A Murder Verdict, A Pulled Bachelorette Season, And Utah Back In The Spotlight

A bachelorette season vanishes three days before it airs. A Utah murder case ends with a fast jury decision. People are reportedly seen in handcuffs at the Salt Lake City airport. If you felt like Utah hit the national feed on every app at once, you’re not imagining it, and we sort through what actually happened and why it matters.

We start with the Kouri Richins verdict, a major Utah court story that has pulled in true-crime attention far beyond the state. We talk through what the jury decided, what comes next with sentencing, and why this case feels so specifically Utah even if you can’t quite put it into words. Then we dig into the Taylor Frankie Paul situation, from MomTok fame to a finished season of The Bachelorette getting pulled after footage from a past domestic violence incident resurfaced. It’s messy, it’s human, and it forces a real conversation about what networks will overlook until the optics shift.

From there, we hit the week’s fast-moving Salt Lake City news: reports tied to an ICE detention facility and possible deportation flights, BYU backing off an honor code hair requirement for an Indigenous student’s traditional braids, ski season closing dates, and a huge downtown development move as Western Governors University buys property tied to the Sheraton Hotel closure. We also talk about new arts infrastructure in South Jordan, a Granary District park proposal that carries complicated history, the latest on Utah’s congressional map fight after Prop 4, and Netflix dropping yet another Utah polygamy abuse documentary.

If you like sharp, local reporting with the bigger cultural picture, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What story from this week do you want us to dig into next?

