Who killed Kristil Krug? Slain Colorado mother acquired menacing threats weeks earlier than her homicide.

Sufferer advocate Heather Aites is educated to consolation these in emotional agony, like Dan Krug, who dashed residence from work and realized his spouse, Kristil, had been discovered murdered of their storage in suburban Broomfield, Colorado, on Dec. 14, 2023.

Heather Aites: It is a bizarre feeling standing there when someone is being advised, I am sorry, however the one you love has died.

Heather Aites: This man has been going by means of a stalking case along with his spouse. … he’s being stalked as nicely. And now she is gone.

As investigators searched the crime scene for clues, Aites drove Dan to the police station. An officer’s physique digicam recorded the trip.

Heather Aites: He was crouched over to the aspect of the passenger door.  … And I am comforting Dan by rubbing his again.

Dan and Kristil Krug had been married for 16 years. The couple, each 43, had three younger youngsters.

Peter Van Sant: What did he say within the automotive?

Heather Aites: Within the automotive … he was fairly centered on the youngsters. … he was very adamant about desirous to be the one to inform his youngsters.

Below the command of Broomfield Police chief Enea Hempelmann, investigators had been doing all the pieces of their energy to search out the killer.

Chief Enea Hempelmann: We … instantly, uh, began doing interviews … speaking to neighbors, canvassing.

A number of hours had handed since Dan Krug’s emotional trip to the police station. He had settled down. And he advised detectives there was nothing out of the extraordinary that morning.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): Mornings are very routine in the home.

He stated they acquired the youngsters to highschool, and Kristil appeared positive when he left for his job on the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Setting.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): Whereas I used to be driving, uh, my — my telephone dinged.

Dan stated Kristil texted him, asking if he may decide up one of many youngsters after faculty. However when he texted again and requested what time, he stated Kristil by no means responded.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): And that — that was bizarre.

So bizarre — so out of character for Kristil — Dan known as police and requested them to examine on her.

OFFICER JOHN O’HAYRE (bodycam): I acquired a feminine down within the storage.

Lars Grimsrud: There should not phrases that may describe, what you are feeling as a dad or mum at that time.

Linda Grimsrud: It is most likely a dad and mom’ worst nightmare

Kristil’s dad and mom, Lars and Linda Grimsrud.

Lars Grimsrud: She was an engineer. … She had … unimaginable expertise in, uh, math, sciences, chemistry, physics. … she additionally had the — the abilities within the … arts.

Linda Grimsrud She liked to only get out and reside life.

All through her life, Kristil spent numerous hours working together with her dad on basic muscle automobiles in his colourful storage.

Lars Grimsrud (in his storage): We would work on the automobiles. … We would race the automobiles. … Kristil all the time felt very snug coming over right here. … If we would have liked to speak or no matter, that is the place we might sit and simply … get pleasure from one another’s firm.

Kristil Krug Tells Police She is Being Terrorized by a Stalker

However these enjoyable, informal conversations all of the sudden turned disturbing within the fall of 2023, when Kristil first advised her father that she was dwelling with intense worry.

Lars Grimsrud (in his storage): She sat right here and advised me that she was being stalked and that simply shocked me. … and I requested her, nicely, have you ever talked to the police?

Kristil had known as the police and met with Broomfield Detective Andrew Martinez.

Det. Andrew Martinez: She got here into the interview room and simply sort of took over and simply advised me all the pieces … with out hesitation.

Their dialog was recorded.

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): I preserve making an attempt to remind myself, that is desiring to be terrorizing. That is desiring to scare me.

Kristil advised Martinez that on Oct. 2, 2023, she acquired an unsettling textual content from somebody named Anthony, who stated he can be coming to the realm and requested if Kristil wished to “hook up.”

Peter Van Sant: And the way does she reply to that?

Det. Andrew Martinez: She didn’t reply.

The next day, Kristil advised Martinez she acquired extra texts from Anthony that included obscenities and stated, “you need to kill urself. Dont waste my time.”

Peter Van Sant: Any individual that desires to hook up, now’s saying, go kill your self. How do you interpret that — that second textual content?

Det. Andrew Martinez: It is a fairly excessive response to not getting a response.

Kristil advised Martinez she knew an Anthony from her previous, Anthony Holland, a boyfriend she dated for a few yr after highschool and into faculty. The 2 broke up within the fall of 2000. Lars and Linda Grimsrud say again then Holland made an excellent impression.

