Latest / The Mind of a Man / The Bizarre Plot To Kill Kristil Krug _ True Crime Documentary
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: As the Christmas holiday period approached in the winter of 2023,
- 0:07Speaker 1: police in Broomfield, Colorado were dispatched to the home of
- 0:10Speaker 1: a 43-year-old mother who had stopped responding to calls and
- 0:14Speaker 1: messages from family.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Hello.
- 0:16Speaker 3: Oh, I was just on their neighbor and they called me.
- 0:19Speaker 3: I was like, can you go see if she'll answer this?
- 0:21Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, he sent us as well, so.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Officers performing the welfare check made a gruesome discovery.
- 0:28Speaker 5: Oh, shit, man.
- 0:33Speaker 6: Holy shit.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Christille Krug was a respected and capable professional, as well
- 0:39Speaker 1: as a dedicated and busy mother to three children. For months,
- 0:43Speaker 1: Christille had been enduring a living nightmare, a stalker sending
- 0:48Speaker 1: shocking and offensive messages and violent threats.
- 0:52Speaker 7: It's a lot, and it has definitely made me paranoid
- 0:56Speaker 7: everywhere I.
- 0:56Speaker 6: Go, unfortunately, so.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Only in the wake of her death were investigators finally
- 1:02Speaker 1: able to piece together the clues and reveal the truth
- 1:06Speaker 1: behind her stalker and her killer.
- 1:09Speaker 8: Hands on your face!
- 1:12Speaker 9: Hands on your face!
- 1:13Speaker 2: Hands on your face!
- 1:16Speaker 1: Hi there, I'm Kevin and welcome to Just Thought Lounge.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Today's case has a lengthy history. It's a tragic case
- 1:24Speaker 1: with a horrific discovery, telling clues at the seams. and
- 1:28Speaker 1: ultimately the unraveling of an intricate, clever, but brutal murder plot.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Let's take a look. Broomfield, Colorado is located between the
- 1:54Speaker 1: two larger cities of Denver and Boulder. In the wealthier areas,
- 1:58Speaker 1: large family homes line the spacious residential streets. December 14,
- 2:06Speaker 1: 2023 was a dreary Thursday. The Broomfield Police Department received
- 2:10Speaker 1: a call that morning to check in on a home
- 2:13Speaker 1: located on Promontory Loop. The caller told dispatch that he
- 2:16Speaker 1: had been unable to reach his wife for several hours.
- 2:20Speaker 1: She had been intending to meet with a detective from
- 2:22Speaker 1: the Broomfield PD that morning, he said. Her last message
- 2:26Speaker 1: to him was sent at 8.56 a.m., roughly 20 minutes
- 2:30Speaker 1: after he left for work. She was still at the
- 2:33Speaker 1: house when he left.
- 2:36Speaker 10: Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I don't think
- 2:40Speaker 10: this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. My
- 2:45Speaker 10: wife isn't responding to text messages or phone calls.
- 2:51Speaker 6: Okay.
- 2:51Speaker 11: When you talked to her about three hours ago, was
- 2:53Speaker 11: she okay?
- 2:54Speaker 2: Was she.
- 2:56Speaker 10: Having medical things, anything going on? She asked me to
- 3:00Speaker 10: pick up our daughter from school because she had to
- 3:02Speaker 10: meet with Martinez.
- 3:04Speaker 9: Okay.
- 3:06Speaker 12: So she was supposed to, like, come into the PD
- 3:09Speaker 12: and meet with Martinez?
- 3:11Speaker 10: Yeah, that's what she said.
- 3:12Speaker 4: Okay.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Officer O'Hare of the Broomfield Police went to the address
- 3:17Speaker 1: on Promontory Loop to check on Christelle Krug's welfare. When
- 3:21Speaker 1: the officer approached the front door, he encountered a friend
- 3:24Speaker 1: and neighbor who who had likewise been sent by a
- 3:27Speaker 1: family member to check in on Christine.
- 3:34Speaker 9: Hello.
- 3:34Speaker 3: Oh, I was just on their neighbor and they called me.
- 3:37Speaker 3: Can you go see if she'll answer that?
- 3:38Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, he sent us as well.
- 3:40Speaker 6: Just next door?
- 3:41Speaker 10: Okay.
- 3:42Speaker 4: All right, well, you got this. All righty, man. Appreciate it.
- 3:50Speaker 1: The sound of barking from Pixel, the family dog, was
- 3:53Speaker 1: the only noise from within the house. Receiving no response
- 4:07Speaker 1: at the door, the officer proceeded to the side of
- 4:09Speaker 1: the house to check if there was a vehicle parked
- 4:11Speaker 1: in the garage. Unable to see through the high windows,
- 4:17Speaker 1: O'Hare pulled his patrol car into the drive, stood on
- 4:20Speaker 1: the front bumper, and peered in.
- 4:22Speaker 4: 151, send medical and 110. I need a force entry.
- 4:38Speaker 4: I got a female down in the garage. Roadkill police!
- 4:52Speaker 4: Roadkill police!
- 4:56Speaker 9: Oh, shit.
- 5:01Speaker 1: At the bottom of the steps, on the floor of
- 5:03Speaker 1: the garage, was the mother of three, Christille Krug. She
- 5:07Speaker 1: was bleeding from a wound to the head and unresponsive.
- 5:18Speaker 4: The husband said there was a stalker threatening to kidnap her, so.
- 5:24Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 5:26Speaker 4: No, she's unresponsive. Decent headwind.
- 5:29Speaker 3: I'll be right back, guys.
- 5:36Speaker 13: I'm just going to the car here.
- 5:45Speaker 4: Hey man, just run interference for me.
- 5:47Speaker 1: As additional officers responded to the scene, cleared the house,
- 5:51Speaker 1: and blocked off the street, pieces of the story began
- 5:54Speaker 1: falling into place. At first, O'Hare thought that perhaps Christille
- 5:59Speaker 1: had been the victim of a horrible accident, a fall
- 6:02Speaker 1: down the stairs in which she hit her head.
