Kristil Krug // 569

Summary

Going West: True Crime – Episode 569

Case: Christeel Krug

Release Date: January 2, 2026
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman
Summary by Going West Podcast Summarizer

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Overview

In this haunting episode, hosts Daphne and Heath dissect the chilling case of Christeel Krug’s murder, a case that appeared at first to be a classic stalking by an old flame but turned out to be a deeply twisted act of betrayal. This episode delves into not only the sequence of events leading up to Christeel’s death but also the chilling psychological manipulation, riveting twists, and the critical, tragic failures in the system that failed her.

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Main Theme/Purpose

The episode explores the 2023 murder of 43-year-old Christeel Krug in Colorado, unraveling a disturbing chain of stalking, harassment, impersonation, and eventually murder—all orchestrated by someone far closer than anyone realized. The hosts focus on how law enforcement, digital forensics, and personal courage intersected to reveal a truth more shocking than the obvious suspects.

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Key Discussion Points & Timeline

1. Intro & Case Set-Up

• [03:43] Daphne recaps the initial call for welfare check after Christeel stops responding to messages.
• Details: Christeel was inundated with terrifying texts/emails, some including photos of her and her family, leading investigators to suspect a stalker.

2. Background – Who Was Christeel Krug?

• [04:25] Christeel’s upbringing in Boulder: academically and artistically gifted, very close with her family.
• Her marriage to Dan Krug, three children, and a flourishing career in project management.

3. Harassment Begins

• [07:53] Fall 2023: The Krugs report an attempted break-in and a stolen spare key, increasing their anxiety.
• [08:49] Christeel receives messages from ex-boyfriend Jack Anthony Holland ("Anthony"), who she hadn’t seen since 1999. Despite only a brief youthful romance, Anthony resurfaces regularly over the years but had been blocked since 2016.
• [11:20] October 2023: Anthony uses a new (spoofed) number to begin a disturbing, explicit barrage of messages and threats.

4. Escalation of Threats

• [12:13] The messages become increasingly vulgar and threatening, including direct threats against Christeel and her husband Dan.
  • “Saw your pics. You got fat. Bet your loser husband won’t f*** your fat c***.” (Anthony to Christeel, [12:52])
  • “I’ll get rid of him, then we can be together.” (Anthony, [13:06])
• [14:07] Anthony emails Christeel a photo of Dan, proving surveillance and deepening the threat.
  • “Attached to this email was a picture of Dan in a gray coat getting into his car at the parking lot of his office building.” ([14:38])

5. Terror Deepens & Police Response

• [15:05] Anthony claims to have seen Christeel at the dentist, suggesting possible tracking.
• [15:51] Police search for trackers and police surveil her movements but find nothing suspicious.
• [16:59] Third parties start soliciting Christeel for sex; explicit ads and messages—someone has posted her information online under false pretenses (e.g., “birthday train” on Locanto).
• [19:19] Detective Martinez notes Christeel’s terror, anxiety, and hypervigilance.
  • Christeel meticulously documents all harassment to assist police, dubbed her “stalker log”.

6. Desperation for Safety & Systemic Failures

• [20:57] Christeel installs security cameras and begins carrying a handgun.
• She hires a private investigator to supplement police efforts.
• [25:40] PI finds Anthony’s addresses outside Colorado, but police delay confronting him, needing more evidence.

7. Critical Delays with Tech Companies

• [27:00] Police begin warrants to Verizon, Google, and TextNow. Delays and errors in processing slow down the investigation for weeks.
  • “A clerical error on the request sent to Google prevented it from being processed until December 6, which was three weeks later. And that was the day that she got cameras and only like a week before she died.” ([27:58])

8. Christeel’s Final Days

• [29:03] Christeel expresses fear to her sister: “it was either going to be her or Anthony alive at the end of this ordeal.”
• [30:25] December 14, 2023: Dan leaves for work later than usual; Christeel texts him, goes unresponsive.
• Dan requests a welfare check, referencing the ongoing stalking.

9. Discovery & The Initial Suspect

• [31:38] Police find Christeel’s body in the garage. She’d been struck in the head and stabbed in the chest.
• [32:59] Police quickly move for Anthony Holland’s arrest—find him out of state, with an ironclad alibi.
  • “Anthony was able to prove that he had been home an eight hour drive away in Utah… detectives quickly came to the conclusion that Anthony could not have been the one stalking the Krug family.” ([33:43])

10. The Twist—The Real Killer

• [35:43] Forensics lead to a shocking discovery: the threatening messages were sent from Dan Krug’s work IP address.
  • “The messages had come from an IP address consistent with Dan Krug’s government office.” ([36:51])
• [37:24] Forensic data places Dan, not Anthony, as the author of the harassment and implicates him in timing Christeel’s final text after her death to bolster his alibi.
• [39:24] Dan had searched: “how to knock someone unconscious,” “how hard would you have to hit someone in the head to make them unconscious,” “how long can you be unconscious without brain damage.”

