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Tag: Murder
California woman accused of husband’s murder freed 20 years later after new look at evidence
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California woman says her bloody bedroom was not a crime scene
“I thought truth and justice was at the front of everything. And it certainly has not been in my case,” Jane Dorotik told “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty in “The Troubled Case Against Jane Dorotik,” airing Saturday at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Dorotik reported her husband Bob missing the evening of Sunday, Feb. 13, 2000. She told the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department she had last seen him that afternoon, when he said he was going out for a jog. Bob Dorotik’s body was found early the next morning on the side of the road several miles from their Valley Center, California, home. He had been bludgeoned in the head and strangled.
“It was obvious to me that it was a homicide,” sheriff’s detective Rick Empson told Moriarty.
Investigators quickly determined Bob Dorotik wasn’t killed where his body was found, because there wasn’t enough blood there. When they searched the Dorotiks’ home, they found spots of blood all over the bedroom. Jane Dorotik explained that Bob had had a nosebleed recently, and they had dogs who had bled. But authorities dismissed her explanations.
“There was no question in our mind that this assault occurred in the master bedroom,” Empson said.
Three days after Bob Dorotik’s body was found, Jane Dorotik, 53, was arrested for his murder. She later posted bail, and though she was under a cloud of suspicion, she invited “48 Hours” into her home in 2000.
“It felt like a nightmare, and I kept saying ‘when am I gonna wake up?'” she told Moriarty.
When the case went to trial in May 2001, prosecutor Bonnie Howard-Regan described the 20 locations where investigators found blood.
“There was blood on the comforter. There was blood on the pillow sham …on the wall behind the bed … on the ceiling above the bed,” she said.
Howard-Regan also told jurors there was a large blood stain on the underside of the mattress. The prosecution theorized that Jane Dorotik hit her husband with an object in the bedroom and strangled him. She then dressed him in his jogging suit, put him in their truck and dumped him along the side of the road where his body was found.
“The evidence will show that all this blood that has been described to you, the observations made in this bedroom, that it was all sent out for DNA analysis, and it all came back Bob Dorotik’s blood,” Howard-Regan told the jury.
The jury deliberated for four days before finding Jane Dorotik guilty. She was sentenced to 25 years to life.
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“I just, I can’t see my way clear to a life in prison. I just can’t see it,” she told Moriarty in an interview in jail.
Dorotik spent years behind bars asking for a new examination of the evidence. She argued authorities focused on her from the beginning of the investigation and failed to follow other leads. But motion after motion was denied.
By 2016, she began working with a team from Loyola Project for the Innocent. They reviewed the bedroom blood evidence the prosecutor told the jury was fully tested and was Bob Dorotik’s. According to the appeal, not every single spot in the bedroom believed to be blood, was tested. Instead, representative samples were tested.
The appellate team says that several blood-like stains on items including a pillow sham, the nightstand and a lampshade turned out not to be blood. And some stains on the bedspread, which were described at trial as Bob Dorotik’s blood, were never tested at all.
“If you just look at all of the pieces of evidence that Loyola was able to absolutely take apart … and yet we know what was told to the jury in the original conviction… How can that happen?” Jane Dorotik told Moriarty when they spoke again two decades after her conviction.
The state stood by its original investigation, maintaining the bedroom was the murder scene and that the evidence still pointed to Jane Dorotik as the killer. It also claimed the defense arguments were “largely derived from speculation and misstatements of fact.”
In April 2020, Jane Dorotik was temporarily released from prison due to COVID health concerns. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office recommended her conviction be overturned due to new evidence in the case, but in October 2020, it made the decision to retry her.
The judge ruled that the new trial could go ahead, but that some key evidence presented in her original trial would not be admissible. In May 2022, just as jury selection was about to begin, the prosecutors dropped the charges.
“We no longer feel that the evidence is sufficient to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt and convince 12 members of the jury,” said Deputy District Attorney Christopher Campbell.
At a news conference outside the courthouse, Jane Dorotik expressed her relief.
“It just is overwhelming to realize that now I can determine my own future. It’s something I’ve prayed for and hoped for,” she said.
Woman suspected of kidnapping and killing girl is beaten to death by mob in Mexican tourist city
A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city’s famous Holy Week procession.
The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.
The mob surrounded the woman’s house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by – apparently intimidated by the crowd – as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless.
Fernando Llano / AP
Police then picked her up and took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood. The Guerrero state prosecutors’ office later confirmed the woman died of her injuries.
“This is the result of the bad government we have,” said a member of the mob, who gave her name as Andrea but refused to give her last name. “This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened,” she said, referring to the murder of the girl, “but this is the first time the people have done something.”
“We are fed up,” she said. “This time it was an 8-year-old girl.”
The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents’ outrage over the killing. Figueroa said a total of three people beaten by the mob – the woman and two men – had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggested they had also been beaten, though The Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman.
The state prosecutors’ office said the two men were hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition.
In a statement issued soon after the event, Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.
“Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers,” Figueroa said.
The Good Friday eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the old silver-mining town, went off as planned Thursday night.
People crowded Taxco’s colonial streets to watch hooded men walking while whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders in penitence to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.
But the earlier flash of violence cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.
Many participants wore small white ribbons of mourning.
“I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching,” said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. “I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization … I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day.”
Mob attacks in rural Mexico are common. In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo.
But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.
In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles.
Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture.
In February, Figueroa’s own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles.
In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely prey on the local population, demanding protection payments from store owners, taxi and bus drivers. They kill those who refuse to pay.
Cartel violence in Guerrero has continued unabated this year.