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Transcript

Cold Open And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Okay, so people in handcuffs at the airport, a murder verdict, a bachelorette season that just got nuked three days before it was supposed to air, and Netflix is back on its Utah stuff again. It's been a week, so let's get into it. What is up everybody, and welcome back to the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Nilsen, and it's Tuesday, March 24th. Whether you're driving home from work, squeezing in one last ski day before the resorts start to close, or just vibing at home and enjoying the good weather, glad you're here as always. We have a genuinely stacked news segment today, some local stuff, some national stuff that is very much a Utah story, and a few things that made me go, wait, what? So let's get into it. But first, if you missed last week's episode, I need you to stop what you're doing and go watch it. Pause this, go, come back. Last week I went full investigative mode on Fun Time Kids Care, Salt Lake City's most beloved source of neighborhood paranoia and conspiracy theories. Is it an FBI black site, a human trafficking front, something even worse? Something completely normal and boring? I actually went and figured it out. And I'm not going to tell you the answer right now because you need to go experience it for yourself. Best on YouTube or video on Spotify if you can. The link is in the show notes, so go watch it, seriously. Alright, now let's get into the news. Let's start with the Corey Richens verdict, because this one is big. Utah jury found her guilty on all counts, including the 2022 murder of her husband Eric. She poisoned him with fentanyl. The jury deliberated for three hours. Three hours. And if you're not caught up on the case, the short version is Utah mom wrote a children's book about grief after allegedly murdering her husband. It's a lot, and she's now facing 25 years to life, and the sentencing is happening on May 13th. This case has been in the news for a while now, and it is one of those stories that is uniquely specifically Utah, in a way that's hard to explain, but very easy to feel if you've lived here. Huge verdict, big week for the Utah court system. Next up, the Taylor Frankie Paul situation. And I want to give this one some real time because it's a lot more than just reality TV drama. So if you know Utah internet culture at all, you know Taylor Frankie Paul. She blew up through Mom Talk, the Utah mommy influencer corner of TikTok, and became one of the most recognizable social media personalities to come out of this state. That popularity turned into a massive opportunity. She was cast as the lead of season 22 of The Bachelorette, which was already controversial, by the way, because she'd never been on The Bachelor Show before. But ABC went for it, filmed the whole season in late 2025, and it was fully finished and set to premiere on March 22nd. And then, three days before it was supposed to air, it got pulled. Completely gone. But here's why. Back in 2023, Taylor was involved in a domestic violence incident with her then boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. She was arrested, accused of throwing objects, including metal chairs during an argument, and one of her kids was reportedly present. She later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was put out on probation. But here's the thing: all of that was publicly known. ABC knew they cast her anyway, filmed the season anyway, and were about to air it anyway. But then on March 19th, the video from that 2023 incident surfaced publicly. And once people actually saw it, especially with the child in the picture, the backlash was immediate. Within hours, Disney pulled the entire season, just gone, three days before the premiere. And Disney put out a statement saying they would not move forward with the season and would focus on the family involved. Now it's also worth saying that the situation is more complicated than one side. Taylor's team had said that she was also a victim of abuse in that relationship. Her ex has denied those claims. There's an ongoing investigation into a more recent incident between them, so this is not a clean story with a clean villain. It's messy, it's real, and it raises genuinely uncomfortable questions about how far reality TV will go for a compelling cast about accountability, about what we overlook when someone is entertaining enough. And for Utah specifically, this is another moment where local influencer culture and Mormon social media are suddenly at the center of massive national conversation. It keeps happening, and it's worth paying attention to why. Alright, Ice activity, and there's a lot happening on this front. So, first, the federal government quietly purchased a warehouse on the west side of Salt Lake City to use as an ICE detention facility. Governor Cox found out about the fact, called it a little frustrating, but said he still supports having a facility in the state. And then this week it escalated. There are reports of people being seen in handcuffs boarding a plane at Salt Lake City Airport, raising questions about whether ICE deportation flights are now operating out of Salt Lake. Details are still coming in on that one, but if you're following the immigration conversation in Utah, and a lot of people are, this is the week it got very visible very fast. Now the headline about some BYU braids, and this one got national attention. BYU said it will not require an indigenous student to cut his traditional braids after he filed a lawsuit. The student argued his braids are part of his culture and spiritual identity, and BYU's honor code was requiring him to cut them. After the lawsuit, BYU backed off. This has everything religious institution, indigenous rights, cultural identity, national spotlight, good outcome for the student, big conversation either way. Now ski season is wrapping up early, just a heads up. Deer Valley closes on April 19th, Alta April 26th, a few higher elevation resorts are pushing into May. But Snow Basin has already shut it down. So get your last runs in because that window is closing. On the topic of real estate development, there's a big story happening right now, and the Sheraton Hotel downtown is closing. Western Governors University, the massive online university headquartered right here in the valley, just quietly bought a 9.6 acre assemblage in downtown Salt Lake City. We're talking the Sheraton Hotel at 500 South, an office building, some vacant parcels, basically a full city block. The Sheraton is closing in early April, which means layoffs for the people working there. And WGU hasn't said publicly what they're planning to build. But the zoning allows for no effective height limit. So something big is coming to that part of downtown. It's right near the granary district, which is already changing fast. So this is something worth paying attention to over the next few months and years. Now here's some art news that is genuinely exciting. Utah leaders broke ground on the Larry H. and Gail Miller Art Center out in South Jordan, nearly 90,000 square feet. It opens up in 2028 and it's a real venue, real infrastructure coming into the south end of the valley. A very big deal for that part of the city. And the fleet block in the granary district is getting a park. The city unveiled plans for a new 2.4-acre open space. Gardens, a plaza, a walking loop, a water feature. That's the site where murals honoring victims of police brutality used to stand before they were demolished. So there are some layered feelings about what this space should become. The city has a survey open right now asking for public input on the design. So go tell them what you think before someone else decides for you. And if you haven't heard enough about the congressional map, it still grinds on through the courts. Federal judges ruled unanimously not to block Utah's new congressional map, the one that creates a district favoring a Democrat. Republican officials have been fighting this since Prop 4 passed. Utah Supreme Court said no, federal court said no, their last option is the U.S. Supreme Court, and they're running out of road. And finally, Netflix dropped a new documentary about a Utah polygamous leader abuse case. It's out, it's getting traction, and yes, Utah is once again on TV, as always. Alright, that is your week in Salt Lake City. Verdicts, deportation flights, a bachelorette season that never was, a hotel closing, a new park, and the Utah reality TV universe doing what it does. Now, coming up this week on Small Lake City, I am sitting down with Shannon O'Grady. She is the CEO of Gnarly Nutrition, a local supplement and nutrition brand built specifically for people who like to do things outside, which, if you live in Utah, is basically your entire personality, and I respect it. Shannon has a PhD in nutritional physiology. She runs, she does all the Utah outdoor stuff, and somewhere along the way, she found her true passion in jujitsu. The conversation goes everywhere in the best way. It drops this week, so stay tuned for that one. So go enjoy some great weather happening this week. See some of the flowers blooming, especially up at the Capitol, and I will catch you this weekend with Shannon O'Grady.