11. Arrest, Trial, and Aftermath

• [42:00] Dan is arrested two days after the murder, surrenders without a fight, maintains innocence, and tries to pin the murder on an imagined stalker.
• [43:39] Prosecution uncovers premeditation: Dan fabricated break-in, impersonated Anthony, and orchestrated a months-long stalking ruse.
• [45:30] Motive: Christeel wanted a divorce; Dan stalked, tormented, and finally killed her to avoid losing control.
  • “Dan decided he was going to play puppet master by impersonating Jack Anthony Holland, stalking and terrorizing his family for months before murdering Christeel 11 days before Christmas.”
    • Deputy D.A. Kate Armstrong ([44:00])
• [46:22] Testimony emerges that Dan previously harassed another ex-girlfriend using fake online profiles, establishing a pattern.
• [47:05] Despite the defense pointing to a tiny amount of unknown DNA, the jury convicts Dan Krug:
  • First-degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation.
  • Sentenced to life without parole plus 9.5 years for stalking ([47:05])
  • Dan continues to claim innocence from prison.

12. Legacy & System Gaps

• [48:29] Christeel’s cousin (ex-prosecutor) campaigns for “Kristeel’s Law” to require tech companies to respond to warrants within 48 hours, claiming this would have saved Christeel’s life.
  • “Christeel did everything right. The system operated as it’s currently designed, and she still got killed.” – Rebecca Ivanoff ([49:03])
• The Krug children are cared for by family and supported with community-led efforts (dream bedrooms/fundraisers).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the shock of the twist:

  • “It feels like that scene from Scooby Doo where they're like, let’s see who’s really behind this, and then they pull the mask off. It’s Dan Jenkins. Yeah. It's old man Dan Krug, the dumbass.” — Heath ([51:16])

• On motives and manipulation:

  • “He decided he was going to play puppet master by impersonating Jack Anthony Holland, stalking and terrorizing his family for months before murdering Christeel 11 days before Christmas.” — Deputy D.A. Kate Armstrong ([44:00])

• On police and tech company failure:

  • “I’m looking at a system here that has a fundamental flaw that we can fix easily… They could have arrested him weeks before she was killed, and she could have safely planned in a way that could have saved her life.” — Rebecca Ivanoff ([49:03])

• On Christeel’s efforts to stay safe:

  • “She’s literally doing everything she can.” — Daphne ([20:55])

• On the horror of Dan’s scheme:

  • “He really, really went deep with this whole cover up.” — Heath ([41:43])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [03:43] Case introduction and background
• [07:53] Start of harassment and stalking
• [12:13] Threatening texts escalate
• [14:07] Photo of Dan emailed—proof of surveillance
• [15:51] Police search for trackers
• [16:59] Explicit ads posted online; third-party harassment
• [20:57] Christeel steps up personal safety measures
• [27:00] Critical delays in tech company responses
• [29:03] Christeel’s final days and fear
• [30:25] Timeline and welfare check
• [31:38] Discovery of Christeel’s body
• [33:43] Anthony’s airtight alibi—he is ruled out
• [35:43] Forensics point to Dan
• [39:24] Dan’s incriminating web searches
• [42:00] Arrest and confession attempts
• [45:30] Motive and trial testimony
• [46:22] Pattern of behavior established with ex-girlfriend’s testimony
• [47:05] Conviction and sentencing
• [48:29] Advocacy for systemic change and aftermath for Christeel’s children

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Conclusion

The episode closes with reflection on the enduring trauma and legacy of this case. It highlights the tragic confluence of calculated domestic abuse, systemic delays in tech industry cooperation, and the endlessly creative evil of someone intent on deceiving and destroying. Listeners are left with both a heart-wrenching sense of loss and a call to recognize—and change—systemic failures that cost lives.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Heard the Episode

This summary captures the emotional depth, the methodical presentation of facts, investigative twists, and host-driven context. The case is not only about a murder but about manipulation, systemic gaps, and the urgent need to protect victims through both smarter policing and faster digital responses.

Resources and further episodes are available on the Going West Patreon and Apple Podcast feeds.

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(Ad sections, introductions, and outros have been omitted for clarity.)

Transcript

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

Oh, right this way.

[Daphne]

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[Heath]

What is going on? True crime fans, I'm your host Heath.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host, Daphne.

[Heath]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello everybody. Big shout out to Heather for recommending today's case. There are some really disturbing and totally unhinged text messages and emails in this case that help make it so unreal, especially when we get to the conclusion. So thank you everybody for tuning in and Heather for putting this crazy story on our radar.

[Heath]

And also a big happy new year to everybody. We are finally in 2026. Hope you all had a very safe and happy holiday. And here's to our first case of many of 2026.

[Daphne]

Indeed. Also, I want to say we just in the past week released two new bonus episodes, one of which happened in the last few years in Colorado. Ashley Fallis. And then we also did like an old timey 1800s case, the story of Florence Maybrick. Which it was. It was a fun one. We never really get to go that far back in time.

[Heath]

So yeah, we usually don't do that. But if you are so inclined or you feel so inclined, go check those out. You can subscribe [e-mail] goingwestpodcast or you can subscribe right there on Apple Podcasts.

[Daphne]

Yeah, we have almost 150 full length episodes over there. They're ad free and they're cases that we're never gonna cover on Going west, but they're from all over the world as well. So check it out.

[Heath]

Yeah, if you're caught up, go check it out.