Linda Grimsrud: Very pleasant very courteous. He all the time had good manners.

In 2002, out of the blue, Holland contacted Kristil. In line with Kristil, Holland by no means appeared to take no for a solution — contacting her once more in 2005, 2010 and 2016 through Fb. 

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): He is like we’re meant to be collectively … I stated, “that is actually creepy for me. It’s essential cease.”

Kristil deleted Fb and thought she’d heard the final of Holland. However then got here the texts in 2023.

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): This was alarming. He is by no means stated this type of stuff to me earlier than, so —

Over the subsequent two months, Kristil stated she acquired alarming message after message by means of textual content and e mail. They included threats to her and Dan — together with a disturbing photograph of Dan getting out of his automotive at work, which prompted Kristil to first come ahead and name police. A number of days later this textual content to her: “Noticed u at dentist… see you quickly.”

Peter Van Sant: That implies he is likely to be surveilling them each, proper?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Appropriate.

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): This now’s escalating.

Det. Andrew Martinez: The harassment, uh, is simply fixed. … And she or he’s simply believing that each nook presents some type of hazard for her.

To collect proof and find Anthony Holland, Martinez was required to file search warrants with the telephone and e mail firms, a sluggish course of.

Peter Van Sant: Getting that info takes time. … Typically these firms are reluctant, or they sluggish stroll getting that info to you, right?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Sure.

Kristil had been looking for Holland on her personal. She employed a non-public investigator, and finally situated him dwelling in Utah, about 500 miles away. Kristil shared her discovery with Martinez, who selected to not contact Holland.

Det. Andrew Martinez: I defined to Kristil … that we wished to assemble as a lot proof as doable and ideally acquire an arrest warrant so when legislation enforcement does go to, uh, Anthony’s door, we will take him into custody and never should stroll away.

However Lars Grimsrud says Kristil had been shedding persistence with the investigation.

Lars Grimsrud: She made the remark that she felt … that they had deserted her that — that they weren’t doing issues aggressively sufficient.

Kristil had taken steps to guard herself and her household – together with putting in safety cameras.

Lars Grimsrud (in his storage): She was scared. … I stated …nicely this sounds critical sufficient you have to begin carrying. … you may use one among my weapons for — for proper now.

Peter Van Sant: Is that this the very gun that she took together with her?

Lars Grimsrud: That’s the precise gun that she initially then carried.

Dan Krug was additionally interviewed. The threats had been taking a toll on him, as nicely.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): I went to the grocery retailer briefly on Tuesday and somebody behind me dropped a can and I f****** panicked. … So, what am I doing? I am panicking. And I am doing a s*** job of defending my spouse. … So, I am not — I am not doing good.

Dan Krug advised Martinez the stalker had a nickname.

DANIEL KRUG (to detectives): We name him Kickman.

Peter Van Sant: The place’d that identify come from?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Kickman … Dan had advised me was as a result of the suspect e mail that was initially contacting Kristil was … ahollandkicks at gmail.com.

Because the weeks glided by and Martinez’s investigation continued, Lars and Linda Grimsrud say the fixed threats had been ruining their daughter’s life.

Linda Grimsrud: It was simply heartbreaking. She was simply in tears … She was similar to, what am I gonna do? How am I gonna reside?

Peter Van Sant: Did she really feel she was being hunted down by Anthony?

Linda Grimsrud: Sure.

Kristil additionally shared her fears together with her siblings Jenna Ericson and Josh Adamson.

Jenna Ericson: She was terrified.

Peter Van Sant: Did she ever specific to both of you the worry that this man I believe goes to kill me?

Jenna Ericson: Sure.

Josh Adamson: Yep.

Jenna Ericson: She stated, it is both going to be me or him that is useless. And I’ll do all the pieces in my energy to verify it is not me.

Police Zero in on Kristil Krug’s Stalker

When Kristil Krug was discovered useless in her storage, Detective Martinez had just one suspect in thoughts.

Det. Andrew Martinez: My preliminary assumption was that … Anthony Holland had, uh, gone to her residence and murdered her.

Inside hours, native police descended on Holland’s residence in Eagle Mountain close to Salt Lake Metropolis.

Peter Van Sant: So that you’re alone in the home … what do you hear?

