When Angela Craig went to the hospital feeling sick, doctors didn’t know what was happening. When she died, all eyes focused on her husband, Colorado Dentist, James Craig.

 It was a crisp March morning in Aurora, Colorado. The kind that hints at spring, but still carries winter’s chill. Inside a spacious, suburban home, the air was about to turn colder in a way no forecast could predict.

James Craig was a successful dentist: smart, respected, a father of six, and, by all accounts, a devoted husband. At his dental practice, Summerbrook Dental, patients said he had a gentle touch. But beneath that professional polish, something was rotting. Something no cleaning could scrub away.

His wife, Angela, was the love of his life or at least, that’s what he told people. They’d been married for over two decades, raising a bustling family, building a seemingly picture-perfect life. But what looked perfect on the outside  was slowly unraveling from within.

In early March 2023, Angela began feeling sick. Nausea. Dizziness. Blurred vision. She brushed it off at first,  maybe a bug, maybe stress. After all, life with six kids is no walk in the park. But things got worse. Fast.

She was rushed to the hospital on multiple occasions with strange, unexplained symptoms. Her condition would briefly improve only to plummet again. Doctors were baffled. James seemed worried. Attentive. By her side. Taking notes. Asking questions. The model husband.

Until the cracks started to show.

James’ dental colleague alerted staff and authorities at the dental office that James had been receiving suspicious packages—chemicals, powders, lab-grade materials. Substances with names like potassium cyanide and arsenic trioxide. Not exactly standard dental supplies.

Then came a frantic email from James to his office manager: “If any packages arrive, don’t open them.” He was always controlling, she said later. But this? This felt different. Darker.

Days later, Angela Craig would slip into a coma and be declared brain dead. 

A vibrant woman, a mother, a friend was gone. Her body shutting down in what doctors now suspected was poisoning. The question wasn’t just what happened. It was who could’ve done such a thing… and why?

Aurora police detectives got the answer faster than anyone expected.

They dug into James’s online activity — and what they found was chilling. Search histories and YouTube videos detailing lethal dosages of poisons; how long it would take for thallium to kill someone; whether certain toxins could be detected in an autopsy.

Even more damning, James had a secret email account. Through it, James had been communicating with a woman in Texas who authorities discovered was his lover. She too was a dentist and she was supposed to visit Colorado the very weekend Angela fell gravely ill.

It painted a grim picture, one of betrayal, obsession, and a diabolical plan to make Angela disappear… quietly.

James Craig was arrested just days after his wife’s death. Prosecutors allege he laced her protein shakes with cyanide and arsenic; slowly, methodically, over days, maybe even weeks.

The motive? Simple. He wanted a new life. One without Angela.

Craig is charged with multiple crimes including first-degree murder, solicitation to commit murder, solicitation to commit perjury, and two counts of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. 

But the story doesn’t stop there.

 While in prison, James allegedly offered a fellow inmate $20,000 to kill Detective Bobbi Olson, the lead investigator in his case and author of the 52-page affidavit. The plot surfaced through jailhouse conversations, which were recorded and reported by other inmates.

Prosecutors said Craig also tried to fabricate a false suicide narrative for Angela, directing inmates to plant fake suicide letters suggesting she took her own life. In exchange for the letters, Craig promised the inmates free dental work. Class act. 

The trial is set to begin in July and conclude three weeks later. As of press time, there has yet to be a verdict in the trial.