This story beforehand aired on Jan. 4, 2025. It was up to date on Aug. 16, 2025.
In Aurora, Colorado, James Craig was a widely known dentist. He and his spouse Angela Craig have been elevating six youngsters. On March 6, 2023, Angela Craig reported feeling sick and her husband took her to a hospital.
There could be two hectic weeks and three hospital visits. On March 15, Angela Craig was placed on life help; three days later, she was lifeless. Inside hours, James Craig could be charged with first-degree homicide. He has pleaded not responsible.
Angela Craig’s post-mortem revealed she had been poisoned. And police declare the proof factors to her husband — alleging he searched on-line movies about poison after which bought potassium cyanide and arsenic.
Podcaster Steffan Tubbs, who lined the case, says police allege within the arrest warrant that James Craig had made a Google seek for “How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?” Authorities imagine he went additional, lacing his spouse’s drinks with poison. “He administered, allegedly the poison via her protein shakes,” mentioned Tubbs.
Skye Lazaro, an legal professional conversant in instances involving poison, tells “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales that James Craig’s protection may argue that police rushed to arrest him. “It’s essentially a three-day investigation,” she mentioned of the time it took police to cost him along with his spouse’s homicide.
James Craig’s protection has mentioned he has a historical past of melancholy and had sought counseling prior to now. Lazaro says they could argue he purchased poison to not use on Angela Craig — however on himself.
As for these allegedly poisoned protein shakes, Lazaro says that from what she’s seen of the proof made public up to now, “The state hasn’t presented you any evidence that the poison was actually in the drink,” she mentioned.
ANGELA CRAIG TEXTS HER HUSBAND “I FEEL DRUGGED”
STEFFAN TUBBS (“Arsenic, DDS” podcast): I wish to personally ship our condolences to the family and friends of Angela Craig, simply 43 years previous. She handed away, declared mind lifeless … And never misplaced on me … is the truth that this household has been quickly … destroyed.
James Craig had been nearly instantly charged with the first-degree homicide of his spouse Angela. He has pleaded not responsible. The story of the dentist, his spouse and the allegedly poisoned shakes could be instructed around the globe.
Steffan Tubbs: Come on. A dentist. Allegedly ordering potassium cyanide and arsenic. Actually?
However it was all as painfully actual as a dentist’s drill.
Chelsea Otoya: Dr. Craig and Angela Craig have been similar to two peas in a pod.
Chelsea Otoya: The 2 of them within the workplace was cute trigger they’d play pranks on one another all day lengthy.
Chelsea Otoya bought to know James and Angela Craig when she labored for Dr. Craig at Summerbrook Dental.
Chelsea Otoya: They appeared like the right couple.
Till, in keeping with Colorado police, James took his shot on the excellent crime.
CBS NEWS STREAMING NETWORK: Investigators say he researched poisons within the days main as much as his spouse’s loss of life.
Angela and James Craig have been married for 23 years and shared six youngsters. Their lives have been steeped of their Aurora, Colorado, group—their church, their youngsters and James Craig’s dental observe, Summerbrook Dental.
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The concept the dentist stood accused of murdering Angela, his spouse of 23 years, appeared incomprehensible as a result of the Craigs appeared so shut.
Chelsea Otoya: It simply was heartbreaking for everybody, and I felt unhealthy.
Steffan Tubbs (driving): Arising on our left, the previous dwelling of Summerbrook Dental.
For Tubbs, the workplace constructing as soon as dwelling to Summerbrook, has change into a tragic touchstone.
Steffan Tubbs (driving): The final time that I had eye contact with Dr. Jim Craig, he gave me a root canal.
Steffan Tubbs: I believed he was an awesome man. I bought extremely competent pleasant care. … He was a household man. We talked about his household, his youngsters … I — I met his spouse.
Angela Craig was the center and soul of that household — mom to their six youngsters and a hands-on companion in what appeared like a thriving enterprise.
Steffan Tubbs: She was not someone simply sit there and keep quiet. She was engaged within the dental observe. … She was someone who was speaking about concepts, and their advertising and marketing, their message.
Tubbs helped refine that message, engaged on a few of Summerbrook’s promoting. He witnessed how these two peas in a pod labored facet by facet, with Angela pitching in as certainly one of Jim’s workplace managers.