Anthony Holland: Pounding on the door.

Peter Van Sant (bangs hand on desk): Like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Anthony Holland: Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: Large time.

Anthony Holland: So I’m going to the door. … I see like eight cops. … I had no thought what was happening.

OFFICER (bodycam): The place’s your ID at?

ANTHONY HOLLAND: It is in my room.

OFFICER: Have you ever ever heard of the identify Kristil Krug?

Anthony Holland: They requested me if I knew Kristil Krug and I advised them I did know her.

ANTHONY HOLLAND (bodycam): She was my very first girlfriend ever.

OFFICER: And when was the final time you talked to Kristil? Has it been some time? A minute?

ANTHONY HOLLAND: Uh, it has been a minute. Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: When was the final time you had reached out to Kristil?

Anthony Holland: It was round 2014, 2016.

Holland says he’d reached out to Kristil on Fb years earlier than.

Peter Van Sant: What are you considering? “Why would they arrive all — all the best way right here to ask me about Kristil?”

Anthony Holland: I believed it was for that message … the place I stated I missed her. That is the one factor I may consider as a result of I used to be like I have not contacted her since then.

Peter Van Sant: They did not let you know that Kristil Krug had been murdered?

Anthony Holland: No, they didn’t inform me.

Police had been there to assemble info from their suspect — not give it.

Anthony Holland: They requested me the place I used to be that day. … Can I show the place I used to be?

Holland had made a purchase order simply hours earlier at a Kohl’s retailer close to his residence.

Peter Van Sant: What’d you purchase?

Anthony Holland: A sweatshirt, this one proper right here.

And he nonetheless had the receipt. The acquisition was made at 12:16 p.m. Investigators say Kristil was attacked round 8 a.m.

Peter Van Sant: It seems that was one of the necessary purchases you could have ever made.

Anthony Holland: As a result of it was my alibi, as a result of there isn’t a means I may have made it from Colorado again to Utah to purchase the sweatshirt. … It was an eight-hour drive.

Holland additionally confirmed police a few of his employment information. They proved he’d been in Utah all alongside — by no means touring to Colorado because the messages from Kristil’s stalker led cops to imagine.

Anthony Holland: I had a bunch of receipts from my work displaying the times that I labored. And so they took these, took my receipt from Kohl’s and … went to the squad automotive and made a telephone name … got here again in and advised me I used to be free to go.

OFFICER (to Holland): You will have a greater day, OK?

Again in Colorado, Dan Krug was nonetheless nose to nose with investigators. He advised them his principle of the crime.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): So in my mind, the story that I’ve is somebody got here to the door, possibly she went outdoors to get a bundle and so they should have are available in. And she or he’s — she’s a fighter. She’s — she is powerful. She would’ve fought.

Earlier within the interview, Dan requested he inform the kids what had occurred to their mom.

VICTIM ADVOCATE: Your youngsters have no idea but. 

DAN KRUG: Are they right here? 

VICTIM ADVOCATE: They’re right here. They’re proper within the corridor. 

DAN KRUG (pats his chest): I am — I ought to inform my youngsters. 

VICTIM ADVOCATE: You wish to inform them? 

DAN KRUG: I simply do not know the way. 

VICTIM ADVOCATE: That is OK. 

Det. Andrew Martinez: Watching their response is simply heartbreaking.

Investigators had been working each angle. They checked these safety cameras Kristil had put in on the home.

Det. Andrew Martinez: The doorbell digicam, the aspect digicam, and the aspect home digicam, uh, had been all manually turned off.

Apart from that one Nest digicam close to the storage. Police canvassed Dan and Kristil Krug’s neighbors searching for something their residence safety cameras might need recorded.

In addition they enlisted Randy Pihlak, a digital forensic examiner with the Broomfield Police Division, to take a more in-depth have a look at these disturbing messages to Kristil.

Randy Pihlak: I believe it was most likely 4 hours, 5 hours after the homicide was reported to us. 

Now that the stalking case had turn out to be a homicide investigation, Pihlak was in a position to file new, expedited requests for info. He shortly found that messages from two accounts used to harass Kristil had been despatched from the identical location.

Randy Pihlak: Each … got here again to the identical IP handle. That IP handle was the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Setting, which is the place Dan labored. 

