]

Seen. Yeah. Literally. Months after Eric's death, their relationship was done. Okay, so this is sort of a side note in the. In the case, and we'll share this on our Patreon, if you guys want to come over and talk about it with us. But apparently investigators surfaced this detail that really didn't make it into the jury's deliberation in this case, but it cast a long shadow over it. Corey's mother, Lisa Darden, had been investigated in 2006 after her own romantic partner died unexpectedly of an overdose while living with Darden. So no charges, to be clear, were ever filed in this case. But prosecutors didn't present this evidence, you know, in part because the judge ruled on what was admissible, and this was not seen as within that purview. But for investigators who are, like, building this initial portrait of Corey Richards, the parallel was kind of impossible to ignore.

[B]

Yeah, there's kind of the like mother, like daughter or the. The apple doesn't fall far.

[A]

There's some questions there. I'd be curious what you all think. But investigators do, at this point, have a motive. A fentanyl supply chain, records of it, phone records, GPS data, private investigator who essentially built this case for them. But Corey Richards is about to hand them something they did not expect. Coming up. An arrest and trial that had America asking, how did Corey Richards think she was going to get away with this?

[B]

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[B]

So we now know how Eric died. Via Carmen. We know how the Valentine's Day attempt all shook out and who Corey got this fentanyl from. The financial fraud, the affair. And now investigators have spent, you know, quite a while now building a case. So how does this finally come apart for her?

[A]

Strangely, to say the least, on March 7, 2023, exactly one year and three days after Eric died, Corey Richards published a book. This is the most unfathomable part of this entire story. It was called are you with me? It's a children's picture book about a child coping with the loss of their father.

[B]

So she's like, capitalizing off of this death.

[A]

She promotes it on local tv. She talked about healing, about writing it for her boys. She said it, quote, brought a little peace to me and to my boys.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, the timing of all of this, I mean, while being under investigation, whether that was known to her or not, for killing their fathers, you know?

[A]

Yeah. I mean, the mainstream narrative about are you with me? Treated it as this macabre irony, right, that, like, the grieving wife publishes the grief book, and it turns out that she isn't grieving at all.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And prosecutors revealed something, though, that Corey had used a ghostwriter. The book was not really her own emotional processing. It was a product, a deliberate image shaping. And I didn't realize that at first, like, whoa, okay, so she was building a public Persona as the heartbroken mother

[B]

to, like, stir up empathy, to get

[A]

people to feel sympathy towards her and to shape a version of events. So six weeks after that TV appearance, on May 8, 2023, she's arrested for Eric's murder. She's booked into Summit County Jail and held without bail. In June 23, the attorneys asked the Judge to let her out while she awaits. Court says no, pointing to the strength of the evidence. But from that point on, Corey is sitting in jail awaiting trial. Her sons end up with Eric's family.

[B]

And what are the charges they ultimately bring?

[A]

Yeah, they sort of come in these waves, right? There's aggravated murder, drug possession, fraud, Attempted aggravated murder for the Valentine's day sandwich. The 26 additional financial crimes. Mortgage fraud, money laundering, forgery, RICO. The book.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But before we even get to that trial, Cooper, something happened while she was in jail that made the case against her even stronger.

[B]

She just cannot help herself.

[A]

It's just a comedy of errors. Right. So In September of 2023, Summit county deputies seized a letter from the jail cell. Prosecutors call it the walk the dog letter. It was addressed to her mother, and according to prosecutors, it was a script, a detailed set of instructions for what false testimony they should give a trial.

[B]

So she was, like, writing a witness tampering manual from inside of her jail cell.

[A]

Yeah. Allow me to present you with a guide to how to get me out of the situation by lying.

[B]

What was she thinking?

[A]

That is the question of the day. The defense argued that it was part of a fictional book that she was writing, that these were just thoughts on a page, and they never really went anywhere or just, you know, brainstorming a few lies here and there. The judge ultimately ruled portions of it admissible. And so in week three of the trial, it was read aloud in court. This is from the. The trial transcripts. The letter reportedly included specific language about what witnesses should say about Eric's drug use, framing him as someone who had concealed an addiction to support the defense theory that he overdosed accidentally.

[B]

I mean, this amount of drama from the jump has me so eager to hear what else went down in this trial.

