Talking Dateline: The Phantom

Summary

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Dateline NBC: Talking Dateline – "The Phantom"

Date: October 1, 2025
Hosts: Lester Holt & Josh Mankiewicz
Summary by Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

This episode features Lester Holt and Josh Mankiewicz discussing the latest Dateline episode, "The Phantom." The case centers on the 2023 murder of Colorado mother, Kristeel Krug, who was stalked for months before her death. Initially, evidence pointed to her ex-boyfriend, but a twist revealed her husband, Daniel Krug, as the true perpetrator—having orchestrated an elaborate frame-up. The episode explores the devastating impact of stalking, challenges in law enforcement response, and pushes for legislative reform.

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Major Themes and Discussion Points

1. Kristeel Krug's Character & Response to Stalking

• Resilience and Proactivity: Kristeel meticulously documented the stalking, proactively engaged law enforcement, and was "nothing short of impressive" in her response.
• Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 02:11):

  "Even when you do everything right... even when you are unafraid and you stand up to this and you get the police involved and you document everything, it can still go terribly wrong and end really badly.”

2. Law Enforcement Response

• Serious Police Work: Broomfield, Colorado police took Kristeel seriously and responded unusually thoroughly compared to standard stalking cases.

• Memorable Moment: Detective Martinez commended Kristeel’s organization and thoroughness.

• Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 03:20):

  "You've done a lot of our work for us... I did a timeline for you, which, again, sort of tells you who she was and how seriously she took this."

• Police efforts included searching her car for trackers and surveilling both Kristeel and her husband.

3. Complex Nature of the Case – “The Phantom”

• Norms Upended: Unlike typical stalking cases, the main suspect was elusive, with digital communications at the core.
• Quote (Lester Holt, 05:28):

  “Aren’t the clues now pointing... this has got to be something deeper than a typical stalking?”

• Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 05:44):

  “This was the weirdest case… Stalking cases generally, you know who it is… Here, the person disappeared… Police wanted to be solid on the information before acting because everything’s digital now.”

4. The Framing of Anthony Holland

• The Setup: Kristeel’s ex-boyfriend, Anthony Holland, had reached out in the past, giving Dan Krug just enough information to convincingly fabricate a stalking campaign in his name.
• Turning Point: Police initially focused on Holland, but his demeanor and alibi prompted doubt and further investigation.
• Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 08:57):

  “I would be more furious, I think, if someone had tried to frame me for murder and also stalking… He was a very nice guy and clearly had inadvertently set himself up to be a fall guy.”

5. Unmasking Dan Krug – “It’s Always the Husband”

• Critical Evidence: Dan bought the burner phone with a gift card registered in his own name, and messaged himself from the burner device by accident.

• Iconic Dateline Moment:

  • Quote (Lester Holt, 11:29):

    "Let's talk about those famous words uttered by Dan. It's always the husband."

  • Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 11:34):

    "There’s a guy who has watched Dateline before... He said that right in the interrogation room. It's always the husband."

• Legal Nuances: The stalking case against Dan was far stronger than the murder case, lacking direct forensic evidence tying him to the killing.

6. Past Pattern of Stalking Behavior

• Girlfriend's Experience: Dan had previously stalked another woman, using similar tactics of digital harassment to regain control and sabotage her relationships. Even years later, she remained afraid.
• Significance: Highlights dangers of stalking and difficulty in proving such behaviors before tragic escalation.

7. Advocacy and Calls for Reform

• Becky Ivanoff’s Perspective: Kristeel’s cousin, an experienced prosecutor, discussed the need for systemic change:

  • A national stalking and domestic violence offender registry (akin to the sex offender registry)
  • Faster compliance by communications companies with law enforcement requests in active stalking cases ("Christie's Law")

• Quote (Becky Ivanoff, 15:34):

  "The system operated as it's currently designed, and she still got killed. And so we have an opportunity here to fix what I see as a serious flaw in the system."

• Quote (Becky Ivanoff, 16:24):

  "That's never deterred me in my life... This is a fight worth taking on. I believe Kristeel would want a positive impact to come out of this horrific situation."

• Digital Evidence Delays: Crucial evidence was delayed due to unhurried, voluntary cooperation from tech companies—prompting legislative efforts for a mandatory 48-hour window.

• Quote (Josh Mankiewicz, 16:55):

  "If communications companies were required to provide information in stalking cases within 48 hours, Christeel... would have known the state of play... That would have been incredibly valuable information for her, and it might have been the thing that kept her alive."

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• 02:11 – Josh Mankiewicz:

  "Even when you do everything right… it can still go terribly wrong and end really badly."