In February, investigators in Guerrero said they confirmed the contents of a grisly drug cartel video showing gunmen shooting, kicking and burning the corpses of their enemies. Prosecutors said they had reached the remote scene of the crime in the mountain township of Totolapan and found five charred bodies.
In January, an alleged cartel attack in Guerrero killed at least six people and injured 13 others.
The U.S. State Department urges Americans not to travel to Guerrero, citing widespread crime and violence. “Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero,” the U.S. advisory says. “Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers.”
Residents said they have had enough, even though the violence may further affect tourism.
“We know the town lives off of Holy Week (tourism) and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won’t want to come anymore,” said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. “We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us.”
Man charged with murder for Illinois stabbing rampage that killed 4
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After 34 years, girlfriend charged in man’s D.C. murder
Exactly 34 years after a man was killed inside his D.C. home, the Metropolitan Police Department announced his girlfriend has been arrested for the murder.
Metropolitan Police Department
Norman Rich, 34, known as “Semo,” was found inside his bedroom in his house on M Street, in the Northeast part of D.C., on Wednesday, March 28, 1990.
He was shot to death, police said.
Shelia Brown, now 66 years old and living in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by members of the Annapolis Police Department and the United States Marshals Service on Wednesday.
Authorities said Rich’s body was discovered by Brown, the mother of the couple’s three children. She told police at the time that she was about to run some errands, and right before she left two men came to their house looking for him. Brown told police she had recognized one of the men, “Ducky.”
When she returned home she found the front door open and Rich inside the bedroom, dead.
Police then offered a $25,000 reward for information about the case, but weren’t able to find the killer.
Detectives said their investigation found the alleged murder “was domestic in nature,” but didn’t offer further details on Brown’s arrest after three decades. During a Thursday news conference, D.C. police inspector Kevin Kentish said detectives never stopped looking at the case, WTOP reported.
Investigators used new technology and tests and began “looking at all the evidence, looking at witness statements and being able to find certain intricacies in the case that would lead to the closure.”
Brown was charged with second degree murder and obstruction of justice, after a D.C. superior court indictment.
Children’s author Kouri Richins tried before to kill her husband, new counts allege
A Utah woman who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband in 2022, then published a children’s book about grief, now faces another attempted murder charge for allegedly drugging him weeks earlier, on Valentine’s Day.
Kouri Richins, 33, is accused of killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in a small mountain town near Park City in March 2022. New charging documents filed Monday by Summit County prosecutors allege that it wasn’t her first attempt on his life.
They detail the perilous months preceding Eric Richins’ death, painting a picture of a paranoid man walking on eggshells around his wife as she made secret financial arrangements and bought illicit drugs that were later found in his system.
Prosecutors have said previously that Kouri Richins, who is being held without bail, may have tried to poison her husband the month before his death, but they didn’t file the additional charges until this week.
Skye Lazaro
The chilling case of a once-beloved author accused of profiting off her own violent crime has captivated true-crime enthusiasts in the year since she was arrested for her husband’s murder. She had self-published “Are You With Me?” — an illustrated storybook about a father with angel wings watching over his young son after dying.
Once lauded as a heartwarming must-read for any child who’s lost a loved one, the book has since become a powerful tool for prosecutors arguing that Kouri Richins carried out a calculated murder plot and attempted to cover it up.
The mother of three repeatedly called her husband’s death unexpected while promoting her book and was commended by many for helping her sons and other young children process the death of a parent.
Her attorney, Skye Lazaro, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the new charges. Lazaro has argued in early hearings that the evidence against her client was dubious and circumstantial.
Details on possible prior murder try
One bite of his favorite sandwich — left with a note in the front seat of his truck on Valentine’s Day — made Eric Richins, 39, break out in hives and black out, prosecutors allege in the new documents.
His wife had bought the sandwich from a local diner in the city of Kamas the same week she also purchased several dozen fentanyl pills, according to witness statements and deleted text messages that were recovered by police.
The state’s star witness, a housekeeper who claims to have sold her the drugs, told law enforcement that she gave Kouri Richins the pills a couple days before Valentine’s Day. Later that month, Richins allegedly told the housekeeper that the pills she provided weren’t strong enough and asked her to procure stronger fentanyl, according to the new charging documents.
In witness testimony, two friends of Eric Richins recount phone conversations from the day prosecutors are now saying he was first poisoned by his wife of nine years. After injecting himself with his son’s EpiPen and chugging a bottle of Benadryl, he woke from deep sleep and and told a friend, “I think my wife tried to poison me.”
His friends say they noticed fear in his voice as Richins, who had no known allergies, told them that he felt like he was going to die and that his wife might be to blame. Opioids, including fentanyl, can cause severe allergic reactions, including hives.
Details on Eric Richins’ death
A month later, Kouri Richins called 911 in the middle of the night to report that she had found her husband “cold to the touch” at the foot of their bed, according to the police report. He was pronounced dead, and a medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system.
“One or two pills might be accidental. Twenty — or five times the lethal dose — is not accidental. That is someone who wants Eric dead,” Summit County Chief Prosecutor Patricia Cassell said.
She alleges that Richins slipped the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for her husband amid marital disputes and fights over a multimillion-dollar mansion she purchased as an investment.
Eric Richins’ family believes Kouri Richins spiked his drink the night he died, according to “48 Hours.”
Possible motive?
Years before her husband’s death, Kouri Richins opened numerous life insurance policies on Eric Richins without his knowledge, with benefits totaling nearly $2 million, prosecutors allege.
Kouri Richins was also charged Monday with mortgage fraud and insurance fraud for allegedly forging loan applications and fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after his death.
