Kristil and Dan Krug

0:00 In 2023, when Christelle Crude began receiving harassing messages from an apparent stalker, her world was turned upside down. As the messages became more threatening and personal, she went to police for help, but tracking down her stalker proved challenging. On December 14th, Christelle's husband, Dan, contacted police to perform a welfare check at their home when he couldn't reach her. Christille's worst fears had come true, but the person who had been terrorizing her was much closer to home than anyone realized. I'm Rich. And I'm Tina. Welcome to Love, Marry, Kill. Love, Marry, Kill.

0:49 Hey, Rich. Hey, Tina. How are you? I am doing good. How are you? I am great. It is beautiful today. Oh, it really is. The windows are open. You actually have a sweatshirt on because it's a little chilly. It's almost chilly, yeah. This time of year, I always have to say to you, I'm so sorry what I said during the summer when the heat and humidity were high. You are not a big fan of the heat and humidity. No, and I'm not my best self in the summer, for sure. A day like today, though, you can still wear shorts and there's a little bit of a breeze. It's perfect. We hope wherever you are, you are having a beautiful, wonderful day, too. Yesterday was our anniversary. Yes. And we went out for dinner to celebrate. And you chose to renew our marriage for another, you said, seven years at dinner. Is that what you said?

1:33 I signed up for another seven years. So, yeah. I'm kind of surprised. Was it because of the pressure of doing the podcast? You're like, oh, if we don't renew our marriage, then we're going to have to end the podcast. Or we could just do a different podcast. There were a lot of factors in my decision. I took everything into account, including the podcast. And I said, you know what? I think it's going pretty well. I'm going to go for another seven years. Yeah. And I signed up for the scene. And you agreed. So that's great. We went back to the restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner. And I was like, I'm not going to tell anyone. But then I ended up telling the hostess, expecting she would be like, wow, that's fabulous. Welcome back. We're so excited to have you. And the manager was going to come out with some like dessert, you know, on the house.

2:15 I thought it would be like the bear. They would come and do some special thing and, you know. But yeah, not so much. No, they really didn't care. That's okay. Because anniversaries are really just meant for you and your significant other to celebrate. And all of our listeners. I know. A lot of you did say happy anniversary. So thank you so much for those well wishes. I did make you a special snack. Something that I know you'll love. And I've made this before for the podcast. We try not to repeat, but I know this is one of your favorites. We've been doing it for a long time now. It's hard not to repeat. Not really. I mean, there's a lot of snacks in the world. But wait, I'm going to hand it to you. Okay. And you can unwrap it. Okay. This looks like, oh, this is very exciting.

2:56 Yeah. These are, I'm not sure what they're called, but they're like peanut butter cookies. Peanut butter sandwich cookies. Yeah, with filling in between them. And I tried to make the cookies a little smaller, but no, this is a big, this is a bunch. This is my lunch. Yeah. Excellent. We'll be right back. What did you think of the peanut butter sandwich cookie? Oh my gosh, those are, I forgot how amazing those are. They're so, so good. They're so good. I just realized we've had peanut butter the last two episodes. Now we had Carla's peanut butter last episode and now we have these. Yeah, they're so good. They are excellent. The recipe is in our show notes, number one at show notes, if you want to give that recipe a try.

3:38 I have been itching to talk to you about this case since I started it a couple of weeks ago. I have gotten so irrationally mad at Dan Krug. It's ridiculous. I had to get up and walk away because this case just enrages me. Oh, boy. Thanks to Elias and Chelsea for recommending this case. And I do need to give a content warning. Today's episode includes sexually explicit comments and strong language. On December 14, 2023, at 12.02 p.m., Daniel Krug called the Broomfield Police Department's non-emergency line from his office in Glendale, Colorado, about 40 minutes from his home in Broomfield. Here's a brief clip of the call.

