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- [00:00]
Katie Ring
Foreign hey everyone, it's Katie. If you're loving Crime House Daily, you need to check out Crimes of, the newest show from Crime House. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of the paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Their first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains. Crimes of is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or find them on YouTube at Crime House Studios. New episodes out every Tuesday.
- [00:55]
Ad Voice
This is Crime House.
- [01:00]
Katie Ring
Today a jury in Colorado convicted James.
- [01:03]
Narrator
Craig of poisoning his wife Angela.
- [01:05]
Katie Ring
And hours later, a judge handed down his sentence life plus 33 consecutive years. We the jury unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt find the defendant, James Craig guilty of murder in the first degree. How do you explain what happened that day?
- [01:24]
Witness or Family Member
We were there and he killed her right under my nose. We took her to the hospital and that's the last time she was ever gonna be alive again.
- [01:33]
Katie Ring
In a Colorado town, a woman named Angela Craig loved spending time with her six children. Her large family meant everything to her. But slowly it was taken away. She was sick for about 10 days until she died. And no doctor could figure out why until evidence piled up against her husband, James Craig. Hi, I'm Katie Ring, a true crime analyst, self defense instructor, and a fierce advocate for victims. And this is Crime House Daily, your essential true crime companion. Every weekday morning and night here at Crime House Daily, we will dig into the true crime stories making headlines right now, where justice is still unfolding, arrests are happening, and new evidence is emerging. Every morning, First Watch gets you up to speed on the biggest cases. Every night, Night Watch takes you deeper. If you want to follow a case from the first 911 call to the final verdict, this is the place for you. Follow Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review and for ad free listening, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. For video, check out our YouTube channel @CrimeHouseDaily. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Tonight we'll be exploring the case of a deadly dentist in Colorado. A man named James Craig was found guilty of slowly poisoning and murdering his wife, Angela Craig in late July. We just learned that three of Angela's six children are living with their Uncle James's brother. So let's dive into how we got to the events leading up to James's conviction. This is how poison, infidelity and secrets disrupted this seemingly happy family.
- [04:04]
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- [04:40]
Katie Ring
Tonight's story is about a family man with more than a few skeletons in his closet. When James Craig's wife mysteriously dies, authorities uncover each step of the murder plot and they point to James as the killer. It just came in that James's six children are no longer under his career. Three of them are adults and they are living separately. The younger three are living with their uncle James's brother. As of July 30, he'll be spending the rest of his life behind bars. Let's dive into the winding road that got him there. It all starts in 2023. 47 year old James Craig lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife, 43 year old Angela. The couple has been married for 20 years and they have six kids. Neighbors know the family as tight knit and devoutly Mormon. Angela Craig loved spending time with her nine other siblings and as a mother of a big family herself, she has six kids. She dreamed of being a grandma one day. She loved woodworking and working out, so she had a lot of hobbies. The Craigs are well liked around town where James runs a popular dental practice called Summer Brook Dental. And James and his staff are known for their warm, friendly atmosphere at the office. But beneath the surface, things aren't as they seem. A few years earlier, the business was struggling so badly that James had to declare bankruptcy. Fortunately, his friend and colleague, a man named Ryan Redfern, signed on as a partner which kept things afloat. It may have solved his business problems, but James was also dealing with problems at home. After years of marriage, he disclosed to his wife that he'd had a porn addiction since he was a teenager and that he cheated on her with a woman he met on a sugar daddy website. This would have been enough to destroy any marriage. But Angela decides to put in the work and try to get things back on track. It seems like she views James's past transgressions as his own personal failings, ones that he can overcome. And she believes he truly wants to be a better man. So Angela does her best to help