Transcript

Talking Dateline: "Secrets of Exam Room 9" with Lester Holt and Andrea Canning | Dateline NBC

From Dateline NBC · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 20 min · 3,801 words · 61 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Talking Dateline: "Secrets of Exam Room 9" with Lester Holt and Andrea Canning | Dateline NBC", an episode of Dateline NBC published September 10, 2025 (20 min, about 3,801 words). It mentions 34 people, works and ideas, including Exam Room 9, Talking Dine, Domestic Violence, Victim Impact Statements, Lester Holt.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Exam Room 9, Andrea Canning, Angela Craig, DLine podcast
  2. – 10:00: Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence Unit, Exam Room 9, Haley Barber
  3. – 15:00: Victim Impact Statements, FBI agents and federal prosecutors, Ryan Brackley, Secrets of Cottonwood Creek
  4. – 20:00: Deline NBC, Dine Live Event, Ian Leslie, Missing in America

Notable quotes from "Talking Dateline: "Secrets of Exam Room 9" with Lester Holt and Andrea Canning | Dateline NBC"

  • Talking Dline today. I'm here with Andrea Canning to talk about her episode Secrets of Exam Room 9. There's a catcher for a title if I've ever heard one. if you haven't seen…
    about Exam Room 9 · at
  • Angela, this office worker to her credit is like Googles the symptoms of potassium cyanide and she's Wow, that sounds a lot like what Angela has. And so she tells the business partner and then he tells the doctors and nurses.
    about Potassium Cyanide · at
  • They kind of look alike, but they had the same work ethic. And, and it was funny because our producer, Haley Barber, who was on the shoot, actually looked a lot like them as…
    about Haley Barber · at
  • Female who's You understand what I'm saying? And when you're dealing with domestic violence, which a lot of females, women are victims of domestic violence, this is a case that really had a lot of those aspects, right, of domestic violence.
    about Domestic Violence · at
  • And essentially I guess you call it witness tampering. you know working his daughter, right? James Craig asked his daughter to get this letter from this inmate and in this letter he asks her to make a deep.
    about Witness Tampering · at
  • Everybody all the time. you know that and that's that's from the prosecutors that he was the ultimate manipulator. And then of course he tried to have according to prosecutors…
    about FBI agents and federal prosecutors · at
  • Yeah, Ryan Brackley. he was in a very early dine that I did, Secrets of Cottonwood Creek, and he's been in four dines. so yeah, he just seems to get the more diabolical cases in his.
    about Ryan Brackley · at
  • Verdict and for the sentencing and I have to say like when the kids got up to read their victim impact statements, I was bawling because it was just so sad. And the one the son…
    about Victim Impact Statements · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Lester Holt — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Hi everyone, I'm Lester Holt. We're talking Dline today. I'm here with Andrea Canning to talk about her episode Secrets of Exam Room 9. There's a catcher for a title if I've ever heard.
  • Andrea Canning — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Hi everyone, I'm Lester Holt. We're talking Dline today. I'm here with Andrea Canning to talk about her episode Secrets of Exam Room 9. There's a catcher for a title if I've…
  • Angela Craig — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Right, to recap, in 2023, the sudden illness and death of loving mother and wife Angela Craig left her doctors and loved ones stunned. But detectives soon discovered a sinister…
  • Haley Barber — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • FBI agents and federal prosecutors — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Ryan Brackley — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Ian Leslie — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Message, some audio messages here. this one is pretty interesting. It comes from a listener named Leslie.
  • Keith Morrison — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • Secrets of Exam Room 9 — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Talking Dline today. I'm here with Andrea Canning to talk about her episode Secrets of Exam Room 9. There's a catcher for a title if I've ever heard one. if you haven't seen…
  • Secrets of Cottonwood Creek — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah, Ryan Brackley. he was in a very early dine that I did, Secrets of Cottonwood Creek, and he's been in four dines. so yeah, he just seems to get the more diabolical cases in his career.