Steffan Tubbs: I believed it was sort of cool. You realize, you’ve bought a husband and spouse, big household. I believed it was — it was nice to see a small Colorado enterprise operated by, you already know, husband and spouse.
Tubbs’ podcast would delve into the disturbing particulars of Angela’s medical journey: how and why she was allegedly murdered. That account from police is contained in a 52-page arrest warrant.
The warrant alleges that “James has shown the planning and intent to end his wife’s life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected.”
Steffan Tubbs: This was not the James Craig that I knew.
The James Craig Aurora knew was on show that March 6, 2023, the day Angela’s odyssey started. James was at Summerbrook Dental when Angela texted from dwelling: “My eyes don’t want to focus.” She texted “I feel drugged.”
James Craig headed proper dwelling.
He picked up Angela and drove to the ER at Parker Adventist Hospital. She reported feeling dizzy and weak. Docs quick went to work.
Natalie Morales: She finally ends up going into the hospital, first time was March sixth, is that right?
George Brauchler: That’s proper. March sixth was her first time into the hospital.
On the time, George Brauchler was one other power in Colorado speak radio.
He’s additionally the previous elected district legal professional for Arapahoe County, the place Angela Craig lived and would die, rattling this group.
George Brauchler: This can be a big story.
Like Tubbs, Brauchler has immersed himself within the particulars of Angela’s ultimate days—a determined two-week ordeal. However on that March 6, because the hours handed within the ER, there have been plenty of questions, however few solutions.
George Brauchler: They actually didn’t have an excellent reply for what she was going by way of and … they find yourself releasing her and sending her dwelling.
House — the place Angela Craig appeared to suppose she was protected in her marriage. At the very least that’s how she sounded in messages the couple despatched one another, with Angela now dwelling, recuperating from her ER go to.
George Brauchler: There have been texts … that may counsel a really supportive loving relationship.
James Craig texts, “I love you. It was so nice hanging out with you and just watching a show and snuggling.” Angela Craig texts James: “Hi Baby! I love your face.”
Again dwelling, the busy couple picked up the every day routine that sustained them.
George Brauchler: Jim and Angela apparently labored out within the morning. They labored out collectively. And one of many issues that Jim did for his spouse was to organize her a protein shake … It was an absolute routine.
George Brauchler: This was simply a part of the traditional day.
James Craig texts: “I’ll need to ask what you’re hungry for and bring it to you. I’m kinda feeling just a smoothie or something.”
“I’m not feeling anything.” Angela Craig replies. “Don’t bring anything, I’ll eat something here.”
Inside 24 hours, Angela Craig’s signs got here again quick and powerful. She headed again to Parker Adventist. This time she could be admitted.
Steffan Tubbs: The medical doctors and nurses try. They’re conducting checks. … They simply can’t work out what’s ailing this comparatively regular and wholesome 43-year-old girl.
George Brauchler: All of the steps that the medical doctors and medical workers had taken appeared to not be working. … it was an actual thriller.
UNRAVELING A MEDICAL MYSTERY
Steffan Tubbs: There was nothing that may be even remotely a pink flag, or this can be a rocky, troubled marriage. None of that in any respect.
With Angela Craig nonetheless terribly sick, in March 2023 she was again at Parker Adventist a second time, now as an admitted affected person. In keeping with the warrant throughout her keep, Angela Craig texted her husband James Craig to say, “Now I’m hungry” and he texted again later that was bringing meals, writing “Ok I gotchu.”
George Brauchler: The loving husband who needs to see his spouse stay wholesome.
That arrest warrant comprises quite a few texts detailing how as Angela Craig was hospitalized, James Craig went forwards and backwards from their dwelling to her bedside to Summerbrook — a husband seemingly supporting his spouse and caring for his or her youngsters.
Steffan Tubbs: He’s persevering with to go to work, and I don’t begrudge him for that. He’s bought a household of six youngsters.
And the warrant would present that obvious belief that Angela Craig positioned in James, how she reached out to him to share her signs, texting, “I’m cold, super tired, weak, shaky and dizzy”
And James Craig despatched compassionate texts to Angela Craig: “I love you and miss you and I’m so worried. I wish you were healthy enough to come home tonight and snuggle me.”