[A]

It's a wild case, which we've all been, I think, following very closely. The murder trial opens in late February of this year, 2026, in Summit County. It runs for about three weeks. The prosecution builds an entirely circumstantial case. Right. So, after all, there's no one who saw Corey put the fentanyl in Eric's drink. The fentanyl pills were recovered from the house instead. They argue that Corey had the motive, means, and what lawyers call, quote, consciousness of guilt. It's one of my favorite terms, because it's this aura that we sometimes try to capture in a case where the evidence doesn't always stack up against it. And I think that's what makes this case so fascinating, too. We were talking about it earlier on. It's like, okay, this is so. It seems to the. To the layman, it's so obviously that this person is behind this. But at the same time, it is, when it comes down to the evidence, a very tricky line that you're walking there when you're building a case against someone like this. So the prosecution's witness list reads like a complete dismantling of every story that Corey has ever told.

[B]

Yeah. Who were like players.

[A]

Yeah. So Carmen Lauber, the housekeeper, she of course testifies. Did Corey Richards ever ask you to purchase for her licensed drugs?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

How many times? 4. Did you purchase illicit drugs for her? Yes. How many times?

[B]

4.

[A]

Robert Josh Grossman, the Secret Lover. Did she ask you a question about killing? She did ask me if I. If. Yeah. What, sir? What, sir? Did she ask. She asked if I had ever killed anybody. And was that specific. To killed anybody while serving in Iraq. Right. Did you respond? I did. Did she ask a follow up question? Yes, sir. What was that follow up question? She asked me how it made me feel. Or something along those lines. That's especially emotional testimony. And then there's this forensic accountant who sort of charts the overdrafts, the hard money loans and testifies that Corey's business is imploding and that her net worth is like a negative 1.6 million the day after Eric's death.

[B]

Yeah. The perpetual hold, if you will.

[A]

Right. And then there's the estate attorney who's sort of explaining the trust, the prenup and all the stuff there. The detective in the case, Jamie Woody, the original scene he's describing and the warning that he got from Amy and sort of all the stuff that led up to the later building of the case. And then there's the tireless private investigator, Todd Gabler, who takes the stand as the man who essentially built this case. He testifies about the phone records, the interviews, the decision to zero in on Carmen, the trips back to the house, and the tip about her being sort of on the ropes in drug court and compliant if she was approached at the right time. The defense tries to flip him from an asset to a liability. They point out that he went into Richen's home without police supervision, that he literally cracked open a safe with his bare hands and texted deputies suggesting when to hit up Carmen. Like that's not professional behavior.

[B]

Yes. They're kind of the defense painting him as this kind of rogue PI who's skirting around what cops can legally do.

[A]

Yeah. This wasn't legitimate then. Right. They're Trying to get it thrown out. So the defense argued that the state couldn't definitively prove how the fentanyl got into Eric's system. They pointed to lyme disease, prescription painkillers, contaminated weed gummies from a hunting trip in Mexico. Who knows?

[B]

I mean, this. This kind of makes me think of our mountain man episode. Right. You can't, like, definitively prove.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The chain of evidence here.

[A]

It becomes tricky. Yeah. This is the biggest hole in the prosecution's case. Right. That they hammered it repeatedly. There were no fentanyl pills from the alleged supply chain that were ever recovered or tested. The person the housekeeper Carmen identified as her supplier recanted before trial. And then the entire case for how the fentanyl got from a dealer to Eric Richin's Moscow mule rested entirely on this maid's testimony. Lauba herself was also not the subjective witness. They saying, you know, that she had potential exposure in the case and was cooperating with prosecutors to protect herself.

[B]

Yeah. And, you know, she had negotiated this deal with them, so she's probably, like, learning information about the case as she goes.

[A]

Right. Yeah. And all of this information that corroborated she was in coordination with Corey. Who's to say that this actually proves that a transaction was made between the two of them?

[B]

Those are fair points.

[A]

Yeah, they are. So the defense attorneys, Kathy Nestor and Wendy Lewis, they didn't call a single witness. They did not put Corey on the stand.

[B]

Smart.

[A]

On March 16, just a little while ago, from when we're recording this, the jury was sent away to deliberate, and they returned in just over three hours.

[B]

Yeah, that is not a good sign.

[A]

And it is precisely what you'd expect in that situation. Guilty on all five counts, aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of insurance fraud, forgery. And you, for those of us who watch, you can see Corey lowering her head as the verdict was read. We, the jury, unanimously agree that the prosecution has proved the following circumstance or circumstances regarding count one, beyond reasonable doubt. The homicide was committed for pecuniary gain, and the homicide was committed by means of the administration of any substance administered in a lethal amount, dosage, or quantity.