Companies & orgs

  • Special Victims Unit — Company · 1 mention · first at
    No doubt. Bobby actually came from the special victims unit prior going to homicide and then I was from the domestic violence unit and so watching this unfold is it's just a different caliber of domestic intimate abuse. I.
  • Domestic Violence Unit — Company · 1 mention · first at
    The special victims unit prior going to homicide and then I was from the domestic violence unit and so watching this unfold is it's just a different caliber of domestic…
  • Deline NBC — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Us about stories or about Dineine, you can reach us 247 on social media at Deline NBC. And if you have a question for Talking Dine, leave it to us as a voicemail at 212413-5252…
  • Aurora Police Department — Company · 1 mention
  • Dateline NBC — Company · 1 mention
  • DatelineNBC.com — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • Talking Dine — Product · 2 mentions · first at
    Husband, Dr. James Craig. And that wasn't the only crime he committed. And for this talking dine, we have an extra clip we'll be playing for you, Andrea's interview with the…
  • DLine podcast — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Catcher for a title if I've ever heard one. if you haven't seen it, you can find it at the Dline podcast feed. Go over there, listen to it, and then come right back here. We'll…
  • Potassium Cyanide — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • Missing in America — Product · 1 mention · first at
    They'll call us up or we get stuff from social media. so or it could come from Missing in America, where somebody has reached out that their loved one is missing and then that turns into a dine, you know. So there's many.
  • Polygraph — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Your 23 years that you've been doing this, could you go back and say how the polygraph aligned with your outcomes?
  • Dateline Live Event — Product · 1 mention
  • Doorbell Camera — Product · 1 mention
  • Peloton — Product · 1 mention
  • surveillance cameras — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Sponsors

  • Dine Live Event — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    About right now. But you can hear more about the stories, our stories, by coming to Nashville for the Dine Live event that is Sunday, September 28th. It is creeping up on us. be fun to have you be a part of it with us.

Full transcript with timestamps

Hi everyone, I'm Lester Holt. We're talking Dline today. I'm here with Andrea Canning to talk about her episode Secrets of Exam Room 9. There's a catcher for a title if I've ever heard one. Um, if you haven't seen it, you can find it at the Dline podcast feed. Go over there, listen to it, and then come right back here. We'll be waiting for you to talk about this episode. All right, to recap, um, in 2023, the sudden illness and death of loving mother and wife Angela Craig left her doctors and loved ones stunned. But detectives soon discovered a sinister explanation. She had been poisoned by none other than her husband, Dr. James Craig. And that wasn't the only crime he committed. And for this talking dine, we have an extra clip we'll be playing for you, Andrea's interview with the two lead detectives on the case. and then we'll answer some of your questions from social media. So, now let's talk datine. Well, Andre, I'm

a first- timerr on the talking dines, although although I talk at the at the beginning of the show a lot, so this is fun and it's fun to do this with you. This was quite an hour. Congratulations.

Yeah, thanks Lester. Good to see you. I should mention here and you mentioned in the program that Angela was the mother of five daughters and one son.

Yeah. Sounds familiar. You you mentioned Yeah. Um, sounds very familiar. Um, yeah. I mean, it's not This is a first for me in in dine. I I I don't think I've ever met anyone, to be honest with you, who has five daughters and a boy. I know it exists out there, but I've I've never personally met anyone. And then to have a victim in a date line have five girls and a boy, it was really surprising when I heard that. Did it help you re I mean relate at all to to Angela in terms of you know you know her day-to-day routines and what it's like to be a mother of so many kids.

You know there were hundreds of hours of footage from that house from their home surveillance camera cameras in the house and we we start the whole show where you see you know these moments from a daily you know daily life. It's like when I saw her in those videos, when I saw her in the kitchen and the kids are fighting or she's welcoming her husband home or whatever it may be, that's when I really it related to her, you know, because that's like our kitchen here in my house with all these children and all the the chaos of daily life with six children.

It's it's a lot. People obviously have security cameras, doorbell cameras, that sort of thing. This was a camera over the kitchen with audio.

With audio. I know. It's like, what was that about? I, you know, I don't know why. I think from what I understand from a conversation that I had is that they didn't even realize that it was actually like saving the videos, you know, that it wasn't like intentional where every video needed to be saved and it was some kind of weird thing.

I think they didn't even realize that it was. Yeah. And there's a there's a scene in there where Angela is confronting her husband over

I guess his availability while she was in the hospital. Um she she somehow was you felt like there was something more to this argument that this was this was coming down the pike for a while.

Yeah, you could see them they they had some testy moments in the videos. Um and I'm sure honestly any parents might have some testy moments when you have six kids. I mean, that's always possible, but these ones were pretty specific about, you know, him. It was like him not having her back or something in the hospital or not acting the way that he should have

from her perspective with what she was going through. So, Andrea, I mentioned that the title of this is a real grabber right away. What happens in exam room 9, he is a dentist, of course, Mr. Craig is Dr. Craig is a is a a dentist. Um and ultimately it was his his wife falling sick very very quickly that sent detectives and this whole thing into motion.