Prosecutors argue she was in financial distress when her husband died and say she mistakenly believed she would inherit his estate under terms of their prenuptial agreement. Newly released documents indicated she had a negative bank account balance, owed lenders more than $1.8 million and was being sued by a creditor.
Charging documents indicate Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney and an estate planner in October 2020, a month after he discovered that his wife made some major financial decisions without his knowledge. The couple’s prenuptial agreement only allowed Kouri Richins to profit off her husband’s successful stone masonry business if he died while they were still married.
Utah law prohibits anyone convicted of murder from profiting financially off their crime.
Maternal murder accomplice?
The case took another turn when a newly released court affidavit revealed last week that investigators believe Kouri Richins’ mother might also have been involved in his death.
A Summit County Sheriff’s investigator wrote in the affidavit it is “possible” that Lisa Darden was “involved in planning and orchestrating” Eric Richins’ death.
Investigators discovered Darden had been living with a female romantic partner who died suddenly in 2006. An autopsy determined the woman died of an overdose of oxycodone, the affidavit said. The woman struggled with drug abuse, but at the time of her death she wasn’t in recovery, which the investigator said would “likely rule out the possibility of an accidental overdose.” Darden had become the recipient of the partner’s estate shortly before her death, the affidavit said.
The affidavit also said conversations “have been found on Kouri’s phone showing disdain for Eric on Lisa’s part.”
“Based on Lisa Darden’s proximity to her partner’s suspicious overdose death, and her relationship with Kouri, it is possible she was involved in planning and orchestrating Eric’s death,” the affidavit states.
No charges have been filed against Lisa Darden.
Tunisia sentences four to death for murder of politician Chokri Belaid
A court in Tunisia has sentenced four people to death and two people to life in prison on charges of participating in the murder of the prominent political leader Chokri Belaid in 2013.
He was found shot dead in his car in the capital, Tunis, prompting outrage.
The leftist politician had been a fierce critic of the then-ruling Islamist Ennahda party.
He claimed it turned a blind eye to violence perpetrated by extremists against secularists.
Although Tunisia hands out death sentences for the gravest crimes, no executions have gone ahead since 1990. Instead, they are usually commuted to life terms.
A total of 23 people have been charged in connection with Belaid’s killing.
“Justice has been done,” Prosecutor Aymen Chtiba said in response to the six sentences handed down on Wednesday morning.
The verdict was announced live on national television after 15 hours of deliberation, reports the AFP news agency.
Jihadists with allegiance to the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Belaid’s assassination, as well as that of Mohamed Brahmi, another left-wing opposition figure, six months later.
These murders sparked mass demonstration from outraged Tunisians, two years after the pro-democracy Arab Spring uprising had begun in the country and spread elsewhere in the Maghreb and Middle East.
Tunisia is now governed by President Kaïs Saïed, who has himself been branded an autocrat after a series of power grabs including dissolving the country’s main legal body, sacking the prime minister and suspending parliament.
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A Colorado dentist is accused of his wife’s murder. Did he poison her protein shakes?
In Aurora, Colorado, James Craig was a well-known dentist. He and his wife Angela Craig were raising six children. On March 6, 2023, Angela Craig reported feeling sick and her husband took her to a hospital.
There would be two hectic weeks and three hospital visits. On March 15, Angela Craig was put on life support; three days later, she was dead. Within hours, James Craig would be charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Angela Craig’s autopsy revealed she had been poisoned. And police claim the evidence points to her husband — alleging he searched online videos about poison and then purchased potassium cyanide and arsenic.
Podcaster Steffan Tubbs, who covered the case, says police allege in the arrest warrant that James Craig had made a Google search for “How many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?” Authorities believe he went further, lacing his wife’s drinks with poison. “He administered, allegedly the poison via her protein shakes,” said Tubbs.
Skye Lazaro, an attorney familiar with cases involving poison, tells “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales that James Craig’s defense might argue that police rushed to arrest him. “It’s essentially a three-day investigation,” she said of the time it took police to charge him with his wife’s murder.
James Craig’s defense has said he has a history of depression and had sought counseling in the past. Lazaro says they might argue he bought poison not to use on Angela Craig — but on himself.
As for those allegedly poisoned protein shakes, Lazaro says that from what she’s seen of the evidence made public so far, “The state hasn’t presented you any evidence that the poison was actually in the drink,” she said.
ANGELA CRAIG TEXTS HER HUSBAND “I FEEL DRUGGED”
On March 18, 2023, in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Angela Craig died. Just days later, former radio personality Steffan Tubbs began his podcast about the sensational case and the unimaginable news.
STEFFAN TUBBS (“Arsenic, DDS” podcast): I want to personally send our condolences to the friends and family of Angela Craig, just 43 years old. She passed away, declared brain dead … And not lost on me … is the fact that this family has been temporarily … destroyed.
James Craig had been almost immediately charged with the first-degree murder of his wife Angela. He has pleaded not guilty. The story of the dentist, his wife and the allegedly poisoned shakes would be told around the world.
Steffan Tubbs: Come on. A dentist. Allegedly ordering potassium cyanide and arsenic. Really?
But it was all as painfully real as a dentist’s drill.
Chelsea Otoya: Dr. Craig and Angela Craig were just like two peas in a pod.
Chelsea Otoya: The two of them in the office was cute cause they would play pranks on each other all day long.
Chelsea Otoya got to know James and Angela Craig when she worked for Dr. Craig at Summerbrook Dental.
Chelsea Otoya: They seemed like the perfect couple.
Until, according to Colorado police, James took his shot at the perfect crime.
CBS NEWS STREAMING NETWORK: Investigators say he researched poisons in the days leading up to his wife’s death.
The idea that the dentist stood accused of murdering Angela, his wife of 23 years, seemed incomprehensible because the Craigs seemed so close.
