A Colorado dentist is accused of killing his wife by poisoning her protein shakes so that he could start a new life with his mistress.
45-year-oldJames Toliver Craig was arrested on Sunday morning in Aurora, on charges of first-degree murder.
According to the affidavit, Craig planned to “end his wife’s life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected, providing her poisons that align with her hospital symptoms, and working on starting a new life with [his lover].”
Police described the death of Angela Craig, his wife, in a news release as “a heinous, complex, and calculated murder.”
Craig drove his wife to a hospital on Wednesday evening after she complained of a headache and severe dizziness, police said.
Soon after arriving, she experienced a seizure, and underwent a rapid medical decline, before being placed on life support, according to police. She was later declared brain dead, and was taken off life support on Sunday.
An investigation was launched by Aurora Police Department’s Major Crimes Homicide Unit after Craig’s business partner spoke to a nurse about his concerns that Angela Craig had been poisoned.
According to the affidavit, his suspicions were raised after word got to him from an office manager that, two days before Angela Craig’s hospitalization, she had opened a package for Craig. Inside was a canister that had a biohazard sticker and a potassium cyanide label on it.
“James was known to make Angela protein shakes regularly,” the affidavit said. “It was believed he had provided Angela with the poison through these shakes.”
Craig allegedly ordered multiple poisons, and investigators said in the affidavit that he had also searched online for how to buy Oleander, a poisonous plant, how much pure arsenic could kill a human, and accessed an article titled: “6 Deadly ‘Undetectable’ Poisons (and How to Detect Them).”
Angela Craig had been hospitalized at least twice before Wednesday, per The Daily Beast, with investigators citing a string of emails to allege that Craig made travel plans for his mistress to visit him which lined up almost exactly with Angela Craig’s hospitalizations.
The emails were intimate and sexually explicit, and sent from the same email address Craig allegedly used to purchase poisons, according to the affidavit.
Craig made his first appearance in court on Monday, and remains in custody without bond.
According to the local television news outlet KUSA, he isn’t allowed to contact any of his six children.
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