Dateline will air a new two-hour broadcast Friday evening on the Kouri Richins case, with her brother DJ speaking publicly for the first time since a jury found her guilty last month of killing her husband, Eric Richins. The episode, titled Book of Lies, airs at 8 p.m. MDT on NBC and will also be available on Peacock.
DJ told correspondent Andrea Canning that learning of the verdict was immediate and overwhelming. "It was shock. I mean, it was literally just shock," he said. He also recalled his mother saying Kouri "did a good job, that she just didn’t break down there," and said, "It’s not a matter of breaking down… And I felt the same thing she did."
Richins, 35, is the Utah mother of three who wrote a children’s book about grief after Eric Richins died. Last month, a jury found her guilty of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, along with two counts of insurance fraud and forgery. The case has drawn intense attention because it combines a homicide conviction with financial-crime findings tied to the same family tragedy.
The program also includes interviews with jurors, friends of the Richins and EastIdahoNews.com reporter Nate Eaton, as well as Todd Gabler, the private investigator hired by Eric Richins’ family. That mix of voices gives the broadcast a rare chance to show how the case looked from inside the courtroom and from the family’s side, not just from the verdict sheet.
DJ’s first public comments add a new layer to a case already marked by grief, fraud and murder convictions. The most important takeaway from Friday’s broadcast is not that more names are being added to the record, but that the verdict has now forced the Richins family to speak in public for the first time about what they say they lived through.