- 6:06Speaker 13: Well, she's CPR being done in the garage.
- 6:10Speaker 4: She's got a good head wound.
- 6:11Speaker 13: I think it's from falling down, but I'm going to
- 6:13Speaker 13: reevaluate that right now.
- 6:16Speaker 1: The officer didn't see any blunt instruments, anything that could
- 6:19Speaker 1: have been used as a weapon, left at the scene.
- 6:22Speaker 1: After paramedics' efforts to revive Christille failed, They found that
- 6:27Speaker 1: the 43-year-old had not only suffered trauma to her head,
- 6:30Speaker 1: but also a single stab wound. It was several inches
- 6:35Speaker 1: in length, just above her heart. No knife was spotted
- 6:38Speaker 1: at the scene either.
- 6:39Speaker 14: All we saw initially was the head trauma.
- 6:43Speaker 13: As soon as we cut open her shirt to place
- 6:45Speaker 13: the pads is when we noticed the stab wound.
- 6:46Speaker 6: Got it.
- 6:48Speaker 4: Okay.
- 6:49Speaker 1: There were no obvious signs of a struggle. in the
- 6:52Speaker 1: form of defensive wounds on Christille or a disturbance in
- 6:56Speaker 1: the house. Aside from the violent scene in the garage,
- 6:59Speaker 1: the home appeared orderly. Christille's handgun, for which she had
- 7:04Speaker 1: a concealed carry permit, was located in her purse. She
- 7:08Speaker 1: had obviously not had an opportunity to retrieve it before
- 7:11Speaker 1: being incapacitated from the attack. The medical examiner would find
- 7:16Speaker 1: three distinct points of impact on the back of her head.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Bits and pieces of information began reaching the responding officers,
- 7:27Speaker 1: explaining Christil's connection to Detective Martinez. At that time, they
- 7:32Speaker 1: knew only that Christil had reported a stalker, a man
- 7:35Speaker 1: she believed to be an ex-boyfriend, who had been threatening
- 7:38Speaker 1: her in texts and emails since early October. The case
- 7:41Speaker 1: was being handled by Detective Martinez.
- 7:45Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know the backstory. Husband said there was a...
- 7:50Speaker 4: A dude who's been stalking her and threatened to kidnap her.
- 7:53Speaker 4: And Martinez was involved. And Martinez just said, hey, this
- 7:57Speaker 4: is a big old thing.
- 7:58Speaker 5: I don't know.
- 7:59Speaker 4: I don't know the history on that part. Martinez does, though.
- 8:02Speaker 4: And he said he's coming in. So like I told him,
- 8:06Speaker 4: you can see if Butler needs photos with this big
- 8:07Speaker 4: old house. Other than that, we're just kind of securing
- 8:10Speaker 4: the scene and waiting for detectives.
- 8:12Speaker 1: There were indications at the scene that the murder had
- 8:15Speaker 1: been thoughtfully executed. Four home security cameras, which captured most
- 8:20Speaker 1: of the exterior of the house, had been disabled. Three
- 8:23Speaker 1: of them had been taken offline that morning, sometime around 8.15am,
- 8:28Speaker 1: coming back online just before police responded to the house.
- 8:32Speaker 1: The only camera that had remained active throughout that time
- 8:35Speaker 1: period was the garage door view. The front door camera
- 8:38Speaker 1: was also found to have a piece of blue tape
- 8:41Speaker 1: placed over its lens around the same time as it
- 8:44Speaker 1: and two others went offline. When the cameras came back on,
- 8:48Speaker 1: its view was entirely obscured. Then there were questions about
- 8:53Speaker 1: the point of entry. The garage door could have been
- 8:57Speaker 1: forced open. Since Christille was found in the garage and
- 9:00Speaker 1: had likely been taken by surprise, this seemed like a
- 9:03Speaker 1: logical deduction. Though upon closer inspection, it seemed that Christille
- 9:09Speaker 1: had been alone inside the home with the door unlocked.
- 9:13Speaker 1: Or she unlocked the door for her attacker.
- 9:17Speaker 4: I kicked that, yeah. That's interesting. That is very interesting.
- 9:23Speaker 4: Almost like dude might have stuck around from this way.
- 9:28Speaker 4: I wonder if maybe the door was unlocked.
- 9:30Speaker 6: That's how.
- 9:34Speaker 10: He got in.
- 9:35Speaker 4: Was it deadbolted?
- 9:36Speaker 6: You know what? I don't know.
- 9:38Speaker 3: I kicked it and it went pretty easy.
- 9:39Speaker 4: So I'm going to say no.
- 9:40Speaker 6: It wasn't deadbolted. It was just... Unlocked. Yeah, you know what?
- 9:49Speaker 4: That bottom one does not even lock. There's no way
- 9:53Speaker 4: to lock the bottom it's all deadbolt.
- 9:57Speaker 13: Right away saw her on the ground blood smear on
- 10:00Speaker 13: the wall I came around here and forced entry let's
- 10:05Speaker 13: look at it it looks not forced entry weird but
- 10:09Speaker 13: not proper alignment weird either see what I'm talking about
- 10:13Speaker 13: it looks like maybe it's just I don't know.
- 10:16Speaker 4: Dude When you were in the house, when you swept
- 10:20Speaker 4: the house?
- 10:21Speaker 10: Yeah, we did.
- 10:22Speaker 4: And I didn't see anything, like, disturbance-wise or anything in
- 10:25Speaker 4: the house. Outside in the garage, just her car keys,
- 10:28Speaker 4: and it looked like she was just leaving. Unless she
- 10:32Speaker 4: maybe got greasy at the front door and ran that way,
- 10:35Speaker 4: I don't know. But her car keys were at her side.
- 10:38Speaker 4: Or a set of car keys. Did you see anything else.
- 10:41Speaker 6: On the inside?
- 10:42Speaker 4: No, nothing of note.