Steffan Tubbs: Angela Craig was so sick.
It appeared that every one her signs had returned.
Steffan Tubbs: She had horrible complications. Horrible nausea … She was dizzy. … And medical doctors have been at a loss.
George Brauchler: Struggling to determine what within the hell is inflicting this. What’s making her sick?
Steffan Tubbs: And so they simply couldn’t get a solution.
As Angela Craig stayed within the hospital with out a analysis, James Craig was in contact along with his mates Michelle and Ryan Redfearn.. Ryan Redfearn, a fellow dentist, had just lately change into enterprise companions with James Craig, he would later inform police.
George Brauchler: Ryan Redfearn went to dental faculty with Jim Craig all these 20-plus years in the past. He’d identified him all that point. … He was a detailed confidant.
And with Angela Craig so sick, in keeping with the warrant, James Craig additionally texted with Ryan’s spouse, Michelle Redfearn, skilled as a nurse.
Natalie Morales: What have been they texting about?
George Brauchler: The texts have been actually the sorts of stuff you would alternate with somebody who’s one other medical skilled. I imply, he was speaking about blood strain. He was speaking about considerations the medical doctors had expressed about symptomology … that ought to have resolved by now.
However certainly one of James Craig’s texts, looking back, appeared odd, because it appeared he was making mild of Angela’s mysterious sickness.
Steffan Tubbs: Jim Craig texts Michelle Redfearn, quote, “If it wasn’t my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try to work out, exclamation point.” Who says that?
Nonetheless, a foul joke in occasions of disaster isn’t uncommon, says former DA Brauchler.
George Brauchler: All people reacts to trauma in another way.
And James Craig appeared apprehensive. It had been 4 hectic days since Angela was admitted. Police say Jim instructed others he was sleeping on a stool subsequent to Angela that night time when her very important indicators crashed. Docs responded by way of the night time.
Steffan Tubbs: I’ve thought of each agonizing minute that Angela Craig was in.
Angela and James Craig
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However over the subsequent day Angela Craig appeared to stabilize. And on March 14, nonetheless with no solutions as to why she was sick, Angela was launched from Parker Adventist. As soon as once more, Angela Craig got here dwelling to her husband of 23 years. However she wouldn’t be dwelling for lengthy. Inside a day she began feeling sick once more.
On March 15, she was admitted to close by College Hospital. There could be extra tubes, checks and displays. James Craig was quickly by her facet.
Steffan Tubbs: That they had no concept what was unsuitable together with her.
Police say James Craig didn’t keep lengthy at first. Inside half an hour, he drove dwelling from the hospital. Then about an hour-and-a-half later, he returned, carrying meals. Police say he then went into Angela Craig’s room, alone. Quickly after, Angela Craig had a seizure and as soon as once more her very important indicators crashed.
George Brauchler: It was important.
James Craig took photographs of his spouse as hospital workers tried to save lots of her.
George Brauchler: She is entering into dire, dire medical penalties.
Angela Craig, as soon as so vigorous, was placed on life help.
George Brauchler: Docs are struggling to determine what within the hell is inflicting this? What’s making her sick?
What medical workers didn’t know on the time was that days earlier, in keeping with police, a bundle had arrived at James Craig’s workplace. Authorities say what was in that bundle, ordered by James Craig himself, would change into key proof on this case. James Craig allegedly instructed a workers member “that he would be receiving a personal package” and “not to open it.”
Steffan Tubbs: Jim Craig had mentioned don’t open this bundle. Anyone did. She sees the phrases “potassium cyanide.”
Steffan Tubbs: Why are we getting potassium cyanide to a Colorado dentist’s workplace?
A PACKAGE MARKED POISON
Angela Craig was on life help and combating to outlive. James Craig texted the photographs he took to Michelle Redfearn, writing “crash” “intubated” and “doc says she’s ‘very very worried’.” The couple raced to the hospital.
Ryan Redfearn would later inform police he watched as James Craig broke down.
Natalie Morales: He noticed Craig crying after talking to medical doctors about Angela’s prognosis.
George Brauchler: Yep. He did say he noticed him crying afterwards.