lighten the load. She helps out at the office, even though she's not an official employee, and and make sure James gets enough alone time when he comes home. The couple has also started prioritizing their health. James and Angela work out together every morning, and he always makes her a protein shake before work. It seems like they're really turning a corner. But little does she know, her husband hasn't changed at all. In February of 2023, James attends a dental conference in Las Vegas. And while he's there, he meets a woman named Karen Kane, who is also a dentist. They hit it off, and James tells Karen he's divorced and living alone. So they get together and he strikes up an affair while she unknowingly is engaging with a married man. When the conference wraps, he asks if he can see her again, and she agrees. When James returns home to his wife and family a few days later, he acts like everything's normal and goes right back into his usual routine. On the morning of March 6, 2023, James and Angela wake up, work out, and he makes her a protein shake. But before James heads to work, Angela says she's not feeling well. She says her head feels funny and she's dizzy. So James hangs back to make sure she's okay. Eventually, she tells him she's fine and. And he gets to work about 15 minutes later than usual, which is not a huge deal. But a couple hours later, Angela's symptoms only get worse. She starts typing her various symptoms into Google to try and figure out what's wrong. Things like dizziness, slow focus, tired, head pressure, hearing distortion, body shakes, and lips go cold. Signs of high blood sugar, side effects of high blood pressure, and mini seizures. It's bad enough that Angela texts James and tells him what she's experiencing. He immediately rushes home and takes her to Advent Health Parker Hospital. Angela gets an mri, a CT scan, and submits blood work. But doctors don't find anything wrong. So James takes Angela home and encourages her to rest. In the meantime, he goes back to work. When he texts her later to see how she's feeling, Angela says her symptoms haven't improved and that she feels like she's been drugged. James responds, given our history, I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn't drug you. Obviously, that is not a normal thing to say to someone, someone. And it's even darker than you might think, because back when James and Angelo were in the midst of their marital problems, he considered taking his own life while at home one night. He didn't want Angela to find him and call 91 1, so he drugged her to knock her unconscious. But it seems like James changed his mind about dying, and eventually he confessed to Angela what he'd done. When James brings up this grim moment in their relationship, Angela is forgiving and understanding. And when he says he has to work late at night, she doesn't get mad. But James isn't being totally honest with her. He doesn't really have to work late at all, because that day he tells his office manager, Caitlin Romero, that he needs some alone time and quote, just to get away for a minute. As the office manager, Kaitlin also stays later than the rest of the staff. And when she packs up her things to head out for the night, she notices that James's office light is off and so are all the exam room lights. But as she leaves the building, she's surprised to see him typing away at one of the exam room computers. She tries not to disturb him and heads on her way. He might have noticed her leaving, though. While Kaitlin's driving home, she gets a text from James. He says he's expecting a package at the office and not to touch it when it gets there. And that's pretty much the end of the conversation. Meanwhile, Angela's at home alone, feeling worse and worse. The next day, March 7, she's completely dizzy and can barely take one step without feeling like she's going to fall over. Her stomach is also in pain, which is a completely new symptom. She goes to urgent care to try and get to the bottom of it, but they can't figure out what's wrong with her either, despite how much time she's been spending at the office. James sends Angela a ton of doting messages and tries to help her figure out what's going on. By the morning of March 9, Angela doesn't really have an appetite, but he makes her a protein shake anyway. Angela drinks it, hoping to get at least a little nourishment, but it doesn't help, and Angela's symptoms actually worsen and she fully passes out at home. It's not clear how long she's passed out, but her kids eventually find her crawling across the floor. Because she physically cannot get up. They get her help and she's admitted to Advent Health Parker Hospital. When James is done with work, he rushes over there to be with her and stays by her side while they wait for the results of yet another blood test. And this time they find something. Something deadly.
