Kouri Richins: The Children's Book, The Fentanyl, The Widow

Kouri Richins: The Children's Book, The Fentanyl, The Widow

This week we're covering Kouri Richins, the Utah mother, real estate investor, and children's book author who was convicted in March 2026 of poisoning her husband Eric with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl. We get into the debt, the fraud, the affair, the life insurance policies, the failed Valentine's Day attempt, the Moscow Mule, and the book that made this one of the most talked-about cases in recent true crime. IN THIS EPISODE Who Kouri and Eric Richins were, and how different their upbringings were The real estate empire built on a forged power of attorney, a stolen $250,000 home equity line, and falsified records More than two million dollars in debt, and the life insurance policies Eric never knew existed Kouri's secret relationship with Josh Grossman and the text messages that surfaced at trial The warning signs, including Eric telling people he thought his wife was trying to poison him The estate plan Eric secretly changed to cut Kouri out and protect his three sons The Valentine's Day poisoning that became a separate attempted murder conviction The night Eric died, the Moscow Mule, and the fentanyl found in his system The internet searches and the children's book "Are You With Me?" The trial, the "black widow" moment, and the defense that called no witnesses The guilty verdict and a sentence of life without parole, handed down on what would have been Eric's 44th birthday For comments, questions or source info please email murdersminivans@gmail.com

OJ Simpson: How a Guilty Man Walked Free

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were stabbed to death outside her condo on Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Nicole was nearly decapitated. Ron had defensive wounds on his hands. He was 25 and had just stopped by to return a pair of glasses. OJ Simpson was arrested five days later, but only after a slow-speed chase down the 405 in a white Ford Bronco that 95 million people watched live. He had a passport, a disguise, and $8,000 in cash in the car. The trial lasted nearly nine months. The prosecution had blood, DNA, a history of domestic violence, and a 911 call where Nicole said he was going to kill her. The defense had a glove that didn't fit, a detective who'd used racial slurs, and a jury that deliberated for four hours. Not guilty. Two years later a civil jury disagreed. They found him liable for both deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million. He never paid most of it. In 2008 he was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas and sentenced to up to 33 years. He served nine. He died of cancer in April 2024, still insisting he was innocent. This is the case that taught America to watch a trial like a TV show. We get into all of it. In This Episode: * The timeline of June 12 and what the evidence actually showed * Nicole's documented history with OJ and the calls that went unanswered * The Bronco chase and why he didn't run * The Dream Team, Mark Fuhrman, and how the defense flipped the script * The glove, the DNA, and what the jury didn't buy * The verdict, the reaction, and the racial divide it exposed * The civil case and the $33.5 million he never paid * Las Vegas, prison, parole, and how it ended

The Murder of Rachel Nickell

this week we're covering the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, London.... one of the most mishandled cases in metropolitan police history. Rachel was 23 years old when she was attacked and killed during a morning walk with her two-year-old son, Alex, and their dog molly. the case that followed lasted sixteen years and destroyed the life of an innocent man before dna evidence finally identified the real killer: Robert Napper, a serial rapist already detained at broadmoor hospital. we cover: * who Rachel was and the life she was building * what Alex witnessed and what he told police * the offender profile that derailed the entire investigation * operation Edzell — the five-month undercover honeytrap targeting colin stagg * the old bailey collapse and what acquittal actually looked like for colin * Robert Napper's history and the multiple times police could have stopped him * the Bisset murders * the cold case DNA work that cracked it open * the IPCC report and the catalogue of failures it confirmed * where Colin, Alex, and Andre are now if you want to go deeper: netflix's the murder of rachel nickell (documentary) and the witness (drama series) are both streaming now. alex and andré hanscombe consulted on both. sources used in this episode: wikipedia, crime+investigation uk, the guardian, bbc, time magazine, the sun, ipcc 2010 commissioner's report, biography.com [http://biography.com], thecinemaholic, people magazine, oxygen.com [http://oxygen.com], primetimer, courtnewsuk, tvguide.co.uk [http://tvguide.co.uk]