• 03:20 – Josh Mankiewicz:

  "You've done a lot of our work for us… I did a timeline for you."

• 05:44 – Josh Mankiewicz:

  "This was the weirdest case… all digital… the police wanted to make sure that they had their information solidly before they went forward."

• 08:57 – Josh Mankiewicz (about Anthony Holland):

  "He was a very nice guy and clearly had inadvertently set himself up to be a fall guy."

• 11:34 – Josh Mankiewicz (about Dan Krug):

  "There's a guy who has watched Dateline before. Yeah, he said that right in the interrogation room. It's always the husband."

• 15:34 – Becky Ivanoff:

  "The system operated as it's currently designed, and she still got killed. And so we have an opportunity here to fix what I see as a serious flaw in the system."

• 16:55 – Josh Mankiewicz:

  "Those search warrants frequently take a very long time to come back. That information in a stalking case could be the difference between someone being killed and someone being saved. And they want to call that Christie’s law."

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Social Media Q&A Highlights

• On Travel Assignments:

  • (20:29) Josh Mankiewicz jokes about flipping a coin for travel jobs—revealing Keith was using a two-headed coin, leading Josh to do more travel.
  • (20:46) Josh Mankiewicz: Prefers travel; face-to-face interviews provide better insight.

• Handling Interview Subjects Who Lie:

  • (21:27) Josh Mankiewicz:

    "People have been lying to me forever... I let people talk... then you hit that person with the facts."

  • (22:12) Lester Holt:

    "I approach these interviews with, this is your chance to reveal who you are... I'm not a yeller during an interview."

• HIPAA & Police Medical Checks (23:13):

  • Josh Mankiewicz believes confirming an appointment isn't protected medical information and did not involve a subpoena.

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Final Thoughts

The episode underscores both the empowering and the heartbreaking realities victims face—even when they do "everything right." It spotlights the need for better tools for both law enforcement and victims, from registries to rapid digital evidence access. Kristeel Krug’s legacy inspires advocacy for sharper laws to help prevent similar tragedies.

As Lester Holt observes, “It makes you mad” (18:26) that the system functioning as designed still failed Kristeel. The episode ends with a call to continue these vital conversations and legislative efforts in her memory.

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Transcript

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[Lester Holt]

Hi, everyone. I'm Lester Holt. Welcome to Talking Dateline. I'm joined by Josh Mankiewicz today to talk about his riveting episode called the Phantom. Josh, it's great to see you. This is the first time we have done this together.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yes, it is. Welcome to Talking Dateline.

[Lester Holt]

And welcome to what an incredible story, which we're going to be talking about in a moment. I want folks to know, if you haven't seen it yet, you can find this program on the Dateline podcast feed. Go there, listen to it or. Or stream it on Peacock, and then come right back here. So, Josh, let me recap for viewers right now. It was the fall of 2023. Colorado mother Kristeel Krug was found murdered in her garage after she had been stalked for months. All signs pointing to her ex boyfriend as the stalker and killer. But detectives soon learned they'd gone down the entirely wrong path and that Christie's ex boyfriend had been framed by the real killer. Drumroll. Her husband, Daniel Krug. An incredible story, Josh. I want to start off with my takeaway about this episode. I was incredibly impressed with Christeel, the victim in this case. She did not take this lying down. She was after her stalker.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. I mean, one of the things about this episode is it, it. It points up sort of how terrible a crime stalking is, how it's not taken seriously enough almost anywhere in law enforcement, which we can talk about later. And how even when you do everything right, which is what she did, even when you are unafraid and you stand up to this and you get the police involved and you document everything, it can still go terribly wrong and end really badly. She was nothing short of Impressive in her life before this and in the way she conducted herself during this investigation up until the point that she was killed. And that's really the thing, sort of we want to underline here, is like, not just what kind of person she was and how, you know, this was not somebody who didn't take it seriously. She did take it seriously, and she got killed anyway.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. And then the stalker log, when she pulled that out, of course, you know, when, by this point in the program, we've got an idea who she is. Very smart lady. Very organized. Organized. But. But she had a great partner also in the police. Detective.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah. One of the things you hear Detective Martinez say to her early on is he's looking at everything she's brought in, and he says, wow, this is usually something that we do, but you're. You've. You've done a lot of our work for us, so I had to leave this out.