Chelsea Otoya: It just was heartbreaking for everyone, and I felt bad.
Steffan Tubbs (driving): Coming up on our left, the former home of Summerbrook Dental.
For Tubbs, the office building once home to Summerbrook, has become a tragic touchstone.
Steffan Tubbs (driving): The last time that I had eye contact with Dr. Jim Craig, he gave me a root canal.
Steffan Tubbs: I thought he was a great guy. I got incredibly competent friendly care. … He was a family man. We talked about his family, his kids … I — I met his wife.
Angela Craig was the heart and soul of that family — mother to their six children and a hands-on partner in what seemed like a thriving business.
Steffan Tubbs: She was not somebody just sit there and stay quiet. She was engaged in the dental practice. … She was somebody who was talking about ideas, and their marketing, their message.
Tubbs helped refine that message, working on some of Summerbrook’s advertising. He witnessed how those two peas in a pod worked side by side, with Angela pitching in as one of Jim’s office managers.
Steffan Tubbs: I thought it was kind of cool. You know, you’ve got a husband and wife, huge family. I thought it was — it was great to see a small Colorado business operated by, you know, husband and wife.
Tubbs’ podcast would delve into the disturbing details of Angela’s medical journey: how and why she was allegedly murdered. That account from police is contained in a 52-page arrest warrant.
Steffan Tubbs: In nearly 34 years of being a newsman, the most unbelievable and seemingly thorough arrest affidavit I have ever read.
The warrant alleges that “James has shown the planning and intent to end his wife’s life by searching for ways to kill someone undetected.”
Steffan Tubbs: This was not the James Craig that I knew.
The James Craig Aurora knew was on display that March 6, 2023, the day Angela’s odyssey began. James was at Summerbrook Dental when Angela texted from home: “My eyes don’t want to focus.” She texted “I feel drugged.”
James Craig headed right home.
He picked up Angela and drove to the ER at Parker Adventist Hospital. She reported feeling dizzy and weak. Doctors fast went to work.
Natalie Morales: She ends up going into the hospital, first time was March 6th, is that correct?
George Brauchler: That’s right. March 6th was her first time into the hospital.
At the time, George Brauchler was another force in Colorado talk radio.
He is also the former elected district attorney for Arapahoe County, where Angela Craig lived and would die, rattling this community.
George Brauchler: This is a huge story.
Like Tubbs, Brauchler has immersed himself in the details of Angela’s final days—a desperate two-week ordeal. But on that March 6, as the hours passed in the ER, there were lots of questions, but few answers.
George Brauchler: They really didn’t have a good answer for what she was going through and … they end up releasing her and sending her home.
Home — where Angela Craig appeared to think she was safe in her marriage. At least that’s how she sounded in messages the couple sent each other, with Angela now home, recuperating from her ER visit.
George Brauchler: There were texts … that would suggest a very supportive loving relationship.
James Craig texts, “I love you. It was so nice hanging out with you and just watching a show and snuggling.” Angela Craig texts James: “Hi Baby! I love your face.”
Back home, the busy couple picked up the daily routine that sustained them.
George Brauchler: Jim and Angela apparently worked out in the morning. They worked out together. And one of the things that Jim did for his wife was to prepare her a protein shake … It was an absolute routine.
George Brauchler: This was just part of the normal day.
James Craig texts: “I’ll need to ask what you’re hungry for and bring it to you. I’m kinda feeling just a smoothie or something.”
“I’m not feeling anything.” Angela Craig replies. “Don’t bring anything, I’ll eat something here.”
Within 24 hours, Angela Craig’s symptoms came back fast and strong. She headed back to Parker Adventist. This time she would be admitted.
Steffan Tubbs: The doctors and nurses are trying. They’re conducting tests. … They just cannot figure out what is ailing this relatively normal and healthy 43-year-old woman.
George Brauchler: All the steps that the doctors and medical staff had taken seemed to not be working. … it was a real mystery.
UNRAVELING A MEDICAL MYSTERY
Steffan Tubbs: There was nothing that would be even remotely a red flag, or this is a rocky, troubled marriage. None of that at all.
With Angela Craig still terribly sick, in March 2023 she was back at Parker Adventist a second time, now as an admitted patient. According to the warrant during her stay, Angela Craig texted her husband James Craig to say, “Now I’m hungry” and he texted back later that was bringing food, writing “Ok I gotchu.”
George Brauchler: The loving husband who wants to see his wife remain healthy.
Aurora Police Department
That arrest warrant contains numerous texts detailing how as Angela Craig was hospitalized, James Craig went back and forth from their home to her bedside to Summerbrook — a husband seemingly supporting his wife and caring for their kids.
Steffan Tubbs: He’s continuing to go to work, and I don’t begrudge him for that. He’s got a family of six kids.
And the warrant would show that apparent trust that Angela Craig placed in James, how she reached out to him to share her symptoms, texting, “I’m cold, super tired, weak, shaky and dizzy”
And James Craig sent compassionate texts to Angela Craig: “I love you and miss you and I’m so worried. I wish you were healthy enough to come home tonight and snuggle me.”
Steffan Tubbs: Angela Craig was so sick.
It seemed that all her symptoms had returned.
Steffan Tubbs: She had horrible headaches. Horrible nausea … She was dizzy. … And doctors were at a loss.
George Brauchler: Struggling to figure out what in the hell is causing this. What is making her sick?
Steffan Tubbs: And they just could not get an answer.
As Angela Craig stayed in the hospital without a diagnosis, James Craig was in touch with his friends Michelle and Ryan Redfearn.. Ryan Redfearn, a fellow dentist, had recently become business partners with James Craig, he would later tell police.
