Dentist Husband Murders Wife by Poisoning Her Protein Shakes: Investigators

it's almost like he took a shotgun approach if you'll allow me to say that you know it's like let's see what we can do to bring about the death of this poor woman you know to eliminate her a picture perfect family destroyed when this dentist father of six and husband of more than a decade allegedly murders his wife by poisoning her protein shakes well he can witness her slowly moving or migrating towards that edge of the cliff where she's going to fall off investigators say he made incriminating internet searches leading up to her death like is arsenic detectable in an autopsy if you're when you're an investigator and you're kind of digging into this and you're um I can only imagine you know that they thought that they had struck uh evidentiary gold meanwhile he was apparently having an affair with another woman and he's still communicating with this third party and again that that adds another chilling level and now he's accused of evidence tampering from behind bars if somebody has perhaps fear that something is going to happen to them as a result of them saying something that's tampering Our Story begins in March of last year when 43-year-old Angela Craig starts feeling ill together she and her husband James Craig also known as Jim shares six kids and live just outside Denver Colorado James has a practice in Aurora where he works as a dentist that's all background to the symptoms Angela begins feeling severe headaches dizziness and seizures she even texts her husband saying quote I feel drugged after her third trip to the hospital Angela's condition worsens she's put on a ventilator and later declared medically brain dead she officially died on March 15th 2023 but an investigation soon pointed in the direction of her husband James who made some questionable decision decisions leading up to his wife's death like allegedly purchasing Cyanide and arsenic on Amazon to piece together all the elements in this case I sat down with forensic death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan the poisoning itself is what would be referred to as a slow dosing you're trying I think a perpetrator would be attempting to get enough into this individual system over a protracted period of time so that it mask itself as something other than an acute poisoning so it's almost like a chronic event where there's like it's kind of slow downhill and you know the uh the potassium cyanide would you know it would kind of manifest itself in a chronic state of light headedness um maybe shortness of breath um you might have issues with discoloration of the fingernails um which should be a clue I think many times um and as the as the body itself becomes more U uh hammered by you know this toxicity over period of time eventually death will follow according to Morgan symptoms of poisoning could be masked as some sort of other illness even still it's not super easy to get away with it would have it would have a manifestation of perhaps they're having some kind of respiratory event it could lead certainly to a cardiac event um and perhaps coma and if you've got those other things kind of leading up to it from a clinical standpoint you can say well yeah you know perhaps this was she had like congestive heart failure um maybe maybe just maybe uh she suffered a myocard infarction which is you know uh a fancy term for a heart attack and that people would just kind of give it a glance and then move on but you know that wasn't the case so it's really hard to get away with and according to investigators they know exactly who was responsible for Angela's death her husband per the criminal complaint James made some strange moves before his wife died specifically through his work A co-worker told investigators she saw James in an exam room with the lights off using a work computer this was odd because James had his own office computer and personal laptop he regularly took to and from the office and when investigators took a look at the search history they allegedly found searches like quote how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human is arsenic detectable in autopsy all you need to know about arsenic poisoning top five undetectable poisons that show no signs of Foul Play how to make poison and the top 10 deadliest plants they can kill you just based on internet searches and that sort of thing you're thinking that this is something that is greatly premeditated there's planning that goes into this and I think that that's what makes this even more Insidious if you will yeah the internet searches I'm glad that you brought them up because at least to me and according to investigators who use this in the criminal complaint it was pretty incriminating some of the things that he Googled or looked up was how quickly these things work or whether they show up in an autopsy do you find that those searches would be incriminating gosh yeah I mean look you know I get I got to tell you you know in in my world you know even working at a university or doing research for any program that I you know that I appearer on I worry sometimes when I do searches you know because I'm trying to get a background on something trying to understand you're talking about a a practicing dentist who has um you know patients that are coming in to see him for dental care on a regular basis why why would you be searching out um you know whether or not those of us in the medical medical legal field are going to be able to pick up on uh you know the poisoning you know in someone's system uh why is that of interest to you because there's no there's no application for that professionally for him so our expert a forensic death investigator tells us a dentist would have no use for arsenic or cyanide but investigators say James ordered both on March 13th just two days before Angela died one of james' co-workers accidentally opened a package for him inside the package she saw a biohazard sticker and what said potassium cyanide on a circular canister she later Googled what potassium cyanide was used for and saw that Angela had the same symptoms he's a dentist but he you know it his hard he's a scientist and understands human anatomy physiology he certainly understands at least at some some level the toxicity of of um of heavy metals which uh you know is comes into play here because we're talking about arsenic as well it's not just potassium cyanide James had allegedly ordered this item from Amazon and also arsenic just a note the description stated that arsenic is often believed to be used for murder as it has been in many crime novels the second portion of the informative description stated that the real danger is in swallowing it which could very well prove fatal so the way that he ended up getting these poisons that were allegedly used to murder his wife the cide and the Arsenic there are receipts that he ordered these on Amazon is this something that is easily accessible for people or could it be because of his background in the medical field as a dentist that he was easier it was easier for him to get his hands on yeah I think that that's again you know I'm kind of projecting here but I'm I'm thinking that perhaps the fact that the position that this individual held uh