[Daphne]

And without further ado.

[Heath]

All right guys, this is episode 569 of Going West. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

In December of 2023, police in Colorado responded to a quiet neighborhood in Denver for a welfare check after a 43 year old woman stopped responding to messages. In the weeks prior, she had been consistently stalked and plagued with vulgar and terrifying texts and emails, some of which included photos of her and her family. When police checked her home and found her brutally murdered inside, they looked harder at phone records and surveillance footage to finally capture her stalker and now killer. This is the murderer of Christeel Krug. Christeel Grimsrud was born on November 24, 1980 to parents Linda and Lars Grimsrud and grew up in Boulder, Colorado alongside a brother. But when Christeel was still young, her parents divorced and her dad soon remarried, which brought her both a stepsister and a stepbrother. Despite the separation though, her family remained very tight knit and her parents gave her and her brother a like a very supportive co parenting environment. Now, above all else, Christeel's family remembers her empathy and the warmth that she showed to everybody around her. Her family wrote of her posthumously quote. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Christeel was known for her kindness, generosity and infectious laughter. She had an innate ability to inspire those around her and her warm spirit created a sense of camaraderie wherever she went. From a young age, Chrysteel was gifted in science and math and she excelled academically. And although she was very pragmatic and down to earth, she did have an artistic side as well. And she was also a gifted dancer. She took dance classes and performed in modern dance recitals outside of her super demanding school and eventual work schedule. After graduating from high school, Christeel was awarded a scholarship to the esteemed science and engineering university, the Colorado School of Mines, where she majored in Biochemical engineering. But she eventually transferred to the University of Colorado in Boulder just to be closer to her family.

[Heath]

Sco Buffs My God, you knew I was gonna do that right Every time.

[Daphne]

Someone'S gotta do it. And within a few years, Kristeel graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemical engineering. Now it was during college that she met her future husband, Dan Krug online. Dan was a political science major, so they bonded over their shared love of science and academia. They got married in 2007, as both of their careers were starting to flourish. And for over 15 years, Christeel worked in project management for a technology company. Her husband, Dan, landed a job as a financial analyst for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is located in Glendale, Colorado. So the couple settled in Broomfield, Colorado, which is just northwest of Denver and not far from Boulder either, where Christeel had grown up.

[Heath]

And I also just quick little fun fact. I used to live in that area. I know that area really well. Broomfield, it's fairly close to Denver. It's kind of in between Denver and Boulder. So a good place for them to land so they could be close to both of those cities.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And it seemed like a good place to raise kids, which was perfect because Kristeel and Dan had three. Three children, two girls and one boy. And despite her scientific and artistic accomplishments, her children were hands down her greatest achievement.

[Heath]

So things did seem great. But in the fall of 2023, the Krugs were navigating a particularly complicated set of circumstances that left them all feeling pretty uneasy, to say the least. So, basically, in the months preceding Chrystile's murder, she and Dan reported an attempted break in. Dan claimed that he was coming up the driveway when he noticed that he had left the garage door open by mistake. And when he drove up, he says that he saw a young man in jeans fleeing from their garage. So Dan ended up calling 911 to report the issue. But the Krugs were further alarmed when they discovered that the spare key that they kept in that garage had been stolen. So just to be safe, they did end up changing the locks. But a month later is when the real trouble began. Chrysteal's life took a dramatic and very quick downward spiral when she began receiving messages from an ex boyfriend named Jack Anthony Holland, who went by Anthony In October of 2023, Christeel called the police to report that she believed that she was being stalked by an ex boyfriend who just couldn't let go of their past connection. So to kind of explain all of that, she and Anthony had dated for a few months back in 1999. And again, we're in 2023. So this is 24 years earlier, when Chrysteel was in between her freshman and her sophomore year of college. But obviously, like I just said, it's 2023, she's now 42 years old, and she's been married to another man for 16 whole years. Well, her family remembered that Anthony was polite and actually quite chivalrous and the breakup wasn't especially traumatic, so, you know, they just couldn't figure out why he was trying to get in contact with her again. But they were each other's first ever serious relationship, and Anthony evidently had some real trouble letting go. Anthony later said of I've had a lot of other girlfriends, and I've never been in love with anybody else like her, adding that she was the love of his life. Now, after the breakup in 1999, they didn't talk for a while until over two years later when he reached out. This is back in 2002, but by then, she was already dating Dan. Anthony followed up again in 2005, 2010, and also 2016, always using Facebook. And though they hadn't dated in years, they did occasionally touch base with Chris, letting him down gently every time. When he became insistent that they did belong together and that they should get back together, Chrysteel would always shut it down. However, his last message had apparently made her pretty uncomfortable, and she decided to block him once and for all. So that was actually back in 2016, and that was the last time that they spoke. And Christeel eventually even deleted her Facebook account, and she did block his number as well. So that's how disturbed she was over the situation that she was in with Anthony.

[Daphne]

Yeah, she's like, he's been reaching out to me for a little too long. He's making me uncomfortable. I am married.

[Heath]

I'm just gonna pump the brakes here.

[Daphne]

Yeah, let's just. I'm just gonna get him out my life and block him and move on.