George Brauchler: Ryan Redfearn went to dental school with Jim Craig all those 20-plus years ago. He’d known him all that time. … He was a close confidant.
And with Angela Craig so sick, according to the warrant, James Craig also texted with Ryan’s wife, Michelle Redfearn, trained as a nurse.
Natalie Morales: What were they texting about?
George Brauchler: The texts were really the kinds of things you would exchange with someone who’s another medical professional. I mean, he was talking about blood pressure. He was talking about concerns the doctors had expressed about symptomology … that should have resolved by now.
But one of James Craig’s texts, in retrospect, seemed odd, as it appeared he was making light of Angela’s mysterious illness.
Steffan Tubbs: Jim Craig texts Michelle Redfearn, quote, “If it wasn’t my wife, this would be kind of a fun puzzle to try to work out, exclamation point.” Who says that?
Still, a bad joke in times of crisis isn’t unusual, says former DA Brauchler.
George Brauchler: Everybody reacts to trauma differently.
And James Craig seemed worried. It had been four hectic days since Angela was admitted. Police say Jim told others he was sleeping on a stool next to Angela that night when her vital signs crashed. Doctors responded through the night.
Steffan Tubbs: I have thought about every agonizing minute that Angela Craig was in.
But over the next day Angela Craig seemed to stabilize. And on March 14, still with no answers as to why she was sick, Angela was released from Parker Adventist. Once again, Angela Craig came home to her husband of 23 years. But she wouldn’t be home for long. Within a day she started feeling sick again.
On March 15, she was admitted to nearby University Hospital. There would be more tubes, tests and monitors. James Craig was soon by her side.
Steffan Tubbs: They had no idea what was wrong with her.
Police say James Craig didn’t stay long at first. Within half an hour, he drove home from the hospital. Then about an hour-and-a-half later, he returned, carrying food. Police say he then went into Angela Craig’s room, alone. Soon after, Angela Craig had a seizure and once again her vital signs crashed.
George Brauchler: It was critical.
James Craig took photos of his wife as hospital staff tried to save her.
George Brauchler: She is getting into dire, dire medical consequences.
Angela Craig, once so full of life, was put on life support.
George Brauchler: Doctors are struggling to figure out what in the hell is causing this? What is making her sick?
What medical staff didn’t know at the time was that days earlier, according to police, a package had arrived at James Craig’s office. Authorities say what was in that package, ordered by James Craig himself, would become key evidence in this case. James Craig allegedly told a staff member “that he would be receiving a personal package” and “not to open it.”
Steffan Tubbs: Jim Craig had said don’t open this package. Somebody did. She sees the words “potassium cyanide.”
Steffan Tubbs: Why are we getting potassium cyanide to a Colorado dentist’s office?
A PACKAGE MARKED POISON
Angela Craig was on life support and fighting to survive. James Craig texted the photos he took to Michelle Redfearn, writing “crash” “intubated” and “doc says she’s ‘very very worried’.” The couple raced to the hospital.
Ryan Redfearn would later tell police he watched as James Craig broke down.
Natalie Morales: He saw Craig crying after speaking to doctors about Angela’s prognosis.
George Brauchler: Yep. He did say he saw him crying afterwards.
But according to police, Ryan Redfearn was far from convinced those tears were real. That’s because, on his way to the hospital, he had gotten a call from a staff member at the office. The call was to alert Ryan Redfearn about that package marked potassium cyanide that had arrived at Summerbrook Dental — allegedly addressed and later given to James Craig.
Steffan Tubbs: And there’s the dominoes that are now falling one after the other.
Ryan Redfearn led the way.
George Brauchler: He does what any other normal person would do.
According to police, while Angela Craig was on life support, Ryan Redfearn tells a nurse that James Craig “recently ordered Potassium Cyanide,” adding that there was no medical reason or purpose to order Potassium Cyanide for a dental practice.”
Steffan Tubbs: The nurse, being a mandatory reporter, calls Aurora police, and I mean it’s like that. Within five hours, probably even less, there is a member of the homicide unit with Aurora P.D. is at University Hospital.
Police started asking questions. Then, according to the warrant, “Ryan received a call from James’s personal cell phone.”
Natalie Morales: Tell me about that phone call.
George Brauchler: I think Ryan and his wife are in the parking lot of the hospital when Jim calls them.
According to police, James Craig asked Ryan Redfearn “if he had said anything to the hospital staff.” Ryan Redfearn confirmed that he had and told James Craig that he knew what James Craig had ordered. And James Craig replied that the “package was a ring for Angela and that he wanted to surprise her.”
George Brauchler: And Ryan … says, “… it’s not a ring, we know what was in there.” I mean this is a testament to Ryan Redfearn.
A decades-long friendship was about to be tested, then shattered. This tale was once again told in a text, revealed in that warrant, as the next morning James Craig pleaded with his pal and partner, texting in part: “I want to make an urgent plea to you. … please don’t talk to anyone … including any law enforcement officers. You are under no obligation to answer their questions unless you are served a subpoena and you will do more damage than good to my family by continuing to insert yourself into this.”
Natalie Morales: How damning is that text in itself?
George Brauchler: I’m trying to think of all the innocent applications of the phrase, please don’t talk to the police. I can’t come up with any.
George Brauchler: It’s a desperate effort to try to keep Ryan from cooperating any farther with law enforcement.
But if that’s what he was trying to do, it was too late. Police had already launched their investigation.
On March 18, 2023, Angela Craig was taken off life support. A friend, wife, and mother of six was dead.
Chelsea Otoya: I was in complete shock, in complete disbelief. … In my head, I’m like, this is crazy, it’s not true.
