Victim Solves Her Own Murder | The Case of Kristil Krug
WELFARE CHECK LEADS TO GRUESOME DISCOVERY
On December 14th 2023, the Broomfield police do a welfare check at this house, where Kristil Krug lives with her husband Dan, and their 3 loving children. The footage you’re about to see was filmed just minutes after Kristil’s family life, took a disturbing turn for the worse. One month earlier, Kristil walks into the Broomfield police department, claiming that her crazy ex boyfriend, has been stalking her. Detectives send units to follow Kristil around, and her husband installs security cameras on their property. The problem is, police have been unable to track down the suspect… and the stalking, doesn’t stop.
On December 14th, at 8:56am, Kristil sends this text message to her husband. She is never heard from after that. After going around the house, officer O’Hara notices the garage door has windows. But they’re too high for him to see. The footage then shows him returning to his vehicle. Before he pulls his car up the driveway, close to the door, so he can use it to climb up. That’s when he sees it. Right there, on the floor of the garage, is 44 year old Kristil Krug, unconscious. She has a head injury, but officer O’Hara is not sure if she simply fell, or if she was attacked.
THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH AND FAMILY REACTION
Outside, Kristil’s mother Linda walks up to the house, just as officer O’Hara opens the garage door, for the paramedics. As other family members start arriving, police secure the rest of the house. Police can tell Kristil was attacked getting into or out of her car. She was hit over the head, before the person stabbed her. Soon after, a scream is heard coming from down the road. It’s Kristil’s husband Dan. He’s just learned the news, that his wife was murdered, and runs into the arms of Kristil’s family. Dan is in shock. He suddenly goes weak in the knees, and can no longer stand on his own.
With the killer still at large, Dan is brought in for further questioning. But when Detective Martinez goes to see him, he’s in no state to be interviewed. To make things easier for him, detective Martinez tells Dan, that he has people in his team who can help break the news to their children. But Dan insists. He wants to be the one to tell them.
KRISTIL' S CALL FOR HELP
For now, Detective Martinez is worried about protecting Dan and his 3 kids, before the killer claims another victim. Kristil’s other family members are also brought in, each put into separate interrogation rooms. But while investigators are hoping to gain any information on the identity of Kristil’s stalker, there’s one person that holds the key to solving the case. Kristil Krug herself.
One month before her murder, Kristil makes a phone call to the Broomfield police department. Detective Martinez is the one assigned to her case. When she sits down to talk with Detective Martinez, Kristil tells him that for the last few weeks, a stalker has been following her around, and harassing her online. Kristil has come prepared. She’s gathered all the information about the stalking instances onto a spreadsheet.
THE STALKER TIMELINE BEGINS
The first date on the stalker log, is September 23rd, 2023. This is when everything started. On that day, her husband Dan saw an intruder running out of their home.When the officer shows up at the house, Dan is already waiting outside, in the middle of his driveway. He explains to the officer that he saw the intruder, when he got back home that afternoon.
When Kristil learns about the incident, she’s more annoyed than afraid. Dan takes care of changing the locks, so there no longer seems to be anything to worry about. Just a few days later, on October 2nd, Kristil receives a strange text from a number she doesn’t recognize. It reads “Hi Kristil it’s Anthony. Hope it’s ok I looked you up. I go to boulder every few weeks and thought we could hook up. You game?” Kristil’s log details her relationship with Anthony over the years, starting in 1999, when she graduated high school.
THE ESCALATION OF THREATS
About a year later, while studying to get her degree in chemical engineering, Kristil met Dan. In the years that followed, while Kristil was building her life with Dan, Anthony would still reach out, from time to time, on social media. So when Kristil gets a text from Anthony in October of 2023, she doesn’t reply. The next day, she receives a more disturbing message. “You should say yes when I offer pity sex. Whatever. Saw your pics. You got fat. Bet your loser husband won’t fuck your fat ass.”
Kristil is shocked. This doesn’t sound like the Anthony she knows. Kristil doesn’t answer, hoping things will just blow over, and if this is in fact Anthony, he’ll get the hint, and leave her alone. But she has no idea that her nightmare is only just beginning.
After researching online, Kristil discovers a classified ad, with her name and phone number on it. The ad solicits men to send her obscene photos of themselves. Kristil is convinced, someone posted the ad, to torment her. But she can’t be sure if Anthony is behind this.