within the medical community within the dental Community uh maybe he got really confident in the idea because you know that's kind of a it's kind of a bold move you know this is no different than going out and you know having a traceable weapon because you know the these elements are in fact weaponized so if you're talking about a firearm if you're if you're you know uh going out and purchasing elements of a firearm or maybe a firearm itself and you're creating this digital Trail and then all of a sudden you wind up shooting somebody uh there's going to be you know signs pointing to this um with with these items these toxic items that he ordering you know through Amazon as You' mentioned um it would be uh a definite red flag uh but I think that he thought that he could fly under the radar perhaps from a clinical standpoint you know maybe he could rationalize it what's more investigators say this wasn't the first time James tried to poison Angela we already mentioned the text Angela St James writing quote I feel drugged but the criminal complaint goes on to allege quote when when Angela was discharged March 14th 2023 she made accusations that James had poisoned her Angela said something to James along the lines of there are poisons they do not test for a friend later spoke with investigators and said Angela and James's marriage had always been tumultuous James had multiple affairs with several women told Angela he had been addicted to pornography since he was a teenager and drugged Angela approximately 5 to six years ago if you go through the criminal complaint there are hundreds of text messages between Jim Craig his wife Angela and other people and some of the things that really stood out to me are allegations that this wasn't the first time that Jim had attempted to poison Angela he actually has texts where he says to her hey for the record based on our past I did not drug you could that be brought up in the case as it moves forward I mean he may have attempted this before yeah most certainly yeah it could be because you know what does it what does it go go to establish well it establishes his state of mind it it goes to this idea of um of planning and that's that is huge you know in a case like this this this is not something that would say for instance if you're if you're thinking about it from the perspective and it's dependent upon what law uh how the law is written in any particular state but uh when you're looking at a case like this um and you begin to think about premeditation you know that's the big element here right you know how much thought is going into this and I have friends in in the legal side of the house that will say things you know like you know premeditation can be formed in the twinkling of an eye uh it can be however when you have this this long chain you know of planning and and you're talking about this you know how how common is it to talk to somebody about uh poisoning or having to say I didn't poison you and then all of a sudden you have an individual that has died of poisoning um it's it's quite Dam witness the lies I didn't lie to you on that holograph I promise the coverups I could see his brain on the moments they confess I grabbed one of the kitchen knives I Ked outrageous police interrogations I know I forgot the head want ah head you have to see to believe oh my God law and crime interrogation subscribe today but there's more James was allegedly in a relationship with another woman during all this investigators found emails that were quote intimate in nature and contained sexually explicit conversations there were also travel plans within those emails to redacted the first travel dates were March 8th through 10th 2023 what showed redacted traveling from Austin Texas to Denver Colorado Angela was in the hospital during March 9th to 14th 2023 so according to investigators James had the other woman visit him while his wife was dying in the hospital there's also an email from the woman featured in the criminal complaint in it she stated she knew it had to be hard what he was going through and that she wanted to be there for him but did not want to mix in with his family and friends and pretend to only be a friend when there was something more she also signed the message I love you then when we're looking at his wife Angela who was going in and out of the hospital several times because as you mentioned it was low dosage of the poisoning while she's there we have lots of texts where he seems to be this caring husband but at the same time we later find out he's emailing with another woman so he's having an affair with someone else and investigators say that that could be motive what do you make of that the trick is this when you you enter into this clinical State uh in the hospital where this woman is being treated and you'd mentioned and we had mentioned both you know low dosing clinicians don't typically their mind doesn't automatically default to well this is a poisoning you know they're they're trying to solve the problem that they see let's get her healthy but then after you know this this substance has built up in her system it's kind of you know you get to this point of no return and he can he can witness this he understands this clinically he can witness her slowly moving or migrating toward that edge of the cliff where she's going to fall off and then he's still communicating with this third party and again that that adds another chilling level this is even this even goes beyond somebody just randomly walking up and shooting and killing somebody you're you have before you uh which you have an understanding of because again the clinical background you understand what happening to this poor woman right before your eyes you see the pain that she's going through um you see these changes in her body somebody that you have said that you actually loved at one point in time and but yet you know what's happening at a cellular level with her body as it's breaking down but yet you're still maintaining contact with this third party that you have this desire to be with and again I think that that's the most chilling element to this whole case then there's James is complete refusal to have an autopsy performed on Angela's body after she died you know from a forensics perspective we we understand we try to be as compassionate as we can you know with families if they're saying that they don't want an autopsy we understand it's been a hard Road however um our for us our default position is you've got a a woman who's young she has no kind of previous medical history any anything that that rises to this level you would think again I go back to his clinical uh background you would think that well she has a problem don't we want to try to solve this and understand uh the causality here because this could translate to our children you know this could be this could be a death sentence for them later on if it's some kind of you know metabolic thing that's going on with them that they're genetically predisposed those to you'd want to have those those answers and dependent upon how to what level these protest rise to uh U investigators will gauge that if it's if it's so over the top where there're so demanding that they don't want it and they're you know they're uh you know