A Colorado dentist jailed for allegedly poisoning is wife was so overt in his actions that he aroused the suspicions of the staff at his dental practice.
James Toliver Craig, 45, was arrested on a first degree murder charge on Sunday for the death of his wife, Angela Craig, as CrimeOnline previously reported. She was hospitalized last Wednesday and deteriorated rapidly before doctors declared her brain dead and removed life support.
But an affidavit obtained by KDVR — 52 pages long — says that Angela Craig was admitted to the hospital three times between March 6 and March 15 and that detectives found searches on her husband’s electronic devices for ways to kill someone undetected, how to make poison, “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?” and “Is arsenic detectable in autopsy?”
Detectives determined that Craig had ordered poisons and put them in his wife’s protein shakes, telling people around him that she was suicidal and addicted to drugs. Meanwhile, he made plans to meet with a Texas orthodontist while his wife was dying in the hospital, according to the Denver Gazette.
According to the affidavit, the office manager at Craig’s dental practice became suspicious on March 6 — the first day Angela Craig complained of dizziness, headaches, and feeling drugged. She told police that she was working late that day when Craig returned and began working on an exam room computer, which she found odd since he has an office and personal computer at the practice, KDVR said.
When he left the office, he told the office manager a personal package was on the way and not to open it. But when the package arrived, another employee accidentally opened it to find a bio-hazard sticker on a canister of potassium cyanide.
The office manager said she Googled potassium cyanide and noted that Angela Craig was suffering from the same symptoms. She told Craig’s business partner about the cyanide, and when the business partner asked about it, Craig said it was for the practice, although the partner told police there was no medical reason for it.
The business partner pulled a nurse aside at the hospital and told of suspicions Angela Craig was poisoned, asking doctors to check for it, the Gazette said.
Craig initially denied to police that cyanide was in the package but later said he’d ordered it for his wife because she didn’t have the credentials to order it for herself. This was apparently when he told a caseworker that his wife was suicidal and that he’d had to revive her several times from suicide attempts, although he never sought medical attention for her or reported any of the incidents, according to KDVR.
Angela Craig’s sister told police that it wasn’t the first time he had poisoned his wife — that he’d done so previously five or six years ago and that he’d had several affairs with other women.
Craig’s search history — found under a new Google mail account he opened on February 27 — also included the “top 5 undetectable poisons that show no signs of foul play” and “the top 10 deadliest plants.” He also allegedly searched for chemical suppliers in Aurora and had multiple online orders related to poison.
And, the affidavit says, investigators found communications of a sexual nature with a woman in Texas — making plans for her to come to Colorado March 8-10 and again on March 16, when she told him in an email that she did “not feel it is right for me to mix in with all of those gathering to mourn Angela either and I don’t want to meet your family as a friend and try to conceal what I feel for you.”
The Gazette said that Angela Craig was admitted to the hospital on March 6, March 9, and then for a final time on March 15, when she was having seizures and did not regain consciousness. She died on March 18.
Craig asked doctors not to conduct an autopsy.
He’s due in court on Thursday for a reading of formal charges.
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[Featured image: Angela, left, and James Craig/Facebook]