- 10:44Speaker 1: As detectives took stock of the evidence, Daniel Krug, who
- 10:48Speaker 1: had initially called for the welfare check on his wife,
- 10:51Speaker 1: arrived on scene.
- 10:52Speaker 4: Stay back, stay back, stay back, stay back.
- 10:54Speaker 12: This is my house.
- 10:55Speaker 3: I understand.
- 10:58Speaker 8: I need to get his phone away from him because
- 11:02Speaker 8: he's probably got access to this camera and we obviously
- 11:04Speaker 8: don't want him to look at it.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Other family members had also arrived at the house. Christille's mother, Linda,
- 11:12Speaker 1: who had been contacted by Dan directly, arrived shortly after
- 11:16Speaker 1: Officer O'Hare. She was joined by her son and daughter-in-law,
- 11:19Speaker 1: as well as the friend and neighbor who was at
- 11:21Speaker 1: the house when the officer arrived. As the family grieved
- 11:25Speaker 1: in the street, Dan gave police permission to begin searching
- 11:28Speaker 1: the house.
- 11:29Speaker 6: I know it seems like the wrong time, but it's
- 11:33Speaker 6: no time like now.
- 11:39Speaker 4: Yes, go, go. No, but go.
- 11:49Speaker 1: Inside the house, investigators found the meticulously documented evidence Christine
- 11:54Speaker 1: had compiled on her stalker. The 43-year-old worked as a
- 11:58Speaker 1: project manager at a large technology company based out of Boulder.
- 12:02Speaker 1: Christille had always distinguished herself intellectually, having earned a bachelor's
- 12:07Speaker 1: degree in biochemical engineering and moving on to an accomplished
- 12:11Speaker 1: career in the tech sector. Beginning in early October, when
- 12:15Speaker 1: she began receiving unwanted text messages and emails from an
- 12:18Speaker 1: old college boyfriend, her instinct was to record and document everything.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Her diary contained entries detailing each communication, the different phone
- 12:28Speaker 1: numbers used by her stalker, various email addresses, and other details.
- 12:33Speaker 1: She also took steps to protect herself. She purchased a gun,
- 12:37Speaker 1: took training classes, and began to carry her weapon with
- 12:41Speaker 1: her whenever she left the house. Investigators found a gun
- 12:48Speaker 1: safe in the corner of the basement. There was a.
- 12:51Speaker 1: 22 caliber rifle, three swords, and a handgun lockbox. After
- 12:56Speaker 1: the threats started, Christille had three more cameras installed around
- 13:01Speaker 1: the exterior of the house in addition to the existing
- 13:04Speaker 1: doorbell camera, and lights added to illuminate the property. She
- 13:09Speaker 1: established a buddy system when she went out to run errands.
- 13:12Speaker 1: She shared her phone location with family members. She also
- 13:16Speaker 1: spoke with neighbors, explaining her situation and what to keep
- 13:19Speaker 1: an eye out for. Throughout the month, the messages escalated
- 13:23Speaker 1: into overt threats against herself and her husband. On Halloween,
- 13:28Speaker 1: she received an email which contained a photo of Dan
- 13:32Speaker 1: appearing to be outside of his workplace at the Colorado
- 13:35Speaker 1: Department of Public Health, where he held a role in finance.
- 13:39Speaker 1: Along with the photo was a note, This your husband?
- 13:42Speaker 1: He needs to drive safe. Don't want a clear rubber
- 13:45Speaker 1: hose in his tailpipe.
- 13:50Speaker 12: Yes, hi there. I need to report threatening emails and
- 13:54Speaker 12: phone calls from a stalking ex and just didn't know
- 13:59Speaker 12: what was the appropriate course here. Do you live in Broomfield?
- 14:03Speaker 12: I live in Broomfield. I have no idea where he is.
- 14:06Speaker 1: That's okay.
- 14:06Speaker 9: What's your address?
- 14:07Speaker 12: Is there a restraining order in place between you two?
- 14:11Speaker 12: There is not, but I would definitely be curious about
- 14:13Speaker 12: getting one, considering it's been threatened with violence against both
- 14:16Speaker 12: me and my family.
- 14:17Speaker 6: Okay.
- 14:18Speaker 15: And is it text messages, phone calls?
- 14:22Speaker 12: I have text messages and an email today that had
- 14:25Speaker 12: a picture of my husband threatening to put something in
- 14:28Speaker 12: his tailpipe.
- 14:29Speaker 1: After a message was left indicating that her stalker had
- 14:33Speaker 1: deposited a bodily fluid on her car while she was
- 14:36Speaker 1: seeing her dentist, Christille had a Broomfield officer come to
- 14:39Speaker 1: the house.
- 14:41Speaker 4: You're still not so angry.
- 14:43Speaker 10: Yeah, just me too.
- 14:44Speaker 4: Very good to meet you. I talked to Dr.
- 14:45Speaker 6: Martinez.
- 14:45Speaker 4: I kind of have an idea what's going on.
- 14:47Speaker 10: Yes, I did as well.
- 14:48Speaker 12: I did not see any markings on the car.
- 14:50Speaker 6: Okay.
- 14:51Speaker 12: You can see, like, it's a little bit dirty, so
- 14:54Speaker 12: I didn't see much, but.
- 15:03Speaker 15: In that instance, neither Christille nor the officer saw any
- 15:06Speaker 15: sign that the stalker had done what he had claimed
- 15:10Speaker 15: to her car.
- 15:10Speaker 3: Nonetheless, this incident was reported along.
- 15:13Speaker 4: With the others.
- 15:34Speaker 1: When she sat down with Detective Martinez, Christille explained that
- 15:38Speaker 1: her stalker called himself Anthony, an ex-college boyfriend whom she
- 15:42Speaker 1: had not seen in person in over 20 years.
- 15:45Speaker 7: I did a timeline for you.
- 15:50Speaker 6: Okay.
- 15:50Speaker 3: In this timeline, we dated summer of 99.