slamming their you know their fist on the desk and proclaiming this is not going to happen um and they do it over and over that's going to be a big red flag for us so if investigators were able to do an autopsy and they look into it what would they find in terms of the poison what it had done to her body yeah you would see changes uh uh at in the organs and you know we we look at these things uh you talk about you know uh when an autopsy is done that's what's referred to as a gross dissection and I don't mean gross in the terms that people generally believe it uh to be used in I'm talking about gross and kind of with the uned eye and you look at the changes that going in the body and that can be displayed um sometimes you can appreciate it uh these changes that will occur in the organ systems but uh one of the other things that you're going to look into is when we do histological samples and that's where the organs you know because the purpose of us doing the examination is to uh take sections of of these organs and then uh prepare them and put them on a glass slide and then you can see changes you know at um what we refer to with the aided eye that is microscopically you're sitting there and you have a pathologist that's going to be going over these slides and he'll say oh wow these are changes that are consistent with being exposed to some type of toxic element and that that would be a dead giveaway that you're that you're looking for at that point in time days after Angela died James was arrested and charged with first-degree murder James was also charged with one count of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence prosecutors alleged starting before he was arrested James tried to get a family member to tamper with evidence then just this month prosecutors added an additional count of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence so far the person hasn't been named and it's unclear what James allegedly asked them to do but based on the investigation we know James allegedly had a history of speaking to Witnesses he sent a message to a longtime friend after Angela died reading in part quote if we were ever friends please do this favor for me please don't talk to anyone about what we talked about last night including Law Enforcement Officers you were under no obligation to answer their questions unless you were served as subpoena and you will do more damage than good to my family and that isn't legal either well you're you're attempting to if you have a witness that say the prosecutor has identified that or it in your mind even if the prosecutor hasn't identified that person as a witness per se um in your mind uh and I'm talking about his if you have identified them as a potential witness and you're going to manipulate them in some way whether it's through force or money or whatever it might be you're extorting um that that can qualify as witness tampering and what you're trying to do is impede the flow of information from that witness back to those that are doing the examination of the witness okay whether it be the defense or the prosecution uh you know the court in general so that can lead um to you know perhaps influencing the outcome of of a trial uh you know we think about uh you're looking at uh someone that might take the stand in the midst of a homicide trial and if they've been influenced in any way by say okay you don't need to say this do you remember when this happened it's probably not a good idea to actually mention that because it's going to not bode well you know for the defendant that's tampering you know at a at a very base level the trick is the prosecution has to prove that and that's you know that's kind of that that can be kind of difficult it's not as to say like a perjury but it can be difficult and you're looking at a lot of circumstantial evidence if there's anything electronically or notes being passed and uh you know I've actually heard of some um some cases you know where people can just merely give someone a look and if there's that that element of intimidation that's in there that can be interpreted that way as well so if somebody has perhaps fear that something is going to happen to them as a result of them saying something that's tampering all this is likely something we'll see at James's coming trial what would you expect as far as the prosecution's case would they have people like you potentially expert Witnesses called to discuss what happened to Angela in her final days yeah you're GNA have it's going to be fascinating to watch and this is why um because it's not just going to be people in forensic practice you're going to have clinicians that treat people you know for things uh like poison um you're going to have uh uh individuals that will come in and they'll talk about U cases that they have examined over the years with toxicity relative to uh you know cide or arsenic or you know any of these other elements that are involved in this case um and they're going to be asked in very descriptive terms to well let's delineate between all of these and what's going to be let see what would be the most effective delivery method for this you know uh would it be say for instance in U a shake you know that you're going to create and and apply it that way what what what type of dosages are we looking at and it's going to be kind of graduated they'll say well if you if you look at this dosage level you might expect to see this it'll be very subtle but if you get above that level then you're you're going to have these more acute manifestations where there'll be like you know severe nause and vomiting and stomach cramps and all of these other things that might happen uh you know increase in shortness of or events of shortness of breath so it's going to be very detailed if you enjoy science I think uh if you're a true crime and trial Watcher I think that this is this is going to be a very compelling case for for you does a crime like this surprise you that he would go to these lengths to allegedly murder his wife no no and you know look you know the those superficialities uh I mean and we see this you know even in today's context it doesn't have to be a picture in the frame we can see this just on any of the social media platforms where people you know kind of portray this this happy outward image and they they very well might have you know a house full of children that you would think it'd be full of love and care and all these sorts of things but all it takes all it takes is for one individual in a relationship to take their eye off the ball and suddenly you know you'll have this kind of malevolence that takes place in their life and I think that that's probably going to be explored uh in this case you know kind of the the the relationship that he had with his wife and certainly relationships he may have had peripheral to his family that have led this individual to want to make these uh these decisions these fatal decision right now James Craig is being held on $10 million Bond he's pleaded not guilty and is headed to trial on August 8th reporting for long crime I'm Sierra Gillespie

Channel: Law&Crime Network

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Id: MIRp0tlA5aU

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024