Chelsea Otoya: I thought maybe it was an accident.
Aurora Police
But investigators didn’t think so. Just hours after Angela Craig died, Dr. James Craig would be arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of his wife.
Steffan Tubbs: There’s my dentist, a mugshot.
James Craig would plead not guilty. Months later, Angela Craig’s autopsy would be released. That autopsy states Angela Craig died from “lethal concentrations of cyanide” and “a lethal concentration” of tetrahydrozoline, the chemical found in some eye drops. And it says that Angela Craig had “toxic concentrations” of arsenic in her blood in those two earlier hospital visits.
Steffan Tubbs: To think about what Angela Craig endured. … This woman was in agony, dying, for so long.
Just a week before Angela Craig got sick, according to the warrant, James Craig set up a new email account using the alias “Jim and Waffles” and used it to research multiple poisons — all part of his plan, according to investigators, to murder Angela Craig.
Steffan Tubbs: One particular Google search, “how many grams of pure arsenic will kill a human?”
James Craig, investigators say, also found videos online with titles like “Top 5 Undetectable Poisons That Show No Sign Of Foul Play.”
And police say on the same day he did that online research, James Craig made a purchase — arsenic — and had it delivered straight to his family’s mailbox.
George Brauchler: I think he legitimately believed that he would be able to poison his wife, she would die, he would have her cremated. And then they’d … move on.
Poison. Some call it the recipe for the perfect crime. A silent, invisible killer — no blood, no gun, no fingerprints. Even doctors can have a hard time spotting it.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It’s a pretty rare medical subspecialty.
Doctor Jeff LaPoint is the director of the division of medical toxicology at San Diego’s Kaiser Permanente Hospital.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: If it’s a poison or a venom … that’s what we specialize in.
Natalie Morales: You’re that guy?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Yeah.
So “48 Hours” asked him, and Dr. LaPoint focused in on the alleged actions of James Craig and the final days of Angela Craig’s life.
He reviewed the arrest warrant for us, and some of the deadly drugs it lists.
Natalie Morales: Let’s start with arsenic.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: OK … yeah, arsenic is a very famous poison. It’s … not detectable by taste or odor.
LaPoint says Angela Craig’s symptoms in those first two hospital visits are consistent with arsenic poisoning.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Nausea and vomiting.
Natalie Morales: Lower blood pressure, higher blood pressure?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Generally lower.
Natalie Morales: How much would kill a person?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It does not take very much.
But police say there was more. A week after he purchased that arsenic, they allege James Craig — as “Jim and Waffles”— went back online. He ordered a second poison.
Natalie Morales: Oleandrin, what is that?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: So, oleandrin is a toxin found in oleander.
Natalie Morales: I’m thinking of those white flowers.
Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, they’re really beautiful.
As lovely as a rose. Only deadly.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: It prevents the heart from beating very efficiently.
But after three days, the oleandrin hadn’t been delivered. That’s when investigators say James Craig upped the ante. Police say he placed an order with a medical supply company for his strongest toxin yet: potassium cyanide.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Cyanide is one of the most effective poisons that exist.
Natalie Morales: Just a microdose could kill you then?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, a very small amount per kilogram and you’re not gonna live. … When you are poisoned with cyanide, you’re being suffocated on a cellular level. … It’s a very potent poison. … Your victim would die very rapidly.
Cyanide is so deadly that you need a medical license to buy it. And police say that when Dr. James Craig placed his order from a medical supply company, he stated he needed it for a complex dental procedure.
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: There’s no use for potassium cyanide in my practice or I can’t think of many medical practices.
Natalie Morales: So, a dentist ordering arsenic, potassium cyanide and oleandrin … What does that suggest to you?
Dr. Jeff LaPoint: Someone is trying to collect poison.
But this father and husband would offer a very different story about why he wanted those deadly poisons.
WAS INTEREST IN ANOTHER WOMAN A MOTIVE FOR MURDER?
Detectives suspected James Craig had bought all those poisons to kill his wife, but they wanted to know why. They would find a lead miles away from Aurora on a trip James Craig made — and a woman he met — just before Angela Craig got sick.
Steffan Tubbs: Doesn’t it just always seem like there’s another woman involved? Always, almost always.
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It’s a rule of the road there, but investigators allege it is yet one more rule James Craig didn’t think he had to play by, when he met Karin Cain.
Steffan Tubbs: Karin Cain, an orthodontist from Austin, Texas … She meets James Craig at a dental conference in Las Vegas.
It was Feb. 23, a week-and-a-half before Angela Craig first went to the hospital. The doctor was traveling alone. And he rolled the dice.
George Brauchler: They strike up a relationship.
Steffan Tubbs: They hit it off … it’s a whirlwind.
A few weeks later, according to the warrant, Cain would fly to Colorado and rendezvous at a hotel with James Craig. He would use that newly created email, “Jim and Waffles,” to flirt with her.
Skye Lazaro: It’s not illegal to have affairs.
Skye Lazaro is an experienced defense attorney familiar with cases involving poison. James Craig and his attorney declined our request for an interview. Lazaro reviewed the case against James Craig for “48 Hours.” And she identified potential weaknesses.
Skye Lazaro: Is it reasonable that you would kill your wife to be with someone that you had had a 10-day relationship with?
Natalie Morales: The common defense strategy is affairs do not make a murderer.
Skye Lazaro: Right. … One doesn’t automatically mean you did the other.
At the time she visited James Craig in Colorado, Cain did seem to know Angela Craig was very sick and in the hospital. In fact, she had sent a concerned e-mail to James Craig. It read in part: “Hi honey, I am so sorry for what has transpired this week in your world. … I am praying for you and seeking God’s wisdom for this time. I love you.”