The messages to Kristil threatening her, threatening her husband, had been despatched utilizing the Wi-Fi system at Dan’s workplace. For the primary time, detectives believed Kristil’s stalker might be sitting proper in entrance of them. May he be her killer as nicely?

Det. Andrew Martinez: All the air was simply sort of evacuated out of our investigations room and we realized … we have to give attention to Dan and the place he is been and what he is been doing.

Martinez, together with Detective Jennifer King Sullivan, confronted Dan.

DET. KING SULLIVAN: Who do you assume killed her?

DAN KRUG: I believe it is Kickman. I believe it is Anthony.

DET. MARTINEZ: What if I advised you that we had already spoken with Anthony and there is no means that he was on the town at the moment? 

DAN KRUG: Then I’ve nothing. And, then I am f****** terrified to deliver my youngsters residence.

DET. KING SULLIVAN: What are you afraid of?

DAN KRUG: If it wasn’t him, who was it?

However whilst Dan claimed ignorance, the detectives noticed that his physique language advised a special story. 

Peter Van Sant: What had been you seeing with Dan?

Det. Andrew Martinez: He took a defensive posture. He sat again within the sofa a little bit bit. He crossed his arms. … Kinda like I’ve nothing to elucidate.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: I believe his head is spinning, fascinated by what else are they gonna discover?

Dan Krug Goes From Grieving Husband to Homicide Suspect

DET. KING SULLIVAN (questioning): The thriller continues and –

DAN KRUG: And it has be the husband.

DET. KING SULLIVAN: If you happen to had been watching these details unfold in entrance of you in a film, what would you say occurred?

DAN KRUG:There needs to be another person. 

Moments after detectives advised Dan Krug that they had eradicated Anthony Holland as a suspect,  Dan calmly insisted he was not the one who stalked and murdered his spouse Kristil.

DAN KRUG: I liked her… there needs to be another person. However I do not know who that’s.

Martinez and King Sullivan did not imagine a phrase of it,  and had been struck by how stoic — how unmoved — Dan was.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: He had no response, um, and actually no rationalization.

DET. KING SULLIVAN (questioning): Assist me make sense of it.

DAN KRUG: I do not know. I am not the one who does this. … I haven’t got a story or a narrative that I can give you.

Inside minutes, Dan Krug had gone from sympathetic sufferer to homicide suspect.

DANIEL KRUG (to detectives): I get the narrative you are placing collectively, but it surely alleges that I might do that to my youngsters. … I like and adore my youngsters.

Det. Andrew Martinez: It is a fairly horrifying concept that … the most important menace that to you and your security is definitely dwelling in the identical home as you.

DET. MARTINEZ (to Dan Krug): We have to course of you for bodily proof, OK.

Det. Andrew Martinez: He is aware of that we’re on to him. … We simply did not have sufficient proof at that time to take him into custody.

DET. MARTINEZ (to Dan Krug): We’ll stroll you out to the foyer …

On his means out, Dan stored insisting the true killer was nonetheless on the unfastened and he made a determined plea.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): I simply need the f***** to pay … He took my youngsters’s mom earlier than Christmas. They’re by no means gonna recover from that. …I do not care in the event you seize him. I do not care in the event you kill him. … Discover him … Do not simply as assume it is me. Hold trying.

Peter Van Sant: When did you discover out that Dan was now an individual of — of curiosity on this case?

Linda Grimsrud: I believe at his interview. So that very same day once they held him and so they held him fairly late.

An post-mortem revealed what occurred to Kristil. She had been attacked from behind with a blunt object.

Det. Andrew Martinez: Bludgeoned to dying within the head and rolled over after which stabbed within the coronary heart.

With Dan now the prime suspect, the detectives wished to know extra about his relationship with Kristil. In line with Kristil’s dad and mom, it wasn’t good.

Linda Grimsrud: She stated, nicely, I am sleeping on the sofa mother.

Peter Van Sant: However you knew there was hassle in paradise, proper?

Linda Grimsrud: Yeah. And particularly in that — these previous couple of months.

Kristil’s household says these troubles had been brought on by Dan’s fiery mood.

Peter Van Sant: What set him off?

Lars Grimsrud: It — it might be something, but it surely was often if he was shedding management …

Kristil’s sister Jenna Ericson says she may all the time inform when Dan was indignant.

Jenna Ericson: His face would get actually pink when he was getting annoyed … I vividly keep in mind seeing his face get pink.