DIGITAL HARASSMENT AND SURVEILLANCE FEAR
Whoever it was, this bizarre incident is causing tension between her and Dan.
On October 31st, almost a month after those first text messages, she gets an email, with a picture of her husband, Dan. It was taken at his work, without him knowing. The email was sent by an A. Holland Kicks at gmail dot com. (a.holland.kicks@gmail.com)
The message comes with a threat, against Dan. It reads, “This your husband? Can’t believe you wanna fuck his dick but not mine. He needs to drive safe. Don’t wanna clear rubber hose in his tailpipe.”
Kristil now has a clear indication, that she and her family are being followed. And she’s terrified. But the thing that bothers her the most, is she never thought her ex-boyfriend Anthony Holland would be capable of doing something like this.
PROTECTING HER FAMILY AT ALL COST
When her parents come to visit her that weekend, Kristil doesn’t hide what’s been happening. Kristil has already hired a private investigator, to find Anthony, so she can serve him the restraining order. But tracking him down proves to be much harder than expected. Dan installs security cameras on their house, and both buy dash cams for their car, in case Anthony follows them while they’re driving.
First and foremost, Kristil is worried for the safety of her children, and her husband Dan. So she starts carrying a Sig Sauer 9mm. With everything that’s happened, Kristil’s children have started to notice that their mother is upset. She now has to explain to them what’s been going on. Kristil is doing her best to keep their lives as normal as possible. She makes sure her oldest daughter, can focus on her dance classes, instead of worrying about her mommy’s stalker.
THE FINAL DAYS BEFORE THE MURDER
With Christmas just around the corner, Kristil’s daughter will be performing in 2 productions of the Nutcracker, something she’s been looking forward to this whole year. But because of what’s been going on, and because no one knows where the stalker is, Kristil is asked by the artistic director, and the company, to stop volunteering, and to stay away from her daughter’s performances.
The first thing Detective Martinez wants to do is confirm the identity of the stalker. He serves search warrants to Verizon, TextNow, and Google. Their records could prove that Anthony Holland is in fact the one behind these threats.
November 9th, just 2 days after her meeting with Detective Martinez, Kristil receives another text message, that only makes things worse. It reads “Saw you at dentist. U got so ***** an ******* in my car. So I came on yours. See you soon.” Kristil immediately notifies detective Martinez, who sends an officer over to her house. That “saw-you-at-dentist-text” has gotten Kristil worried her stalker might have put a tracker on her car.
The constant paranoia is taking a toll on Kristil, causing more strife in her relationship. She and Dan have been fighting more and more, to the point where Kristil tells her parents, they’re headed for divorce. And then, more texts come in, making it clear, what Anthony is planning next, and who he’s aiming for. “I’ll get rid of him, and then we can be together. So easy. Give me the signal, and he won’t come home.” So Dan also comes in, to talk to detective Martinez.
The anxiety has become unbearable, and Kristil fears she won’t be able to prevent the worst from happening. That sooner or later, someone will get killed. But what she fears the most, is that her children will get hurt, and she can’t let that happen.
THE LAST TEXT SHE EVER SENT
On December 13th, the last day before her murder, the dashcam in Kristil’s car catches a rare glimpse into her life. Instead of showing her stalker following her car, the footage only shows how exhausted she’s become, and how the last three months have visibly worn her down.
Thursday, December 14th. The security cameras around the Krug residence show the activity that morning. At 6:45am, Dan drives their eldest to the bus stop, before returning minutes later, just before 7.
At 7:42am, Kristil is seen driving away, as she takes their younger two kids to school. She returns just before 8. Then, at 8:24am, Dan pulls out, heading off to work about a half hour away.
Dan is on the road, when at 8:56, he receives a text from Kristil, asking him to pick up their daughter after school, because she has a meeting with Detective Martinez. Dan responds when he arrives at the office, 20 minutes later. “Sure thing, FYI, I forgot my chicken on the counter, please put it in the fridge.” But Kristil doesn’t message back, which has Dan worried. He tries calling her, but gets no answer. For the next three hours, he keeps trying to reach her. Until at 12:01pm, Dan asks for that welfare check. He also calls Kristil’s mother, who lives close-by.
THE TRUTH NO ONE EXPECTED
When Kristil’s mother Linda arrives at the house, she walks up the driveway. As the garage door opens, she peaks inside. Kristil’s family is completely distraught. When Dan arrives, he breaks down crying, held close in their arms. With the killer still at large, Detectives begin combing through the crime scene, while others start looking for the suspect.