But there is no evidence to suggest Cain knew anything more.
George Brauchler: Nothing that I have seen … gives any indication that she knew that Jim was trying to kill his wife.
And according to investigators, James Craig lied to Cain, telling her that he “filed for divorce and was living separate in an apartment.”
Steffan Tubbs: He gives the standard male, typical, “I’m going through a divorce.” No, he’s not.
And a detective said she told them her relationship with James Craig was “intimate but not sexual.” Cain sent “48 Hours” an email, writing: “I had absolutely nothing to do with this horrific ‘crime’ and ‘my heart is absolutely broken for Angela Craig and her family.'” And she says she is “cooperating fully with the police and prosecution.”
Steffan Tubbs: Karin Cain … met the wrong guy at the wrong time. … She didn’t know anything.
CBS News
Tubbs and Brauchler imply maybe no one knew anything about who James Craig really was. His pristine image — loving parent, church member, dedicated husband—now all being questioned. And as cops continued to investigate, another possible motive emerged.
Steffan Tubbs: One of the things that surprised me in this story … is the financial duress that Summerbrook Dental was under.
In fact, James Craig’s business had filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and shortly after, his then-friend Ryan Redfearn signed on as a partner.
Natalie Morales: Financial problems?
George Brauchler: Financial problems.
Natalie Morales: He was way in over his head then, in debt?
George Brauchler: Way in over his head.
And at a preliminary hearing in 2023, prosecutors argued that James Craig had “about 3.4 million reasons to kill his wife” — the value of Angela Craig’s life insurance.
George Brauchler: Jim had liabilities in excess of $2 million and we know that from some of the bankruptcy filings.
But Lazaro says she’s not convinced those financial problems give James Craig a motive for murder.
Natalie Morales: Is this sort of the portrait of a desperate man?
Skye Lazaro: Not necessarily.
Skye Lazaro: We see businesses go through bankruptcy all the time and come out the other side.
And, as for any poisons he may have ordered, Lazaro states those purchases may not even be illegal.
Skye Lazaro: He can legitimately purchase it because he has a DEA number.
Natalie Morales: As a doctor. As a dentist, right.
Skye Lazaro: Right.
Skye Lazaro: Just having it isn’t murder.
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm. Administering it. Right.
But according to the arrest paperwork, James Craig might have thought he had that figured out, too. Authorities say he could have slipped the poison into one of those protein shakes he so often made.
Natalie Morales: A morning routine at home for example.
George Brauchler: Yeah.
On that morning of March 15 — the day Angela Craig would finally crash before she was taken to the hospital, she was home with James Craig. Investigators say that’s when he may have made her one of those protein shakes and laced it with potassium cyanide.
George Brauchler: It is tasteless. It is odorless. It is colorless. It is really hidable inside something like a shake.
Natalie Morales: And highly lethal.
George Brauchler: Highly lethal.
But attorney Lazaro counters the evidence may not be there. She has reviewed the transcripts from that July 2023 preliminary hearing and says there’s nothing there that shows James Craig put poison in Angela Craig’s shakes.
Skye Lazaro: They went and tested everything in the house and didn’t find any trace evidence of there being arsenic or cyanide or anything in the protein powder, in the protein bottles.
Skye Lazaro: The state hasn’t presented you any evidence that the poison was actually in the drinks.
And Lazaro says the defense can paint a picture of James Craig as a kind and attentive partner.
Skye Lazaro: Jim’s text messages to Angela are extremely loving and extremely caring. He repeatedly asks her how she’s doing. He tells her he loves her.
So if James Craig didn’t poison his wife, who did? He had a story to tell about that.
WHAT ANGELA CRAIG’S AUTOPSY SHOWED
As Steffan Tubbs reported on his podcast, there may be another story to tell about James Craig and what happened to Angela Craig. The story wasn’t about murder; it was about suicide.
STEFFAN TUBBS (podcast): Craig says to the business partner on the phone … she was just playing chicken.
According to the warrant, when Ryan Redfearn confronted James Craig about the cyanide, James Craig allegedly said that Angela Craig asked him to order it for her. That it was all a dare—kind of a deadly game of “chicken.”
Steffan Tubbs: According to Jim Craig … She’s been threatening suicide. And this game of chicken is … Now … are you gonna take it?
But according to that 52-page warrant, none of Angela Craig’s family members told police she was suicidal. A more likely argument for the defense, says Lazaro, is that James Craig had been looking for cyanide not to kill Angela — but to kill himself.
Skye Lazaro: There was some statements that he, in fact, was suicidal, not her.
At that preliminary hearing in 2023, James Craig’s defense team said he had spoken to a friend about his own past plans to die by suicide, and that “Dr. Craig had made a statement” to that friend that he was going to die by “suicide with something that was not traceable.” The defense pointed out that James Craig “suffered from depression” and went to counseling in the past.
And, the defense indicated, James Craig told Angela Craig at one point that he had actually drugged her years earlier, when he had tried to kill himself — hoping that while she was drugged, she wouldn’t be able stop him.
Natalie Morales: It sounds like there had been something that he had tried before with her.
Skye Lazaro: Mm-hmm. … That he had drugged her, so that she would fall asleep, so that he could go … essentially kill himself. And she wouldn’t be there to render any aid or call for help.
Aurora Police
And remember when Angela Craig first started feeling sick, and she texted James Craig: “I feel drugged”? James Craig’s defense points out that he texted back, “Given our history, I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn’t drug you.” The defense said this text supports the story of James Craig’s past depression and suicide attempts.
But Lazaro says it’s unlikely the defense would try to tell a jury that Jim and Angela Craig were both trying to die by suicide.