- 15:52Speaker 6: Okay. Very briefly.
- 15:54Speaker 3: Like, there was a breakup somewhere here, like, in the fall,
- 15:56Speaker 3: so I did this kind of, like.
- 15:57Speaker 6: Also, like, you can see, like, way rare.
- 16:00Speaker 7: Last contact I ever had with him where he tried
- 16:02Speaker 7: to reach out to me personally saw him in person.
- 16:05Speaker 6: Would have been.
- 16:06Speaker 5: Like in the spring of 2001.
- 16:07Speaker 3: Everything here, the same question marks, because I'm like, uh, about?
- 16:11Speaker 7: I'm just trying to remember like where I was living
- 16:13Speaker 7: and where I had kids at the time. So I
- 16:16Speaker 7: put everything in green where they're like, just like little
- 16:19Speaker 7: teeny things.
- 16:20Speaker 3: It's like, oh, hey, how you doing? Found me on
- 16:23Speaker 3: old information, so it's public information technically. I can't say
- 16:26Speaker 3: that he found me in a special way. But it
- 16:29Speaker 3: was years later, right, that he came back with a
- 16:32Speaker 3: quick email trying to check in.
- 16:33Speaker 7: And these events here last maybe within a period of
- 16:38Speaker 7: a couple weeks. Usually it's a handful of email messages.
- 16:41Speaker 7: Usually it's just light, easy, like what's going on. Yeah,
- 16:45Speaker 7: like trying to just kind of start a conversation.
- 16:48Speaker 3: But it's all light, cordial, whatever. says, let's get together.
- 16:52Speaker 5: I'm like, no.
- 16:54Speaker 3: Here he says, let's get together.
- 16:56Speaker 6: I'm like, I have a serious boyfriend.
- 16:58Speaker 3: Like, we were living together at this time. And he's like,
- 17:01Speaker 3: screw your boyfriend. And then, yeah, I got married in 2007.
- 17:04Speaker 6: He's reaching out to me.
- 17:04Speaker 3: He can see I have a kid.
- 17:06Speaker 6: This is my profile picture of, like, my kid.
- 17:08Speaker 9: And I'm like.
- 17:09Speaker 6: I have a family.
- 17:10Speaker 3: No. And then, again, where I'm like, I'm.
- 17:13Speaker 7: Married with children all the way here.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Throughout the years, Anthony would reach out to inquire whether
- 17:20Speaker 1: Christille was interested in meeting with him. She always refused.
- 17:26Speaker 1: In 2007, after meeting years before online, she married Dan.
- 17:30Speaker 1: They went on to have three children. At the time
- 17:33Speaker 1: of her death, they were aged 14, 11, and 8.
- 17:36Speaker 1: Christille told Detective Martinez that the only good thing about
- 17:40Speaker 1: her circumstance was that her stalker appeared completely disinterested in
- 17:44Speaker 1: her children. In all of his unhinged messages to her,
- 17:48Speaker 1: he had never once mentioned them. Before the stalking began,
- 17:55Speaker 1: there had been some concern that someone had tried to
- 17:58Speaker 1: gain entry to the Krug family home through their garage.
- 18:02Speaker 1: In September of that year, Dan returned home to find
- 18:05Speaker 1: an unknown individual running from the property.
- 18:08Speaker 6: I don't think it's related, but.
- 18:11Speaker 7: There was, my husband caught somebody going through our garage,
- 18:14Speaker 7: like he came home, the garage shut.
- 18:15Speaker 6: Us up, and he caught somebody running out of our garage.
- 18:18Speaker 7: We subsequently installed two more cameras on our property. So
- 18:22Speaker 7: I get notifications of anybody that's like walking, driving.
- 18:25Speaker 6: Do those all save?
- 18:27Speaker 12: Yes, they all save.
- 18:29Speaker 10: Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I am a
- 18:34Speaker 10: little late, but I'm reporting a trespasser on my property.
- 18:39Speaker 10: What happened? about 4.50 or so. I was returning home
- 18:45Speaker 10: from the store. My garage door was open. As I
- 18:48Speaker 10: approached it, someone ran out and ran to my backyard
- 18:55Speaker 10: and got away. So, that's really all I have to
- 19:00Speaker 10: go on.
- 19:01Speaker 6: Have you noticed if anything was missing?
- 19:05Speaker 10: The only thing I think is missing was a spare
- 19:07Speaker 10: house key.
- 19:09Speaker 9: Okay.
- 19:09Speaker 10: Do you think that that's.
- 19:17Speaker 1: In November, Dan also sat down with the detective. After
- 19:20Speaker 1: his wife had received the email on Halloween threatening him directly,
- 19:25Speaker 1: she filled him in on the situation. By the time
- 19:28Speaker 1: of her death, they had both been emotionally traumatized from
- 19:32Speaker 1: weeks of threats and uncertainty.
- 19:35Speaker 5: Largely, I've been focused on her and the kids.
- 19:40Speaker 6: And I've been old enough. I went to the grocery
- 19:47Speaker 6: store briefly on Tuesdays. And someone behind me dropped a can.
- 19:54Speaker 6: I'm fucking panicked. So what am I doing? I'm panicking.
- 20:06Speaker 6: And I'm doing a shit job. Protecting my wife. So
- 20:15Speaker 6: I'm not doing good. Yeah, I can see that.
- 20:20Speaker 3: And I keep trying to remind myself this is intending
- 20:22Speaker 3: to be terrorizing. This is intending to scare me.
- 20:24Speaker 6: So I'm like, okay, take it back.
- 20:27Speaker 11: The intention to make your life miserable and cause disruption
- 20:31Speaker 11: and some sort of emotional turmoil is exactly what he's
- 20:35Speaker 11: going for.
- 20:36Speaker 9: Yes.
- 20:41Speaker 1: The couple's emotional turmoil and fears over the stalking seemed
- 20:45Speaker 1: to culminate in the worst possible outcome only weeks later
- 20:48Speaker 1: in December.
