Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Details emerge in pilot's killing
Police say wife wanted him dead
By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Adele Craven wished her husband, a Delta Air Lines pilot, would die in an airplane crash, investigators said, so she could collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy.
Stephen Craven, 38, instead died in the basement of his home, shot in the head July 12. His wife has been charged in his death.
Court records released Monday allege that Ms. Craven wanted her husband dead. She had been having an affair and had talked to acquaintances about how she could arrange her husband's death, authorities said.
The criminal complaint states:
Five days before the slaying, Ms. Craven told an acquaintance: “If anything ever happens to Steve, don't ask me about it, because I don't want to have to lie to you.”
On July 2 and 4, Ms. Craven asked a family friend whether he knew a “hit man” who would “take care of” her husband. She also asked whether the hit man would need a photo of Mr. Craven.
Another person told investigators she overheard at
least part of the July 2 conversation about the hit man. She also said that earlier in the month, Ms. Craven discussed with her the wish for a plane crash and said her husband “was worth about $500,000.”
Ms. Craven, 37, has not entered a plea.
She was arraigned Monday before Kenton County District Judge Frank Trusty on a murder charge, punishable upon conviction by 20 years to life in prison. Officials would not say Monday whether they plan to seek the death penalty.
Police said Deanna Dennison, a lawyer in Covington, represents Ms. Craven, but no attorney appeared at her arraignment Monday. The judge ordered that she be assigned a public defender through Wednesday, when she must tell the court whether she can afford to hire a lawyer. Ms. Dennison did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Ms. Craven is being held without bail in Kenton County jail. A bond hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Kenton County Justice Center.
Immediately after the arraignment, an emergency custody hearing was held Monday to determine who would care for the couple's two children, ages 6 and 8.
Ms. Craven attended the hearing, but juvenile court officials would not say who was awarded custody. After their father died, the two children went to stay with relatives in the Tristate.
Mr. Craven was found shot to death in the basement of his Edgewood home July 12. Mrs. Craven told police she returned with her two children from a day of shopping about 8:30 p.m., when she saw her front door was open.
She went to a neighbor's house because, she said, she thought her home, on Carimel Ridge, was being burglarized.
But police found no forced entry and concluded that the burglary was “staged,” according to court documents. Valuable items were not taken, and the home was not ransacked. The only things out of place were the contents of two desk drawers and a file cabinet.
Further doubt was cast, the complaint said, when police learned that Ms. Craven was allegedly having an affair with an Erlanger man.
According to court records, in early June an Edgewood police officer found the man and Ms. Craven in a “compromising situation” in a vehicle in the parking lot of St. Pius X Church in Edgewood.
Many questions remain unanswered in this case, but police said in court records that they are convinced the last three people in the Cravens' Edgewood home the morning of Mr. Craven's death were Mr. and Ms. Craven and the man.
Police have not sought an arrest warrant for the Erlanger man, whom they have questioned, and he has not been charged with anything.
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