Kouri Richins Children's Book: She Played the Grieving Mother on TV — While Charged With His Murder

The Kelsey Fitzsimmons trial opens Monday in Lawrence Superior Court. No jury. Judge Jeffrey Karp decides alone. And this week the full text exchange between Fitzsimmons and Justin Aylaian was unsealed, admitted into evidence, and made public.On Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski goes through those texts as a behavioral document — not a he-said-she-said, a document — and asks the question this case has been waiting for someone to ask directly.If every single one of those messages had come from him — the dismissal of her abuse allegation in four words, the child used as leverage every time she tried to hold a boundary, the financial levers, the control of her movement, the attacks on everyone who believed her — what would we call that?We wouldn't be debating context. We wouldn't be weighing mental health nuance. We would be reading from the domestic violence playbook and calling the restraining order brave. The gender of the sender is the only variable that changes how we read it.That doesn't make her guilty. It doesn't erase her diagnosis. It asks an honest question about a double standard that shapes how cases like this get covered before a single piece of evidence is heard.This episode also breaks down the bench trial decision — the strategic logic that makes it the right call and the risk the defense accepted by making it. The prior professional relationship between Judge Karp and defense attorney Bradl that's now on the official record. The "far far away" line — what it means in the affidavit versus what it means in the actual texts. And the system that had every piece of information it needed before June 30th and sent three officers with paperwork and no plan.She was not well. He was not safe. Both of those things are true. The verdict will answer the legal question. This episode asks the one it won't.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KelseyFitzsimmons #NorthAndoverPolice #TrueCrime2026 #PostpartumDepression #HiddenKillers #JustinAylaian #BenchTrial #MaleAbuse #CoerciveControl #TrueCrimePodcast

In April 2022, OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney stabbed her boyfriend Christian Obumseli in their Miami high-rise apartment. That is the only fact both sides fully agree on. Everything else — who was the aggressor, what the wound proves, what the investigation was worth — is in dispute. Violently, documentably, and with evidence on both sides.Obumseli secretly recorded Clenney calling him racial slurs, screaming at him, demanding to hit him. Surveillance cameras caught her striking him in their building elevator months before he died. And yet Clenney's defense has its own documented record: an independent witness who told investigators Obumseli hit her when he believed no one was around. Police records from two days before the stabbing showing she asked officers for a restraining order against him. A security guard who said Obumseli came charging toward her in the building lobby that same day.Then there's the medical examiner's finding — that the three-inch fatal wound required a forceful downward thrust inconsistent with Clenney's claim that she threw the knife from ten feet away. And the defense's answer to that: a pioneering expert in battered woman syndrome who argues that a person acting in genuine terror moves faster than their own memory can track.And underneath all of it: allegations that prosecutors accessed privileged defense communications, that evidence was destroyed, that a witness was withheld. A circuit judge ruled the state violated attorney-client privilege. The case moved forward anyway.Trial begins April 27, 2026. Hidden Killers is covering it from day one. This episode is the foundation — everything you need before the first witness takes the stand.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#CourtneyClenney #ChristianObumseli #TrueCrime2026 #OnlyFansMurder #MiamiMurderTrial #HiddenKillers #SelfDefenseCase #FloridaMurderTrial #CourtneyTailor #TrueCrimePodcast

It has been over six weeks since Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home in Tucson in the middle of the night. There has been no press conference in over a month. No named suspect. No arrest. And this week, newly recovered camera footage from her own property showed nothing. In this listener Q&A, Tony Brueski and retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke cut through what the official silence means — and what it doesn't. Investigators are asking neighbors about specific dates weeks before Nancy disappeared. The sheriff believes the home was targeted and says he thinks he knows why — but won't say. Ransom notes were sent to news outlets with deadlines that came and went without consequence. A damaged utility box around the corner may have knocked out Wi-Fi in the neighborhood the night she was taken. CeCe Moore just went on record saying she'd re-swab parts of that house — that a single rootless hair could crack this case open. Robin and Tony work through what all of it means for where this investigation actually stands — and answer the question that nobody is saying plainly.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NancyGuthrie #SavannahGuthrie #RobinDreeke #HiddenKillers #TucsonKidnapping #MissingPerson #TrueCrimePodcast #FBIInvestigation #TrueCrime #KidnappingCase

A jury convicted Kouri Richins of murdering her husband Eric with fentanyl. She's going to prison. And still — the questions that don't fit neatly inside a courtroom verdict keep coming. Listeners have been flooding in with what's still bothering them, and Tony Brueski and retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke are working through the ones that matter most. Carmen Lauber gets immunity. The woman who sold Kouri the fentanyl that killed Eric walks free while Kouri heads to prison for life. Does that math add up? Then there's the defense's case — the allegations of investigator misconduct, the coercion claims — and the fact that a jury convicted her anyway. What does that tell us about how much any of that actually landed? Robin brings his behavioral lens to the post-verdict moment: what is happening inside Kouri Richins right now, and does someone capable of this level of sustained deception ever truly reckon with what they've done? These are the listener questions that survived the verdict — and the ones Tony and Robin aren't letting go without an answer.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #EricRichins #RobinDreeke #HiddenKillers #TrueCrimePodcast #FentanylMurder #ImmunityDeal #MurderTrial #UtahMurder #TrueCrime