- 20:49Speaker 2: Dan was escorted to the police station by a victim's
- 20:56Speaker 2: advocate and placed in a soft room for questioning.
- 21:30Speaker 1: While he consoled Dan, Detective Martinez awaited the results of
- 21:35Speaker 1: expedited search wards on the stalker's data. This included the
- 21:39Speaker 1: origins of the email addresses and phone numbers used to
- 21:42Speaker 1: communicate with Christil, information that could prove the stalker's identity
- 21:47Speaker 1: and hopefully locate him. Although the information had already been
- 21:51Speaker 1: requested weeks earlier, it took the unfortunate event of Christil's
- 21:55Speaker 1: murder to force a rapid response to these warrants. In addition,
- 22:00Speaker 1: detectives were busy searching through Christil's cell phone and items
- 22:04Speaker 1: from inside the house. Dan helpfully ran through the home
- 22:07Speaker 1: security system with the detectives. Cameras captured Christille leaving to
- 22:12Speaker 1: drop off the children before 8 a.m. that morning, then
- 22:16Speaker 1: returning and backing her car into the garage at 7.57.
- 22:20Speaker 1: The front, side, and back door cameras were disabled at 8.15.
- 22:25Speaker 1: In Christille's phone, investigators located two unsent text messages, the
- 22:30Speaker 1: first from 8.19. It was intended for Detective Martinez and read,
- 22:36Speaker 1: I can't do this anymore, I confess. I've had an
- 22:39Speaker 1: affair for 18 months. We framed Anthony and pushed it
- 22:43Speaker 1: on Dan. I just broke up with my boyfriend and
- 22:47Speaker 1: we're coming to the station to give statements. Be there
- 22:50Speaker 1: in 30 minutes. The second message, also not sent, was
- 22:56Speaker 1: for Christille's brother, Lars. I can't keep up the lies.
- 23:00Speaker 1: I had an affair for 18 months. We framed Anthony.
- 23:04Speaker 1: I just confessed to Martinez. My now ex-boyfriend and I
- 23:08Speaker 1: are going there now. Push Dan to not press charges.
- 23:14Speaker 1: Ostensibly unaware of these unsent texts, Dan told Martinez that
- 23:19Speaker 1: he suspected Christille was not being truthful with him. She
- 23:23Speaker 1: had withheld the information about her stalker from him for
- 23:26Speaker 1: nearly a month. When she finally told him, he nicknamed
- 23:29Speaker 1: him the kick man because, in part, He wanted to
- 23:33Speaker 1: kick him out of their lives.
- 23:36Speaker 6: I felt like she was keeping secrets from all I.
- 23:42Speaker 4: Knew.
- 23:42Speaker 6: She didn't tell me about Pac-Man. She was disappearing for hours.
- 23:50Speaker 16: She kept leaving early, coming home late, last night.
- 24:00Speaker 6: Last night? Where?
- 24:14Speaker 1: While detectives continued to speak delicately with Dan Krug, information
- 24:19Speaker 1: from the scene and their warrants was pouring in. Along
- 24:23Speaker 1: with the many notes that Christille had written about her
- 24:26Speaker 1: stalker were ones revealing the state of her marriage. She
- 24:30Speaker 1: wrote that she wanted a divorce. She did not trust
- 24:33Speaker 1: her husband with the children, and she no longer loved him. However,
- 24:38Speaker 1: there was nothing in her handwriting suggesting that she was
- 24:42Speaker 1: having an affair. One minute after the text was typed
- 24:46Speaker 1: out for her brother confessing to one, Christille's phone was
- 24:49Speaker 1: powered off. The only camera that remained online showed Dan
- 24:54Speaker 1: leaving for work two minutes later at 8.24. The last
- 24:58Speaker 1: communication sent from Christille's phone was much later at 8.56.
- 25:02Speaker 1: That was the message to Dan asking him to collect
- 25:06Speaker 1: their daughter, Later that day. When detectives returned to the
- 25:13Speaker 1: room to speak with Dan further, they read him his
- 25:16Speaker 1: Miranda rights. Dan joked that since his brother married a prosecutor,
- 25:21Speaker 1: her voice was in his head telling him to ask
- 25:24Speaker 1: for a lawyer.
- 25:25Speaker 6: He didn't.
- 25:26Speaker 17: And a typical cop that should be married a prosecutor.
- 25:31Speaker 5: So I had Liz's voice in.
- 25:33Speaker 6: My head going, get a fucking lawyer.
- 25:47Speaker 1: The detectives began by asking Dan to detail the trouble
- 25:50Speaker 1: in his marriage. They were keen to understand whether the
- 25:53Speaker 1: concern created by Christille's stalker had caused the couple to
- 25:57Speaker 1: grow closer.
- 25:58Speaker 3: Maybe even brought you guys closer, not maybe emotionally closer,
- 26:01Speaker 3: but you guys were physically sort of working on things besides.
- 26:07Speaker 6: Your kids. There was a... Mutual... Yeah, there was... Over
- 26:15Speaker 6: the course of November, there was a... a better team feel. Okay.
- 26:25Speaker 6: You know, we respond to crisis. Right. I had her
- 26:30Speaker 6: as a.
- 26:35Speaker 17: Partner to protect the family, but it didn't feel like
- 26:43Speaker 17: a partner who valued me.
- 26:49Speaker 3: I mean, it felt like, it sounds like you fit,
- 26:52Speaker 3: you feel like you were completely.
- 26:53Speaker 18: I don't know, written off by her or that you,
- 26:57Speaker 18: she has zero care for you anymore.
- 26:59Speaker 12: I wanted to focus.
- 27:03Speaker 4: Okay.
- 27:06Speaker 6: I've loved her for 20 years.
- 27:12Speaker 1: Dan was asked to walk the detectives through what he
- 27:14Speaker 1: thought could have occurred that morning.
- 27:18Speaker 6: I left. She was in the kitchen.