- [12:58]
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- [13:27]
Katie Ring
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- [13:39]
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- [13:41]
Katie Ring
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- [13:46]
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- [13:48]
Katie Ring
So you get the boost without the burnout. Liquid IV's new energy multiplier, Sugar free hydrating energy. Tap the banner to learn more. When Angela Craig's latest blood test comes back on March 9, 2023, the results are shocking. Angela's blood contains dangerous levels of arsenic. In high enough doses, arsenic can kill. Some of the most common symptoms are abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. And it can also cause an abnormal heart rhythm, low blood pressure, as well as pins and needles feelings. Which may explain why Angela fainted and couldn't get up. Doctors ask Angela and James how she could have been exposed, but they have no idea. The medical staff assures them they'll do everything they can do to help Angela get better while they try to get to the bottom of things. In the meantime, Angela stays in the hospital. She's there for a few days and James continues going to work. But he visits her each day. On March 13, his package with more cyanide arrives, but he happens to be out of the office as instructed. The office manager doesn't open the package, but luckily a different employee does and she finds a silver foil package with biohazard stickers on it. The employee doesn't know what it is, so she waits for Caitlin to get there so that she can deal with it. When Caitlin arrives, she unfolds the packing slip and sees the words potassium cyanide. Like arsenic, potassium cyanide is another lethal poison that can cause similar symptoms to arsenic poisoning and can eventually lead to organ failure. But cyanide isn't always nefarious and can even be used in dental offices. So Caitlyn's not immediately concerned and leaves the package on James's desk. He doesn't say anything about it when he gets back, though, and with so much going on, it sort of falls by the wayside. On March 14, one day after the package arrives, Angela is released from the hospital and she seems to be doing better. Her symptoms have subsided a little and she's able to keep food down. But doctors still want someone to keep an eye on her in case she passes out again. Since James is still working, he, Angela's sister comes to take care of her. But James is still trying to help by making sure Angela is still eating and taking her medication. When he gets home from work on the 14th, he makes her a protein shake. And the next day he texts Angela's sister to remind her to give Angela her meds. Angela's sister knows about the couple's issues, but she's happy to see James keeping such a close eye on his wife. And she's starting to think maybe he's stepping it up after all. However, those thoughts are quickly interrupted when Angela crashes again on March 15, just two hours after James leaves for work. This time she has a massive seizure. Her sister calls an ambulance and Angela is taken to another facility, UC Health Anschutz. Her health is so bad she's placed in the icu. The staff there gets up to speed on Angela's recent health issues and they quickly send a blood sample for testing. Once again, Angela's blood shows up high levels of arsenic, along with cyanide and something known as tetrahydrozoline. Tetrahydrozoline is a decongestant that's found in over the counter eye drops and nasal sprays. But it's super toxic when ingested and could potentially cause symptoms like altered mental states and confusion, weakness and headaches, severe changes in blood pressure and heart rate, nausea and vomiting, seizures and coma. Angela's in critical condition. She suffered multiple seizures and her vitals have crashed. Her doctors put her on life support, but even with that, her heart could fail. James rushes to her bedside and while he's at the hospital, he's going in and out of the room, talking to staff members. At some point, he steps out to call Caitlin at the office. He sounds upset and tells Caitlin he doesn't think Angela will make it through the night. Kaitlin is devastated. She loves Angela and everyone at Summerburg Dental does as well. She offers James sympathy. Then when they hang up, Kaitlin realizes something. Because while James was describing Angela's symptoms, she couldn't help but notice that they sounded a lot like cyanide poisoning. And the image of that foil package with the biohazard stickers flashes in her mind. However, she doesn't want to jump to conclusions, so she calls a friend who's the office manager at another dental practice practice. When Kaitlin tells her about the package and Angela's symptoms, her friend confirms she's not crazy. But Caitlyn isn't going to the authorities with these suspicions yet. Instead, she calls Ryan Redfern, the co owner of Summerbrook Dental, as a reminder, he's the guy who bought half of the practice when it was going bankrupt. Ryan and his wife are good friends with James and Angela, so he's a good barometer to see if she's just overthinking it. Kaitlin tells Ryan about the cyanide and about the time she saw James working late on an exam room computer. Everything's connecting for her now, and it's connecting for Ryan, too. Ryan and his wife are literally on their way to the hospital to see Angela when he gets the call from Kaitlin. So when they get there, Rich Ryan acts cool around James, but as soon as he gets the chance, he pulls one of the nurses aside and tells her that he thinks Angela has been poisoned with cyanide. The nurse immediately contacts the police, and later that night, after Ryan and his wife have left the hospital officers contact James. And after that, James calls Ryan because he wants to know if Ryan said something including incriminating to the nurses. Ryan tells James that he knows about the package of potassium cyanide, and James doesn't try and deny it. However, he claims that Angela asked him to order the cyanide, but that he, quote, didn't think she would actually take it. This is clearly a cover story, and a weak one at that. Ryan doesn't engage with this nonsense. He simply tells James to stop talking and get a lawyer. Then they hang up. And Ryan couldn't be more right about James needing a lawyer because he does something that night that makes authorities suspicious.
- [21:01]
Narrator
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- [21:26]
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- [21:37]
Katie Ring
Oh come on.