However in keeping with police, Ryan Redfearn was removed from satisfied these tears have been actual. That’s as a result of, on his strategy to the hospital, he had gotten a name from a workers member on the workplace. The decision was to alert Ryan Redfearn about that bundle marked potassium cyanide that had arrived at Summerbrook Dental — allegedly addressed and later given to James Craig.
Steffan Tubbs: And there’s the dominoes that are actually falling one after the opposite.
Ryan Redfearn led the way in which.
George Brauchler: He does what another regular individual would do.
In keeping with police, whereas Angela Craig was on life help, Ryan Redfearn tells a nurse that James Craig “recently ordered Potassium Cyanide,” including that there was no medical motive or goal to order Potassium Cyanide for a dental observe.”
Steffan Tubbs: The nurse, being a compulsory reporter, calls Aurora police, and I imply it’s like that. Inside 5 hours, in all probability even much less, there’s a member of the murder unit with Aurora P.D. is at College Hospital.
Police began asking questions. Then, in keeping with the warrant, “Ryan received a call from James’s personal cell phone.”
Natalie Morales: Inform me about that cellphone name.
George Brauchler: I believe Ryan and his spouse are within the parking zone of the hospital when Jim calls them.
In keeping with police, James Craig requested Ryan Redfearn “if he had said anything to the hospital staff.” Ryan Redfearn confirmed that he had and instructed James Craig that he knew what James Craig had ordered. And James Craig replied that the “package was a ring for Angela and that he wanted to surprise her.”
George Brauchler: And Ryan … says, “… it’s not a ring, we know what was in there.” I imply this can be a testomony to Ryan Redfearn.
A decades-long friendship was about to be examined, then shattered. This story was as soon as once more instructed in a textual content, revealed in that warrant, as the subsequent morning James Craig pleaded along with his pal and companion, texting partly: “I want to make an urgent plea to you. … please don’t talk to anyone … including any law enforcement officers. You are under no obligation to answer their questions unless you are served a subpoena and you will do more damage than good to my family by continuing to insert yourself into this.”
Natalie Morales: How damning is that textual content in itself?
George Brauchler: I’m making an attempt to consider all of the harmless purposes of the phrase, please don’t speak to the police. I can’t give you any.
George Brauchler: It’s a determined effort to attempt to maintain Ryan from cooperating any farther with regulation enforcement.
But when that’s what he was making an attempt to do, it was too late. Police had already launched their investigation.
On March 18, 2023, Angela Craig was taken off life help. A pal, spouse, and mom of six was lifeless.
Chelsea Otoya: I used to be in full shock, in full disbelief. … In my head, I’m like, that is loopy, it’s not true.
Chelsea Otoya: I believed possibly it was an accident.
James Toliver Craig was charged with first-degree homicide. He has pleaded not responsible.
Aurora Police
However investigators didn’t suppose so. Simply hours after Angela Craig died, Dr. James Craig could be arrested and charged with the first-degree homicide of his spouse.
Steffan Tubbs: There’s my dentist, a mugshot.
James Craig would plead not responsible. Months later, Angela Craig’s post-mortem could be launched. That post-mortem states Angela Craig died from “lethal concentrations of cyanide” and “a lethal concentration” of tetrahydrozoline, the chemical present in some eye drops. And it says that Angela Craig had “toxic concentrations” of arsenic in her blood in these two earlier hospital visits.
Steffan Tubbs: To consider what Angela Craig endured. … This girl was in agony, dying, for therefore lengthy.
Steffan Tubbs: One explicit Google search, “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?”
James Craig, investigators say, additionally discovered movies on-line with titles like “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Sign Of Foul Play.”
And police say on the identical day he did that on-line analysis, James Craig made a purchase order — arsenic — and had it delivered straight to his household’s mailbox.
George Brauchler: I believe he legitimately believed that he would have the ability to poison his spouse, she would die, he would have her cremated. After which they’d … transfer on.
Poison. Some name it the recipe for the right crime. A silent, invisible killer — no blood, no gun, no fingerprints. Even medical doctors can have a tough time recognizing it.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It’s a reasonably uncommon medical subspecialty.
Physician Jeff LaPoint is the director of the division of medical toxicology at San Diego’s Kaiser Permanente Hospital.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: If it’s a poison or a venom … that’s what we concentrate on.
