SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — A Kamas woman who is a suspect in the death of her husband appeared on Good Things Utah one month before her arrest to talk about the children’s book she wrote with her three young boys on processing grief.

Kouri Darden Richins, a mother of three who wrote a children’s book about coping with death, was arrested on Monday, May 8, and charged with murdering her husband of nearly nine years, Eric Richins, in March 2022.

One month prior to her arrest, she appeared on Good Things Utah for an interview about the book.

Here is a summary of what took place in the interview:

Richins began the interview with a backstory on the death of her husband, saying he died suddenly a year ago and that his death “completely took [them] all by shock.”

She told hosts she wrote the book with her three boys, ages six through ten, in an effort to help their family cope with the loss.

Richins said she began researching “to try and understand not only how to grieve as a widow, as a wife, but also with my kids, how to help them, how to help them understand what just happened.”

In the interview, she was asked how she was able to process the death and write the book in only a year. In response, she said she had been looking for resources to help her family cope at night, as nights are the most difficult.

“I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night and I just could not find anything,” she said.

Later in the interview, she walked through the “three C’s” of the book: connection, continuity, and care. She said connection is the most important of the three and entails teaching children the spirit of their loved one “is always alive in your home.”

She said the best way to do that is by bringing up memories and doing activities their loved one enjoyed doing in their life. Richins said continuity refers to keeping a routine and care is showing love to your children and affirming their feelings.

“Just because he’s not present here with us physically, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she said in the interview. “Dad is still here, it’s just in a different way.”

The book titled “Are You With Me?” is no longer available on Amazon as of this morning.

Richins is accused of poisoning her husband with approximately five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. According to court records, a relative of Eric Richins has filed for guardianship of her three children.

Her next hearing is scheduled for May 19.