- 27:20Speaker 17: She would have had whatever meetings that she had. Then
- 27:25Speaker 17: she said she was meeting with you.
- 27:26Speaker 6: But you know.
- 27:28Speaker 5: Nothing about that, so I have no idea what the
- 27:31Speaker 5: fuck that is.
- 27:34Speaker 6: What's his name? The other detective said that the.
- 27:41Speaker 5: Cameras were turned off. That shouldn't happen.
- 27:50Speaker 17: The only way that the cameras can be turned off
- 27:56Speaker 17: is through the app.
- 27:57Speaker 5: One of us has to hit the button.
- 28:05Speaker 17: Someone came to the door. She doesn't usually answer the door.
- 28:15Speaker 17: But she must have, because.
- 28:19Speaker 6: She must have.
- 28:22Speaker 17: So in my brain, the story that I have is
- 28:26Speaker 17: someone came to the door. Maybe she went outside to
- 28:31Speaker 17: get a package. And they must have come in.
- 28:39Speaker 11: You think either she was taken off guard or it
- 28:41Speaker 11: was somebody familiar to her?
- 28:43Speaker 5: I don't know who familiar would have been.
- 28:50Speaker 6: She had to have been taken off guard.
- 28:57Speaker 1: While Dan sat with the detectives offering theories of the murders,
- 29:01Speaker 1: He was unaware that Martinez had managed to track down
- 29:04Speaker 1: Christille's alleged stalker weeks before. The detective needed the search
- 29:09Speaker 1: warrants to come through, linking the threatening messages to Anthony
- 29:13Speaker 1: or to someone else. That afternoon, officers in Anthony's home
- 29:17Speaker 1: state of Utah paid him a visit at his home,
- 29:20Speaker 1: which was more than a six-hour drive to Broomfield. They
- 29:24Speaker 1: confirmed he had been at work until 9.45 the night before.
- 29:29Speaker 1: The next day when Christiel was killed, he was shopping
- 29:32Speaker 1: with his wife until 1.30. His alibi was confirmed by witnesses,
- 29:38Speaker 1: store cameras, and license plate records. There was no way
- 29:42Speaker 1: that Anthony, the man Dan called Kickman, committed the murder.
- 29:50Speaker 11: We had already spoken with Anthony, and there's no way
- 29:52Speaker 11: that he was in town today.
- 30:04Speaker 6: And I'm fucking terrified to bring my children home.
- 30:10Speaker 1: Data from the search warrants confirmed what the detective had suspected.
- 30:14Speaker 1: Multiple emails sent to Christille had originated from an IP
- 30:18Speaker 1: address registered to the Colorado General Government in Greenwood Village.
- 30:23Speaker 1: Dan Krug's workplace.
- 30:27Speaker 3: The Gmail account that.
- 30:31Speaker 3: And you can speak more specifically.
- 30:33Speaker 11: And that text now number we were talking about, the
- 30:35Speaker 11: number that he initially texted Christia from. The Gmail account,
- 30:41Speaker 11: the Kickman account that you guys initially received with the
- 30:44Speaker 11: photo of you in it, and the phone number, those
- 30:49Speaker 11: originated through their IP addresses at your office.
- 30:56Speaker 3: As far as we know right now, there's no physical
- 30:58Speaker 3: way that.
- 31:00Speaker 18: That King Man could have been involved in this based
- 31:02Speaker 18: on where he's at right now. So, you know, the
- 31:08Speaker 18: mystery continues, and.
- 31:10Speaker 11: Things are certainly pointing in one direction right now.
- 31:19Speaker 16: All this time that we've been looking for him, for
- 31:22Speaker 16: the protection of him, and you.
- 31:25Speaker 6: Just found him today like that.
- 31:31Speaker 11: Because I've been looking at you, but I've been waiting
- 31:33Speaker 11: for these records to come back.
- 31:37Speaker 1: As the interview progressed, Dan became increasingly quiet and still.
- 31:42Speaker 1: He spoke slower, claiming to be in a state of
- 31:45Speaker 1: emotional and physical exhaustion from the day's events. Instead of
- 31:49Speaker 1: offering a fiery defense of his innocence, he seemed to
- 31:52Speaker 1: struggle to summon the energy to respond to the detective's
- 31:55Speaker 1: assertions at all. They posited that Dan was the alleged stalker,
- 32:01Speaker 1: that he had hoped the fabricated threat to his wife
- 32:04Speaker 1: would cause her to run to him for safety and protection,
- 32:08Speaker 1: drawing them closer together. Instead, she kept it from him
- 32:12Speaker 1: for nearly a month. She took steps to protect herself,
- 32:16Speaker 1: enrolled in self-defense classes, purchased and trained with her handgun,
- 32:20Speaker 1: maintained a meticulous stalker log and communication with police. And
- 32:25Speaker 1: she coordinated with trusted family members and friends.
- 32:30Speaker 11: You don't get the response and the openness you once
- 32:33Speaker 11: did for about 28 days.
- 32:37Speaker 6: From October 2nd to October 31st. Do you amp it
- 32:42Speaker 6: up a little bit? Send a photo of yourself to her,
- 32:47Speaker 6: an account you created. See what her response is. I
- 32:53Speaker 6: agree with that conclusion.
- 32:54Speaker 18: That a lot of this stalking stuff and this report
- 32:57Speaker 18: that you guys, of this kick man, has brought you
- 33:00Speaker 18: closer and.
- 33:02Speaker 3: Maybe given a little bit of hope in your.
- 33:04Speaker 6: Relationship that you can.
- 33:09Speaker 3: Accomplish something together.
- 33:11Speaker 6: I don't know where you're going with that. I'm using this.
- 33:18Speaker 6: My brain is dried. I'm sure.
- 33:21Speaker 11: Kind of using this circumstance to bring you guys closer together.
- 33:25Speaker 11: You yourself said that. That'd be the common goal of
- 33:30Speaker 11: circling the waxes.
- 33:32Speaker 6: Something along the lines that it felt like we were
- 33:34Speaker 6: more teamwork. Right.