Linda Grimsrud: That they had a factor the place … they’d go, OK, stroll away. … It’s essential stroll away. And so, , they had been making an attempt to handle it.

However within the weeks earlier than her dying, based on her dad and mom, Kristil was on the brink of depart Dan. 

Linda Grimsrud: She did not wanna have this marriage anymore.

Lars Grimsrud: She had determined that she wanted to break up.

Because the detectives methodically constructed their case, extra proof was uncovered on Dan and Kristil Krug’s cell telephones by digital forensic knowledgeable Randy Pihlak — together with texts from the morning of the homicide.

Randy Pihlak: So on Kristil’s telephone, um, we see textual content messages to Lars, Detective Martinez, after which a textual content message to Dan.

The one Dan stated he acquired whereas driving to work about choosing up one of many youngsters in school. However Pihlak found these texts had been set on a timer. It was a brand new characteristic on the telephone Kristil had.

Peter Van Sant: Who do you imagine preprogrammed these messages?

Randy Pihlak: Uh, Dan Krug.

Peter Van Sant: And he did it to do what?

 Randy Pihlak: To cover his actions.

Pihlak says the messages had been preprogrammed earlier than Dan left the home.

Randy Pihlak: And we imagine Kristil was deceased.

Peter Van Sant: That for him, then, would set up an alibi that nicely I had already left and my spouse is alive proper? She’s texting me.

Randy Pihlak: Appropriate.

All whereas Dan casually arrived at work.

Pihlak found extra damning proof from Dan’s telephone: web searches like “What occurs while you’re knocked unconscious?” “Do folks actually go unconscious when hit within the head?” and “How exhausting for head trauma to go unconscious?”

Randy Pihlak: All searches had been the day earlier than the homicide … it was relatively damning.

Simply two days after Kristil had been murdered, detectives Martinez and King Sullivan felt that they had sufficient proof to cost Dan Krug with stalking and murdering his spouse. 

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We start following him.

Peter Van Sant: What number of automobiles we speaking about?

Jennifer King Sullivan: Most likely eight automobiles. … we’re like, “that is him, he is alone within the automotive.”

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We observe him all the best way to the grocery retailer.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We await him to park … we shortly converge on his automotive.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We encompass him …

OFFICER (bodycam): You are below arrest.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: … pull him out of his automotive and … inform him he is being arrested for the homicide of his spouse.

Det. Andrew Martinez: I requested him only one query.

DET. MARTINEZ (to Dan Krug/bodycam): Do you wish to inform your youngsters that you simply killed their mom, or would you like someone else to?

Peter Van Sant: That is fairly a line. … That goes again to when … he stated he wished to inform his youngsters that their mom was useless.

Det. Andrew Martinez: After I requested that query, he simply stated that he wished to talk along with his legal professional after which regarded away from me.

Det. Andrew Martinez: And I shut the door and he went to the county jail.

Lars Grimsrud: I felt an enormous reduction. … they acquired him. … It felt like a burden had been lifted, that he had been arrested.

And shortly, Kristil’s household would come nose to nose with the person detectives say murdered her.

Lars Grimsrud: He, uh, regarded proper at me and smiled at me.

And so they hear, for the primary time, Dan’s aspect of the story.

Kristil Krug’s Last Moments Revealed

When Deputy District Attorneys Kate Armstrong and Stephanie Fritts had been assigned to prosecute Daniel Krug, they are saying they had been struck by his downright stupidity in believing he may get away with murdering his spouse by impersonating her ex-boyfriend.

Kate Armstrong: The audacity with which he thought he may manipulate not solely his household, his family members, but in addition the police division.

Peter Van Sant: And a few of this … is subtle, is it not?

Stephanie Fritts: It is subtle, however not too subtle as a result of we had been in a position to determine it out.

The trial started in April 2025.

Lars Grimsrud: When he first got here in … he smiled at me like, he was saying, “hey, thanks for being right here for me” … I imagine my facial features … made it very clear that I used to be not on his aspect.

The prosecution laid out Kristil’s closing hours of life for the jury.

Kate Armstrong: On December 14th of 2023, Kristil Krug began her day like some other day. … She took her youthful two youngsters to highschool.

And when she returned –

Kate Armstrong: Kristil … pulled again into her storage. She will get out of the automotive … when she is attacked from behind.

