http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/04/01/1514905-sun.html

E:\My Documents\women behave bad\Wife kills husband.doc

Hubby dies after stabbing;

April 1, 2006

By JON WILLING, OTTAWA SUN

KEMPTVILLE -- The frantic ringing of the doorbell drew Charmaine Crockett out of her sleep yesterday morning to find a distressed woman begging Crockett to take care of her nine-year-old son.

"The doorbell rang repeatedly," said Crockett, 37, adding the commotion woke up her three children and her husband. "I thought it was someone playing nicky nicky nine door."

The urgency was all too real.

The woman, who Crockett quickly learned was the mother of a boy her children play with, described a horrifying incident that happened at a mobile home parked at a Donnelly Rd. gas station about 400 metres from Crockett's Fairhurst Dr. house, just north of Kemptville.

CLINGING TO LIFE

As she called 911, Crockett spent 35 minutes in her bedroom with the woman, identified as Teresa Craig.

When Leeds-Grenville paramedics arrived at the mobile home around 3 a.m., they found Teresa's husband, 54-year-old Jack Craig, clinging to life after being stabbed. Paramedics rushed him to Kemptville Hospital, where he died just after 4 a.m.

At 3:10 a.m., Kemptville OPP were called to assist Ottawa police with an arrest at Crockett's home, where a large knife sat in the driveway behind her family's minivan. The OPP subsequently turned Teresa Craig, 49, over to city police, and a murder probe was launched --Ottawa's first of the year.

As of last night, police hadn't laid charges in connection with Jack Craig's death.

With Teresa Craig in custody, Jack's mother, Della Craig, 93, of Kemptville was hoping her daughter-in-law wasn't involved in the death.

"I just hope she didn't do it," the elderly mother said.

The Craigs lived in the mobile home with their son, Martin, and had recently taken over the operation of the Riverside Convenience and Gas Bar.

'ROUGH' AND 'GRUFF'

Yesterday, Jack Craig's sister was caring for young Martin at her home near Mountain.

"He's doing good," said Walter Billings, Jack Craig's brother-in law. As of early afternoon, the family hadn't told the boy, who was in the mobile home during the incident, what had happened.

Ron Price, whose Donnelly Rd. house is just metres away from the beige and white mobile home, said he didn't hear anything yesterday morning.

Price, 47, described Jack Craig as "rough" and "gruff." He said Teresa is a "hard worker" and Martin is a "super kid."

Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Monique Perras said the gas station will likely remain closed for the weekend while police investigate.


http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/04/01/1514906-sun.html

'There's nothing he couldn't do'

By JON WILLING, OTTAWA SUN

Leasing the Donnelly Rd. gas bar was the first step in Jack Craig's plan to reconnect with Kemptville.

The 54-year-old father moved back to the area last summer after living on an island in British Columbia with his wife, Teresa, and son, Martin, who is now 9.

It was in Kemptville that Craig had a dream of building a blues bar and restaurant.

"He loved his music," Adam Craig, Jack's 31-year-old son from a previous relationship, said yesterday.

An ace on the guitar, Jack was a country music booster who knew every Hank Williams tune, and that inspired him to create his own music.

Jack's band, Tobaca Jack and the Taylor Mades, even made three albums.

Playing the guitar, however, was just one of Jack's skills.

With formal culinary training under his belt, he was recently making tasty Szechuan dishes, featuring his mouthwatering recipe for sweet and sour wings.

He was a lover of baseball -- back-to-back World Series championships in the '90s made him a devoted Toronto Blue Jays fan -- and he was an avid camper and angler.

He joined the army as a young adult and was stationed for two years in Nova Scotia, but never served overseas.

A 1985 head-on collision near Kemptville almost took his life, but Jack managed to fight through his injuries and recover.

In 1994, Jack returned to North Grenville District High School in Kemptville to finish the two years he hadn't completed as a teen.

"He did a lot of stuff without his high school (education)," Jack's best friend Don Scobie, 53, said.

Jack and Teresa had been married for 14 years after meeting through a pen-pal service, Jack's family said. Teresa lived in Malaysia and came to Canada to connect with Jack. For about a decade, the couple and their son lived on B.C.'s Protection Island, a 10-minute boat ride from Nanaimo.

There, Jack worked on his music and operated a Chinese takeout business from his home. Teresa worked at a local Salvation Army thrift shop.

CLOSE TO MOM

Jack moved his family back to Kemptville to be closer to his mother, Della Craig, who turns 94 this year. He kept his RV parked at the family home before moving it to the gas bar, his current project. He had ambitions of building a home in the area and running a restaurant.

His family said Jack was a portrait of ambition and courage.

"He had three balls," Adam said. "There's nothing he couldn't do."