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This is James Craig. He was a wellrespected dentist known for his goofy smile and his easy charm. But
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behind his happy facade lurked a darkness that was so rotten it will make you question what humans are truly
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capable of. Angela Craig was a devoted wife, loving mother, and active member
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of her church. She adored her exercise, her family, and the community that she
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called home. But when she suddenly fell mysteriously sick, confusion was felt far beyond her household because it
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baffled doctors, specialists, and even the health department itself. Test after
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test brought no answers. And as Angela's condition spiraled, only one person knew
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the full truth behind what was going on. So, what was happening to Angela? Who
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was behind this mysterious illness and why? Hey there folks and welcome or welcome
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back to Coffee House Crime. My name is Adrian and today we're looking at a story that will probably leave you well
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truly speechless. Now I am being very honest here, but this has to be one of the most alarming and heartbreaking
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cases that I've ever covered on this channel. And honestly, I'm at a sheer loss for words at the coldness behind
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this guy. By the way, if you like true crime, dark or strange stories, then please do consider subscribing. And now
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with that out the way, please grab yourself a coffee and let's get ready for the deep dive. This is the case of
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James and Angela Cray.
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Welcome back to Aurora, Colorado, folks. With a marriage this long and deeply rooted, our story will begin here, but
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multiple decades earlier. And during a time with what looked from the outside as a wholesome American romance, it was
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the 1990s in America, a decade that already feels like it belongs to another
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lifetime. I'm thinking about dialup, mixtapz, and walkman's and a distinct lack of social media. These really were
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the golden times. Your friends would make plans over landline phones, and if you missed a call, well, they'd just
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knock on your door instead. Friday nights would mean renting VHS tapes from Blockbuster. And Saturday mornings were
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basically for malls and coffee in foam cups. The world felt a little bigger, a
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little slower, and perhaps even a little more innocent, too. Is anyone else feeling a little nostalgic here? Anyway,
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it was in the mid 1990s that two people would cross paths, fall in love, and
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then follow a road that would change the course of their lives forever. And of course, I'm talking about James Toiver
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Craig and Angela Dawn Prey. Born on April 15th, 1979, Angela was the last of
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10 siblings. And she was described as warm, generous, and deeply caring. She
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was the kind of person who could strike up a friendship with basically anybody she met and would always put family
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above everything else. She loved to read, loved her mysterious TV shows, and
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would even get into woodworking. For Angela, life was always about the slow lane and looking after the people that
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really mattered the most to her. James, on the other hand, was both charismatic and extraordinarily ambitious with a
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sharp mind and a clear career path ahead of him. After graduating from a degree in dentistry, he would then go on to
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serve as a student professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry, which quite
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ironically is quite the mouthful. After finding each other, Angela and James fell wildly in love. By December of
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1999, they had officially married and both of them seemed quite keen for a stable family life. And that is
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precisely what followed because by 2023, the couple had six children together and
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a home found in the city of Aurora. They shared a beautiful home together, including six bedrooms, eight bathrooms,
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and over 6,000 square ft of property. The Craigs were your typical interdependent family with James being
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the financial supporter and Angela being the nurturing provider. You can tell in plenty of pictures that Angela was a
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mother through and through. Friends described her as the glue that held the family together. Meanwhile, James built
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a kind of successful career in the dental industry. Angela was the silent force behind his success and the kind of
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irreplaceable partner who made it all possible for him. She managed the home,
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raised their six children, and kept the lights on while James chased his ambitions. Over the years, they
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shouldered life's burdens together. And for a time, it did seem that their sacrifices had paid off. Eventually,
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James would go on to achieve his dream when he opened Summerbrook Dental Group, becoming Dr. Craig to all of the
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patients who would trust him with their smiles. But don't just take my word for it. You can check it out right here with
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Happy Corporate White Man Music included. My name is Dr. Jim Craig and I practice at Summerbrook Dental Group. I
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went to dental school at the University of Missouri at Kansas City uh from 2002 to 2006. I also taught dental classes at
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that same university for 3 years and immediately afterward I came out to this
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practice and I've been practicing here since 2006. My approach to dentistry begins with
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sincerely listening to the patient and wanting to find out more about where they're coming from and what they're
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looking for and what they want. I also have a very strong philosophy that a happy team makes happy patients. And we
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have such a wonderful team here at Summerbrook. There's really no weak links and I love hearing patients talk
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to me about how the positive interactions with my staff have affected their comfort level at the office.