4:21 I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. My wife isn't responding well. to phone calls. We've had threats against us. Can I get maybe a wellness check at the house? What's your wife's name? Chris Steele. K-R-I-S-T-I-L. We have both been targeted by a stalker. Threats have been made against my life and threatening to kidnap her, which is why I'm nervous that she's not answering me. Dan and his wife Chris Steele were both 43 and had been married for 16 years. They lived with their three children, two girls and a boy, ages 14, 11, and 8, in a comfortable home in a quiet Broomfield neighborhood.

5:07 On Halloween, about six weeks earlier, Christille had gone to the police to report harassment from an apparent stalker that had started on October 2nd. On Halloween, the stalker had raised the stakes by sending her a photograph of Dan outside his office, along with a disturbing message referencing a clear plastic hose Christille had previously found attached to her tailpipe. Until that day, the messages hadn't been too frightening or obscene, but now it appeared that whoever was sending them was closely following her family. The case was assigned to Detective Andrew Martinez, and on November 7th, Christille returned to the police department for a lengthy interview with him. She came prepared with a detailed timeline and a spreadsheet documenting the harassment she'd been experiencing. She had recorded the dates and times of the contacts, what was said, and where she was when they happened, and any other details that might help police identify the person behind them. When Detective Martinez asked if she had any idea who her stalker might be, Christille answered without hesitation, Anthony Holland. Christille had met Anthony years earlier when they worked together at JCPenney, and the two eventually began dating. Christille ended the relationship, and by all accounts, the breakup was amicable. They went their separate ways, although Anthony occasionally reached out to Christille over the years. Now, more than two decades later, Anthony was sending Christille obscene and increasingly threatening messages. It didn't make sense to her.

6:39 Christille told Detective Martinez that the harassment had left her frightened and constantly on guard. She understood that whoever was doing this wanted to scare her, but knowing that didn't make it any easier to live with. The messages followed her everywhere. Whoever was sending them seemed to know where she was, where Dan worked, and intimate details about their lives. Dan was involved in the investigation as well. From the perspective of the police, Christille and Dan were a married couple trying to figure out who was terrorizing their family. Detective Martinez began investigating Anthony while Christille continued saving the messages and documenting every contact. Now, on December 14th, Christille suddenly wasn't answering her phone, causing her husband to fear the worst.

7:25 It's really terrifying thinking of someone sending you not only harassing messages, but including like photos that show that they're watching you or your husband. It's chilling to think about. Christille Grimsrud was born in November 1980 in Colorado to Lars and Linda. Her unique name was a nod to her father's Norwegian roots. Lars said that she was one of a kind and didn't need a middle name. Lars had emigrated from Norway to Colorado in the 1970s for a job in aerospace engineering. Outside of work, he loved tinkering in his garage, fixing things and working on old cars. Linda worked in IT and was a kind, warm woman devoted to her family.

8:07 Although their marriage only lasted long enough to produce their two children, Christille and her brother Lars Jr., Linda and Lars remained on good terms and successfully co-parented their children over the years. Growing up, Christille was a girl of many interests and passions. She loved dance, both ballet and modern. She was equally drawn to math and science, a STEM girl long before the term existed. She also loved spending time with her father in the garage, helping Lars work on his old cars and learning how to rebuild engines. She was just as comfortable getting her hands dirty with her dad as she was putting on her ballet shoes. She graduated from high school in 1999 as valedictorian of her class. Lars remarried in 1997, adding two step-siblings to the family. Everyone got along well and remained close, living within about 15 minutes of one another. Holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations were often spent together. The gatherings were filled with camaraderie, fun, and laughter. I watched several shows about the family, and Lars and Linda and Christille's siblings are wonderful people, so warm and loving, and they were amazing.