Natalie Morales: You’re that man?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Yeah.
So “48 Hours” requested him, and Dr. LaPoint targeted in on the alleged actions of James Craig and the ultimate days of Angela Craig’s life.
He reviewed the arrest warrant for us, and among the lethal medicine it lists.
Natalie Morales: Let’s begin with arsenic.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: OK … yeah, arsenic is a really well-known poison. It’s … not detectable by style or odor.
LaPoint says Angela Craig’s signs in these first two hospital visits are in line with arsenic poisoning.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Nausea and vomiting.
Natalie Morales: Decrease blood strain, larger blood strain?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Usually decrease.
Natalie Morales: How a lot would kill an individual?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It doesn’t take very a lot.
However police say there was extra. Every week after he bought that arsenic, they allege James Craig — as “Jim and Waffles”— went again on-line. He ordered a second poison.
Natalie Morales: Oleandrin, what’s that?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: So, oleandrin is a toxin present in oleander.
Natalie Morales: I’m pondering of these white flowers.
Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, they’re actually lovely.
As beautiful as a rose. Solely lethal.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It prevents the center from beating very effectively.
However after three days, the oleandrin hadn’t been delivered. That’s when investigators say James Craig upped the ante. Police say he positioned an order with a medical provide firm for his strongest toxin but: potassium cyanide.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Cyanide is among the only poisons that exist.
Natalie Morales: Only a microdose may kill you then?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, a really small quantity per kilogram and also you’re not gonna dwell. … When you find yourself poisoned with cyanide, you’re being suffocated on a mobile stage. … It’s a really potent poison. … Your sufferer would die very quickly.
Cyanide is so lethal that you just want a medical license to purchase it. And police say that when Dr. James Craig positioned his order from a medical provide firm, he acknowledged he wanted it for a posh dental process.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: There’s no use for potassium cyanide in my observe or I can’t consider many medical practices.
Natalie Morales: So, a dentist ordering arsenic, potassium cyanide and oleandrin … What does that counsel to you?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Somebody is making an attempt to gather poison.
However this father and husband would supply a really totally different story about why he needed these lethal poisons.
WAS INTEREST IN ANOTHER WOMAN A MOTIVE FOR MURDER?
Detectives suspected James Craig had purchased all these poisons to kill his spouse, however they needed to know why. They might discover a lead miles away from Aurora on a visit James Craig made — and a lady he met — simply earlier than Angela Craig bought sick.
Steffan Tubbs: Doesn’t it simply at all times appear to be there’s one other girl concerned? All the time, nearly at all times.
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It’s a rule of the street there, however investigators allege it’s but yet another rule James Craig didn’t suppose he needed to play by, when he met Karin Cain.
Steffan Tubbs: Karin Cain, an orthodontist from Austin, Texas … She meets James Craig at a dental convention in Las Vegas.
It was Feb. 23, a week-and-a-half earlier than Angela Craig first went to the hospital. The physician was touring alone. And he rolled the cube.
George Brauchler: They strike up a relationship.
Steffan Tubbs: They hit it off … it’s a whirlwind.
Skye Lazaro: It’s not unlawful to have affairs.
Skye Lazaro is an skilled protection legal professional conversant in instances involving poison. James Craig and his legal professional declined our request for an interview. Lazaro reviewed the case in opposition to James Craig for “48 Hours.” And he or she recognized potential weaknesses.
Skye Lazaro: Is it affordable that you’d kill your spouse to be with somebody that you just had had a 10-day relationship with?
Natalie Morales: The frequent protection technique is affairs don’t make a assassin.
Skye Lazaro: Proper. … One doesn’t mechanically imply you probably did the opposite.
On the time she visited James Craig in Colorado, Cain did appear to know Angela Craig was very sick and within the hospital. In reality, she had despatched a involved e-mail to James Craig. It learn partly: “Hi honey, I am so sorry for what has transpired this week in your world. … I am praying for you and seeking God’s wisdom for this time. I love you.”
However there isn’t a proof to counsel Cain knew something extra.
George Brauchler: Nothing that I’ve seen … offers any indication that she knew that Jim was making an attempt to kill his spouse.