After Eric Richins died, Kouri wrote "Are You With Me?" A children's book about a father who dies and becomes a firefly. She went on morning shows. Played the grieving widow. Put herself at the center of the tragedy.Prosecutors say she caused it.This is Part 4 of The Perfect Wife — examining the narcissist's need to control the story.Nancy Crampton-Brophy understood this impulse. In 2011, she wrote "How to Murder Your Husband." An essay discussing methods, weighing options. She wrote: "If the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don't want to spend any time in jail."Seven years later, she shot her husband Daniel twice in the chest.The essay was excluded from trial. The jury convicted her anyway.She bought a gun with traceable methods. Drove her own minivan to the crime scene. Published her murder blueprint under her real name.The narcissist can't stay invisible. Staying invisible requires believing someone else is watching. And the narcissist can't truly believe anyone else matters.Kouri wrote herself as the healing mother. Nancy wrote herself as the murder expert. Both stepped into spotlights that exposed them.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #NancyCramptonBrophy #HiddenKillers #HowToMurderYourHusband #AreYouWithMe #PerfectWife #NarcissistKiller #TrueCrime #WidowPerformance #DanielBrophy

The Kouri Richins case has been covered from every legal angle. This is the psychological one — and it's the angle that matters most to anyone who recognizes this story from the inside.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke for a wide-ranging conversation that uses the Kouri Richins case as a framework to examine the complete arc of a relationship with someone operating with narcissistic or borderline personality traits. From the first phase — the love bombing, the targeting, the performance that makes everything feel like fate — through the sustained invisible damage of coercive control, trauma bonding, and gaslighting — to the most dangerous moment of all: the exit.Prosecutors allege that as Eric Richins began quietly moving toward freedom, things escalated toward something fatal. Scott explains why that pattern is so consistent in these relationships, what it looks like in someone calculating rather than explosive, and what anyone in this situation needs to know before they make a move.This is the Hidden Killers conversation that goes beyond the case.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #HiddenKillers #NarcissisticAbuse #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimePodcast #TraumaBonding #CoerciveControl #EricRichins #LeavingAbuse #IntimatePartnerViolence

On June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report finding his wife and son shot to death.Three months later, he staged his own shooting on a rural roadside.Both were desperate attempts to maintain control. Both failed.Part 4 of "The Name" covers the full collapse — the murders, the staged shooting, the investigation that finally caught up with him, and the trial that ended with guilty verdicts in less than three hours.This episode explores what happens when a narcissist's world closes in completely. They don't surrender. They escalate until there's nothing left.The Snapchat video proved Alex was at Moselle that night. His own testimony sealed his fate.Alex Murdaugh is serving two life sentences. He still says he didn't do it.Join Our Substack for AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter: https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#AlexMurdaugh #MaggieAndPaul #MurdaughGuilty #MurdaughTrial #MurdaughMurders #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #MurdaughCollapse #MurdaughVerdict #MurdaughSentence

According to prosecutors, Eric Richins was quietly making moves toward freedom — consulting attorneys, adjusting his estate — before he died. If the prosecution is right, those moves set something in motion.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke on Hidden Killers to examine how relationships with narcissistic and borderline partners end — and why the ending is so often the most dangerous part. What triggers the final phase. How someone with this pattern responds to losing their grip on a partner. What that response looks like when it's cold and calculated rather than loud and obvious. And critically — for anyone listening who needs to hear this — what getting out safely actually looks like in practice.The Kouri Richins case is the framework. The takeaway is for everyone who recognizes themselves in the story.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #HiddenKillers #NarcissisticAbuse #LeavingAbuse #ShavaunScott #DomesticViolence #EricRichins #TrueCrimePodcast #SafeExit #IntimatePartnerViolence

On June 30, 2025, three North Andover police officers showed up at the home of their colleague Kelsey Fitzsimmons to serve a restraining order. One of them left having fired his weapon. She left in a medical helicopter.He says she pointed her service weapon at him and pulled the trigger. She says she was pointing it at herself. There is no body camera footage. There are two sworn accounts of the same moment and nothing in between.That's the case a Massachusetts jury is walking into this week — and on Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski breaks down everything the public needs to understand before the verdict comes in.The documented postpartum depression crisis. The involuntary commitment. The department taking her weapons — then handing them back twelve days before the shooting. The restraining order obtained while she reportedly waited at a park. The affidavit that called her a danger to her own baby. The grand jury that heard the prosecution's full case and still rejected the top charge. The surveillance footage of an alleged break-in at her home while she was hospitalized. The DA who declined to prosecute the man the prosecution needs as a witness.Both sides. Every verified fact. No agenda.This is the introduction to one of the most complicated and consequential cases in Massachusetts in years. We're covering it from start to verdict and beyond.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KelseyFitzsimmons #NorthAndoverPolice #TrueCrime2026 #PostpartumDepression #HiddenKillers #PoliceShootingTrial #JustinAylaian #PatrickNoonan #MassachusettsCrime #TrueCrimePodcast

It doesn't leave marks. There's no incident to report. From the outside, everything looks fine — a house, kids, a functioning life. And on the inside, you're disappearing.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke on Hidden Killers to examine what the middle phase of a relationship with a narcissistic or borderline partner actually does to the person on the receiving end. Using the Kouri Richins case as a framework, Scott unpacks the specific mechanics of coercive control — how it works without ever needing to be visible, how trauma bonding keeps a targeted partner attached to someone actively harming them, and how gaslighting erodes a person's ability to trust their own judgment over time.Eric Richins told multiple people something felt wrong in his marriage. He kept showing up anyway. This episode explains why — and what that pattern looks like from the inside of millions of relationships that never make the news.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#KouriRichins #HiddenKillers #NarcissisticAbuse #CoerciveControl #ShavaunScott #TraumaBonding #TrueCrimePodcast #EricRichins #Gaslighting #IntimatePartnerAbuse