9:16 And even though Linda and Lars had divorced, they still had a really good relationship. Christille met her future husband, Daniel Krug, online while they were both in college. At the time, Christille was busy with her studies, making a long-distance relationship a good fit. She could focus on school and see Dan on breaks. Bristille had received a full scholarship from the Colorado School of Mines, a prestigious engineering and applied science university in Golden. Originally founded in 1874 to support the mining industry during the gold rush, it's now known as one of the nation's top schools for engineering, geology, and other STEM fields. Dan attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

9:58 He was the youngest of five. a former Eagle Scout, and like Christille, highly intelligent and academically driven. Christille later transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemical engineering. After Dan graduated, he moved back to Colorado, and the relationship became more serious. Christille was smitten with him, particularly with his intelligence. Linda, however, wasn't quite as taken with Dan. Something about him made her uneasy from the beginning. Lars called Dan arrogant and said he was a cross between a politician and a salesman. He could be quiet and awkward at family gatherings, but Linda and Lars kept their concerns to themselves. Christille was intelligent and independent, and they trusted her to choose her own partner. Christille and Dan moved into a townhome together in Superior, Colorado, marrying in 2007 after seven years of dating. The wedding was held at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in downtown Denver. Linda said it was the best wedding ever. Christille danced the night away.

11:03 So when they first started dating, you said they had a long-distance relationship. So he was in D.C. and she was in Colorado? Yeah. That's quite a long-distance relationship. Do you know how long that lasted before he transferred out to Colorado? I think it was a few years, but they were both so driven by their studies, I don't think they minded too much. Over the next several years, Christille and Dan had three children, two daughters and a son. The family has worked really hard to keep the children's privacy, so we're not going to talk about their names, and we're going to give as little information as we can about them. They bought their first home in 2013 in Broomfield, a growing suburban community nestled along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains between Denver and Boulder. Located about 17 miles northwest of Denver and 9 miles southeast of Boulder, it offers easy access to both cities while maintaining a quiet, small-town feel.

11:56 Once a rural farming community, Broomfield experienced rapid suburban growth beginning in the 1950s and today has a population of nearly 80,000. Christille worked for Agilent Technologies, where she would spend the next 19 years. She rose through the ranks and eventually became a global project manager. overseeing environmental remediation projects involving the cleanup of contaminated sites. She was very good at her work. Dan worked for the state of Colorado at the Department of Public Health and Environment, where he held a senior program management position. His professional background was in budgeting and finance. He seemed to change jobs frequently, although his co-workers described him as helpful, friendly, solid, and reliable. Together, the Krugs were making a comfortable living. Over the years, Dan was heavily involved in his children's lives. He coached their sports teams and rarely missed an important event or activity.

12:54 Christille's life, too, revolved around their three children. She especially loved being a dance mom, helping with costumes, volunteering backstage, and supporting her daughter's love of dance, a passion that they shared. Both Christille and Dan believed in exposing their children to different activities and hobbies and encouraging them to find interests of their own. From the outside, the Krugs appeared to function well as a team. They managed two demanding careers while raising three busy children, shuttling them to practices, performances, school, and activities. Their lives were full and carefully scheduled. Both parents were involved and engaged. But behind the scenes, things weren't quite as seamless as they appeared. Over time, Christille began confiding in her mother that she felt she was carrying the greater burden of the family responsibilities. Dan was often angry about something and could be difficult to be around.

13:50 When he was in a foul mood, it affected the entire household, and he would sometimes lash out at Chris Steele or the children, causing constant tension in the family. Do you know if Dan's anger was about any specific thing, or was it just about a variety of different things that could set him off? I got the impression that Dan may have been insecure in his relationship and even at work. He was angry about a lot of things, and I think he was controlling with Christille and the children. Christille was a star. She was really successful in her career and his career was more middling. Okay. So I think he was just one of those guys. As he got older, he just became a little angrier with the world.

14:31 Makes sense. And he wanted to control what he could control. But Christille was also very private about their life. So the fact that she started sharing that things aren't going so great in our marriage was. That's significant then. Exactly. Exactly. In 2023, the Krugs began sleeping in separate bedrooms. Initially, they told people it was because of Dan's snoring, but it was obvious that there were underlying tensions in the marriage. By the fall, Christille told Dan that she wanted a divorce, although she hadn't filed any paperwork. It wasn't a total surprise to friends and family. Christille had shared with her sister Jenna that things were rocky in her marriage, and she had confided to her parents that Dan was sometimes rough with the kids. She even had a photo of bruises on one of the children that she had saved.