Yeah. And Lester um to as to the title I called it during filming. I said this title will have exam room 9 in it and I had nothing to do with coming up with the title. So I just felt like that was the sort of the pivotal point in the story. Um, you know, where everything kind of came to a head was exam room 9, right? That's where they figured out that he had this secret email address, that he was ordering the poisons, that he was communicating with other women, you know, having these affairs. And this all came from exam room 9.

Yeah. And the thought was that he believes, well, if I just log onto a random computer, they'll they'll never search it. They'll never find the history.

Yeah. But they did. They absolutely did. And um you know he said he was charting patients. He was of course doing a lot more than that. But it's it's the the woman at the office you know that that figured this out right. That's like hey something is up here.

Yeah. She did it very quickly. So made it made me think that she was she was already suspicious.

Yeah. Maybe. I mean I mean you know it all starts with the package comes in. He's told people do not open this package that is coming for me. So a woman working in the office does didn't get that message not to open the package. So she opens the package and then she goes to her manager and she says, you know, it seems kind of, you know, when you hear the word cyanide, right? Like most people, right? And it's not something that you hear in a dental office, right? Cyanide. Um, and then once these symptoms start happening to Angela, this office worker to her credit is like Googles the symptoms of of potassium cyanide and she's like, "Wow, that sounds a lot like what Angela has." And so she tells the business partner and then he tells the doctors and nurses.

And so the there's so much credit really that needs to be given to this office worker, you know, who who got start, you know, started the domino effect of all of this.

Can you imagine that conversation, though? I think my boss may have been poisoning.

I mean, you know, Yeah. What if you're wrong, right? And you're you're implicating your boss in a possible murder. I mean, or or you're implying that at least that it's possible. And then can you imagine if if we said something like that about one of our bosses and we were totally wrong,

right? Like Yeah, that's a big deal. Yeah. It's it's the ultimate, you know, see something, say something. But, you know, you don't want you don't want to get it wrong in this case,

right? What's what's life like at the office after that if you're wrong? Yeah. No, I mean, I that's one of the things I thought of as I was watching this. I'm like, you know, someone's got to step forward. But, all right. When we come back, we'll have some of Andrea's interview with the two lead detectives in the case. Can we talk about the police in this case? The two female detectives. Um they um they smelled a rat right away.

They did. And it a lot of it was we go back to exam room 9, you know, because they they're trying to sort it out. Like no, no detectives know exactly what's going on in a case right away, right? They don't know these people's backstories.

They don't know anything about them. They're just learning. But they were exceptional detectives. Um, Bobby and Molly, they were really, really good. And they're called the twins. Um, which we mentioned because they, not only did they kind of look alike, but they had the same work ethic. And, um, and it was funny because our producer, Haley Barber, who was on the shoot, actually looked a lot like them as well. So, we were like, well, I guess we have the triplets on set today. And we have uh we have some of the more some more of the interview you did with uh the detectives in this case that didn't air and I think we're going to play it now.

Um and you are the the only women in the Aurora PD homicide unit. Yes. There's 14 of us total and we're the only two girls.

What is that like being the only two women? I think naturally as women we have a different perspective. We typically have a background different than our male counterparts. We've had instances where a a luxury purse was taken and the guys are like, "I have no idea what that what you're even talking about." And that's just like a random aspect that we know, but also just kind of like the ins and outs of communicating with other females on our scenes. I think they feel more comfortable when they're talking to a female who's like, "You understand what I'm saying?" And and when you're dealing with domestic violence, which a lot of females, women are victims of domestic violence, this is a case that really had a lot of those um you know, aspects, right, of domestic violence.

No doubt. Uh Bobby actually came from the special victims unit prior going to homicide and then I was from the domestic violence unit and so watching this unfold is it's just a different caliber of domestic intimate abuse. I mean, I think everyone thinks of domestic violence as being physical, and this was not physical, but again, that years of manipulation and her just staying to fight, fight for her kids, fight for her marriage, and be the best she could be for Jim.

In another time, I would have made a Kagny and and Lacy reference, but that that would that would date me. But

no, I know exactly what you're talking about with Kagny and Lacy. No worries, Lester.

