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

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

Heather Aites: It’s a bizarre feeling standing there when someone is being advised, I’m sorry, however your beloved has died.

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

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

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

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

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

Heather Aites: In the automobile … he was fairly centered on the youngsters. … he was very adamant about eager to be the one to inform his kids.

Under the command of Broomfield Police chief Enea Hempelmann, investigators had been doing all the things of their energy to seek out the killer.

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

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

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

He stated they obtained the youngsters to high school, and Kristil appeared tremendous when he left for his job on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

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

Dan stated Kristil texted him, asking if he might choose up one of many children after college. But 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 test on her.

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

Lars Grimsrud: There aren’t phrases that may describe, what you are feeling as a mother or father at that time.

Linda Grimsrud: It’s most likely a mother and father’ worst nightmare

Kristil’s mother and father, 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 stay life.

Throughout her life, Kristil spent numerous hours working along with her dad on basic muscle vehicles in his colourful storage.

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

Kristil Krug Tells Police She is Being Terrorized by a Stalker

But these enjoyable, informal conversations abruptly turned disturbing within the fall of 2023, when Kristil first advised her father that she was residing with intense concern.

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, effectively, 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 things … with out hesitation.

Their dialog was recorded.

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): I hold making an attempt to remind myself, that is aspiring to be terrorizing. This is aspiring to scare me.

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

Peter Van Sant: And how does she reply to that?

Det. Andrew Martinez: She didn’t reply.

The following day, Kristil advised Martinez she obtained extra texts from Anthony that included obscenities and stated, “it’s best to kill urself. Dont waste my time.”

Peter Van Sant: Somebody that wishes to hook up, now could be saying, go kill your self. How do you interpret that — that second textual content?

Det. Andrew Martinez: It’s a reasonably 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 couple of yr after highschool and into school. The two broke up within the fall of 2000. Lars and Linda Grimsrud say again then Holland made a very good impression.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Van Sant: That suggests he could be surveilling them each, proper?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Correct.

KRISTIL KRUG (to Det. Martinez): This now could be escalating.

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

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

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

Det. Andrew Martinez: Yes.

Kristil had been trying to find Holland on her personal. She employed a personal investigator, and ultimately positioned him residing 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 needed to collect as a lot proof as attainable and ideally get hold of an arrest warrant so when regulation enforcement does go to, uh, Anthony’s door, we will take him into custody and never need to stroll away.

But Lars Grimsrud says Kristil had been dropping 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 …effectively this sounds severe sufficient it’s worthwhile to begin carrying. … you may use considered one of my weapons for — for proper now.

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

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

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

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’m panicking. And I’m doing a s*** job of defending my spouse. … So, I’m not — I’m not doing good.

Dan Krug advised Martinez the stalker had a nickname.

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

Peter Van Sant: Where’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.

As 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 identical to, what am I gonna do? How am I gonna stay?

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

Linda Grimsrud: Yes.

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

Jenna Ericson: She was terrified.

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

Jenna Ericson: Yes.

Josh Adamson: Yep.

Jenna Ericson: She stated, it is both going to be me or him that is useless. And I’m going to do all the things in my energy to ensure 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.

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

Peter Van Sant: So you are 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: Big time.

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

OFFICER (bodycam): Where’s your ID at?

ANTHONY HOLLAND: It’s in my room.

OFFICER: Have you 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 Facebook years earlier than.

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

Anthony Holland: I assumed it was for that message … the place I stated I missed her. That’s the one factor I might 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 collect data 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 buy 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 vital purchases you’ve gotten ever made.

Anthony Holland: Because it was my alibi, as a result of there isn’t any manner I might 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 consider.

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

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

Back in Colorado, Dan Krug was nonetheless nose to nose with investigators. He advised them his concept 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 exterior to get a package deal and so they should have are available. And she’s — she’s a fighter. She’s — she is robust. She would’ve fought.

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

VICTIM ADVOCATE: Your children 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’m — I ought to inform my kids. 

VICTIM ADVOCATE: You wish to inform them? 

DAN KRUG: I simply do not know the way. 

VICTIM ADVOCATE: That’s 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 digital camera, the facet digital camera, and the facet home digital camera, uh, had been all manually turned off.

Except for that one Nest digital camera close to the storage. Police canvassed Dan and Kristil Krug’s neighbors looking for something their residence safety cameras may need recorded.

They additionally enlisted Randy Pihlak, a digital forensic examiner with the Broomfield Police Department, to take a better take 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 into a homicide investigation, Pihlak was in a position to file new, expedited requests for data. He shortly found that messages from two accounts used to harass Kristil had been despatched from the identical location.

Randy Pihlak: Both … got here again to the identical IP handle. That IP handle was the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 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 could possibly be sitting proper in entrance of them. Could he be her killer as effectively?

Det. Andrew Martinez: The complete 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 not any manner that he was on the town immediately? 

DAN KRUG: Then I’ve nothing. And, then I’m f****** terrified to carry my kids residence.

DET. KING SULLIVAN: What are you petrified of?

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

But at the same time as Dan claimed ignorance, the detectives noticed that his physique language advised a unique 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 just a little bit. He crossed his arms. … Kinda like I’ve nothing to elucidate.

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

Dan Krug Goes From Grieving Husband to Murder Suspect

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

DAN KRUG: And it has be the husband.

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

DAN KRUG:There must 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 must be another person. But I do not know who that’s.

Martinez and King Sullivan did not consider 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): Help me make sense of it.

