On the afternoon of Dec. 14, 2023, Anthony Holland was watching TV at his home near Salt Lake City when law enforcement arrived. “I honestly thought I was going to jail for something,” Holland told “48 Hours,” though he said he had no idea what crime investigators meant.
One of the officers asked, “Have you ever heard of the name Kristil Krug?” Holland said he once dated Kristil — his first love — though they had broken up in the fall of 2000 and had not spoken in years. Unbeknownst to Holland, 43-year-old Kristil Krug, a mother of three, had been murdered in the garage of her Broomfield, Colorado, home around 8 a.m. that morning.
In the weeks before her death, Kristil and her husband Dan had reported threatening texts and emails from a stalker, whom they believed to be Holland. Within hours of the murder, Colorado investigators asked Utah police to check on Holland, about 500 miles from the crime scene.
Holland had what investigators called an airtight alibi: at 12:16 p.m. the day of the murder he was at a local department store buying a sweatshirt, a purchase documented by a time-stamped receipt. That made it impossible for him to have driven to Colorado and back in the time available, and he was immediately cleared.
Holland told “48 Hours” he believes Kristil’s “spirit” — and his late mother — played a role in establishing the alibi. “What was it about that morning that you had to have this new sweatshirt?” correspondent Peter Van Sant asked. “I just got an urge. I need another one. I don’t have enough,” Holland replied. “I do believe, like, either my mom or Kristil, because she was murdered before I went to the store, a little bit before … her spirit could have traveled, and I believe that they had some part of it because I just had an urge.”
He described returning home, lying on his bed watching TV, and then hearing pounding at the door as police arrived. Two days after Kristil Krug’s death, authorities arrested her husband Dan Krug and charged him with stalking and murder.
Holland still owns the sweatshirt he bought that day. Beyond its practical value, he said it stands as a symbol of justice for a woman he once loved. The case and the investigation into Kristil Krug’s death are the subject of “The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug,” a new “48 Hours” report by Van Sant, now streaming on Paramount+.