15:19 Christille planned to fight for full custody. Dan did not want the marriage to end. In late September 2023, there was an odd occurrence at the Krug residence. Dan came home to find the garage door open, which struck him as odd. They were normally meticulous about keeping it closed. As he pulled into the garage, he spotted a shadowy figure running out of the garage and jumping over the fence. Dan called the police to report the incident, although wasn't able to give a very good description of the intruder, saying, it all happened so fast. Nothing was stolen of value, but an extra house key they kept in a toolbox was missing. Days later, Christille found a clear plastic tube hanging from her trunk. The end was singed as if it had been in her exhaust pipe.

16:06 When she first saw the tube... I don't think she thought it was a big deal. But as time passes, she starts putting the pieces together and realizes that someone has malintent. Although the incidents in September were odd, Christille and Dan had brushed them off. But when Christille received the first message on October 2nd, 2023, she began to wonder if the strange incidents might be connected. The message read, Hi Christille, it's Anthony. I hope it's okay I looked you up. I go to Boulder every few weeks and thought we could hook up. You game? Christille hadn't thought much about Jack Anthony Holland in years. It was a lackluster romance that had run its course, their lives headed in different directions.

16:49 While Christille was laser-focused on her education and career, Anthony cared more about partying and had dropped out of school. Christille didn't answer the message, kept it to herself, and then blocked the number. We are going to read the messages as he sent them, and some of them are quite obscene. The next day, he texted again from a different number. Quote, Are you there? You should say yes when I offer pity fuck. Whatev, saw your pics. You got fat. Bet your loser husband won't fuck your fat cunt dumbass. Dumbass, you should kill yourself. Don't waste my time. Christille again didn't respond and blocked the number. The messages slowed for a while, but on Halloween, Christille received the following email message.

17:33 along with a picture of Dan exiting his vehicle at his place of work. Worried that the threats were escalating and that Dan could be in danger, Christille went to the Broomfield Police Department that day and filed a report. The case was assigned to Detective Andrew Martinez, who scheduled a meeting with Christille and Dan for November 7th. On November 3rd, Christille received the following email message, quote, Your license plate expired. Gotta fix that. Husband's good. You and your husband down for Eiffel Tower? Christille's tags had expired at the end of October.

18:17 He wasn't suggesting that they go to the Eiffel Tower. Oh, no. It's a sexual position, and you can Google it, because I am not going to tell you about it. Each day, she received new messages from a slightly altered username. She continued to block them, but her anxiety was growing. On November 4th, Christille received a photo of a shirtless man with the caption, Are you interested? I'll send more once I know this is the right number. She was confused. The message didn't seem to be from Anthony. Soon, more messages and pictures of male genitalia poured in from men seeking sex with her. Eventually, one of the men told her that he had found a personal ad with her phone number. Quote, My birthday is coming up and I want to celebrate big. Party planned for 1125 and 1126.

19:06 Looking for a large number of well-endowed men to run a train on me. Will be in hotel. Might have before or after visits. I'm 40, divorced white female, dirty blonde, curvy, not fat, all races and ages welcome. The ad encouraged men to send pictures of their genitalia to Christille's phone. That's a really awful thing to do to someone. So horrible. It's confusing, too, because he wants to be with Christille, but then he's, you know, doing these weird things to her that are. Well, it's pretty clear that he wants to harass her and make her feel uncomfortable and threatened, so I think this was another way to. Do that, right? But she's not going to want to be with him after all this disgusting behavior.

19:50 On November 9th, she got another message, quote, saw you at the dentist. I like clean teeth for my cock. You got so horny and slutty in my car, so I nutted on yours. See you soon. Attached was a picture of her car at her dentist's office. Christille called the police and asked them to come search her car for biological material. They didn't find anything, but also searched her car for a GPS tracker. I hope that's the end of these messages because that made me really uncomfortable to read. I'm sorry, but I'm so glad you got to read those. There are more messages, but they are not as explicit as some of those were. We'll be back after a break.