[Heath]

But here's the thing. On October 2nd of 2023, Anthony reached out again with a new phone number, which was later found to originate from the text now app, which is a free calling and texting service, which makes sense.

[Daphne]

If he learned that she had blocked his phone number, he's using a different kind of free service to get in touch with her, like, kind of go around it.

[Heath]

Right. And these messages were unlike those that Christeel had received previously. They were a lot worse. Christeel went into the Broomfield police department to file a complaint about it and met with detective Anthony Martinez, telling him candidly, he's never said this kind of stuff to me before. But texts began to trickle in, and it wasn't until she received a threatening email that she decided to report it in order to kinda put together a.

[Daphne]

Paper trail, which is very smart because she knows that this is a scary situation. So let's kind of dive more into it. On October 2, 2020, 3, Anthony texted Chrysteel saying, quote, hi, Crystal, it's Anthony. Hope it's okay. I looked you up. I go to Boulder every few weeks and thought we could hook up. You game? So Cristeel kind of brushed this one off and ignored the message. But more were coming, because when he didn't receive a response, Anthony texted her the following day, saying, are you there? You should say yes when I offer you a pity fuck.

[Heath]

I mean, ew.

[Daphne]

Yeah, it gets worse. I want to say this next one is pretty vulgar. Some of them are quite vulgar. So, kids, cover your ears, because he followed up with, whatev. Saw your pics. You got fat. Bet your loser husband won't fuck your fat cunt. Jesus. The next text read, quote, dumb cunt, you should kill yourself. Don't waste my time.

[Heath]

What are you talking about? Waste? Waste your time? No, like, literally wasting her fucking time, you weirdo.

[Daphne]

Yeah, no. This is so creepy, especially. Cause, yeah, Chrysteel wasn't even responding to any of these yet. They wouldn't stop because the text then began to come in every few days. One read, quote, I'll get rid of him, and then we can be together. Which you would imagine he's talking about her husband, Dan. And then he followed up with, you don't want him. I know you want me. I want to say, too, since you guys can't read them. All these messages are riddled with typos, like he uses instead of U. Y O U. He'll do you. But the ones we're going to read, like, after this, have even more typos. So it feels like the language is really scattered and erratic, you know?

[Heath]

Yeah, they're getting really unhinged. Yeah.

[Daphne]

Because then on Halloween, he emailed her from the email address, a holland.kicksmail.com writing quote this. Your husband drives like a slow old lady. Can't believe you want to suck his dick, but not mine. He needs to drive safe. Don't want a clear rubber hose in his tailpipe.

[Heath]

So I'm assuming that this person, Anthony, is going to somehow, like, sabotage Dan's car in some way, whatever that means.

[Daphne]

Yeah, and it's pretty scary because attached to this email was a picture of Dan in a gray coat getting into his car at the parking lot of his office building. So this is the fact that somebody took a picture of her husband and sent it to her. Like, you're saying, kind of threatening, saying, oh, you know, it kind of be a shame if something happened. Essentially saying that.

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

She's like, oh, my God. Like, this is. It's advancing very quickly.

[Heath]

This is getting serious.

[Daphne]

So this seemed to prove that Anthony had been stalking chrysteel. And even worse, he was starting to follow them around outside of Broomfield, including when they had their kids with them, who, by the way, at this point, were 14, 11, and 8. On November 9, his text read that he had seen Christie at the dentist, which he signed off with, see you soon. So this led Christeel to believe that Anthony might have placed a tracker on her car. She was absolutely terrified at that prospect, because once she got that idea in her head, because obviously, she's like, how does he know I'm at the dentist? How does he know where? Like, every place that we go, yeah.

[Heath]

He'S got to be tracking me somehow.

[Daphne]

So she had the police scan her car inside and out for a tracker, but they didn't find any sign of one. And somehow that actually felt kind of worse because now chrysteel is convinced that Anthony was driving around following her, Anguished by the time it was taking for law enforcement to make contact with Anthony, which is crazy, because they have his name, she is reporting so many different texts, especially the one that seemed to threaten her husband. Christeel spoke with her stepsister Jenna about obtaining a restraining order. So detective Martinez sent out undercover officers to check in on her daily, both at home and when she was just driving around. And strangely, they didn't witness anyone following her or approaching her vehicle or surveilling her house. Because they were hoping to, like, catch him in the act.

[Heath]

Yeah, they're thinking, you know, there's got to be somebody following her, because how is he gonna know where she's at all the time? So we'll keep an eye on her, and if we see anything strange, then we'll approach this, you know, random stalker. But it's. It's. That just wasn't happening. They're following her for days. They don't see anybody.

[Daphne]

But a few days later, Anthony texted her, quote, I see you flirting with waiters, almost begging for sexual. I'll get rid of him, and then we can be together so easy again. She has still not responded to any of this. Well, in addition to the threatening texts and emails, Christiel began receiving solicitations from men for sex, as well as explicit advertisements, leading investigators to believe that somebody had been visiting porn sites and dating apps, pretending to be Christeel and sharing her contact information. Because now more men are reaching out to her and saying vulgar things.

