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Eric Richins' family knew something was wrong long before a toxicology report confirmed it. They said so. They pushed. They hired a private investigator who logged 936 hours and over $100,000 before this case made it to trial. That kind of fight doesn't come from nowhere — and it leaves marks.Tony Brueski digs into the psychology of that experience with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott and retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke. What does it mean when a family reads a situation correctly and immediately — and no one listens? What keeps a person inside a relationship their own family is desperately trying to pull them out of? What is the specific trauma that comes not from sudden loss, but from confirmed suspicion? And what does it look like, in real time, to be in a house with the person you suspect and have absolutely no power to act?This is the part of the Kouri Richins story that rarely gets the attention it deserves.Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.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 #TrueCrimeToday #KouriRichinsTrial #EricRichins #TrueCrimePsychology #UtahMurderTrial #FamilyTrauma #GriefAndLoss #FBIBehavior #ShavaunScott

The Kouri Richins trial record reads like a case study in instrumental exploitation — a boyfriend leveraged for labor and love, a best friend who lost her life savings, a housekeeper pulled into a fentanyl supply chain, friends who wired money that never came back. The question isn't just what allegedly happened. It's how someone operates this way for years, across this many people, without anyone stopping it.Tony Brueski explores exactly that with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott and retired FBI Behavioral Analysis Chief Robin Dreeke. Together they examine the psychological mechanics behind what prosecutors describe — the difference between ordinary selfishness and deliberate, strategic extraction from the people closest to you. Why people don't recognize it until they're already deep inside it. Whether the pattern escalates over time or simply becomes a default. And what the tell is, for anyone who might be recognizing something similar in their own life.Grounded in trial testimony. Built for people who want to understand, not just follow.Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #TrueCrimeToday #EricRichins #TrueCrimePsychology #UtahMurderTrial #ManipulationPsychology #FBIBehavior #TrueCrime #KouriRichinsCase

The Kouri Richins trial brings Jeff O'Driscoll, Summit County Detective, to the stand in this segment.The Kouri Richins murder trial continues in Utah as the state prosecutes the children's book author for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric Richins with fentanyl. Prosecutors allege she killed him for insurance money after secretly increasing his policy to $1.9 million. The defense maintains Eric died from accidental drug use.True Crime Today delivers real-time trial coverage as it happens—key testimony, critical cross-examinations, and the moments that matter. No waiting for nightly recaps. Watch the case unfold live.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #TrueCrimeToday #LiveTrial #EricRichins #UtahCourt #TrueCrimeNews #CourtTV #TrialWatch #BreakingCrime

8 Passengers had 2.5 million subscribers and a billion views. Six children filmed five days a week for eight years. The product was the children.Part 3 of "The Good Mother" examines the family vlogging industry through the Ruby Franke case — what happens when childhood becomes content, when children become products, when algorithms reward access to their worst moments.The Franke children were paid ten dollars per video. They were given vacations as compensation — vacations funded by their labor. Shari Franke later described the house as "more like a set than a home."The content that performed best? Conflict. Punishment. Humiliation. The algorithm rewarded cruelty.Shari testified before the Utah Senate in October 2024: "There is never, ever a good reason for posting your children online for money or fame. There is no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger."Then: "Family vlogging ruined my innocence long before Ruby committed a crime."Kevin Franke watched raw footage for the Hulu documentary and said: "There will not be a single family content creator who watches that and does not cringe. Because that is representative of every single one of them."The warning signs were on camera for years. A teenager on a beanbag for seven months. A six-year-old denied lunch. Viewers called CPS. Nothing changed.Utah is now considering legislation requiring parents to set aside earnings in trust for children featured in content. California and Illinois have similar laws.The Franke children's faces are now blurred in documentaries. A protection they never had while being monetized.This episode examines the economics and psychology of family vlogging — and why children cannot consent to having their childhood made public.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.#RubyFranke #8Passengers #FamilyVlogging #ChildInfluencer #ShariHildebrandt #Momfluencer #ChildExploitation #Kidfluencer #TrueCrime #ChildInfluencerLaws

The Kouri Richins trial brings Jeff O'Driscoll, Summit County Detective, to the stand in this segment.The Kouri Richins murder trial continues in Utah as the state prosecutes the children's book author for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric Richins with fentanyl. Prosecutors allege she killed him for insurance money after secretly increasing his policy to $1.9 million. The defense maintains Eric died from accidental drug use.True Crime Today delivers real-time trial coverage as it happens—key testimony, critical cross-examinations, and the moments that matter. No waiting for nightly recaps. Watch the case unfold live.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #TrueCrimeToday #LiveTrial #EricRichins #UtahCourt #TrueCrimeNews #CourtTV #TrialWatch #BreakingCrime