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That's one of the hallmarks of Summerbrook Dentl is that we try to be happy here. Now, to the outside world, the Craigs
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really did appear to have it all. They had a thriving marriage by the looks of things. Beautiful children, a grand
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home, and their very own dental practice. They were also very active in the local church community, knew
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basically all of their neighbors, and had many friends in the area. So, basically, everybody knew their faces.
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And speaking of faces, if you look at the family's photos and portraits, you'll see what looked like a happy and
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blessed life. However, let's just say that behind the smiles of mom and dad, the truth was actually far more
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complicated. Unfortunately, it turns out that their marriage was actually far
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from perfect. Extraordinarily far, in fact. And most of those reasons were
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actually thanks to James and James alone. It turns out that in the background he was actually having
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multiple long-term affairs with various women with each one obviously leaving Angela completely devastated. However,
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each time it happened, he somehow convinced her to stay. This happened numerous times over the course of 16
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years. And of course, it was enough to make Angela want to leave on more than one occasion. But of course, with six
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kids, you can imagine that things were not so simple. And actually, the affairs were not the only secret weighing them
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down, either. James was also severely addicted to pornography, and apparently
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had been ever since his teenage years. Of course, this issue would further strain the intimacy between him and his
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wife. In addition to all of this, there was also one other thing that happened a few years ago, which you could probably
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call is, you know, just a small incident. It was in the year 2017 that James had intentionally drugged his
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wife. And I'm not talking about the metaphorical sense either, but literally, secretly, and without her
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consent. Angela woke up both disoriented and confused. And when she confronted him about it, well, James explained that
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he had done it to her, so she couldn't stop him when he tried to take his own life. And if you think about it, this
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wasn't a valid explanation at all. If anything, it just made things even worse. Now, after this incident, Angela
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did try to forgive him, but the truth is that she never really forgot. The relationship was never the same again
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after that, and it's clear that James saw that as just another excuse for his infidelity. Financial stress would only
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seem to deepen the cracks between them. James was clearly a risk-taker, both in life, people, and business. In fact, his
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dental practice was actually bleeding money, and by the year 2021, he had to file for bankruptcy. Apparently, Angela
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was saying to her friends in the background that James was unfortunately running the dental office into the
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ground, and that between them, they were barely keeping financially afloat. And while all of this was happening, James
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even traveled to Las Vegas and gambled away over $2,000.
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Money that the family simply did not have to spare. Things got so bad that in August of 2022, his friend Ryan Redern
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would have to step in and acquire the practice. Doing this really did save James' company, also making Ryan his
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business partner moving forward. Although the dental office was now technically stable, the rest of James'
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life clearly was not. In the early months of 2023, he had confided in Ryan
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that both he and Angela were having serious marital problems. And although he was quite vague with the details, it
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was clear that James was no longer satisfied. Meanwhile, Angela, who was loyal as ever, always tried to hold
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things together. She valued her faith, valued her marriage, and would try to seek counseling through the church. But
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all of those close to her could clearly see the toll it was taking on her life. And by early 2023, the home was filled
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with tension. Angela, who was now in her 40s, was carrying the weight of a failing marriage that had been shattered
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by a reckless manchild who liked to gamble, drug, and screw his morals into the ground. And despite all of this, she
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never stopped loving her husband or trying for her children. However, by March 2023, she found herself in a storm
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that no one could see coming. After seeing her family for a few days,
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Angela returned home to what should have been ordinary life. This included workouts in the morning, coffee, and her
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usual rhythms. However, on March the 6th, something seemed to shift without warning. The morning began like
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countless others. As usual, Angela and James worked out together with James
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handing her a protein shake afterwards, a gesture that recently had become part
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of their routine. But as James returned to the dental practice, Angela sent him a very worrying text message. It read,
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"I think my body is not liking the caffeine this morning. My head feels funny and dizzy and very strange." James
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responded by suggesting that maybe he had given her too much caffeine, while Angela would go on to express other
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symptoms, too. This included her eyes not wanting to focus, her head and eyes working slowly, and her body responding
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slowly. He would then go on to reply, "Given our history, I know that must be triggering, but for the record, I didn't
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drug you. It was unprompted and unnervingly precise, almost as if he had
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already thought about how this might look from her perspective." Back at home, Angela's vision had blurred and a
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tingling sensation had spread through her body. She was terrified, too, and had no idea why all of this was
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happening. And although he said that he would come home to help her, text messages reveal that he took 2 hours
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before getting on the road. James rushed her to the hospital. But the truth is that even doctors were baffled. I mean,
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her medical report noted symptoms of dizziness, fatigue, confusion, a pounding headache, unstable blood
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pressure, and nausea, which is a lot to have under one roof. It was so obvious that Angela was extraordinarily sick.