- 33:36Speaker 19: I think there's a big, big gap between teamwork and
- 33:46Speaker 19: rekindling a relationship.
- 33:50Speaker 1: Dan spent roughly four hours at the police station that
- 33:53Speaker 1: day before declaring that he was finished with questioning.
- 33:56Speaker 16: Forensic experts processing Dan's clothing found no blood residue.
- 34:18Speaker 1: Similarly, teams sent to search the vehicle he had driven
- 34:21Speaker 1: to work that day returned nothing of evidentiary value. They
- 34:24Speaker 1: had been unable to isolate a cleanup at the scene
- 34:28Speaker 1: or definitively point to a murder weapon. If Dan Krug
- 34:32Speaker 1: was the killer, it was likely to be digital evidence,
- 34:36Speaker 1: not physical, that would prove his guilt. As Dan awaited
- 34:43Speaker 1: a ride from the station following his questionings, he pled
- 34:46Speaker 1: with Martinez to find the man who murdered his wife.
- 34:51Speaker 8: As a husband, as a father, not as police. Again, family,
- 35:06Speaker 8: almost respect. I don't care if you capture him by
- 35:12Speaker 8: his motherfucker name.
- 35:15Speaker 6: He took.
- 35:17Speaker 8: My children's mother for Christmas.
- 35:25Speaker 5: They're never going to.
- 35:25Speaker 6: Get over that. Find him as a father. Don't just
- 35:38Speaker 6: assume it's me. Keep looking.
- 35:44Speaker 1: Over the following two days, the crime scene was thoroughly processed.
- 35:49Speaker 1: So too was Christille's car as well as Dan's office
- 35:52Speaker 1: at the state government building. Further digital evidence was compiled
- 35:56Speaker 1: from Dan's laptop and cell phone. Those closest to Christille
- 36:00Speaker 1: reached out with their own theories, including her mother, Linda.
- 36:04Speaker 1: Linda expressed concern that in the chaos and distress on
- 36:08Speaker 1: the day of the murder, she had neglected to convey
- 36:10Speaker 1: key facts to investigators. primarily about her daughter's husband.
- 36:16Speaker 3: Just tell me what's on your mind.
- 36:19Speaker 10: Okay.
- 36:20Speaker 9: So, you know, setting aside, because we.
- 36:24Speaker 4: All know, well, we all know that.
- 36:26Speaker 6: Dan's under suspicion.
- 36:29Speaker 9: So just setting aside the culprit, my daughter was going
- 36:35Speaker 9: to get divorced from Dan.
- 36:37Speaker 4: Okay.
- 36:38Speaker 9: She couldn't stand him.
- 36:39Speaker 6: He was just.
- 36:41Speaker 9: he was just, he was too volatile with the kids.
- 36:44Speaker 9: And she told me that she was going to just
- 36:46Speaker 9: live in the basement because she couldn't, she couldn't get
- 36:49Speaker 9: enough proof that Dan was being volatile to the kids.
- 36:53Speaker 9: And so I don't know if I said, did I
- 36:56Speaker 9: say that? Or did somebody say that? I don't know.
- 36:58Speaker 9: You did tell me that. I just, I'm just nervous
- 37:02Speaker 9: about this and just some of the conversations that we're
- 37:05Speaker 9: having with him, you know, wanting to get rid of
- 37:07Speaker 9: all our stuff and Could you give me a little
- 37:10Speaker 9: bit more insight on that, Linda?
- 37:11Speaker 13: What kind of conversations have you had with Dan following Thursday?
- 37:15Speaker 9: Well, just the one that was really troubling me was
- 37:19Speaker 9: just the fact that he, you know, was talking about
- 37:22Speaker 9: getting rid of, he wants to sell the house. And
- 37:25Speaker 9: I understand, here's the thing, everything he says could be
- 37:29Speaker 9: justified away, right? And that, I know, was my daughter's frustration.
- 37:33Speaker 9: Because Dan can be pretty manipulative. Um, That's just his
- 37:38Speaker 9: kind of character. What really struck me is that he
- 37:42Speaker 9: was talking about throwing her things out, you know, and
- 37:45Speaker 9: I can get rid of her. You know, he actually said,
- 37:49Speaker 9: I can get rid of her bras and underwear and,
- 37:51Speaker 9: you know, t-shirts and whatever. And, you know, we can
- 37:55Speaker 9: put the dresses and shoes that the kids love down
- 37:57Speaker 9: away and zip them away. You know, this may be
- 38:00Speaker 9: just Dan's way. He's quirky and weird of.
- 38:04Speaker 10: Dealing with it.
- 38:05Speaker 9: But it just did not sat right with me at all.
- 38:08Speaker 1: Linda questioned why Dan had chosen to call her directly
- 38:11Speaker 1: that morning to check on Christille. He had never done
- 38:14Speaker 1: so previously, always preferring to contact Christille's brother or his
- 38:19Speaker 1: sister-in-law if he needed to reach out to family. She
- 38:22Speaker 1: told the detective that she did not wish to falsely
- 38:25Speaker 1: accuse Dan, but that she believed he had motive when
- 38:29Speaker 1: he was speaking with her.
- 38:31Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?
- 38:33Speaker 9: Well, he tries to make you feel that he's the victim.
- 38:38Speaker 9: And that you're wrong. And, you know, there's just, there's
- 38:43Speaker 9: almost sometimes you get really syrupy sweet, but you can
- 38:47Speaker 9: see and feel underneath this kind of.
- 38:51Speaker 6: Menacing type attitude. Okay.
- 38:53Speaker 9: So it's just, it doesn't.
- 38:56Speaker 3: Feel good, right?
- 38:56Speaker 9: You can tell he's seething with anger. You know, in
- 38:59Speaker 9: the dogs, Pixel would always bark at him. We could
- 39:02Speaker 9: always tell when Dan was about to blow, because Pixel
- 39:04Speaker 9: would be just barking like crazy at him.