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

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

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

Det. Andrew Martinez: It’s a reasonably horrifying concept that … the largest risk that to you and your security is definitely residing 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 manner out, Dan saved 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 kids’s mom earlier than Christmas. They’re by no means gonna recover from that. …I do not care when you seize him. I do not care when you kill him. … Find him … Don’t simply as assume it is me. Keep 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 after 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 demise within the head and rolled over after which stabbed within the coronary heart.

With Dan now the prime suspect, the detectives needed to know extra about his relationship with Kristil. According to Kristil’s mother and father, it wasn’t good.

Linda Grimsrud: She stated, effectively, I’m sleeping on the sofa mother.

Peter Van Sant: But 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 attributable to Dan’s fiery mood.

Peter Van Sant: What set him off?

Lars Grimsrud: It — it could possibly be something, however it was often if he was dropping management …

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

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

Linda Grimsrud: They had a factor the place … they’d go, OK, stroll away. … You have to stroll away. And so, you realize, they had been making an attempt to handle it.

But within the weeks earlier than her demise, in response to her mother and father, 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.

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

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

The one Dan stated he obtained whereas driving to work about selecting up one of many children in school. But Pihlak found these texts had been set on a timer. It was a brand new function on the cellphone Kristil had.

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

Randy Pihlak: Uh, Dan Krug.

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

 Randy Pihlak: To conceal his actions.

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

Randy Pihlak: And we consider Kristil was deceased.

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

Randy Pihlak: Correct.

All whereas Dan casually arrived at work.

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

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

Just 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: How many vehicles we speaking about?

Jennifer King Sullivan: Probably eight vehicles. … we’re like, “that is him, he is alone within the automobile.”

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

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We look forward to him to park … we shortly converge on his automobile.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: We encompass him …

OFFICER (bodycam): You’re beneath arrest.

Det. Jennifer King Sullivan: … pull him out of his automobile 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 children that you just killed their mom, or would you like someone else to?

Peter Van Sant: That’s fairly a line. … That goes again to when … he stated he needed to inform his children that their mom was useless.

Det. Andrew Martinez: After I requested that query, he simply stated that he needed to talk along with his legal professional after which appeared 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 obtained him. … It felt like a burden had been lifted, that he had been arrested.

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

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

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

Kristil Krug’s Final 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 might get away with murdering his spouse by impersonating her ex-boyfriend.

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

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

Stephanie Fritts: It’s 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 consider my facial features … made it very clear that I used to be not on his facet.

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 another day. … She took her youthful two kids to high school.

And when she returned –

Kate Armstrong: Kristil … pulled again into her storage. She will get out of the automobile … 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 needed to exert over Kristil.

Dan Krug had been dropping that management for a very long time, say prosecutors. Their concept of the crime is that Dan despatched Kristil these disturbing messages in an try and 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’m nonetheless dropping 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 presumably her husband.

Stephanie Fritts: We 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 needed 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 cellphone earlier than he left the home — assuming he would not be caught.

Kate Armstrong: Were 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 checklist of digital proof towards Dan Krug was laid out: the threatening texts, the emails, the web searches. Also included — that {photograph} of Dan arriving at his workplace, hooked up to a menacing e mail seemingly despatched by Anthony Holland to Kristil. But there was one drawback, in response to the state’s digital skilled.

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

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

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

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

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

Defense 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 cellphone was not examined for fingerprints or DNA.

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in courtroom): Why not the cellphone? … The prosecution needs to consider, “Well, you realize, there will not be quite a bit to be discovered there.” Well, you will not know when you will not strive.

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

PHILLIP GEIGLE (in courtroom): They submitted the chest swabs. … And you realize 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 courtroom): There is completely no bodily proof on Mr. Krug’s clothes. … There’s no blood discovered on that automobile inside or out. It’s searched thrice.

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

Judge 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 depend quantity two, stalking, excessive emotional misery.

Krug was additionally discovered responsible of stalking with credible risk and felony impersonation.

Lars Grimsrud: Guilty, responsible, responsible, responsible. And at that time I believe I began respiratory 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. But proper after his conviction, in a video name from jail, Dan Krug advised his household that the jury obtained it mistaken, saying the true killer remained at massive and that his kids could possibly be the subsequent targets.

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

Could Kristil Krug’s Murder Have Been Prevented?

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

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

PATRICIA KRUG: Mm-hmm.

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

PATRICIA KRUG: OK.

Despite overwhelming digital proof towards him, Krug fell again to his outdated 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 arduous proof.

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

JEREMY KRUG (video name with Dan Krug): Support is dwindling. You know, mother and pop wish to consider you very a lot. I wish to consider you very a lot. … There’s quite a bit that is come out, um, and as imaginative as I will be with discovering explanations and methods to theorize how that, you realize 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 felony impersonation of Anthony Holland. Which begs the query: what if Detective Martinez had acted on the knowledge Kristil and the personal investigator had uncovered.

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

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

Peter Van Sant: Is this one thing the place you have 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 when you might get in a time machine, maybe you’d make that decision immediately?

Det. Andrew Martinez: Absolutely.

And Kristil’s mother and father sympathize with Martinez and consider 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 might’ve stopped the homicide from taking place.

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

Anthony Holland: I’ve had plenty 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 may possibly assist only one different particular person, 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 may possibly escalate and it may possibly escalate actually, actually quick.

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

Linda Grimsrud: Her mild, you realize, her mild.

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

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

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 manner, you are honoring her reminiscence. Aren’t you?

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

Peter Van Sant: You stick with it that custom.

Lars Grimsrud: Yeah. That’s 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 take 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 kids.

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 manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.