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However, all of her tests revealed nothing. And so with no evident cause, she was released to go home that day.
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Now, personally speaking here, but if I was this sick and all I got from the doctor was a look of confusion and then
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a push out the front door, I would be very unhappy. However, James was very nonchalant about the situation. And as
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for Angela, well, she probably thought it could have been anything like a cold or even just a virus. And so, she
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decided to head home and help look after the children. Angela's symptoms continued and by
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morning she was right back to where she was the day before. Despite these severe symptoms, James made the decision to
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head back into work. From there, messages between the two show how sick and confused Angela was and also how
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upbeat and nonchalant James appeared. By the next morning, Angela was once again
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so weak that she could barely stand. As a result, she was rushed back into hospital, this time being admitted for a
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longer stay. Her lifelong friend Nicole noted that when she visited her in hospital, she found her cold up in bed
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and unable to eat or even lift her head. It is noted that Angela told Nicole that
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James had made her another shake that morning and soon after she'd collapsed. And although Nicole texted James for
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answers, his reply seemed to be brief, merely saying that it was probably postcoid and not diabetes. What was also
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strange is that there was no alarm or sense of urgency in his text messages, merely a casual shrug at his wife's
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mysterious decline over the recent days. He would often bring food into the hospital for her and would always ask
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her if she wanted anything to drink, never missing an opportunity to bring in food or treats that she could consume.
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For five gruelling long days, Angela endured a range of tests. There were
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neurological scans, infection panels, metabolic workouts, you name it really.
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But despite all of these tests, none of them seemed to be conclusive. Meanwhile, her symptoms were both relentless and
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persistent. She had blinding headaches, blurred vision, eye pain, dizziness,
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heaviness in her limbs, tingling, exhaustion, and even vomiting. And every
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time she felt better for a short while, it would always follow with her crashing again and again. Hundreds of messages
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between her and James show her confusion, pain, and anguish. But James,
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on the other hand, would even seem excited by all of it, even joking about her extreme heart rate and her low blood
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pressure. By March the 14th, all medical personnel were yet again completely baffled by the situation. And so, being
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out of options, they opted to send her home. But it's clear that Angela was exhausted, frightened, and desperate for
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answers. Answers that she still hadn't received. She had no idea what was wrong with her, and she really wanted to know
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more. Throughout this entire ordeal, friends of the family noticed that James was providing clinical updates, but
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basically nothing else. He wasn't fearful at all and didn't seem curious as to what was wrong with his wife. And
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when he was talking to Angela, he basically seemed to have an excuse for everything like stress, a virus, or
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maybe even long co. But for Angela, this was horrifying beyond all measure. Because quite simply, she had no idea
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what was wrong with her body. And without a diagnosis, how could she tell if the worst was over or still yet to
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come? Well, let me tell you, sadly, this was just the beginning.
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Come March the 15th and Angela hadn't even been home for 24 hours. Still
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fragile from her unexplained illness, James decided to stay home with her that morning. But then by noon, everything
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had suddenly worsened. At around 11:00 a.m., Angela suddenly collapsed onto the floor. But not the slow spiraling
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weakness like before, but a sudden catastrophic crash. Her brother Mark, who just happened to be there at the
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time, rushed her to the hospital, and sadly there in the emergency room, Angela's body rapidly gave in. At around
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2:00 p.m., she suffered a violent seizure. That is when her body convulsed and her consciousness suddenly vanished.