- [21:38]
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- [21:59]
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- [22:26]
Katie Ring
According to security footage from inside the ICU on the night of March 15th, 2023, James Craig leaves his wife Angela's room and goes into the bathroom. When he comes out, he puts a syringe in his pocket. Then he goes back into Angela's room. Just a couple minutes later, she's coding. Nurses rush to her aid and stabilize her while James sits outside the room wiping tears from his eyes. To try and figure out what caused Angela to crash, James doctors take another blood sample and the results are terrifying. Earlier in the day on March 15th, when Angela first got to the ICU, she had about 1.7 micrograms of cyanide in her system. But after her recent crash, there were 3.7 micrograms. That means someone has poisoned her while she's in the hospital, most likely by injecting her IV line. Everything is pointing towards James, but he doesn't catch on. He's distracted because the next day, on March 16, he flies out his mistress, Karen Kane, and she arrives in Colorado. Meanwhile, his business partner Ryan Redfern is telling the police everything he knows. But this information comes too late to save Angela and on March 18, 2023, she passes away. While her children and loved ones grieve, investigators immediately look into their prime suspect, James Craig. First they search his home and find two plastic bags containing a white powdery substance where James keeps Angela's protein powder and blender bottles. Detectives have a hunch of what the white substance might be, and when they look at James exam room computer, the Search history helps investigators piece together a timeline of James murder plot. Some of the earlier search results include YouTube videos with titles like how to make murder look like a heart attack, how to make poison, a YouTube video called Top 5 Undetectable Poisons that Show no signs of foul Play. How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human? And is arsenic detectable in autopsy? From there, investigators find orders for both arsenic and cyanide through a company that distributes laboratory products to medical professionals. But those took too long to arrive. So in the meantime, James had purchased arsenic in metal form off of Amazon. Afterward, he seemed to realize that this wasn't the same kind of arsenic he was actually looking for because he also started googling dosage of tetrahydrozoline, I.e. fatal tetrahydrozoline poisoning timeline and then one that just says Visine. These searches paint a clear picture of a man who was not really thinking about covering his tracks. The most he did was make a new email address to conduct these searches with the handle Jim and waffles. From there, investigators obtained James's credit card statements that show he purchased hauls of eye drops from a couple different drugstores. It seems like he was making do with over the counter substances before the medical grade ones arrived, which they eventually did the day Caitlyn saw the package. Now investigators need to figure out why James would go through all of this trouble in the first place. And soon they find out. They discover emails between James and Karen which help them establish a potential motive for James to kill his wife. Eventually, Karen tells authorities that she had no idea what was really going on because James told her that he was divorced. Lying about his marriage paints James in an even worse light. Just one day after Angela dies, he's arrested on first degree murder charges. Over the next two years, James awaits trial from behind bars, where he continually proves that he is not a criminal mastermind. He offers to pay his cellmate and other inmates to give false testimony on his behalf. And he even bribes them and their family members with up to $20,000 for them to falsely testify that they knew Angela and that she was suicidal. On top of that, he tries to take out a hit on the lead investigator. This is all really bad. But perhaps one of the worst things James does is try to rope his own daughter into his schemes. He asks her to create a deep fake video of her own mother made to look and sound like a suicide note, and then destroy the laptop the video is made on. James's daughter does not agree to this. And after James's trial begins on July 15, 2025. She tells the court all about it. By that point, James has landed five additional charges for all the COVID up attempts he made in prison, including solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence, and solicitation to commit perjury. He pleads not guilty on all counts, but the evidence is against him because along with the lengthy paper trail he left, there's more to James alleged motive. On top of his affair with Karen, prosecutors also argue that James killed Angela so that he could collect her life insurance payout. Apparently, even after Ryan Redfern bought half the practice, the business was still struggling. And by killing Angela and making it look like natural causes, James would have access to a huge payout at some point. Prosecutors also confirmed that James laced Angela's protein shakes, laced her prescription medication, the same meds that he reminded her sister to have her take, and tampered with Angela's IV line while she was in the hospital. The trial went on for two weeks. Then it was time for the jury to deliberate. It took them eight hours over the course of two days to come to a decision and on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, they find him guilty on all counts. He's sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus another 33 years. Thanks to James. His children have to grow up without either of their parents by their sides. And those who cherished Angela were robbed of her too soon. What did you think of today's case? Drop your theories in the comments and follow us at crimehouse24.7 on TikTok and Instagram and subscribe on YouTube @CrimeHouse Daily for ad free listening, join Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You stay curious and I'll stay on the case. See you next time.