They haven’t been able to locate Anthony in the last few months, but what they do have, is a license plate attached to his name. Police put out a nationwide alert to be on the look out for his vehicle. Almost immediately, they get a hit. Only, it’s not on any roads leading out of Colorado, but in North Central Utah. Investigators contact authorities there. Multiple deputies in Utah zero in on Anthony’s vehicle, parked outside a residence. They have a warrant for Anthony’s arrest, on stalking charges. The most shocking thing, is that Anthony is already home, just a couple of hours after the murder. Anthony invites the officers inside, waiting to be told what all this is about.
The deputies go through the events of Anthony’s morning. Apparently, he had been shopping for clothes at a store in American Fork, just 10 miles outside Salt Lake city. He shows them the receipt from his purchase, and the officers are able to confirm, Anthony is telling the truth. The strange thing is, Anthony admits to having texted Kristil after their split, but says the last time he messaged her, was in 2016.
Colorado Police are now left without any legal basis to arrest Anthony. They have no proof he was Kristil’s stalker, or her killer, as he was provably 500 miles away at the time of the murder. Detectives might have lost their prime suspect, but with a murder on their hands, they can now escalate those search warrants. Martinez has been waiting for nearly a month, for the digital information that would tell him where those stalking messages came from. But now, almost immediately, the companies respond. And what he discovers in the data, is shocking.
Dan Krug is arrested, for the murder of his wife Kristil. He was pulled over on his way to their daughter’s performance of the Nutcracker.
JUSTICE WRITTEN IN DATA
The data provided by Verizon, TextNow and Google, showed that the stalker had been using the wifi at Dan Krug’s office. The burner phone first used to text Kristil was traced back to a store in Broomfield, and it had been purchased using a gift card, registered to Dan Krug.
Police also did a digital analysis of that photo of Dan outside his office. It showed the photo had been taken in selfie mode, with a timer. But what about the text message sent from Kristil’s phone at the time Dan was arriving at work? Investigators found out the text was scheduled to be sent after he had already left the house.
As it turns out, not everyone was surprised to discover Dan had killed his wife. Just hours after Kristil’s death, her mother Linda tells Detectives, that maybe Anthony isn’t the only suspect they should look at. But the most shocking statement comes from Donna, Kristil’s stepmother. It appears Kristil was about to discover, that Dan was her stalker all along. And it’s possible that Dan decided to kill her, before she found out the truth.
April 4th 2025, Dan Krug pleads not guilty to first degree murder, and stalking. While all the digital information points to Dan, the physical evidence against him is thin. If Dan Krug walks free, he will have full custody of Kristil’s children, and their lives will be in danger. But there’s one witness, that will change everything. One of Dan’s ex-girlfriends. To this day, she’s still terrified of him, so much so, that she asked to remain anonymous. She says that after she broke up with him, she began receiving disturbing messages and phone calls, from someone she did not know.
At the time, the messages were investigated by police, and traced back, to Dan’s college, on the East Coast. The woman got a temporary restraining order against him, but he was never charged with any crime. Until now. After 7 days of testimony, the jury in Kristil Krug’s murder case is asked to deliberate. When the jury returns with a verdict, Kristil’s parents are holding their breath.
Dan Krug thought he could fool everyone, and get away with his crimes. He just never thought Kristil would outsmart him. It was her efforts that helped police, solve her own murder, and put a monster behind bars. At the cost of her own life, she made sure her children would always be safe. Now, with their mother gone, and their father in prison, Kristil’s children live with her parents.
It’s only been 2 years since her death, and for her parents, the pain is still hard to bear. But they do all they can, to make sure Kristil’s memory lives on with her children.
To help support Kristil’s children, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-the-krug-fa...
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Credits:
Written, directed and edited by Justin Chalifoux
Researched by Bianca Yzabelle Tan
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Salim Sader
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Sources:
“He’s Right Behind You.” ABC 20/20: ABC Entertainment, 2025
“The Phantom.” Dateline: NBCUniversal Media, LLC, 2025.
“The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug.” 48 Hours: CBS Interactive Inc., 2025.
Bodycam Captures Wife’s Final Moments Before It All Went Wrong, Beyond Evil, 2025.
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