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Doctors scrambled to force oxygen into her lungs, which now were no longer breathing on their own. Next, her blood
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pressure plummeted, and then her pupils stopped reacting. Scans concluded severe
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swelling in her brain and revealed that she was now comeomaosse with no signs of brain activity. As a result, they moved
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her to the ICU, hooked her up to life support, and prayed for a miracle. But
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in the hallways outside, something else was happening, too. James' behavior seemed rather off. And instead of
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staying by Angela's bedside, he now spent hours glued to his phone, stepping out repeatedly to take phone calls or
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send text messages. Both friends and family alike noticed this. And when they pressed him for if everything was okay,
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he just seemed well rather impatient and agitated. And that is when Dr. Ryan
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Redford, who is James' business partner, decided to pull a nurse aside. He had a
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very low but certain tone about him. and he said to the nurse, "I'm worried that Angela may have been poisoned with
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potassium cyanide." Now, those are very heavy words, and of course, they are massive insinuations towards his
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business associate, James. However, they were not pulled out of thin air, either because, as it turns out, only 2 days
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prior, a mystery package showed up at the office. It was a few days prior that James had told everyone at the office
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that he was expecting a personal package. And under no circumstances should anyone open it. But thankfully,
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one of his colleagues forgot those instructions. And so when she opened this box, she noticed a small plastic
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container with the words potassium cyanide on the label. Both confused and of course a little concerned, she
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decided to reseal the package before then handing it to James and basically said nothing of it. However, that
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curiosity would slowly gnar away at her, and when she realized the dire situation that Angela was in, she decided to speak
17:46
to her other boss, Ryan. With knowledge in chemistry and also being aware of James' history and current situation,
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Ryan's stomach suddenly dropped. He noticed that Angela's symptoms seemed to match that of cyanide poisoning almost
17:59
perfectly. And all of a sudden, he believed that maybe he had just solved
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the mystery. Within minutes, hospital staff contacted
18:10
the police, but of course, without any solid proof, they would instead sit quietly with this information. And while
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all of this was going on, what precisely was James up to? Unfortunately, it was the kind of stuff that would make you
18:24
furious. It turns out that the very next day and while his wife was still brain dead and hooked up with machines to help
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keep her alive, James was out with another woman that he had met only a couple of weeks prior. Now, we will talk
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more about his mistress Karen shortly. But it is worth highlighting for now that she had no idea about the true
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story behind James and Angela. Karen had caught a flight from Texas to help support James throughout this tragedy,
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who claimed that his ex-wife was sick and in hospital. After arriving, the pair checked into a hotel, made love,
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went hiking, and then enjoyed sushi together, all while Angela's heart was kept beating by a ventilator. The
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following morning, James then left Karen at the hotel, telling her that he had business to take care of. In reality,
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that business was choosing a burial plot for his wife, all while she was still technically alive. And then later that
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evening, he then returned to Karen to spend the rest of the night with her. At 4:29 p.m. on the afternoon of March the
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18th, Angela was tragically pronounced braindead and then removed from life support. The official cause of her death
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would later read acute poisoning by cyanide and tetrahydroolene, the chemical that can be found in eye drops.
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Of course, her family's grief was absolutely profound. However, beneath that grief burned something far, far
19:46
darker. In the last week or two, they had all grown rather suspicious of James. And as for investigators, well,
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that concern was becoming more definite. By the time that Angela had passed away,
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many of those investigators believed that she had in fact been murdered. And the man responsible for all of this was
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her very own husband. Angela's death didn't close the book, but instead blew this story wide open. and what began as
20:13
a mysterious illness by mid-March had transformed into a murder investigation.