[Today Show Host]

This makes it so much simpler.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Okay. I did a timeline for you, which, again, sort of tells you who she was and how seriously she took this. And, you know, I don't think there's any question. Broomfield police took this very seriously, too. A lot of law enforcement agencies have been accused of sort of not stepping up to the bar where stalking's concerned. I think these guys worked very hard at this.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, that was one of the first things that struck me in this program was the police responding the way they did. You think, you know, they've got other things they're dealing with besides cases like this, and yet they seem to be as in it as she was in terms of the investment.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, they did. I mean, you know, nationally, you know, stalking is a crime in all 50 states, but it's not a felony in all of them. A lot of departments sort of look at stalking, you know, with. There's as much ground to cover between the way they're looking at stalking and the way stalking should be looked at as there was in domestic violence probably 25, 30 years ago. Like, you know, in. Certainly in our lifetimes, in our careers, it wasn't that long ago that the police response to domestic violence was, stop doing that. You stop doing that. You two work this out. Don't make me come back here. But, you know, in this case in Broomfield, they. They. They listened to her, and they definitely pursued this. I mean, they. They put her car up on a hoist to see whether she had a tracking device on it. They. They followed her surreptitiously, they followed her husband. And they're thinking, you Know, if. If this guy is following you and he's getting this information, he's got to be on you. And if we're on you, we're going to see him. But they didn't see him. That's where we get the title, the Phantom.

[Lester Holt]

And that's where I got a little hung up a few times. Where aren't the clues now pointing? This has got to be something deeper than a typical stalking. I think at some point you say stalking is a very personal thing, generally. Did this case follow the norms of what we tend to think of?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

No. I mean, I think, you know, I think this was the. For all of those officers in Broomfield, I think this was the weirdest case that they have ever done. Stalking cases generally, like, you know, you know who it is. And then you go, you can, you can find that person or you can. You can. Law enforcement can speak with that person. And in this case, they had a lot of trouble finding Anthony Holland. There is, you know, the family has gone back and forth as to whether or not it would have been a good idea to deal with Anthony Holland sooner than right after Christine was killed, maybe talking to him before that. But he was hard to find. And I think the cops were unwilling to sort of, when you go talk to someone, particularly in a case like this that involves, you know, stalking, like, everything else is digital now. So there's going to be some electronic surveillance going on here or some electronic communications, because this was all this. He wasn't showing up at the door. This was all text and email and stuff done on the phone and computer. So I think the police wanted to make sure that they had their information solidly before they went forward.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. So Chris Steele's body is found in the garage. Immediately, police figured, we know who did this. It's got to be your stalker. It's got to be Anthony.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

They were.

[Lester Holt]

Were they blinded or was it. Was the information just so bizarre?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I. I think, you know, Dan Krug, now serving the rest of his life in prison for this, did a very good job, and he also did a very bad job. I mean, he. He made some. Some mistakes that made it easy to figure out who sent those messages. And he also did a very good job of setting up Anthony Holland. I think almost any police department would have believed that it was Anthony Holland. You know, he had reached out to Chris Steel legitimately. He had reached out to Crystal a couple of times over the years saying, you know, you're. You were the love of my life. You're the one that got away. I made a huge mistake. I really want to apologize. All of which Anthony fessed up to me and said, yes, I did do that, but it was years ago. But she told Dan about that, and that gave him the perfect amount of information to create a fake person. Anthony, in this case. And suddenly all the. All the communication from Anthony that had stopped years ago now suddenly resumed. So Christeel absolutely believed it was Anthony, and the police did, too.

[Lester Holt]

Police knock on his door.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

They're.

[Lester Holt]

They're asking him questions about an ex girlfriend. He's sitting on the sofa. I think there's a shot as they're. All the police are leaving. He's shaking hands with the police officer. This is not what any of those officers likely suspected.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

No, no, it definitely wasn't. And. And, you know, I think the way that Anthony conducted himself during that interview, in addition to the fact that he had a receipt for the. Pretty much pretty close to the time of the murder, I think that went a long way towards making Colorado police think, wait a minute, something's wrong here. This is not the guy.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. I want to just go quickly go back and ask you about your interview with Anthony. What struck you about him?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

First of all, I would be. And maybe you would be. I would be more furious, I think, if someone had tried to frame me for murder and also stalking. Um, I think that Anthony, you know, he was kind of guileless. He was a. He was. He's a very nice guy. You know, one of the things we were thinking about when we were writing the episode is, you know, the minute you see him and you start hearing from him when. Minute he talks in the Dateline episode, it's very hard to think of him if you're the audience, as a stalker, because he does not seem like that kind of guy. He doesn't have any anger in him. He was absolutely a victim in this. So, I mean, he was a very nice guy and clearly had inadvertently set himself up to be a fall guy.