Peter Van Sant: And did she ever see him approaching, do you assume? … Or was this an ambush?

Stephanie Fritts: It was an ambush. … She had two or three cranium fractures.

Kate Armstrong: As she’s laying on the ground bleeding, he … pushes her over, will get over her and stabs her … simply above her coronary heart.

Peter Van Sant: And why do you suppose — he had to try this vicious final stab?

Kate Armstrong: I believe it was rage. I believe it was management and energy that he wished to exert over Kristil.

Dan Krug had been shedding that management for a very long time, say prosecutors. Their principle of the crime is that Dan despatched Kristil these disturbing messages in an try to drive her nearer to him and never depart, hoping she’d see him as her heroic protector.

Kate Armstrong: It was not working … the stalking was not main her again to him … I believe it then turned to, ‘I am nonetheless shedding her’ sort of, uh, ‘if I am unable to have you ever, no person can.'”

The prosecution says that within the final days of her life, Kristil had begun to suspect that her stalker was probably her husband.

Stephanie Fritts: We all know from Dan’s personal interview that she confronted him and stated, “I am unable to rule you out because the stalker.

DAN KRUG (to detectives): She stated that proper to my face, that she wished to know if it was me. And I advised her no.

Peter Van Sant: He felt the partitions closing in.

Stephanie Fritts: Closing in. He was going to lose Kristil anyway. … He was going to be uncovered because the stalker. … So he did that final, uh, deadly act and murdered her.

Prosecutors say Dan Krug tried to outsmart investigators — pre-programming these textual content messages on Kristil’s telephone earlier than he left the home — assuming he would not be caught.

Kate Armstrong: Had been we not in a position to uncover that that was a delayed ship textual content, it could have appeared as if Kristil was nonetheless alive when he left the home.

At trial, the lengthy listing of digital proof towards Dan Krug was laid out: the threatening texts, the emails, the web searches. Additionally included — that {photograph} of Dan arriving at his workplace, hooked up to a menacing e mail seemingly despatched by Anthony Holland to Kristil. However there was one downside, based on the state’s digital knowledgeable.

Peter Van Sant: Who took this image, do you imagine?

Randy Pihlak: Uh, Dan. Dan took this image.

Pihlak found that the telephone which snapped that photograph was in selfie mode utilizing a timer — a indisputable fact that Kate Armstrong reminded the jury about in her closing argument. That is when the choose allowed cameras into the courtroom.

KATE ARMSTRONG (in court docket): The telephone was propped on the again of this automobile subsequent to him. … The defendant took this {photograph} after which he despatched it to his spouse.

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in court docket): We respectfully disagree with the prosecution on this case.

Protection legal professional Phillip Geigle argued the homicide investigation was poor. The blunt object used on Kristil’s head and the knife used to stab her had been by no means recovered by police. The protection additionally zeroed in on the truth that Kristil’s telephone was not examined for fingerprints or DNA.

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in court docket): Why not the telephone? … The prosecution needs to imagine, “Properly, , there might not be so much to be discovered there.” Properly, you will not know in the event you will not strive.

Geigle stated different forensic checks supported his declare that Dan Krug is harmless.

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in court docket): They submitted the chest swabs. … And whose DNA wasn’t there? The one who lived in the home, the one who ate within the kitchen with them, the one who shared the lounge, that fool proper there (factors to Dan Krug).

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in court docket): There may be completely no bodily proof on Mr. Krug’s clothes. … There isn’t any blood discovered on that automotive inside or out. It is searched 3 times.

In week three of the trial, the jurors started deliberations. After a day-and-a-half, verdicts had been reached.

Decide Priscilla Loew learn the verdicts.

JUDGE LOEW: We, the jury, discover the defendant responsible of homicide within the first diploma. … We, the jury, discover the defendant, responsible of rely quantity two, stalking, excessive emotional misery.

Krug was additionally discovered responsible of stalking with credible menace and prison impersonation.

Lars Grimsrud: Responsible, responsible, responsible, responsible. And at that time I believe I began respiration once more.

Krug was later sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole on the homicide cost, and an extra nine-and-a-half years for the stalking and impersonation counts. However proper after his conviction, in a video name from jail, Dan Krug advised his household that the jury acquired it fallacious, saying the true killer remained at giant and that his youngsters might be the subsequent targets.