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And thankfully, detectives wasted no time whatsoever. The tip from Ryan seemed to set the story ablaze. And by
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March the 16th, as Angela still lay dying, police interviewed both Ryan and his wife Michelle. Within this
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interview, they laid everything out on the table from Angela's strange symptoms right the way through to that mysterious
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package. And they even shared all text messages they had with James. And guess what? But it was in those messages that
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detectives realized something rather odd. James never seemed to even offer
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the possibility of this maybe being poisoning. Kind of like he was trying to steer any suspicion away from it. And
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when officers finally got around to interviewing other staff at the dental group, well, let's just say that they
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confirmed everything they needed to know. A dental assistant described how on March the 6th, that being the day
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that Angela first fell ill, she'd found James alone behind a computer in an unused exam room. Moments later, he then
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messaged her to say that a personal package would be arriving soon and that under no circumstances should anyone
21:21
open it. Well, the package would arrive around one week later with another employee opening it by mistake, which
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then revealed the container labeled potassium cyanide. And although she resealed it and then gave it back to
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James, curiosity would eventually get the better of her. A quick Google search told her all of the symptoms related to
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cyanide, which rather concerningly matched all of Angela's symptoms perfectly. And when Angela collapsed
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once again on March the 15th, the lab assistant told Ryan, who by that night then told detectives. When confronted
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about the entire situation, James first claimed that this package actually contained a surprise ring for Angela.
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But that story would not seem to last very long because soon after he changed it once again, claiming that it was
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Angela herself who had actually asked him to order cyanide because she had decided that she wanted to take her own
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life. No surprise, but the policeounded James with as many search warrants as possible. And on March the 16th,
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officers swept through the entire family home. They seized protein powders, shake
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bottles, and zip locks, all filled with white powder. They also took his phone and laptop, Angela's phone, and even
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more crucially, the hard drive that was found in the exam room computer. What they found on that computer was a hidden
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Gmail account, which was created only a few days before Angela's first visit to
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the ER. And under this email address, which was jimandwaffles@gmail.com,
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detectives found a slew of damning searches and purchases. On February the 27th, James searched how many grams of
22:59
pure arsenic will kill a human. Later that day, he ordered crystallized arsenic to the family home. Arriving on
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March 4th, only one day before Angela returned home from visiting family. But
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when arsenic wasn't working fast enough, he escalated the situation. on March the 6th, which was only hours after Angela's
23:18
first trip to the hospital, he ordered a deadly plant toxin called Oleandrin.
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However, when FedEx intercepted the package, he grew frustrated and moved on to something even faster. Of course,
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that being potassium cyanide. We'll get to how he did this later, but honestly,
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it's going to leave you horrified. And while Angela lay sick in a hospital bed, confiding in her husband how terrible
23:42
she felt, James was chasing the supplier for a faster delivery. So in short,
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detectives now believed that James first used arsenic to weaken Angela, delivering them through protein shakes,
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coffee, drinks, and food before then delivering the final and fatal blow with cyanide, which, as some of you will
24:00
already know, starves the body's cells of oxygen and then shuts down organs within hours. On March the 18th, Angela
24:08
was no longer in pain. She passed away surrounded by those who truly loved her.
24:13
And that very same day, a judge signed a 52page affidavit incriminating James.
24:19
And as word spread throughout Aurora, the community learned the horrifying truth that their friendly neighborhood
24:26
dentist was not actually a kind and caring father and husband, but instead a
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stone cold, narcissistic, vile, evil scumbag.
24:36
The end of the road for James came quietly and actually not at all were anyone expected. It was around 2:00 in
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the morning that officers knocked on the front door of that hotel room. And when James answered, they also found Karen
24:49
inside. By the way, this is just a reminder that this was merely hours after Angela was pronounced dead. And
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so, no surprise, James was then handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car. Now, to be fair to Karen
25:02
here, she was completely blindsided by the situation. Not only had James lied to her, but she didn't know that he was
25:08
still living with Angela either or that he was capable of murder. And I do want to make it very clear here, but Karen
25:14
was not part of his operation. She quite simply had no clue. The news spread fast, and behind the headlines of his
25:21
wife's death and his infidelity, a dark motive was slowly forming, one that
25:26
focused on James' secret affairs. Now, surprisingly, James and Karen had
25:31
