Grief Book Author’s Mom Probed After Separate ‘Suspicious’ Overdose Death: Affidavit

The mother of a Utah woman charged in her husband’s overdose death after penning a children’s book about grief also lost a romantic partner due to a “suspicious” drug overdose, a newly unsealed search warrant affidavit shows.

Kouri Richins’ mother, Lisa Darden, was subjected to a phone search last year after a detective investigating Eric Richins’ 2022 death discovered the similar overdose in 2006, according to the affidavit filed in Summit County in May of last year.

“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,” Summit County Sheriff Detective Jeff O’Driscoll stated with the request to search Darden’s phone records.

Law enforcement officials refused to comment on where the investigation stands today, including whether Darden is a suspect or person of interest.A representative with the sheriff’s department said Tuesday that the case has been turned over to state prosecutors and directed all media inquiries to the Summit County Attorney’s Office. The prosecutor declined to comment.

In 2006, Darden was living with a woman and was named the beneficiary of her estate “a short time” before the woman died from an oxycodone overdose in April of that year, according to O’Driscoll.

The woman, who was not identified, did have prescriptions for oxycodone and reportedly struggled with abusing her medications, but O’Driscoll said that based on his “training and experience,” he had ruled out the possibility of an accidental overdose.

Richins’ attorney, Skye Lazaro, said the 2006 death was nothing more than a tragedy.

“The fact that Ms. Darden’s significant other was one of the millions that