- 39:09Speaker 1: Linda's intuition proved correct. Detectives were able to trace the
- 39:13Speaker 1: phone numbers used by Christille's stalker to burner phones purchased
- 39:17Speaker 1: with gift cards. These store purchases were then linked to
- 39:20Speaker 1: Dan through location tracking on his personal cell phone. His
- 39:24Speaker 1: phone also revealed a curious search history from around 9 p.m.
- 39:28Speaker 1: on the night before his wife was killed. At 8.55,
- 39:33Speaker 1: Dan searched, how hard would you have to hit someone
- 39:36Speaker 1: on the head to make them unconscious? How durable is
- 39:39Speaker 1: the human head to withstand trauma? Two minutes later, he searched,
- 39:44Speaker 1: how hard a hit for head trauma to go unconscious?
- 39:48Speaker 1: But that was not all. The final text message sent
- 39:51Speaker 1: from Christille's cell phone was timestamped at 8.56 a.m., over
- 39:56Speaker 1: 20 minutes after Dan was captured by the only working
- 39:59Speaker 1: security camera leaving for work. Data analysis showed that Christille's
- 40:05Speaker 1: phone was powered off and inactive at the time that
- 40:08Speaker 1: message was sent. This meant that she could not have
- 40:12Speaker 1: typed and sent it after her husband left for work.
- 40:16Speaker 1: It had been scheduled by someone much earlier. to send
- 40:19Speaker 1: to Dan's device after he had left the house. Broomfield
- 40:31Speaker 1: police collected hundreds of hours of home security footage from
- 40:35Speaker 1: neighboring homes covering the early morning hours to afternoon period
- 40:39Speaker 1: on the day of the murder. They noted every vehicle
- 40:41Speaker 1: that passed near to the house on Promontory Loop. They
- 40:44Speaker 1: looked at every individual on the street. Though the killer
- 40:48Speaker 1: had disabled the cameras at the Krug house, it would
- 40:51Speaker 1: have been nearly impossible to avoid being captured by any
- 40:54Speaker 1: of the dozens of other cameras that covered the surrounding area.
- 40:58Speaker 1: No one was captured approaching the house that morning. The
- 41:02Speaker 1: killer must have already been inside. On December 16th, two
- 41:12Speaker 1: days after the murder, Dan Krug was surrounded by law
- 41:15Speaker 1: enforcement in the parking lot of the King Soopers in Broomfield.
- 41:21Speaker 20: Hands on your face!
- 41:25Speaker 4: Your hands on your face!
- 41:32Speaker 1: From Dan's pocket, police pulled a handwritten note. It was
- 41:35Speaker 1: addressed to his mother. He wrote of being lied to
- 41:39Speaker 1: and used. He stated that his conscience was clear. He
- 41:43Speaker 1: declared his innocence.
- 41:46Speaker 6: Dan refused to speak with police after his arrest.
- 41:47Speaker 5: He was charged with first-degree murder and pleaded not.
- 41:57Speaker 9: Guilty.
- 42:12Speaker 1: Daniel Krug went to trial in April 2025. His defense
- 42:16Speaker 1: argued that there was no physical evidence linking Dan to
- 42:19Speaker 1: the crime. The case was circumstantial and, in their opinion, weak.
- 42:25Speaker 1: The state pointed to Dan's motive, the digital evidence linking
- 42:28Speaker 1: him to the stalking, the disabled security cameras, and the
- 42:32Speaker 1: cleverly scheduled text message from Christille's phone that had been
- 42:36Speaker 1: intended to be his alibi.
- 42:38Speaker 14: We know the physical evidence. And there is an enormous
- 42:43Speaker 14: disconnect between that and the circumstantial picture that the prosecution
- 42:49Speaker 14: wants you to believe.
- 42:50Speaker 10: Mr.
- 42:51Speaker 14: Krug did not kill his wife. He did not commit
- 42:56Speaker 14: these crimes.
- 42:58Speaker 20: This was about Dan losing control. He was not in
- 43:01Speaker 20: love with Christille and that resentment had turned to rage
- 43:05Speaker 20: by the time we get to December 14th. Think about
- 43:08Speaker 20: what he did to her. You don't do that to
- 43:10Speaker 20: somebody you love. Think about the absolute nightmare and hell
- 43:14Speaker 20: that he made the last few months.
- 43:16Speaker 10: Of her life.
- 43:20Speaker 1: The jury deliberated for roughly one full day before finding
- 43:24Speaker 1: Dan guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of stalking, and
- 43:29Speaker 1: criminal impersonation. He was sentenced to life in prison without
- 43:34Speaker 1: the possibility of parole.
- 43:40Speaker 21: She just had a sense of beauty and style that, uh, was, uh,
- 43:44Speaker 21: it was so enjoyable to watch. Uh, as a, as
- 43:48Speaker 21: a mom, she got her kids involved in so many things.
- 43:51Speaker 21: She was always running them all over the place with
- 43:53Speaker 21: complete dedication to make sure that they were involved in
- 43:56Speaker 21: the things that made them happy. So she, uh, she
- 43:59Speaker 21: juggled a lot of balls and pulled it off amazingly.
- 44:03Speaker 21: There's no amount of justice that can bring her back.
- 44:07Speaker 15: Um, but it is a relief to know that, uh,
- 44:11Speaker 15: the person who thought he was going to get away
- 44:13Speaker 15: with it, with this convoluted alibi picture and trying to
- 44:18Speaker 15: blame it on somebody else, that that didn't happen.
- 44:26Speaker 1: And that was the tragic case of Christille Krug. Thank
- 44:29Speaker 1: you for joining me. And a special thanks this week
- 44:32Speaker 1: to Sylvia Line, Shana Hobson, and Travis Young for joining
- 44:36Speaker 1: our Sherlock Holmes membership. Welcome to the JTL Members Lounge.
- 44:41Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, this is Just Thought Lounge, and I'll see
- 44:44Speaker 1: you in the next one.