actually met only two weeks before Angela's illness at a dental conference in Las Vegas. At the time, Karen had
25:39
recently divorced her own partner, and James saw this opportunity to make himself relatable, claiming that he was
25:45
a lonely man in a failing marriage. So, while on this conference, which only lasted 3 days by the way, they shared
25:52
dinners, flirted, and even kissed numerous times, too. But Karen, who clearly had standards, drew the line at
25:58
anything sexual for now. And quite surprisingly, James even agreed to respect that boundary, telling her that
26:04
it was reasonable. However, when James flew home, the floodgates between the two opened, and over the next 18 days,
26:12
they exchanged more than 4,000 text messages. James told her that he loved
26:17
her, told her that he was living separately from Angela, and even claimed that the divorce papers had already been
26:23
filed. All of this was false and instead James was planning Angela's death. And
26:29
when she was eventually hospitalized on March the 9th, he then invited Karen to Denver for a short visit. Her first trip
26:36
out to see him was between March the 8th and March the 10th, overlapping with Angela's second hospital stay. This is
26:43
just one of many disgusting details, but it turns out that James had actually coordinated this visit only minutes
26:50
after buying arsenic online. They also discovered that a second trip was scheduled for March the 16th to March
26:57
the 20th, which coincided with Angela's final collapse and death. And even while
27:02
Angela was lying in the ICU, James was still sending Karen affectionate emails and claiming that he loved her. And it
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turns out that Karen was not actually the only woman in James orbit because he was also messaging his so-called sugar
27:16
baby who was a lift driver named Carrie Hath. After their own investigation into
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Carrie, they realized that James had been sending her cash payments, gifts, and even a car for her daughter, and he
27:28
had also hired a prostitute during his many trips to Las Vegas. Carrie later claimed that James said to her that he
27:34
idolized the purge, a movie where the plot is that murder is legal for one night only. He even told her that if he
27:41
could kill anyone without consequence, it would be his wife. And then almost academically, he explained how to inject
27:49
someone with a lethal substance without leaving a trace. [Music]
27:54
To prosecutors, the motive was crystal clear. James basically wanted to erase Angela from his life. He would then
28:01
collect the $3.4 million in life insurance, wipe out his debt in the process, and then start fresh. Of
28:08
course, with Karen being a new partner. The timing was impeccably shameful. James ordered arsenic the day that Karen
28:14
emailed about her visit and he then ordered cyanide only days before she arrived for her longer trip. So it is
28:21
quite obvious to see that Angela's death was not just a means to an end but was quite literally scheduled. However,
28:28
James forever just as stupid as he is heartless never counted on Ryan or his colleagues noticing the signs or the
28:34
investigators moving faster than he did. And when they found out, well, it was game over for him. Now, unfortunately,
28:41
most of his trial was actually kept away from the public eye. However, there is a ton of information to share with you. In
28:48
court, the prosecution carefully outlined his plot and motive. They started with the forensic data that was
28:53
pulled from his Gmail account, which was a great place to begin with because it basically summarized everything. On
29:00
February the 27th, 2023, James searched for chemical suppliers in Aurora before
29:05
then making a purchase on Amazon of all places for arsenic metal. And I'm sorry, but how is it Amazon of all places that
29:12
you can buy this for only 13 bucks? That is absolutely insane, Basos. What are
29:18
you even doing? James then searched for arsenic on Alpha Chemistry's website, which is a place that provides many
29:24
variations. After that, he searched how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human before then searching is arsenic
29:31
detectable in autopsy. He literally watched a YouTube channel called How to Make Poison. and not just part one, but
29:37
parts 1 through to six. By the way, there is a lot more to his search history, too, but I'm trying to keep
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this video fairly succinct. Moving on to his orders, he then purchased Sigma 207810-25g,
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which is the technical term for potassium cyanide. And when the supplier asked what he needed it for, James
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claimed that it was to possibly eliminate intolerances, which are seen in some patients with metals. He even
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went on to tell the supplier that he needed this cyanide as soon as possible so he could demonstrate this research to
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the students. As you can see, there was a lot of back and forth in these emails. But long story short, James was
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extremely impatient to get the cyanide. And just a side note, but I really hate the way this guy types. It seems like
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absolutely nothing sounds serious with him. Prosecutors also highlighted many emails between James and Karen during
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the time that Linda lay dying in a hospital. James was both affectionate and sexual in nature and spoke with
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great excitement about plans to see her. Even Angela's messages would become evidence, too. That haunting message to
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James on March the 6th, saying, "I feel drugged." And his flat denial, saying, "I didn't drug you," were key in this
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case. Friends also recalled how she constantly asked for help. And how James seemed to brush it off as just postcoid
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and never suggested testing for poison. From there, the prosecution easily
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painted the motive that his affair with Karen, his crushing debt, and the $3.4 million in Angela's life insurance could
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all be solved in her death. The defense would try to counter this by claiming that Angela was depressed and actually
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poisoned herself because she wanted to end her own life. But to Angela's friends and family, this suggestion was
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extremely insulting because Angela was happy with her life and there was no way that she would do that to her children.