The Many Lives of Taylor Parker

In October 2020, 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock was found murdered in her home in New Boston, Texas. She was 35 weeks pregnant. Her daughter Braxlynn Sage was removed from her body and died hours later. Reagan's three-year-old daughter Kynlee was found hiding in another room of the house, physically unharmed. The person responsible was Taylor Parker — a woman Reagan knew well enough to let photograph her wedding. This episode covers the full story of the Taylor Parker case: the ten-month fake pregnancy, the elaborate fraud schemes running parallel to it, the meticulous planning that went into October 9th, 2020, and the 49-day capital murder trial that followed. Taylor Parker was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2022. In November 2025, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed her conviction and death sentence in full, overruling all 25 points of error. In this episode: * Who Taylor Parker was before the murder — two marriages, two children she didn't have custody of, and a decade-long pattern of elaborate deception documented across employment records, medical files, and court testimony * The 2015 hysterectomy that left her permanently infertile — and how she weaponized the grief of it rather than processing it * The fake pregnant belly, recycled sonogram images, staged maternity photoshoot, and gender reveal party that formed the architecture of a ten-month lie * The parallel schemes running alongside the fake pregnancy: a staged $20 million real estate fraud, a manufactured murder-for-hire plot, fake personas including a fictional father, a fictional police contact, and a fictional detective she invented from inside a jail cell * What her former friends Kenzie Bright and Abby Bell testified to at trial — including Abby reaching out two days before the murder and never getting a response * How Taylor got Wade Griffin 200 miles away on the morning of October 9th — and why she'd been planning that specific detail for weeks * The events of October 9th, 2020, as established by the physical evidence and crime scene testimony * What Taylor's own mother Shonna Prior knew, when she knew it, and what she testified to at the penalty phase — including the exchange on the stand that stopped the courtroom * The 49-day trial, 142 witnesses, the verdict, and the sentencing * Where things stand now: Reagan's family, Kynlee, Homer Hancock, and Taylor Parker on death row at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock was born November 14, 1998, in Hope, Arkansas. She was 21 years old when she died. She loved sunflowers. She let her three-year-old announce the pregnancy. She is buried alongside her daughter. Braxlynn Sage Hancock was born and died on October 9, 2020. She had a heartbeat. She was a few hours old. Kynlee Grace Hancock is approximately eight years old. She goes to the gravesite when she wants to see her mom. Sources & further reading: * KTAL/KMSS Texarkana trial coverage (day-by-day) * Texarkana Gazette trial reporting * Texas Court of Criminal Appeals opinion, November 6, 2025 * Bowie County District Court records

The House of Murdaugh | Part 2

The Murdaugh Murders, Part 2: The Trial, the Verdict, and the Reversal On June 7, 2021, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death at the family's Moselle property in Colleton County, South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh called 911 seventeen seconds after his GPS placed him at the scene. He had told investigators he was never there. This is Part 2 of our Murdaugh family coverage. We walk through the investigation, the six-week trial, and the unanimous South Carolina Supreme Court ruling that overturned Alex's double murder convictions in May 2026. The crime scene. Two victims. Two weapons. No sign of robbery. Paul was found in the feed room doorway, shot twice at close range with a shotgun. Maggie was found yards away in the open, shot four to five times with a rifle. A wound to her wrist was consistent with a defensive injury. Neither gun was ever recovered. The kennel video. Paul's phone was locked for nine and a half weeks before SLED cracked it using his birthday as the passcode. At 8:44 p.m. on the night of the murders, a video recorded at the kennels captured three voices: Paul's, Maggie's, and a third voice saying "Come here, Bubba." Every person who heard it identified that third voice as Alex. He had told investigators repeatedly he was not at the kennels that night. The motive. A civil lawsuit stemming from the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach had been pressing for full financial disclosure from Alex. That hearing was scheduled for June 10th. The murders happened June 7th. Alex had been stealing approximately $12 million from clients for at least 16 years. The trial. Six weeks. 28 days of testimony. Alex took the stand and confirmed the voice in the video was his. He said he had lied to investigators because of paranoid thinking caused by his opioid addiction. On cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters asked why an innocent man discovering his murdered family would establish in his very first statement that he had not been at the kennels. Alex did not have a satisfying answer. The jury deliberated for less than three hours. Guilty on all four counts. Two consecutive life sentences without parole. The reversal. Becky Hill was the Colleton County Clerk of Court. She had a book deal. Multiple jurors reported she told them not to be fooled or thrown off by the defense, and to watch Alex's body language closely when he testified. In May 2025 she was arrested. In December 2025 she pleaded guilty to lying about her conduct during post-trial proceedings. On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned Alex's murder convictions. The court called Hill's conduct "breathtaking," "disgraceful," and "unprecedented in South Carolina." A new trial was ordered. Alex remains in prison on federal and state financial crimes charges. The attorney general has said he plans to retry the murder case before the end of 2026. Maggie Murdaugh was 52. Paul Murdaugh was 22.