[B]

Finally, all caught up to her.

[A]

Eric's estate also filed a civil lawsuit against Corey, which is to be expected. $13 million across 18 claims, including wrongful death, theft, misappropriation, and misuse of Eric's likeness in the grief book. This might also end up in the Guinness book alongside her 236 transactions or whatever that was. So local attorneys have already said that the decision will be second guessed. 100%. There are some issues with this verdict. So, you know, this is a live issue. There are also some potential grounds around that evidentiary battle around the walk the dog letter and the conduct of the prosecutors around the allegation that the defense had raised.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I see a lot of grounds for appeals here.

[A]

There's something here. This may not be the end of it. It definitely won't be the end of it. Either way. The financial crimes case was filed two days before some of these statute of limitations were about to expire.

[B]

Are we going to see Corey in court again?

[A]

We are. The sentencing is forthcoming and we're definitely going to update you all on what we hear.

[B]

So we could potentially see Corey in court again for a whole host of other charges.

[A]

Yes. That sentencing hearing is supposed to happen today. So we're going to come back to you guys with a very special guest on the show to respond to the sentencing once we have more information. So stay tuned for that. Whatever the outcome is, Corey faces 25 to life. Life without the possibility of parole, of course, on the aggravated murder count. I mean, obviously with this case, the thing that really captured people's attention in addition to the fact that this very wholesome looking family on the outside was falling apart underneath the surface. But then of course, the fact that this book about grief was written for children when in fact it appears as

[B]

though it was all a calculated cover. Right.

[A]

It was a calculated cover for a grief that she herself may have authored.

[B]

Yeah. And what haunts me about this case, Jonathan, is that I think in his heart of hearts, like Eric knew. Yeah, right. He had expressed to his family, to his friends that he believed his wife was capable of doing something like this.

[A]

Right. Yeah.

[B]

He even joked out loud that Corey could be somebody capable of killing him

[A]

and warned his family that something like this might happen.

[B]

And he did everything he could or was doing everything he or was doing everything to protect himself legally. And it just wasn't enough.

[A]

And yet here we are. And you know, I think there's a question for all of us to discuss and think about, which is, does this case hold enough water? Because were pulling together what appears to be a really powerful case against Corey for all the ways in which she carefully applauded.

[B]

Yet a lot of this hasn't been physically proven.

[A]

She didn't. There's no evidence of her picking up the. The illicit substance and placing it inside his drink. But would there ever be? It is one of those cases that can really keep you up at night because you just can't come to the kind of definitive conclusion that gives you solace that this case will hold up. I think that there's more to be said about this in the future, definitely,

[B]

and I think it's part of what's captivated so many people and why we

[A]

keep talking about it. So let's keep talking about it. You guys know where to find us. You can join us on Patreon if you go to getthebinge.com you can get access to all of the binge shows in our catalog, but you can also join us in conversation about this very case. Hey guys, Huge news in the Corey Richards case. A sentencing has finally been handed down. I know we just did this big deep dive into her story, but I want to pop back onto the mic with none other than Annie Elise from serialist Lee and 10 to Life to talk about what all of this means. This is a huge development in this case, so if you're watching this show, scroll over to the next video. If you're listening, just sit tight. You're going to be hearing from me and Annie Elise from Serialist Lee and tend to life. Your true crime bestie talking all things Cory Richen in just a minute. Hey y', all, thank you so much for joining us on Crime Scene. Just a reminder here, you can watch or listen to us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast podcasts. This show is a production of Sony Podcasts and the Binge. Thank you to everybody who makes this happen week in and week out. Also, we're journalists. We love journalism. These stories have been deeply reported, the ones that you hear on the show and you can find an extensive bibliography by going to the show notes of this episode and to every episode to learn more about the reporting that informed all of the great stories you hear on Crime Scene. And just one last note, you can get exclusive content from us and the binge over 60 jaw dropping true crime stories bingeable and ad free right now by signing up for our [e-mail] so go to getthebinge.com to get access to our entire catalog of stories but also to get behind the scenes access to all of the stories that Cooper and I are working on. To join us in the conversation about these cases, go to getthebinge.com to learn more.

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[A]

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