Episode
How Did A Private Investigator Break The Kouri Richins Case Wide Open?
- Published
- May 30, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2731
- Processing state
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- https://audioboom.com/posts/8908912
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Summary
Todd Gabler spent 34 years as a private investigator working exclusively for the defense. He had never taken a prosecution-side case. Eric Richins' family retained him on a civil matter — and the phone records he obtained in the initial weeks altered the trajectory of the entire criminal investigation. The billing records documented sustained contact between Kouri Richins and a housekeeper with an active criminal record who was failing court-ordered drug testing — during the months preceding and following Eric Richins' death. Law enforcement had not yet obtained those records. Gabler identified the pattern, subsequently conducted approximately 50 interviews, tracked multiple vehicles, and assembled evidentiary material that contributed to breaking open a stalled criminal investigation. This marks the first public interview with the investigator who was inside the case prior to any charges being filed. The post-conviction conduct documented in the record raises distinct concerns about ongoing threat. Prior to sentencing, a message attributed to the defendant was included in the prosecution's filing: she stated her intention to "expose this county, the prosecution, the judge, the Richins, the investigation." She wrote, "They picked the wrong one." She allegedly authored correspondence from jail directing a family member to provide false testimony. She faces accusations of witness intimidation. Her thirteen-year-old son testified to the court that he fears she would come for him upon any future release. Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis addresses the legal mechanisms available to a convicted individual serving life without parole — mail, telephone access, proxy actors, and individuals outside the facility who accept claims of innocence. He examines…