[Lester Holt]

Josh. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, you have an extra clip. I think we're going to share for part of your conversation with the cousin of the victim and an advocate.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

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[Lester Holt]

Let's talk about those famous words uttered by Dan. It's always the husband.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Wow. Yeah. I mean, there, there's a guy who has, who has watched DATELINE before. Yeah, he said that right in the, in the interrogation room. It's always the husband. And they, and the, I think the cops were thinking, well, this time it definitely is. I mean, they were, they were pretty sure by that point, again, they wanted to wait to actually arrest him because they wanted to make sure they had all the evidence.

[Lester Holt]

And he still had, there were still some questions that, that offered a shadow of doubt as to his, his guilt that could have really thwarted police down the, down the stretch.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Well, I mean, you know, there was, you know, there's no DNA. You know, the case against him for being Crystal's murderer is a significantly weaker case than the case against him for being Kristeel's stalker. I mean, he bought the burner phone used to text her with a gift card that was registered to him. At one point, he sent a text reading test from the burner phone to his own phone. The defense made a stronger argument against the murder case than they did against the stalker case. I think they kind of had the feeling that he was, the cake was baked on that other one.

[Lester Holt]

There were a couple other moments here that I think caught us all off guard. Dan's girlfriend, who had apparently reported stalking in the past.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You know, Dan was never charged with any crime before this. So, you know, there was no record to go on. They didn't know about that until that woman heard about Dan's Arrest in the news and called police. And even then, she was so scared of Dan, who was. Sorry, I keep hitting the mic. Even then she was so, you know, nice for you. I think it is.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That's Susan Leibowitz from Dateline, everybody. I'm gonna have to speak to her sternly. All right. So she was still so afraid of Dan that she wanted us to not use her name, even though he's locked up at that point and has not been out since. But the story she told was remarkably like the story of what happened to Christeel. I mean, the allegation was that Dan had created these fake people who were pressuring this woman to both go back to Dan after she had broken up with him and also try to sabotage the relationships that she was having after that. Now, he was never charged, as I said, but that left that woman so shaken that all these years later, it's still freaking her out. And that's some example of the power of stalking. And it's also why police did not believe and prosecutors did not believe that Anthony Holland had hired somebody else to do the murder while he was still doing the stalking back in Utah, which would explain his alibi. Is that the whole idea of stalking is, this is me. I'm not my confederate, not a guy I've hired. It's me. I'm parked across the street. I can see you. I'm following you. I'm turning up. I'm sending you emails. I have this control over you. That doesn't work if you're outsourcing that.

[Lester Holt]

Josh, as we've talked about, Christeel had so many people going to bat for her, people with experience in this sort of matter, including her cousin, a lawyer who has operated in the world of stalking. We've got an extra clip that didn't air from the interview. We want to play.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, this is Becky Ivanoff, who is Kristeel's cousin, who was a former prosecutor who did domestic violence cases and who is sort of spearheading. Spearheading the family's effort to change the laws about how communications companies operate. Why isn't there a national registry of stalkers and people who've been convicted of domestic violence the way there is for sex offenders?

[Becky Ivanoff]

It's an excellent point. And having that type of information available, I think would be really important for folks in all manner of areas in their lives, navigating personal relationships, professional relationships, et cetera. I think that having access to that type of information can really help future potential victims keep themselves safe and make different Types of choices in a timely manner. Christeel did everything right. The system operated as it's currently designed, and she still got killed. And so we have an opportunity here to fix what I see as a serious flaw in the system.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You want to honor Christeel by making some changes in the criminal justice system.

[Becky Ivanoff]

I do.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That's not going to be easy.

[Becky Ivanoff]

That's never deterred me in my life. You know, this is a fight worth taking on. And I believe Kristeel would want a positive impact to come out of this horrific situation. If Kristeel could, I think, say anything right now, it would be get that done. And so I'm committed. That's what we're going to do, is create more safety for other survivors and more immediate accountability for offenders.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Becky is really talking about two things there. Right. One of them is should there be a stalking and domestic violence registry the way there is for sex offenders? Now, Dan was never charged with any crime, so Christeel would not have known that even if there had been a registry like that. But that's a separate question. Should there be a. Should there be a national registry so that women could, you know, look up the guy that's asking him out and find out whether this guy is a serial abuser? Those are questions that are out there, and this case sort of should start that discussion. But what Becky Ivanov is talking about is the way that communications companies operate at the moment. There is nothing compelling them to give information, digital information, which can be vital to police, as it was in this case, to police in 48 hours, which is what her family wants. Those search warrants frequently take a very long time to come back. That information in a stalking case could be the difference between someone being killed and someone being saved. And they want to call that Christie's law, and they want to pass legislation requiring communications companies in stalking cases to provide information to law enforcement within 48 hours when they are presented with a legally executed, legally signed search warrant.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, Becky laid it out there. She did everything right, and yet she was killed. It. It makes you mad.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Well, it's impossible to look at what happened and not get angry. And certainly both you and I have done stories like this before. I mean, this is the system operating correctly the way it is currently laid out. The question is whether or not there should be changes in the system, because there is no question that if communications companies were required to provide information in stalking cases within 48 hours, Christeel, in this case, would have had a window into what's going on. She would have known it was Dan. She would not have allowed Dan to get behind her in the garage. She would have thrown him out of the house. She would have changed the locks. Now, could he still have killed her anyway? Yes, but Christeel would have known the state of play, as we said in the episode. She would have known the calls coming from inside the house. That would have been incredibly valuable information for her, and it might have been the thing that kept her alive.