DAN KRUG (video name with household): I want them protected. I do not know the place or who did this. The place he’s or who he’s. I want my youngsters out of Colorado.

May Kristil Krug’s Homicide Have Been Prevented?

As Daniel Krug started serving his life sentence, he continued making video calls to his dad and mom and brother within the days instantly after his conviction. The person who viciously murdered his spouse, terrorized his personal youngsters and lied to everybody, was looking for sympathy from his aspect of the household.

DAN KRUG (video name with household): I am most likely sleeping like 16 hours a day due to the despair.

PATRICIA KRUG: Mm-hmm.

DAN KRUG: I sleep, I learn and I cry. That is about it.

PATRICIA KRUG: OK.

Regardless of overwhelming digital proof towards him, Krug fell again to his previous methods — mendacity to his family members — now claiming he was wrongly convicted.

DAN KRUG (video name with household): They by no means produced a single piece of exhausting proof.

His brother, Jeremy Krug, gave Dan Krug a much-needed actuality examine — that the muse of the household’s loyalty had began to crack.

JEREMY KRUG (video name with Dan Krug): Help is dwindling. You realize, mother and pa wish to imagine you very a lot. I wish to imagine you very a lot. … There’s so much that is come out, um, and as imaginative as I could be with discovering explanations and methods to theorize how that, this or that would have been, the, the truth, um, a few of it’s past even my creativity.

The case that ended with a homicide had begun with stalking and prison impersonation of Anthony Holland. Which begs the query: what if Detective Martinez had acted on the data Kristil and the personal investigator had uncovered.

Anthony Holland: They need to have discovered me straight away. … They need to have discovered me, they need to have got here to my home. They need to approached me. They need to have talked to me.

However Detective Martinez selected to not name, telling “48 Hours” he did not have sufficient proof to take action, and was involved a telephone name may exacerbate the state of affairs.

Peter Van Sant: Is that this one thing the place you’ve got kicked your self about this?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Uh, this case has, uh, haunted me since, um, it occurred. … And the result of this case has haunted me for the previous two years.

Peter Van Sant: And in the event you may get in a time machine, maybe you’d make that decision at the moment?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Completely.

And Kristil’s dad and mom sympathize with Martinez and imagine their daughter was doomed it doesn’t matter what the result of his investigation.

Lars Grimsrud: Inevitably, I believe he was gonna kill her. … When somebody units their thoughts to do one thing like that and that is what the plan was … I do not assume that will’ve stopped the homicide from occurring.

Kristil’s dying has left a gap within the lives of those that skilled her love and pleasure for all times.

Anthony Holland: I’ve had a number of different girlfriends and I’ve by no means been in love with anyone else like her.

Peter Van Sant: She was the love of your life.

Anthony Holland: Yeah.

Jenna Ericson hopes her sister Kristil’s story will function a cautionary story.

Jenna Ericson: If it will possibly assist only one different individual, who’s in a harmful state of affairs, like she was in, that it provides them the power to make a transfer as a result of it will possibly escalate and it will possibly escalate actually, actually quick.

Peter Van Sant: What was misplaced when she was taken from us?

Linda Grimsrud: Her mild, , her mild.

Lars Grimsrud: That is a — that is a tricky one to speak about as a result of there’s, uh, there’s a lot. I need her to leap outta that automotive and say, “hey Papa.”

Lars nonetheless passes his time restoring components for classic automobiles. That father-daughter pastime is now being handed right down to Kristil’s youngsters.

Lars Grimsrud: They’re in right here. They run that very same electrical screwdriver and so they can tear a carburetor aside.

Peter Van Sant: So, in that means, you are honoring her reminiscence. Aren’t you?

Lars Grimsrud: Properly, that is the entire thought. Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: You stick with it that custom.

Lars Grimsrud: Yeah. That is the entire thought. She, uh, she would get such a kick out of seeing the youngsters doing the stuff that she was concerned in.

Linda Grimsrud: I have a look at my grandkids and … I discover a second of peace … as a result of I see her.

The household has began a web based fundraising marketing campaign to assist Kristil’s three youngsters.

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Produced by Betsy Shuller and Susan Mallie. Elena DiFiore and Ryan N. Smith are the event producers. Michael Loftus is the affiliate producer. Marcus Balsam, Diana DeCilio, Phil Tangel and George Baluzy are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.