It was a lurid case that bred easy tabloid headlines: “Muscles & Murder” screeched one checkout-counter account of the notorious Craig Titus-Kelly Ryan affair from 2005. This one had it all: a glamorous couple (the two were wellknown in the bodybuilding and fitness worlds), their dead assistant, a flaming Jaguar in the desert, gruesome autopsy details, conflicting narratives, drug use, claims of rough sex and nine days on the lam - all set against the anything-goes backdrop of modern Vegas. As one writer put it, “Two very successful people flamed out in America’s Sin City.” On December 14, 2005, Ryan’s red Jaguar was discovered in flames on a lonely road outside the city. In the trunk: the burned body of Melissa James, personal assistant to Titus, a bodybuilding champ, and Ryan, winner of multiple fitness competitions. Wire was wrapped around James’ throat, and her head was encased in duct tape. Despite insisting they had no idea what had happened, the pair fled Las Vegas, only to be captured in Boston as Ryan got her nails done.
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Muscles and murder then. Or was it? During the investigation, which was said to include some 500 pages of statements the husband and wife gave police, several contradictory streams of possibility emerged. That James died of an overdose, and the couple - worried about a PR hit to their careers - freaked out and burned her in the car. (“I didn’t want to see her face,” Titus reportedly said, explaining the duct tape.) That James died during rough sex with Titus - apparently unbeknownst to Ryan, the two had an affair. There was talk of rampant drug use in the Titus-Ryan house: Oxycontin, morphine, meth and cocaine were all mentioned. Steroids, too, and the implication of ’roid rage. Complicating the issue: The coroner couldn’t provide an exact cause of death. But prosecutors insisted James was beaten, zapped with a stun gun, drugged and asphyxiated - by Titus, with Ryan and a friend, Anthony Gross, helping dispose of the body. That view prevailed. In 2008, Ryan entered an Alford plea, which means she didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict. Titus pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Actual headline: “Bodybuilders plead guilty in gruesome slay.” Both remain in prison. Last year, a book, Swift Injustice, attempted to portray Titus as a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, but that argument hasn’t gained traction.