[Lester Holt]

All right, Josh and I will be back with some of your questions on social media.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The guy thought he had a good thing going, a good job and two lovers. That is, until this triangle got complicated and somebody had to go. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Engagement, an all new podcast from Dateline. It's a story that shows sure to keep you guessing as lovers turn on each other in a desperate bid to avoid prison.

[Podcast Promoter / Announcer]

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[Lester Holt]

Okay, we're back and we're going to answer some of your questions via social media. The first is from Juliana Spain, who said, do you all flip a coin to see who stays at home base and who travels?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, the answer is we used to do that. And then a Dateline investigation revealed that Keith was using a two headed coin and that was why I was on the road all the time and, you know, Alaska and, and, and he was home in California.

[Lester Holt]

Do you like the travel part of this job?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I love, I love the travel, actually. I like sitting across from people. I mean, you, you, you, you get a, you get a different sense of who they are. You know, this and also frequently, you know, people are nervous about talking on television. If you're with them, you, you, you can maybe make them feel a little more comfortable. So I prefer being, being face to face. We don't flip a coin and we don't, we don't take turns. Usually it comes down to, you know, who is slammed at the time and who isn't. Or maybe I should say who is less slammed at the time because we all are.

[Lester Holt]

All right, next question is from official Nicole, who said, how do you handle when, you know, a person is lying to you?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

You know, I was a political reporter before I was at Dateline and, you know, politicians been lying to me forever. People have been lying to me forever. I mean, like, lots of interviews that you do are people who are either not telling the truth or they are shading it in some way that makes them look better. I just let them, I let people talk. You know, you, whatever your story is, if you're a murderer or if you're the mayor, I'll listen to what you have to say and then I will be prepared because I've done the reading and I know what the case was against you or I know what the official reports say, and then you hit that person with the facts. And that usually that's just as true when you're interviewing the president of the city council as when you're interviewing some murderer in lockup.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. My approach is, as I approach these interviews with, this is your chance to reveal who you are, good guy, bad guy, however you want to do it. Let's go through this and reveal the real you and perhaps your motivation. I can't beat you up. I'm not a. I'm not a yeller during an interview. You know, aha. Moments are something that I think the person you're interviewing may create by something they want to reveal at any given moment. Let's go to Kyle Kylie Hart on Facebook, who says, I was just listening to episode two of your new special, Deadly Engagement. Josh was talking about Ms. Crowley's alibi during the time of the murder, and she says she was at a doctor's appointment for her child. Josh then goes on to say the detective called the office and quickly found out she was lying about the appointment. She goes on to say, my question is, does this not violate hipaa? Was there maybe a subpoena involved that allowed the doctor to give the information to police? Interesting question.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I am, I am unaware of any, of any subpoena. I think the belief was by law enforcement at the time that finding out whether somebody had an appointment did not count as personal medical information.

[Lester Holt]

Well, good answer. If you want to listen to Josh's new podcast, Deadly Engagement, Dateline Premium subscribers can listen to all episodes now. And as of now, five of the six episodes are available for free wherever you get your podcasts. Well, Josh, thanks very much. Great discussion. Great program. Really fascinating. Raised a lot of issues. We appreciate it.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Thank you.

[Lester Holt]

So that is going to do it for talking Dateline for this week. Remember, if you have any questions for us about the stories we do on Dateline, you want to reach out. You can get us 24. 7 on social media at Dateline NBC. If you have a question for talking Dateline specifically, leave it for us in a voicemail. The number is 212-413-5252. Or send us a video on Socials for a chance to be featured on a future episode. We'll see you Friday on Dateline NBC. For now, thanks for listening, everybody.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So long.