[Heath]

And I think this is just another attempt in which you know, the person that's stalking her is like, well, you're not going to respond to me now. I'm going to take it a step further to try and get your attention.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And to just further harass her because a lot of these texts included pictures of the men, some of who were nude. So she's getting a lot of unsolicited dick pics now and it's disgusting. She's being bombarded now by multiple men that she does not want talking to her.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's going off the rails, truly.

[Daphne]

Well, like I just said, police were thinking that somebody had put some kind of ad up about her, obviously with her contact information again. And they found on the website locanto, which is like a classified website, kind of similar to Craigslist. It has a focus on personal ads. They found a post with Christeel's phone number attached and the ad was titled birthday train. Partners wanted. Big party planned for November 25 and November 26. Looking for a large number of well endowed men to run a train on me. So remember, her birthday is November 24th, so that means whoever this is knows when her birthday is. I did try to find her Facebook to see if it was like public information at the time, but it must have been deactivated because I couldn't find it. So, yeah, that's important to know. And for anybody who doesn't know, like a birthday train is essentially a bunch of men line up to have sex with a woman. So somebody is putting her phone number online and acting like she's looking for a line of men to have sex with.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's just vile at this point. Well, Detective Martinez explained in his report, Christeel is very fearful for her safety and the safety of her family. There's evidence and admission of repeated following and surveillance of her and her immediate family. The recent communication has caused her anxiety, hypervigilance and paranoia. In what she described as her stalker log, Christiel maintained a timeline, printouts of each and every text and email, and meticulously detailed notes. At the time, Dan was interviewed as well, telling detectives that the messages were taking a toll on his life as well. He admitted, I went to the grocery store briefly on Tuesday and someone behind me dropped a can and I fucking panicked. Because at this point he was afraid not only for his wife, but also for his kids because they really didn't know how. This guy seemed to know everything about them, you know, what they're doing, where they're at. And his messages were of course terrifying. Dan added, I'm panicking and I'm doing a shit job protecting my wife. However, the Broomfield Police department declined to take action just yet. You know, wanting to build their case against Anthony Holland. As the messages became increasingly more threatening, Chrysteel was completely rattled. But she did take all the necessary steps to protect herself and her family, including keeping a detailed log and timetable of all of these messages.

[Daphne]

She's literally doing everything she can.

[Heath]

Yeah. I mean, I don't know what more she can do. She's already reported this to the police. She's keeping a detailed log of the messages and emails. There's just not much more to do here. But she actually did find a few more things that she could do. So on December 6th of 2023, Christeel and Dan installed multiple security cameras around the home. And Christeel even began carrying a handgun that was given to her by her dad. But after two months of no forward momentum in prosecuting the man stalking and threatening her, Christiel was so fearful that she hired a private investig.

[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

Goingwest go to shopify.com goingwest that's shopify.com goingwest Hear the sound of your first sale this new year with Shopify by your side. The Krug's private investigator pinned down addresses for Anthony in both Idaho and Utah. But the Broomfield police continue to hold off on moving forward with questioning him because they wanted more concrete evidence and an ability to make an immediate arrest before this PI did Anything. Anthony Martinez, the detective, maintained that before that happened, quote, he could just close the door in our face. And that is the end of our case.

[Heath]

Yeah, because unfortunately, with the stalking laws that we have in the United States, there is not a whole lot that the police can do, because this is just the way that stalking laws work, that there aren't very many. You know, you can kind of do this and get away with it.

[Daphne]

Well, it's really shitty because obviously we're. There's a lot of threats coming into her. They're not direct threats. The person isn't saying, you know, I'm.

[Heath]

Going to kill you.

[Daphne]

Yeah, this isn't Black Christmas. But they are really disturbing, and they're very persistent. And it's. It's clear that the. This person is physically following her.

[Heath]

But Mr. Martinez is very much correct in his assertion that if he does jump the gun too soon, you know, Anthony can just slam the door in his face and say, I don't need to talk to you.

[Daphne]

But from our perspective, we're like, okay, trace the. Trace the text.

[Heath]

Like, let's do something.

[Daphne]

Do something. And they actually did. So basically, the Broomfield police did apply for search warrants to Verizon, which is the service provider of the phone that was sending the messages, as well as Text now, which was the app, as we know, that Anthony was using to message Crystal and Google for the email. But all three companies failed to produce the requested reports in a timely manner. We're going to talk about this later because that, I think, was a huge hindrance in this case.

[Heath]

Yeah, big mess up.

[Daphne]

Detective Martinez filed the request for the search warrant on November 12, obviously 2023, and they were sent along to Verizon, Google, and TextNow on November 17. So five days later. But a clerical error on the request sent to Google prevented it from being processed until December 6, which was three weeks later. And that was the day that she got cameras and only like a week before she died. So Christeel was forced to wait for the results of the warrant and continue to receive these threatening messages. In the meantime, she was left totally defenseless against this stalker threatening her life and the life of her husband. And the correspondence continued to pour in. In one, Anthony wrote, quote, I'll save you. You belong with me. I'll get rid of him, and then we can be together on December 6th. So the day that that request was sent to Google for the search warrant, the day she got cameras, Crystal received an email that read, quote, hey, gorgeous, I can't visit you no more. No More Colorado time. My girlfriend doesn't want us talking without her. She says you will let cops get me after you off him. But she don't know you like I do. This is freaking full of typos.