Skye Lazaro: You have to pick one at some point.
Natalie Morales: Mm-hmm.
Skye Lazaro: And it’s either she’s suicidal … or that he’s suicidal … and this is why he bought the drugs.
But perhaps the most compelling evidence authorities say they have is what Angela Craig left behind in her own blood. That autopsy revealed something investigators find remarkable—the levels of cyanide in Angela Craig’s body actually increased while she was in the hospital on that final day. The possible implication?
Tubbs wonders if prosecutors will contend James Craig gave his wife more poison in the hospital.
Steffan Tubbs: If the allegations are true, this is about as cruel as it gets. Period.
James Craig’s defense has hired its own toxicologist. And, come his trial for murder, Lazaro says James Craig, innocent until proven guilty, may himself be portrayed as a victim — of cops too eager to make a fast arrest.
Skye Lazaro: It’s essentially a three-day investigation.
James Craig’s quick arrest, she says, could be a weakness for the state.
Skye Lazaro: You decided from the get-go that this had to be poisoning … This was the foregone conclusion. … So you never went and looked for anything else.
And as for that idea that poison might be the key to someone trying to commit the perfect crime, toxicologist Dr. Jeff LaPoint says that is just plain wrong.
Jeff LaPoint: You’re going to get caught.
Natalie Morales: That’s an important message.
Jeff LaPoint: Yeah, very.
Natalie Morales: There are ways that these will be traced, and you will be found.
Jeff LaPoint: You’ll be found.
And while Angela Craig’s friends and family are waiting for their day in court, they are left with photographs and their memories.
Three of Jim and Angela Craig’s six children are living with James Craig’s brother. The other three are now adults living on their own, including their daughter Mira. On Mother’s Day 2023, Mira wrote this message on social media: “as of tomorrow my mom will be two months gone. I haven’t the words to express the heartache my siblings and I feel every day.”
Chelsea Otoya: There’s no words, you know? … the whole situation is just traumatic.
Steffan Tubbs: This will all end, the lights will come down, the cameras leave. Thirty years from now, those kids who are in their teens right now still will be without a mom.
Mira’s last words in that post: “I love you so much mama” … “we miss you.”
Jim Craig’s trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 8, 2024.
Produced by Jamie Stolz and Sarah Prior. Elena DiFiore, David Dow and Michelle Sigona are the development producers. Doreen Schechter is the producer-editor. Gary Winter and Gregory Kaplan are the editors. Michael Loftus is the associate producer. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Natalie Morales
Nearly 100 arrested in global child sex abuse operation launched after murder of FBI agents
Close to 100 people have been arrested in Australia and the United States in connection with a global online child abuse network uncovered in the aftermath of a high-profile murder of two FBI agents, authorities announced this week.
The myriad charges for alleged child abuse stem from the killings of two FBI special agents, Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, who were fatally shot in 2021 while serving a warrant in Sunrise, Florida, to search the apartment of a suspect allegedly tied to a case involving violent crimes against children.
FBI
The deaths of Alfin and Schwartzenberger, who both specialized in investigating crimes against children, spurred a wider international probe into an illicit online platform whose members are accused of sharing child abuse material on the dark web, according to the Australian Federal Police.
Nineteen Australians, whose ages range from 32 to 81 years old, were recently charged for their alleged involvement in what the agency described in a news release as a “sophisticated” digital network. Members are believed to have produced, searched for and distributed images and videos of child abuse material on the dark web, officials said.
Two people have been sentenced in Australia for their ties to the massive investigation, while the others have active cases in court, according to the federal police. In addition to the 19 arrests, authorities also removed 13 Australian children from harm over the course of the probe. Federal police allege some of those children were “directly abused” and others were removed as a precaution.
Called “Operation Bakis,” the joint investigation involving state and local authorities in various parts of Australia ran alongside a U.S. investigation led by the FBI. The FBI investigation has so far led to the arrests of 79 people allegedly connected to the online network, the Australian Federal Police said. That probe has led to the convictions of 43 people for child abuse offenses, the Associated Press reported.
The suspects — who were arrested across Australia, including in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia — collectively face 138 charges related to the investigation. One suspect described as a “public servant” by federal police was already sentenced to 14 1/2 years in prison in June after pleading guilty to 24 charges. The same month, a call center operator on the NSW Central Coast was sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to possession of an estimated five terabytes of child abuse material.
Australian Federal Police
“The success of Operation Bakis was only possible because of the close working relationship between the AFP-led ACCCE [Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation] and the FBI, and our dedicated personnel who never give up working to identify children who are being sexually assaulted or living with someone who is sharing child abuse material,” said Australian Federal Police Commander Helen Schneider in a statement.
Schneider added that “the lengths that these alleged offenders went to in order to avoid detection makes them especially dangerous – the longer they avoid detection the longer they can perpetuate the cycle of abuse.”
Most of the suspects in Australia worked in jobs that required a high degree of knowledge in the field of information communications technology, the federal police said, noting that alleged members of the online platform “used software to anonymously share files, chat on message boards and access websites within the network.” The suspects are accused of using methods like encryption to remain anonymous online and avoid being identified by law enforcement.
Both Australian and U.S. authorities noted that the success of Operation Bakis hinged on cooperation between agencies in both countries.
“The complexity and anonymity of these platforms means that no agency or country can fight these threats alone,” FBI legal attaché Nitiana Mann said in a separate statement. “As we continue to build bridges through collaboration and teamwork, we can ensure the good guys win and the bad guys lose.”
Mann said the FBI alerted authorities in other countries to additional suspects in their jurisdictions who are allegedly connected to the online child abuse ring, but did not did say which countries, according to the Associated Press.