20:32 Music When Christille met with Detective Andrew Martinez on November 7th, she acknowledged how strange the situation was. She hadn't seen Anthony in more than 20 years, although he had reached out to her several times, including in 2002, 2005, 2010, and again in 2016. After Christille deleted her Facebook account, she didn't hear from him again. The messages that Anthony was sending her were like, Hi, how are you? But, He did admit that sometimes he had been drinking and he would say things, not sexually explicit, but like. A little inappropriate? Yeah, like, maybe we should hook up or blah, blah, blah, things like... He really did care deeply about Christil. Detective Martinez was impressed by the detailed spreadsheet that Christil presented him with. It made his job easier. He told Christil that she was doing everything right. After their first trip to the police station, Dan reassured his wife. We'll get through this together, whatever it takes. As Detective Martinez investigated, he discovered that the messages were being sent through TextNow accounts and prepaid phones with no useful registration information. The sender continually switched numbers, making it difficult to establish a pattern or trace the messages back to one person. A few provided usable IP information, and those led to busy public locations, including a coffee shop in Denver. whoever was

22:03 behind the messages appeared to be taking deliberate steps to conceal their identity. Martinez sent legal requests to the telecommunications and social media companies seeking more detailed subscriber and account information that might identify the person behind the messages, but those records didn't come back immediately. Some companies took weeks to respond or longer, leaving investigators waiting for information that could potentially reveal who was behind the accounts. At some point during the investigation, I'm not sure when, a warrant was issued for Anthony Holland's arrest. Christille also wanted a protection order against him, but police didn't have a current address for Anthony and they couldn't locate him. Without knowing where he was living, they were unable to arrest him or serve him with a protection order.

22:51 I was going to ask you whether Anthony was living in the same area that they lived in, but it seems very odd that the police couldn't track him down. It is, but I'm not sure how hard they were trying to find him at this point. A flurry of messages were sent on November 13th. He don't deserve you. You know it. He don't satisfy you. That's why you keep all your fuckboys on the side. You don't want the fake married life. I see you flirting with waiters, almost begging for sex, licking your lips and got your tits out. Don't know how many fuckboys you kept, but I'll save you. I know he keeping us apart. You don't belong in that big house. You belong with me. I'll get rid of him so we can be together. So easy. He got a retard midget on security. They let me park and walk right into his workplace. Give me the signal and he won't come home. Ever married bitch I banged wanted to get rid of husbands. I'll do it for us. Help me get rid of him and then we can be together. Just like you want.

23:49 I'm planning a big birthday party for you. Just you, me and 20 friends. In addition to all the other horrible things about these text messages, his grammar is atrocious. And the spelling is really bad too, and it's painful for me to read these to you guys. With all of these threatening messages, officers went to Dan's place of work to check on him and he was fine. On December 5th, Christille received the following email. 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. We got a new place on the east coast with lots of room.

24:45 She said you can move in with us. We like three ways. Trash your husband and come. You know how to get me when he dead. The next day, there was a follow-up email. My other account was watched. New phones, too. Be strong. Come find you. I believe that is the last of Anthony's messages. Oh, good. Christille had two additional cameras installed outside their home, along with motion sensor lights. They already had two cameras, but she wanted every angle covered. Eventually, they had cameras monitoring the front door, the back patio, the side yard, and the garage entrance. They even installed dashboard cameras in their cars. Christille could check the camera feeds from her phone, giving her at least some sense of security. Feeling vulnerable and afraid, Christille confided in her father, Lars. Someone's going to die.

