On the afternoon of Dec. 14, 2023, Anthony Holland was at his home near Salt Lake City watching television when police officers arrived. He later told 48 Hours he initially feared he was being arrested, though he had no idea what crime investigators meant.
An officer asked whether he knew the name Kristil Krug. Holland said Kristil had been his first love; they dated years earlier, breaking up in the fall of 2000 and losing contact long ago. Unknown to him at the time, 43-year-old Kristil Krug—a mother of three—had been killed in the garage of her Broomfield, Colorado, home that morning at about 8 a.m.
In the weeks before her death, Kristil and her husband Dan reported receiving threatening texts and emails from a stalker they suspected was Holland. Within hours of the murder, Colorado investigators asked Utah police to check on Holland, who lived roughly 500 miles from the crime scene.
Holland had what detectives later described as an airtight alibi. A department-store receipt showed he bought a sweatshirt at 12:16 p.m. that day, a time-stamped purchase that made it impossible for him to have driven to Colorado and back in the hours available. He was quickly cleared.
Holland told 48 Hours he believes forces beyond coincidence helped produce that alibi. He said he woke that morning with an unexpected urge to buy a new sweatshirt—an impulse he attributes to his late mother or to Kristil’s spirit. After the purchase he returned home, lay down and watched TV, and soon afterward heard the pounding at his 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 use, he says it has come to symbolize justice for a woman he once loved.
The case and the investigation into Kristil Krug’s death are featured in “The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug,” a new 48 Hours report by correspondent Peter Van Sant, now streaming on Paramount+.