All right. Good to good to know. Uh but clearly they were not I don't want to say obsessed but they were clearly focused on unraveling this mystery and it be it seemed to become clearer and clearer that this was a a person this Dr. Craig who thought he could cover his tracks and the story doesn't end there. The story continues into when he's locked up awaiting trial.

Yeah. And essentially I I guess you call it witness tampering. um you know working his daughter,

right? James Craig asked his daughter to get this letter from this inmate and in this letter he asks her to make a deep fake video and of Angela. So what the deep fake video that he wanted was to entail was Angela saying that she wanted to end her life essentially that she was suicidal. So he wanted his daughter to create this video of her mom suicidal. Like it just was it it's crazy. It

it's it's crazy. And and it seems to cross over lines we normally hear in these cases, you know, a spousal murder. This this goes to a whole new level of thinking that you can manipulate, you know, from the inside the outcome of this case.

Yeah. And I think that was James Craig, right? Like that's what they said about him was that he was manipulating everybody all the time. you know that and that that's that's from the prosecutors that he was the ultimate manipulator. And then of course he tried to have um according to prosecutors again he tried to and he was convicted of this um tried to have uh Bobby killed the detective you know which is really scary for someone who has already carried out a murder and at this point you know when when he's doing this he's not been convicted yet but they believe he murdered his wife so why wouldn't he murder somebody else like you know what what You should feel very afraid for your life if someone is already has already been accused of killing one person.

Yeah. Did did the police feel there were areas they couldn't quite nail down? I mean, as I'm watching it, I'm thinking this is open and shut case. Clearly, he you know, he poisoned his wife to death for detectives. Was it that simple?

You know, you still have to put a case together and you still have to do it right. And these things are never easy and they had a lot of material to go through. all those hours of surveillance footage and um you know getting tests for her blood and I mean there's there was so much that they needed to gather and put together for their case. So while yes he looked very guilty, it doesn't mean that their job was you know a slam dunk or easy. They they had a lot of work to do on this.

Andrea, there's an assistant DA here that you're familiar with that's involved in this case.

Yeah, Ryan Brackley. Um he was in a very early dine that I did, Secrets of Cottonwood Creek, and he's been in four dines. Um so yeah, he just uh seems to get the the more diabolical cases in his uh career.

I didn't feel u you know, the little bits of the trial that that you included in the hour, it didn't feel like the defense had a good case or a strong case. I mean, I personally I I don't think they did because you would have to believe that Angela wanted James Craig to help her kill herself. Like, this is a woman who was, you know, active and was, you know, on her pelon and was present for all of her children's activities. I don't think anyone bought that that this was a woman who wanted to end her life and she was asking her husband for help.

I thought it was remarkable the way that the kids chose to deal with deal with this. they kind of stood back and let the legal process go forward, but yet they were very very much involved.

They were and I was there for the um verdict and for the um the sentencing and I have to say like when when the kids got up to read their victim impact statements, I was bawling because it was just so sad. And um the one the son um the only son, you know, he said it was this crazy thing that he said that he he set an alarm. I don't know if he still does. He But he set an alarm every single day at the same time to think about his mom,

you know, and it was an interesting little anecdote of how he was dealing with it, but that's what he said. Every day at that time, the alarm would go off.

Did I get it correctly, though, that they purposely held back judgment early on?

I think they I I mean, I I think that's probably right. You know, they they haven't been very vocal. I know the family is having a really hard time dealing with this and I I think some days they sat on the dad's side, some days they sat on the mom's side, but as far as how they're all really thinking, you know, I don't know because other than those two the two children giving the victim impact statements, we haven't heard from them.

Well, we'll take a break after the break. Andrea and I will be back to answer some of your questions from social media. Okay, Andrea, we got some questions coming our way via social media. You ready for a couple of them?

I'm ready. All right. Uh, this is from Marissa 3232, who said, "For Andrea Kenning, what would you say is the episode/case that most affected you?"

Oh my gosh, this is this the this question is so hard. I mean, you know, I've done almost 200 dines. Oh, Marissa, I will say I will answer this question generally when there's a teenage girl involved. Those ones hit me really hard because I'm the mom of of teenage daughters and younger. And also, there's something about dads when they're talking about their daughters. And yes, moms are just as devastated. There's something about a dad who who loses their composure in the interview that just like I just fall apart.