And in keeping with investigators, James Craig lied to Cain, telling her that he “filed for divorce and was living separate in an apartment.”
Steffan Tubbs: He offers the usual male, typical, “I’m going through a divorce.” No, he’s not.
Steffan Tubbs: Karin Cain … met the unsuitable man on the unsuitable time. … She didn’t know something.
Tubbs and Brauchler suggest possibly nobody knew something about who James Craig actually was. His pristine picture — loving guardian, church member, devoted husband—now all being questioned. And as cops continued to analyze, one other potential motive emerged.
Steffan Tubbs: One of many issues that stunned me on this story … is the monetary duress that Summerbrook Dental was underneath.
In reality, James Craig’s enterprise had filed for chapter in 2020, and shortly after, his then-friend Ryan Redfearn signed on as a companion.
Natalie Morales: Monetary issues?
George Brauchler: Monetary issues.
Natalie Morales: He was method in over his head then, in debt?
George Brauchler: Manner in over his head.
And at a preliminary listening to in 2023, prosecutors argued that James Craig had “about 3.4 million reasons to kill his wife” — the worth of Angela Craig’s life insurance coverage.
George Brauchler: Jim had liabilities in extra of $2 million and we all know that from among the chapter filings.
However Lazaro says she’s not satisfied these monetary issues give James Craig a motive for homicide.
Natalie Morales: Is that this form of the portrait of a determined man?
Skye Lazaro: Not essentially.
Skye Lazaro: We see companies undergo chapter on a regular basis and are available out the opposite facet.
And, as for any poisons he could have ordered, Lazaro states these purchases could not even be unlawful.
Skye Lazaro: He can legitimately buy it as a result of he has a DEA quantity.
Natalie Morales: As a physician. As a dentist, proper.
Skye Lazaro: Proper.
Skye Lazaro: Simply having it isn’t homicide.
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm. Administering it. Proper.
However in keeping with the arrest paperwork, James Craig may need thought he had that discovered, too. Authorities say he may have slipped the poison into a type of protein shakes he so usually made.
Natalie Morales: A morning routine at dwelling for instance.
George Brauchler: Yeah.
On that morning of March 15 — the day Angela Craig would lastly crash earlier than she was taken to the hospital, she was dwelling with James Craig. Investigators say that’s when he could have made her a type of protein shakes and laced it with potassium cyanide.
George Brauchler: It’s tasteless. It’s odorless. It’s colorless. It’s actually hidable inside one thing like a shake.
Natalie Morales: And extremely deadly.
George Brauchler: Extremely deadly.
However legal professional Lazaro counters the proof will not be there. She has reviewed the transcripts from that July 2023 preliminary listening to and says there’s nothing there that reveals James Craig put poison in Angela Craig’s shakes.
Skye Lazaro: They went and examined every little thing in the home and didn’t discover any hint proof of there being arsenic or cyanide or something within the protein powder, within the protein bottles.
Skye Lazaro: The state hasn’t offered you any proof that the poison was really within the drinks.
And Lazaro says the protection can paint an image of James Craig as a sort and attentive companion.
Skye Lazaro: Jim’s textual content messages to Angela are extraordinarily loving and intensely caring. He repeatedly asks her how she’s doing. He tells her he loves her.
So if James Craig didn’t poison his spouse, who did? He had a narrative to inform about that.
WHAT ANGELA CRAIG’S AUTOPSY SHOWED
As Steffan Tubbs reported on his podcast, there could also be one other story to inform about James Craig and what occurred to Angela Craig. The story wasn’t about homicide; it was about suicide.
STEFFAN TUBBS (podcast): Craig says to the enterprise companion on the cellphone … she was simply enjoying hen.
In keeping with the warrant, when Ryan Redfearn confronted James Craig in regards to the cyanide, James Craig allegedly mentioned that Angela Craig requested him to order it for her. That it was all a dare—sort of a lethal recreation of “chicken.”
Steffan Tubbs: In keeping with Jim Craig … She’s been threatening suicide. And this recreation of hen is … Now … are you gonna take it?
However in keeping with that 52-page warrant, none of Angela Craig’s members of the family instructed police she was suicidal. A extra seemingly argument for the protection, says Lazaro, is that James Craig had been in search of cyanide to not kill Angela — however to kill himself.