25:35 It's either me or him. Either I'm going to have to kill him, or he's going to kill me. Lars loaned her a handgun for protection. When a friend told her it wasn't powerful enough, she traded it in for a new 9mm SIG Sauer with an optical laser red dot sighting system. She applied for and was granted a concealed carry permit. She enrolled in gun safety class and practiced at shooting ranges. Christille even bought a special purse to carry the firearm in. She began changing the routes she took to work and to her children's schools, but nothing seemed to stop the messages. She worried constantly about her safety and the safety of Dan and the children. Desperate to find Anthony, she hired a private investigator who tracked down several addresses associated with him over the years in Idaho and Utah. They also learned that he drove a silver Camry, which put Christille on high alert whenever she saw one. They were everywhere. The constant vigilance began disrupting every part of her life. Christille wasn't sleeping well and the stress was affecting her work and her usual gym routine. The children could sense something was wrong. Christille and Dan told them as little as possible, but warned them to be alert, and Christille even practiced safety drills with them. One of the email addresses being used was a.holland.kicks at gmail.com, inspiring one of the children to nickname the stalker Kickman. The name stuck. The children reassured their mother

27:06 that she was strong enough to kick his butt. But Christy was genuinely frightened. Despite every precaution she took, she felt like she was being hunted. As Christmas approached, Christy wasn't feeling much of the holiday spirit. She had half-heartedly put up a few decorations, but hadn't done any Christmas shopping. The additional cameras and security measures were supposed to give her peace of mind, but instead she found herself checking the feeds on her phone at all hours. She even decided not to attend her daughter's Nutcracker performance out of fear that the stalker might show up. Watching her daughter dance was one of Christille's favorite events of the year, and missing it was heartbreaking for both of them. Throughout all of this, Dan appeared to be a supportive husband.

27:50 He accompanied Christille when she met with the police and participated in conversations about how to keep her and the children safe. At a family birthday party, Dan asked his brother-in-law to help him stand guard outside and look for strange vehicles. he talked about the stalker non-stop. Christille's friends at work noticed a change in her, but she hadn't told them about the stalking. The Krugs tended to keep their private lives private, and Christille was even hesitant to tell her mother everything she was going through, but Linda knew her daughter was struggling. On December 5th, 2023, when Detective Andrew Martinez arrived at work, there was an interesting email message in his inbox from John Doe. It read, I got your number from Christille Krug. but she doesn't know.

28:32 Christelle Krug lies. There's no stalker because she and me did all of it. You can't find Anthony because he's not there. She planned everything to get rid of her husband. We've been dating for over a year. She gave sex and promised life insurance money to frame Anthony and kill Dan. I didn't do it and she got pissed. She said her other boyfriend will step up. Now I'm a target. I'm skipping town. She always carries secret guns and will kill him before January. said she will kill police to get him. He's dead if you don't stop her. Good luck. Wow, so this is becoming really convoluted here. Yeah. Now we allegedly have another person that was having an affair with her.

29:14 And Chris still has boyfriends all over the place. That's what it sounds like. Wow, that's crazy. On December 14th, 2023, Officer John O'Hare drove to the Krug's home in Broomfield to perform the welfare check. When he arrived at their residence at 1224 p.m., the house was quiet, Except for the barking dog in their kennel, all the doors and windows were closed and the blinds drawn. A neighbor was at the front door knocking when... Officer O'Hare walked up. She said that Dan had called her to check on Christille too. She laughed and let the officer handle things. He then rang the doorbell and knocked loudly but no one answered. He walked around the house but couldn't see in any of the windows. Unable to reach the windows on the garage door, O'Hare pulled his SUV closer, stepping on the front bumper to peer inside. Near the door to the house, he could see the shape of a woman lying on the cement with blood pooling around her body.

30:10 The amount of blood made it unlikely that the woman was still alive. O'Hare ran to the front door, kicked it in, and then traveled through the house into the garage. As he approached Christille's body, he saw the wound to the back of her head. He muttered, holy shit, audible to his body camera. Her skull was violently crushed. He wasn't sure if she had fallen or had been attacked. The border of the pool of blood surrounding Christille had begun to dry and darken. When Officer O'Hare bent down to feel for a pulse, Christille's skin was still warm to the touch, giving him hope that he could save her. When Officer O'Hare began the required chest compressions until the paramedics arrived, He didn't notice a gaping stab wound near her heart, masked by her heavy coat. After Dan had called the police, he called her mother, Linda. She drove over to the house and arrived just as Officer O'Hare was opening the garage door for first responders. Linda witnessed her daughter splayed out on the cement floor in a pool of her own blood. O'Hare told her sternly to stay out of the garage. Another officer arrived on the scene and swooped in to lead her away. Other friends had gathered at the scene to comfort Linda. Linda could be heard on his body camera saying, This can't be real.