[Heath]

Yeah, there's so many errors in that one sentence.

[Daphne]

It's like after is missing the E. It says don't know you like I do and it's K, N, O space, U space, L I, K, E I space do. So it's like it's just a mess. And also this message is kind of proving he's saying no more Colorado. As we know he has addresses in Idaho and Utah. So that's insinuating that he keeps popping over to Colorado to follow her. So by this point, over two months since the messages started, Crystal had become so afraid that she told her sister that it was either going to be her or Anthony alive at the end of this ordeal. Her friends, her parents and even her kids were aware of this issue and Christeel was seriously hitting her limit. Her parents remember that she would frequently burst into tears and that her sleep, her well being and her health were suffering due to her anxiety over the situation and her distress that she and her family weren't safe.

[Heath]

Well, sadly those fears were realized on the morning of December 14, 2023. Surveillance footage from over the Krug's garage recorded Dan Krug leaving for work at 8:24am which was about 30 minutes later than he normally left the house. He stopped for coffee before heading on to Glendale to work again. That's where his office is. At 8:56am Christeel texted him about picking up the kids from school. He responded. After arriving at work, which was just about at 9:30am he then placed a few calls to her cell phone. But these calls went unanswered. As the hours passed and Christeel still hadn't responded, Dan began to panic and he contacted the Broomfield police department with a request to perform a welfare check, telling them that he was obviously nervous that something had happened to her and giving them the context that they had been stalked and followed over the course of the past 10 weeks.

[Daphne]

Yeah, because he heard from her after he left for work. Like she was texting and now hours are going by and she's not responding and he's like why isn't she answering? Did something happen?

[Heath]

Right. He's kind of freaked out at this point. So Dan also made a point of telling them that he believed that she was supposed to meet with detective Martinez that very morning, that for updates on her case Though Detective Martinez later claimed that that was not true. So on that gloomy, cold late autumn day, when Officer John o' Hare with the Broomfield police stopped by the home to check on her, he found the house locked and completely silent. Now, fortunately, he decided to take the welfare check one step further and verify that the garage was empty as well. So John pulled his patrol car up to the garage door to peer through the small windows at the top of the panels. And that's when he spotted Christeel's crumpled body lying on the floor of the garage. Calling for backup, John headed around to the front of the house and entered through the front door. Christeel was still recumbent on the cement floor, motionless and lifeless. She had been struck in the head and she was stabbed in the chest and blood had pooled on the floor around her body. 43 year old Christeel Krug was pronounced dead at 12:43pm Though authorities believed that she'd been dead for at least four hours.

[Daphne]

When Dan reached the scene, he was totally despondent and he actually had trouble getting through the interview after he was brought to the police station because he was so confused and distraught. You know, they had been dealing with this stalker for over two months and his worst fears had come true. While discussing those weeks with police, Dan divulged that the couple had been sleeping in separate bedrooms recently from the stress and that they had even discussed a divorce. And police, of course, had this massive timeline and so many details about the stalking. So at this point, based on their suspicions and that of both Dan's and the family's, police immediately issued a warrant for the arrest of Anthony Holland. Sadly, of course, a little bit too late. And they didn't find him in Colorado. But like expected in Utah that same day, police arrived at the door of Anthony's Salt Lake City home ready to make an arrest. And it seemed like an open and shut case, right? But when Anthony was asked about his whereabouts that morning, he was able to prove that he had been home an eight hour drive away in Utah. He even ran an errand that morning, buying a sweatshirt at a Kohl's store near his home at 12:16pm, which of course is around when Christeel was found. According to the authorities, Christeel was killed around 8am that morning and Anthony couldn't have been in Broomfield at that time. And get this. As they continued to question Anthony, detectives quickly came to the conclusion that Anthony could not have been the one stalking the Krug family. So Anthony was a server and Many of the times that he was supposedly sending these messages to Kristeel or had been in Colorado spying on them and following them around, he was in the middle of a shift all the way in Salt Lake City. Shifts which were confirmed by his timesheets and witnesses.

[Heath]

So they're like, what the hell is going on? Like, this seems. It seems like this is the guy, but it can't be the guy.

[Daphne]

It can't be. So with that, Anthony was officially ruled out as a suspect. And we kind of gotta think about this too. Like, why would he use an email address with his name, tell Chris Steel that it's him, when he's also then subsequently admitting to following her around and, like, threatening her and her husband? Like, that's just not a very smart thing to do. And not to say that he's not an idiot, but, like, that would just not be smart.

[Heath]

Yeah, it would be really dumb. You would just be implicating yourself.

[Daphne]

Exactly. So as her family and children mourned her loss, devastated that it had all ended this way after again, Chrysteel did everything she could to stay safe. Investigators scrambled to pin down another suspect. Doing their due diligence, detectives checked the security cameras that were affixed to their house. But strangely, all but one happened to be turned off that day. They compiled video footage from their neighbors cameras as well. But when investigators obtained digital forensic evidence, they came to a shocking conclusion. The messages had come from an IP address consistent with Dan Krug's government office.

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

911, what's your emergency? You need to send the police. He's gonna kill me. He killed all the others. Who killed the others, ma'?

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[Daphne]

He found me.

