Colorado Dentist Accused of Killing Wife with Poisoned Protein Shakes
James Toliver Craig, a 45-year-old dentist from Colorado, was arrested on Sunday on charges of first-degree murder by Aurora police. According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, Craig is believed to have killed his wife, Angela Craig, by poisoning her protein shakes so he could begin a new life with his mistress. Investigators say Craig planned to end his wife’s life by seeking undetectable poisons that align with her hospital symptoms.
In late May, Angela Craig was admitted to the hospital after complaining of a headache and severe dizziness, where she subsequently experienced a seizure leading to her rapid medical decline. According to police, Craig drove his wife to the hospital before returning home and leaving again with his mistress, whom he had arranged to visit while his wife was hospitalized.
An investigation was launched by the Aurora Police Department’s Major Crimes Homicide Unit after Craig’s business partner expressed his suspicions regarding Angela Craig’s sudden hospitalization to a nurse. He had been alerted by an office manager that his partner had received a package containing a canister labeled as potassium cyanide days before. Craig was known to be a regular maker of protein shakes, which his wife consumed.
Following an examination of Craig’s online search history, Aurora investigators found search results for:
– How to buy Oleander, a poisonous plant.
– How much pure arsenic could kill a human.
– An article called “6 Deadly ‘Undetectable’ Poisons (And How to Detect Them).”
The affidavit also cites a series of emails sent from the same email address that Craig had allegedly used to purchase poisons. The emails contained intimate and sexually explicit content that allegedly involved arrangements for Craig’s mistress to visit him. The email correspondence coincided almost exactly with Angela Craig’s hospitalizations.
Craig made his first appearance in court on Monday and remains in custody without bond. The local television news outlet KUSA reports that he is not allowed to contact any of his six children. Police have dubbed the killing “a heinous, complex, and calculated murder.”