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's a hard question to answer. I I I recognize. All right. This is uh from CRW or CRWolf 13, who says, "How do you select the stories you'll cover? It's fascinating how some are more recent, but some go back decades." I think we can both answer that question. Um it's a lot of combing through newspapers from what's happening in local communities. Um it's uh crimes that we've been, you know, crimes or stories that we've been watching develop over a certain amount of time. Um and sometimes we do peel back for decades and a lot of that is because new information becomes available or a key uh character uh emerges and expresses a willingness to go before the camera. So there's no formula for it. It's it's I don't I I would say sometimes, Andre, it's like, you know, when it's our kind of story.

Yeah. And we, you know, we also get tips from law enforcement who will tell us about a story, connections that we've made over the years. Um, you know, they'll call us up or we get stuff from social media. Um, so or or it could come from Missing in America, you know, where where somebody has reached out that their loved one is missing and then that turns into

a dine, you know. So there's many different avenues of of how a show gets on the air. Um, we've got an audio message, some audio messages here. Uh, this one is pretty interesting. It comes from a listener named Leslie.

Hi there. Uh, my name is Leslie and I love listening to your podcast. Um, I have a question for you. Um, have you ever thought about going through all of your shows and podcast, etc. and looking at the original or the polygraphs and comparing that to the outcome that happened. I'm just curious to see over your 23 years that you've been doing this, could you go back and say how the polygraph aligned with your outcomes?

Usually the polygraph seems to get it right. So even though they're not admissible in court as we know I would say usually these people fail right or or it's and some polygraphers will say oh it's not a fail thing but it's like a deceptive right deception has been detected some will some will outright say fail some will say that and I think that usually it matches gosh I don't I don't know if I've ever had anyone who failed or was deceptive and then turned out they were innocent. Maybe I have, but I I can't think of one.

Yeah. Interesting thought, though. Interesting thought. This is a We've got another audio question. It comes from someone who didn't leave their name, but here's their message.

Hello. This message is for all of the dine correspondents. I would like to know when y'all are going to have a book release. I want to hear uh the background and like how your life has been affected by your reporting on DLine. I would definitely buy it. So, looking forward to hearing the answer. Thanks.

Oh, let's get to work, Andrea. Here we go. I love that. Yeah. Um, I think Keith should write that book.

Don't I don't know. Keith just came to mind. I feel like he would be and then he could read it. He could do the audio book,

right? The audio book and and more people would buy the audio book than the book,

right? No, he'd be great at it. It's it's actually kind of an interesting interesting thought. I mean, collectively, we all have a a lot of, you know, a lot of stories of,

you know, what it took to put these things on the air. Maybe it should be then like different chapters like with all of us. Somebody can like ghost write it and we can all we can all be a part of it.

Well, we may not be writing a book, at least not one that we're willing to talk about right now. But you can hear more about the stories, our stories, by coming to Nashville for the Dine Live event that is Sunday, September 28th. It is creeping up on us. Um be fun to have you be a part of it with us.

Yeah. Tickets are on sale now at datelinebc.com/event and you can also find a link in the description of this episode.

Thank you, Lester. Thank you. This was this was a great conversation. Well, that's it for Talking Dine this week. We're glad you were here. If you have any questions for us about stories or about Dineine, you know, you can reach us 247 on social media at Deline NBC. And if you have a question for Talking Dine, leave it to us as a voicemail at 212413-5252 or send us a video on socials for a chance to be featured on a future broadcast. We will see you Fridays on DLine NBC. In the meantime, thanks for listening.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Talking Dateline: "Secrets of Exam Room 9" with Lester Holt and Andrea Canning | Dateline NBC"?

In order: 0:00 Exam Room 9, Andrea Canning, Angela Craig, DLine podcast; 5:00 Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence Unit, Exam Room 9, Haley Barber; 10:00 Victim Impact Statements, FBI agents and federal prosecutors, Ryan Brackley, Secrets of Cottonwood Creek; 15:00 Deline NBC, Dine Live Event, Ian Leslie, Missing in America.

What is mentioned in this Dateline NBC episode?

34 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Exam Room 9, Talking Dine, Domestic Violence, Victim Impact Statements, Lester Holt, Andrea Canning. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Talking Dateline: "Secrets of Exam Room 9" with Lester Holt and Andrea Canning | Dateline NBC"?

The episode runs 20 min; the transcript is about 3,801 words in 61 timestamped sections.

More from Dateline NBC

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 17, 2025.