The Kouri Richins murder trial has generated wall-to-wall coverage. This panel discussion with Bob Motta and Robin Dreeke goes somewhere most of that coverage hasn't.Three segments covering the full scope of what matters most right now. The defense strategy — what two mistrial motions, a fight over a retreat journal, and two compromised immunity witnesses tell us about where this defense actually lives. The jury psychology — which pieces of testimony are going to follow those twelve people into deliberations, and whether the defense can do anything about the two texts at the center of this case. And the bigger questions — what Eric's failure to escape tells us about how this alleged category of crime operates, what financial motive actually proves in a courtroom, and what an acquittal or conviction each says about the American evidentiary standard for cases like this one.Bob Motta. Robin Dreeke. All three segments. Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty to all charges in connection with the 2022 death of her husband Eric Richins.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #EricRichins #TrueCrimeToday #UtahMurderTrial #FentanylMurder #KouriRichinsVerdict #TrueCrime2026 #MurderTrial2026 #KouriRichinsJury

What has to happen inside a mother's mind for her to look at her own child and see a demon?Tylee Ryan's last photo was taken at Yellowstone on September 8, 2019. She was dead within twenty-four hours, according to investigators. Her remains were found burned and dismembered in Chad Daybell's backyard.Her mother's explanation to friends? Tylee had "gone dark." She was a "zombie."This is Part 3 of "The Chosen Ones," our psychological examination of spiritual abuse and religious trauma through the Vallow-Daybell case. Today we analyze how spiritual language becomes a weapon — and the systematic process by which people are stripped of their humanity in high control religion.According to testimony, Chad Daybell taught that demons could possess people and turn them into "zombies." Once someone was labeled, they were no longer protected by normal moral rules. You weren't killing a person. You were destroying a shell.Charles Vallow was renamed "Ned" and killed. Tylee was declared "dark" and killed. JJ — seven years old, autistic — became a "zombie" and was killed.This episode examines the mechanics of dehumanization — a pattern found in toxic churches and high control religions worldwide.Have you ever been labeled and cast out? The vocabulary changes, but the structure is always the same.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.#ChadDaybell #LoriVallow #TyleeRyan #JJVallow #TrueCrimeToday #ZombieDoctrine #Dehumanization #SpiritualAbuse #ReligiousTrauma #HighControlReligion

The Kouri Richins trial brings Carmen Lauber, Richins' Former Housekeeper, to the stand in this segment.The Kouri Richins murder trial continues in Utah as the state prosecutes the children's book author for allegedly poisoning her husband Eric Richins with fentanyl. Prosecutors allege she killed him for insurance money after secretly increasing his policy to $1.9 million. The defense maintains Eric died from accidental drug use.True Crime Today delivers real-time trial coverage as it happens—key testimony, critical cross-examinations, and the moments that matter. No waiting for nightly recaps. Watch the case unfold live.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #TrueCrimeToday #LiveTrial #EricRichins #UtahCourt #TrueCrimeNews #CourtTV #TrialWatch #BreakingCrime

Whatever verdict comes out of the Kouri Richins trial, it's going to say something important — about the evidentiary bar for circumstantial murder cases, about how we detect alleged domestic poisoning, and about the gap between the story the public follows and the case a jury actually decides.Bob Motta and Robin Dreeke tackle the broader implications of this trial in this panel segment. The children's book. The Dateline interview proclaiming innocence. The year-plus gap between Eric Richins' death and Kouri's arrest. What does all of that tell us about how alleged perpetrators navigate the window before charges are filed — and how much that public narrative shapes the prosecution that follows?The panel also goes at the acquittal hypothetical directly. Not as a prediction — as a legal and moral question. If the evidence isn't enough to convict, is that a failure of the system or proof that it works? Two experts, one of the most discussed murder trials in the country, and the questions that go well beyond the verdict.Kouri Richins has pleaded not guilty to all charges.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 #KouriRichinsTrial #EricRichins #TrueCrimeToday #UtahMurderTrial #FentanylMurder #KouriRichinsVerdict #TrueCrime2026 #MurderTrial2026 #DomesticPoisoning

The Nick Reiner murder case reached a new turning point when siblings Jake and Romy Reiner — children of the late Rob and Michele Singer Reiner — officially distanced themselves from Nick's defense following his not guilty plea on February 23rd, 2026.Nick Reiner, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the December 14th, 2025 stabbing deaths of his parents at their Brentwood, California home. He is held without bail. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has not ruled out the death penalty. His next hearing is April 29th, 2026.Sources with direct knowledge told TMZ that Jake and Romy no longer plan to fund a private defense attorney — and that they will not attend the trial. The family had previously hired prominent defense attorney Alan Jackson, who withdrew in January citing circumstances he said were legally and ethically impossible to disclose. Public defender Kimberly Greene is now Nick's sole legal representation. In more than two months of incarceration, she is reportedly the only person who has visited him.True Crime Today's Tony Brueski examines the legal and personal implications of the family's decision, and places it alongside three high-profile cases where families made the same impossible choice: Peter Lanza after Sandy Hook, the family of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, and Kerri Rawson — daughter of BTK killer Dennis Rader — who processed her grief in a memoir that reframed what it means to love someone who turns out to be capable of something monstrous.With the death penalty on the table and a preliminary hearing to be scheduled April 29th, the Reiner case is far from over. But for Jake and Romy, it may already be.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.#NickReiner #RobReiner #TrueCrimeToday #RobReinerMurder #NickReinerTrial #ReinerfamilyMurder #JakeRomyReiner #NickReinerDefense #MicheleReiner #TrueCrime