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[Heath]

According to forensic data procured by the detectives, the messages were sent using the public WI fi network at the office of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in Glendale, Colorado, again, where Dan Krug worked. They also believe that Dan was the one to send the messages from Kristeel's phone on the morning of her murder, likely having scheduled them to send after she was already dead in order to secure his alibi and prove that he was away from home at the time of her murder. When investigators obtained the phone records from both Dan and Christiel, they found that the messages had been put on a timer in order to be delivered at a predetermined time, which was 8:56am after Dan had already left the house. But the forensic data showed that her phone had actually not been used since 8:22am just two minutes before Dan left for the day.

[Daphne]

And remember, he left later than usual that day and was like, 30 minutes late to work.

[Heath]

Yep. So tack that on to the growing suspicion, because also the day before Christeel was killed, Dan made multiple suspicious Google searches about how to knock someone unconscious, including when is a head injury a cause for concern? How hard would you have to hit someone in the head to make them unconscious? And how long can you be unconscious without brain damage? So when confronted with the fact that Anthony could not have been the murderer, Dan was faced with the realization that he was their only suspect. He was processed for physical evidence, all while pleading with police to find his wife's true killer, saying that of course it wasn't him. He even suggested that Christeel must have been having affairs with other men and that one of them was to blame.

[Daphne]

Yeah, cause some random dude is gonna know about the guy she dated in 1999.

[Heath]

I mean, Dan went so far as to complain about their suspicion of him, saying it's always the husband with an eye roll, so he's being very, very cocky about this whole thing. But he remained calm, speaking in whispers and maintaining that he had not been responsible, that he loved Christeel and their children and that he wouldn't have done that to them, urging the police to keep pursuing the actual killer.

[Daphne]

When he was questioned about the forensic data, Dan maintained that the messages couldn't have come from his phone or computer and actually begged them to dig deeper. Frustrated, he alleged that he was being framed and that the stalker had likely been accessing the public WI fi at his office building in order to make him look like the most likely killer. Which to that I will say, then why the Anthony Roos? You know, if somebody's trying to frame you, they'll just make it come from you.

[Heath]

Exactly.

[Daphne]

Why would they? Like, that's an extra step by making it come across like they're Anthony first. Right. But investigators surmised that Dan had obtained multiple burner phones to continue using the number from his Text now app, and that he had even set up a phone on a timer to take that picture of him in the parking lot in order to implicate Anthony.

[Heath]

Which is just really crazy when you think about the lengths that you'd have to go through to like, set up a. Set up a phone and then set a timer on it and then walk by as if somebody is taking a photo of you. Like, he really, really went deep with this whole cover up.

[Daphne]

He went there. So the mounting evidence was just too incriminating. Thus, 44 year old Dan Krug was arrested on December 16, 2023, in a grocery store parking lot just two days after Christie's murder. Now, Dan didn't put up a fight. He submitted immediately, though he demanded to speak with a lawyer.

[Heath]

I think I saw one picture on the Internet where he's kind of like on the ground and he's crying. I don't know if that's.

[Daphne]

Oh, no, that was. That was when she was found. Remember when I said he was like despondent outside?

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

Thank you for saying that. Though we will include a photo of what he looked like outside the house when he was told she was killed.

[Heath]

I wasn't sure when that photo was from, if it was from. Was arrested or. Or whatever, but yeah, we.

[Daphne]

That was him fake crying about her. Her death.

[Heath]

Horrible.

[Daphne]

Well, detectives and the prosecution came to the conclusion that when Christeel arrived home from dropping her kids off at school on the morning of her murder, Dan sprung up behind her, knocking her unconscious by hitting her in the head. When she fell to the floor, he flipped her over and stabbed her in the chest, leaving her there to bleed out. He then got in the car and drove to work, waiting until around noon to call for a welfare check. So when you really think about how big this ruse was, that means he would have been behind the break in. He would have had to have pretended to have stolen the Key in the garage to report that all to set up for the eventual murder of his wife after this whole stalking scheme.

[Heath]

Yeah. So it was premeditated for quite some time. And this fucking dumbass thought that he was gonna get away with it, but left like a huge trail, a huge technological trail behind him that of course investigators are gonna dive into. They're gonna figure it out with so many steps.

[Daphne]

And like we were saying, if he would have set up a phone camera to take a picture of himself and then use that to pretend like he was being stalked, like he really did try, he tried really hard to point the blame at Anthony. Dan's trial began on April 4, 2025. Just this past year, Deputy district attorney Kate Armstrong told the jury, quote, daniel Krug was losing control and his marriage was falling apart. Christeel wanted out, but Daniel Krug was in denial. He decided he was going to play puppet master by impersonating Jack Anthony Holland, stalking and terrorizing his family for months before murdering Christeel 11 days before Christmas. The prosecution explained that Dan had persistent outbursts and anger issues which Christiel had grown tired of, so she was preparing to leave him and hoped to file for full custody of their kids. Christie's mom Linda later corroborated this in an interview saying, quote, she didn't want to have this marriage anymore. Her dad Lars echoed, quote, she had decided that she needed to get a divorce. But not wanting to let that happen, Dan concocted the stocking ruse. And this seemed to be like, partially out of anger at his wife for wanting to leave, but also to try to bring them together in the wake of the stress and the fear she was feeling.

