Victim advocate Heather Aites remembers the moment Dan Krug learned his wife, Kristil, had been found dead in their Broomfield, Colorado, garage on Dec. 14, 2023. Dan, 43, who had been married to Kristil for 16 years and was the father of three young children, returned from work to a routine morning that had turned fatal.
Kristil’s parents, Lars and Linda Grimsrud, describe a woman who loved engineering, art and working on classic muscle cars with her father. But in the fall of 2023 Kristil told her family she was terrified: someone was stalking her. She met with Broomfield Detective Andrew Martinez on Nov. 7, 2023, and recounted months of harassing texts and emails from an account using the name “Anthony.” Early messages sought a hookup; later messages escalated to obscenities and death threats, including a disturbing photo of Dan getting out of his car at work and a message reading, “Saw u at dentist… see you soon.”
Kristil said she recognized the name — Anthony Holland — a boyfriend from her late teens and early 20s who had intermittently contacted her over the years via Facebook. The renewed messages in 2023 felt menacing and stalkerish. She hired a private investigator, who located Holland living in Utah about 500 miles away. Martinez told Kristil he wanted to gather enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant rather than confront Holland immediately.
Kristil tried to protect her family: she installed security cameras, carried a gun from her father, and repeatedly said she felt hunted. She told siblings she feared “it’s either going to be me or him that’s dead.” Her family urged more aggressive police action; Martinez says he feared a premature approach might make the situation worse.
On the morning of Dec. 14, Dan said he left for work after a normal morning. While driving, he said his phone “dinged” — a text from Kristil asking if he could pick up a child. When Kristil didn’t respond to his follow-up asking the time, he made a welfare check. Officer John O’Hayre peered through the garage window and saw Kristil apparently lifeless with a head wound.
An autopsy later showed Kristil had been bludgeoned from behind, sustaining multiple skull fractures, then rolled over and stabbed above the heart. Police immediately treated the case as murder and canvassed the neighborhood and nearby security cameras. Several cameras on the house had been manually turned off, though a Nest camera near the garage remained.
Detectives rapidly focused on Kristil’s stalking complaint and on Anthony Holland. Within hours, police went to Holland’s home in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Holland said he had not been in contact with Kristil in years and produced an alibi: a Kohl’s receipt showing a purchase at 12:16 p.m. on Dec. 14, more than four hours after the estimated attack time, and employment records putting him in Utah. Investigators concluded Holland could not have driven to Colorado to commit the crime.
The investigation then turned to digital forensics. Randy Pihlak, a Broomfield digital examiner, obtained expedited records and discovered that two accounts used to harass Kristil traced to the same IP address: the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment — Dan Krug’s workplace. That revelation shifted suspicion to someone with access to that network.
When detectives told Dan that Holland had been eliminated as a suspect, they say his body language changed and his demeanor grew defensive. Dan insisted the stalker — “Kickman,” a name tied to an email handle — must be someone else. But as interviews continued, anomalies surfaced. Kristil’s phone contained messages that appeared sent while she was alive and texted to family and police that morning; Pihlak found those messages had been scheduled in advance using a “timer” feature. The conclusion: the timed messages had been programmed before Dan left the house, intended to create the appearance Kristil was alive after he had departed.
Further digital evidence damaged Dan’s credibility: internet searches on his phone the day before the murder asked, “What happens when you’re knocked unconscious?” and “Do people really go unconscious when hit in the head?” Forensic analysis of an image that had initially prompted Kristil to come forward — a photo of Dan getting out of his car at work — showed the image had been taken in selfie mode using a timer, consistent with Dan taking the picture himself and then sending it to Kristil.
Detectives intensified surveillance. Within days they arrested Dan Krug in a supermarket parking lot, surrounding his car and taking him into custody. In the interview room, detectives pressed him; they say Dan’s insistence that someone else did it rang hollow as digital evidence mounted.
At trial in April 2025, prosecutors laid out a sequence of premeditated impersonation, stalking and murder. They argued Dan had sent the harassing messages to Kristil, impersonating Anthony Holland, to frighten her and to position himself as protector, hoping to control or win her back. When that failed, prosecutors said, Dan murdered her in a final act of rage and control.
Prosecutors described Kristil’s final moments: returning home, pulling into the garage, being ambushed from behind, suffering multiple skull fractures and ultimately being stabbed above the heart. They characterized the killing as an act of rage and domination, following escalating attempts at harassment and deception. Digital evidence — the stalking emails and texts, the timed messages on Kristil’s phone, the selfie-timer photograph, and the internet searches — formed the backbone of the state’s case.
The defense, led by Phillip Geigle, attacked the investigation’s gaps. He noted that the blunt instrument and the knife used in the killing were never recovered and criticized the failure to test Kristil’s phone for fingerprints or DNA. Geigle highlighted the lack of physical evidence tying Dan to the crime scene, arguing that chest swabs and clothing did not contain Dan’s DNA or blood and that searches of his car turned up nothing incriminating.
Jurors deliberated after a three-week trial. They returned guilty verdicts: first-degree murder, stalking causing extreme emotional distress, stalking with a credible threat and criminal impersonation. Judge Priscilla Loew later sentenced Dan Krug to life in prison without parole on the murder charge and an additional nine-and-a-half years for the stalking and impersonation counts.
After the conviction, Dan maintained his innocence in recorded calls from jail, telling family the jury had it wrong and warning his children might still be at risk. His brother and parents found their support strains under the weight of evidence and public scrutiny. Kristil’s family, though relieved at the conviction, mourned the loss of a daughter and mother and wondered whether more aggressive investigative steps might have prevented her death.
Detective Martinez has been candid about the case’s toll. He told “48 Hours” the case has haunted him and that, in hindsight, he might have acted differently when investigators first learned Holland’s location. Anthony Holland, who was repeatedly impersonated in the harassment, said he believed police should have contacted him sooner.
Kristil’s family has channeled grief into caring for her children and honoring her life. Lars continues restoring vintage cars with his grandchildren, a pastime that bonded him and Kristil for years. The family has started an online fundraising campaign to help Kristil’s three children, and her sister Jenna hopes Kristil’s story warns others about how quickly stalking can escalate.
Kristil Krug’s death underscores the intersection of domestic violence, digital stalking and law enforcement decision-making. The case hinged less on forensic traces at the scene than on the digital footprints Dan left — scheduled texts, impersonating emails, a timed selfie photograph and internet searches that prosecutors said revealed motive and intent. Residents, advocates and law enforcement alike are left to ask whether more aggressive early intervention could save lives — and what lessons this case should teach about responding when someone says they are being terrorized.
