AURORA, Colo. — The wife of an Aurora dentist was fatally poisoned by cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, an ingredient commonly found in Visine, according to an autopsy report from the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office that was obtained by 9NEWS.
The report also lists arsenic poisoning as a "significant condition" related to the March 18 death of 43-year-old Angela Craig. According to the document, when her body was examined, "lethal concentrations of cyanide were found" as well as lethal doses of tetrahydrozoline. There was no evidence of a "significant" traumatic injury.
The coroner in Arapahoe County testified during a preliminary hearing on Wednesday which is when a judge ruled there was enough evidence to move the case to trial.
Her death was ruled a homicide. The report says blood concentrations between 1 and 2.5 mcg/ml can cause stupor or coma, with death occurring at levels exceeding 2.5. The concentration in Angela's system was listed as 1.7 mcg/ml.
The report says that oral doses of tetrahydrozoline can cause the following:
- Decreased body temperature
- Slowed heart rate
- Decreased blood pressure
- Irregular breathing
- Coma
James Craig, 45, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the case. He will appear for an arraignment on Aug. 29. In the meantime, he's being held on a $10 million cash-only bond at the Arapahoe County jail.
On Wednesday, prosecutors described Craig’s actions as deliberate and determined.
They claim he went on Google and searched questions like “how to make murder look like a heart attack.” Angela Craig’s search history was different, according to investigators. They said she was looking for doctors who could help her.
A detective with Aurora Police testified home surveillance video shows Craig holding bottles his wife usually drank out of and holding a syringe at one point.
“I knew the details, but it’s hard to relive the memories,” said Mark Pray, one of Angela Craig’s siblings.
Family wanted to be at the preliminary hearing to see the case move to trial. Closing remarks provided a glimpse of the arguments that could be made at trial.
Prosecutors said Craig wrote letters to a girlfriend while in jail and he was in financial trouble before Angela’s death.
Craig’s defense team called the evidence circumstantial. They said the surveillance video doesn’t show a poisoning but rather a loving couple.
It’s not easy for family to hear the details. But Angela Craig’s brother Mark Pray talked about a memory he’s OK remembering from the day she passed.
“Her walk of honor as they took her out to be a donor, and her heart was still beating and that sweet heart will go on to bless other people’s lives,” he said.
James Craig was a dentist at Summerbrook Dental Group in Aurora, according to the practice's website. His bio says he and Angela have six kids.
According to an arrest warrant from Aurora Police, James Craig used an office computer to research and buy "undetectable poisons," and he bought crystalline metalloid arsenic from Amazon a few weeks before his wife's death.
Angela Craig went to a hospital three times – on March 6, March 9 and March 15 – after becoming faint and dizzy. A witness told police that before the first hospitalization, James Craig made his wife a protein shake before a workout. The affidavit says Angela Craig became faint and dizzy after the workout, and her husband took her to the hospital.
On the day Angela Craig went to the hospital for a second time on March 9, the arrest warrant says James Craig placed an order for potassium cyanide with a Nebraska company. In an email, James Craig told a customer service representative at the company that he was a surgeon and planned to use potassium cyanide for research on a medical procedure, according to police.
On March 13, James Craig received a package at his office that was opened by an office attendant who found a biohazard sticker and a circular canister that said "potassium cyanide" on it.
The office manager found on a Google search that Angela Craig had the same symptoms consistent with potassium cyanide poisoning, according to the affidavit. The office manager told another employee about the package when she heard Angela Craig was back in the hospital on March 15.
James Craig's business partner went to the hospital when he learned Angela Craig's condition was grave. According to the warrant, he told a nurse he believed Angela Craig had been poisoned because her husband recently ordered potassium cyanide for their dental practice.
Although concerns about possible poisoning were raised prior to Angela Craig's death, the autopsy report indicates tests were not done until after her death.
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