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In fact, it was noted that while behind bars, James had even begged his daughter to help create a deep fake AI video of
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her mom asking to be poisoned, which honestly is such a disgusting thing to ask your child. Apparently, James gave
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step-by-step instructions in a letter for how to create a deep fake video. The letter's directions included buying a
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cheap laptop, installing a private network and dark web browser, and even paying for the project using a prepaid
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Visa gift card. Thankfully, his daughter declined to help him, and this was just another nail in the coffin for James.
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And so, after three weeks of testimony, the jury needed next to no time to deliberate. And on July the 30th, 2025,
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they found James Toiver Craig guilty of firstdegree murder, evidence tampering, and witness manipulation. As a result,
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he was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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As diverted form count one, murder in the first degree. We the jury unanimously and beyond a reasonable
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doubt find the defendant James Craig guilty of murder in the first degree.
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Dr. Craig unleashed a path of destruction as wide as a tornado and
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just as devastating. As you can imagine, both sides of the family were elated to hear the sentence.
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During the victim impact statements, one of Angela's brothers said that James acted out of selfishness, lust,
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dishonesty, and narcissism. Meanwhile, one of her sisters called James a snake in the grass. And one of his very own
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daughters said, "My dad was supposed to be my hero, but instead he will forever
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be the villain in my story." When offered a chance to speak, James quietly declined. Which, to be honest, is
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exactly what I would expect from him. Throughout the trial, it became very evident that James was no longer in love
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with his wife. However, with the divorce threatening to cost him half of his empire and a heap of shame on his name,
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he chose murder instead, keeping his wealth while simultaneously he cashed in
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with her life insurance. Of course, there was one other motive, too. James truly believed that Karen was into him,
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and he thought that if he were to get rid of Angela, then he could live with her instead. But the funny thing is that
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Karen was not really into James too much actually. Not only that, but she had no part in his deadly fantasy.
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If I had known what was true, I would not have been with this person.
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In total, how long were you together with James Craig? I want to say it lands right exactly at
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3 weeks. Do you think that James Craig allegedly poisoned his wife to clear the deck so
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he could be with you? There's no way I'm motive. There's been no planning a
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future together. He at no point seemed stressed or anxious or I mean really I
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had to drag it out of him like are you sure you're okay? Cuz he seemed okay. It's worth remembering here that
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Angela's life meant far more than the way it ended. She is remembered for her warmth, her devotion, and her tireless
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energy. and her story has touched far beyond Aurora. And sadly, as has the
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skid mark that we now call James, James will now live in a Colorado prison for the rest of his life, stripped of the
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respect that he once had. His name is forever bound to betrayal, greed, and shameful murder, where Angelus, by
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contrast, is bound to love, resilience, and truth.
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Yet again, this case is a horrible reminder that even a polished facade can always hide terrible truths. Reflecting
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on this case, I still genuinely can't believe what James did. The sheer level of cruelty that he inflicted on his own
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wife is absolutely incomprehensible and in my opinion is nothing short of torture. But seriously, how can someone
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have such little regard to the person they love and the mother of their own children? It's just absolutely heartless
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to me. James Craig stands out as one of the most cold-hearted and calculated monsters that I have ever covered on
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this channel. And as you can tell, I have zero sympathy for this pig. But anyway, that's my own opinion out the
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way, and I'd love to know what you think about this case. So, as always, please share your thoughts in the comments down below. Anyway, folks, I think that
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pretty much wraps up this case today. Thank you so much for making it this far. I really do appreciate it. And if
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you haven't subscribed yet, please consider doing so. It never goes a miss. Anyway, I'll see you again very shortly,
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likely next week. But until then, please make sure to look after yourselves, look after each other, and stay curious.
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Thank you and goodbye.
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[Music]