‘Heinous, calculated’: Colorado dentist arrested in connection to wife’s murder by poisoning
In what authorities have called a “heinous, complex and calculated murder”, a dentist from the Denver area is facing accusations that he poisoned his wife and killed her so that he could make more room in his life for his mistress.
James Toliver Craig, 45, of Aurora, Colorado, came under scrutiny after he drove his 43-year-old wife Angela Craig to a hospital on Wednesday night as she complained of severe headaches and dizziness, according to police. Her condition quickly worsened, and medical staff placed her on a machine meant to help her breathe before declaring her dead.
The hospital called law enforcement officers believing that the onset of Craig’s deadly illness was suspicious, and investigators “quickly discovered this was in fact a heinous, complex and calculated murder”, said a statement from Mark Hildebrand of the Aurora police department.
Poisoning is a rare method of homicide. Data suggest it is used in less than one half of 1% of cases, with modern forensic techniques able to identify virtually any toxic agents in a corpse, even if they are present only in minuscule amounts.
Yet, according to court documents first obtained Monday by the Daily Beast, investigators found evidence that James Craig arranged for a canister of potassium cyanide to be sent to his office days before Angela died of suspected cyanide poisoning. They contended that he had searched for ways “to end his wife’s life … undetected, [provided] her poisons that align with her hospitalized symptoms, and [worked] on starting a new life with” a paramour.
Investigators added that they had allegedly found “intimate” and “sexually explicit” emails with an orthodontist who had flown into town from Austin, Texas, to see him while his wife was dying in the hospital.
Investigators obtained a warrant to arrest Craig on a count of first-degree murder and jailed him on Sunday morning.
Court documents say James Craig had allegedly tried to poison Angela Craig at least once before. Angela Craig’s sister purportedly told police that it happened about five years earlier as he engaged in “multiple affairs with several women”. He had also threatened suicide during that time, the sister alleged.
An interview that the Daily Beast published on Sunday with a person who is close to Angela Craig’s family added even more context. The person, whose name was withheld, said Angela Craig had been dealing with headaches and dizziness for a couple of weeks and had been medically examined for the symptoms at least twice before her hospitalization on Wednesday.
Her relatives hoped it was just a sinus infection, which she had suffered from previously, but her hospitalization indicated something more serious was wrong. Meanwhile, James Craig became conspicuously absent after his wife was hospitalized.
“He [had] not been around the family much in the last few days,” the person whom the Daily Beast interviewed said. “That led to some suspicion.”
Meanwhile, after learning that Angela Craig was hospitalized, an employee at James Craig’s office who had noticed the potassium cyanide canister that was delivered there worked with others to get word to a nurse about the poison. The nurse – citing a legal obligation to report such information – called the police, setting the stage for Craig’s arrest.
After the investigation kicked into high gear, James Craig tried to convince an associate that Angela had asked him to order the cyanide for her because she was suicidal but lacked the proper credentials to obtain it herself, according to the court records.
James Craig also allegedly made travel plans for his mistress to visit him during three separate date ranges in March that lined up almost perfectly with his wife’s visits to the hospital, including the last one. One of the purported emails from James Craig to his mistress allegedly said “something had happened to Angela”.
The arrest has left Angela Craig’s family grappling with “a lot of grief and a lot of anger,” said the person whom the Daily Beast interviewed.
Craig ran the Summerbrook dental group practice before his arrest. The group filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 and had applied at the beginning of March to close the case, according to court records reviewed by the Guardian.
The office’s website was deactivated on Monday, but an archived 2021 press release said he and Angela Craig “were happily married” and had six children together.
A client of Craig’s told the local television news station KMGH that her “first thought was really … of [the couple’s] kids”.
“I just can’t imagine any kids – six kids – being without a mother and potentially even … without their father,” the client, Danielle Travis, told KMGH.
Craig made his first appearance in court on Monday, when he was ordered held without bond and prohibited from contacting his children, three of whom are younger than 18, according to local television news outlet KUSA.
During the hearing, prosecutors also noted that Angela Craig was the youngest of 10 siblings, KUSA reported.
James Craig would face life imprisonment if eventually convicted of first-degree murder.
Attempts to contact a lawyer for James Craig on Monday weren’t immediately successful. A call to the Summerbrook group went unanswered on Monday morning.