Skye Lazaro: There was some statements that he, the truth is, was suicidal, not her.
At that preliminary listening to in 2023, James Craig’s protection workforce mentioned he had spoken to a pal about his personal previous plans to die by suicide, and that “Dr. Craig had made a statement” to that pal that he was going to die by “suicide with something that was not traceable.” The protection identified that James Craig “suffered from depression” and went to counseling prior to now.
And, the protection indicated, James Craig instructed Angela Craig at one level that he had really drugged her years earlier, when he had tried to kill himself — hoping that whereas she was drugged, she wouldn’t give you the chance cease him.
Natalie Morales: It feels like there had been one thing that he had tried earlier than together with her.
Skye Lazaro: Mm-hmm. … That he had drugged her, in order that she would go to sleep, in order that he may go … basically kill himself. And he or she wouldn’t be there to render any assist or name for assist.
In keeping with the arrest warrant, James Craig wrote: “Given our history I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn’t drug you. I am super worried though.”
Aurora Police
And bear in mind when Angela Craig first began feeling sick, and she or he texted James Craig: “I feel drugged”? James Craig’s protection factors out that he texted again, “Given our history, I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn’t drug you.” The protection mentioned this textual content helps the story of James Craig’s previous melancholy and suicide makes an attempt.
However Lazaro says it’s unlikely the protection would attempt to inform a jury that Jim and Angela Craig have been each making an attempt to die by suicide.
Skye Lazaro: You need to choose one in some unspecified time in the future.
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Skye Lazaro: And it’s both she’s suicidal … or that he’s suicidal … and for this reason he purchased the medicine.
However maybe probably the most compelling proof authorities say they’ve is what Angela Craig left behind in her personal blood. That post-mortem revealed one thing investigators discover outstanding—the degrees of cyanide in Angela Craig’s physique really elevated whereas she was within the hospital on that ultimate day. The potential implication?
Tubbs wonders if prosecutors will contend James Craig gave his spouse extra poison within the hospital.
Steffan Tubbs: If the allegations are true, that is about as merciless because it will get. Interval.
James Craig’s protection has employed its personal toxicologist. And, come his trial for homicide, Lazaro says James Craig, harmless till confirmed responsible, could himself be portrayed as a sufferer — of cops too desperate to make a quick arrest.
Skye Lazaro: It’s basically a three-day investigation.
James Craig’s fast arrest, she says, may very well be a weak point for the state.
Skye Lazaro: You determined from the get-go that this needed to be poisoning … This was the foregone conclusion. … So that you by no means went and seemed for anything.
And as for that concept that poison is likely to be the important thing to somebody making an attempt to commit the right crime, toxicologist Dr. Jeff LaPoint says that’s simply plain unsuitable.
Jeff LaPoint: You’re going to get caught.
Natalie Morales: That’s an essential message.
Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, very.
Natalie Morales: There are methods that these will likely be traced, and you can be discovered.
Jeff LaPoint: You’ll be discovered.
Angela Craig
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And whereas Angela Craig’s family and friends are ready for his or her day in courtroom, they’re left with images and their recollections.
Three of Jim and Angela Craig’s six youngsters reside with James Craig’s brother. The opposite three are actually adults residing on their very own, together with their daughter Mira. On Mom’s Day 2023, Mira wrote this message on social media: “as of tomorrow my mom will be two months gone. I haven’t the words to express the heartache my siblings and I feel every day.”
Chelsea Otoya: There’s no phrases, you already know? … the entire scenario is simply traumatic.
Steffan Tubbs: It will all finish, the lights will come down, the cameras depart. Thirty years from now, these youngsters who’re of their teenagers proper now nonetheless will likely be with out a mother.
Mira’s final phrases in that put up: “I love you so much mama” … “we miss you.”
On July 30, 2025, a jury discovered James Craig responsible of murdering his spouse, Angela Craig. He was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole.
Produced by Jamie Stolz and Sarah Prior. Elena DiFiore, David Dow and Michelle Sigona are the event producers. Doreen Schechter is the producer-editor. Gary Winter and Gregory Kaplan are the editors. Michael Loftus is the affiliate producer. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
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