[Heath]

Right. He's like, either way, this is gonna work. Either I'm gonna get rid of her because I'm not getting a divorce, or I'm gonna scare the out of her and she's going to need me and she's gonna stay.

[Daphne]

What a twisted son of a.

[Heath]

She's just a horrible monster.

[Daphne]

So it seems like Crystal probably told Dan about Anthony, like at some point in the two decades that they were together, you know, how they dated and probably I would assume then how he had sent that weird message to her in 2016 before, you know, the message that caused her to block Anthony originally and then Dan used that to his advantage years later, like seven years after that happened, and then sent his own wife all these disturbing and rude ass messages and put her on the Internet and about a birthday sex train. Like, it's just horrific.

[Heath]

Yeah, he's truly just A piece of shit. Well, guess what, guys? This is. This is so crazy. This stalking ruse wasn't the first one Dan had been a part of, because one key witness brought forward by the prosecution was an ex girlfriend of Dan's who testified against him with an eerily similar set of circumstances to the false stalking narrative in Christeel's case. So his ex girlfriend explained that after they had broken up, Dan had created multiple fake profiles online in order to message and harass her. So he was already doing this before.

[Daphne]

And that would have been in the early 2000s. So he was, like, kind of ahead of the game.

[Heath]

Yeah. Though no charges were filed against him back then, this solidified the pattern of behavior that Dan had been exhibiting for decades. Dan's defense attorney, however, maintained that Dan couldn't have been responsible because his DNA wasn't found on his wife's body, nor was her blood found in his car. They also focused on the fact that a small amount of DNA from an unknown person was recovered from Christie's neck. But even with the flimsy contrary evidence offered up by the defense, the jury found Dan Krug guilty of first degree murder, stalking with credible threat and criminal impersonation. He was convicted of his crimes on April 17, 2025, and the following day, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus nine and a half years for the stalking charges. Ever since, Dan has continued to proclaim his innocence and has told anybody who will listen to him that he is still concerned for the safety of his children.

[Daphne]

Give it up.

[Heath]

Yeah, give it up, bro. We already know it's you. He could later be heard pleading with his parents from prison that they needed to help get the kids out of Colorado to keep them away from the real killer. In the same hushed, dramatic tone that he used to urge police to keep searching for his wife's murderer.

[Daphne]

Christeel's cousin Rebecca Ivanoff, who happens to be a former prosecutor who specialized in domestic violence cases, has called on tech giants like Verizon and Google to respond to search warrants more expeditiously, ideally within 48 hours, claiming that if they had, Chrysteel would likely still be alive because they would have found out where the texts were coming from, and Dan could have been charged with stalking before he was able to kill Chrysteel.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, they really kind of dropped the ball on waiting to get that back to investigators.

[Daphne]

Rebecca explained to dateline. I'm looking at a system here that has a fundamental flaw that we can fix easily. Christiel did everything right. The system operated as it's currently designed, and she still got killed. We have a system failure that needs to be addressed. They could have arrested him weeks before she was killed, and she could have safely planned in a way that could have saved her life. Rebecca is now advocating for what she's calling Kristeel's Law, which would require faster action from tech companies to release data to law enforcement, particularly in cases of domestic violence. Kristeel's children, who again were just 14, 11, and 8 at the time of their mom's death and their dad's arrest, were sent to live with family. But they were able to stay local as the kids struggled with the loss of their mother and, of course, their father. Another Colorado family actually stepped up to help ease their transition. Fellow Broomfield parents Lonnie and Skylar Haskell, who work in construction and design and whose kids went to school with the Krug kids, started a fundraiser to design the kids dream bedrooms in their new home. Lonnie explained that their guardian had actually called me back and said that this is the most excited that they've been since all of this. And they've been actually smiling and talking about it and excited about it. So now we just have to make it happen. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Heath]

Yes. Thank you so much for. For listening to this episode. Thankfully, Dan is exactly where he belongs behind prison walls. And I just want to say thank you for sticking with us through 2025, and we appreciate you being here with us in 2026.

[Daphne]

Yes. Big Shout out again to Heather for putting this case on our radar. I just, like, I can't believe the twist that it takes because it really does seem like it's Anthony. Like, all signs point to that, especially because she blocked him back in 2016.

[Heath]

It feels like that. That scene from Scooby Doo where they're like, let's see who's really behind this, and then they pull the mask off. It's Dan Jenkins. Yeah. It's old man Dan Krug, the dumbass. Yeah.

[Daphne]

I mean, it's just such a horrible story. Thank you guys for listening with us. Like Heath said, thank you so much for listening to us all these years, actually. Oh, my God. I just realized December 31st, that just passed is seven years of going West.

[Heath]

I just realized, wow, we're coming up on a decade pretty quick.

[Daphne]

That's crazy. That feels impossible. Thank you guys so much. Please, in 2026, make sure that you are sharing Going West. You're sharing these stories we want to keep doing this for a really long time and can't do it without you. So thank you guys and we'll see you on Tuesday.

[Heath]

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the.

[Daphne]

World, don't be a stranger.

[Heath]

Sa.

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