31:28 Please tell me she's okay. This is a heartbreaking scene. If you watch any of the TV shows on it, Linda was instantly just emotion washed over her. I can imagine. She was hoping that Christille was alive. It was really heartbreaking to see. Yeah, that's just horrific as a parent to come and find your daughter like that. Sadly, Christille wasn't okay. She was rushed to the hospital where she was declared dead at 12.43 p.m. Moments later, Daniel Krug pulled up and instantly saw the yellow police tape surrounding his home. First responders' vehicles lined the street, forcing him to park several houses away. He ran from his car, shouting, Detective Martinez informed Dan that Christille was dead. He let out a primal scream, tears running down his face, his body wracked by sobs, retching. He fell to the ground into the fetal position. Heather Eights, a victim advocate for the Broomfield Police Department, was there to comfort Dan and Christille's other family members. He required assistance to get into a police vehicle to be driven to the station. On the way, he asked about his children. Officers told him not to worry, they would take care of them. As the CSIs descended on the scene, the investigation quickly unfolded. They discovered the doorbell camera was covered with blue painter's tape, and the other cameras were offline. Neighboring cameras captured no one approaching the house and no unfamiliar vehicles on the street. There

32:58 were no signs of forced entry or robbery, and the weapons used to attack Christille were gone. When police canvassed the Krug's neighborhood, no one reported seeing anything suspicious or any unfamiliar vehicles in the area. Neighbors described the Krugs as a nice, quiet family and Dan as a hands-on father who was often outside playing with the children. So the police did go through all their surveillance camera footage from the neighbors and identified every vehicle. They were like, everyone is accounted for. Everyone was accounted for, yeah. On December 14, 2023, around noon, in American Fork, Utah, Anthony Holland, 41, Chris Steele's alleged stalker, walked into a Kohl's store decorated for Christmas, with holiday music playing over the loudspeakers. Anthony later said he wasn't sure what compelled him to go shopping that day. He worked as a server at Texas Roadhouse in Sandy, Utah.

33:54 He had gotten off late the previous night and had slept in. He lived with elderly family friends in Eagle Mountain. Anthony walked the perimeter of the store before stopping in the men's department. He settled on a green sweatshirt, his only purchase that day. At self-checkout, Anthony paid cash, printed the receipt, and tucked it into the bag with his sweatshirt. Later, he would be very glad he had this proof of his location when the police were at his door. Mr. Holland, do you know a woman named Christelle Krug? You may have known her as Christelle Grimsrud? Sure, I knew her in high school. We dated for the better part of a year, but I haven't talked to her in over 20 years. Have you had any contact with her through social media?

34:35 I don't have any social media accounts. While someone has been harassing Ms. Krug using your name, Anthony was shocked. Mr. Holland, can you confirm your whereabouts today? Well, I worked late last night, so I slept in, and then I went shopping at Kohl's. I think I still have my receipt. Once he handed over the receipt, officers knew that it would have been impossible for him to have been in Broomfield, Colorado that morning. Who was trying to frame this innocent man, and why? Is Christiel okay? Is she in danger? Police were able to verify that Anthony Holland had indeed worked the night before, and surveillance footage from Coles also confirmed that he had been there. His cell phone had not left the state, and he had not taken a flight.

35:17 There was no way he had murdered Christiel. He was saddened when officers told him of her death. He had always thought of her as the one who got away, the love of his life. When Christille reported the harassment, they couldn't find Anthony. But now suddenly they found him. They found him within hours. Isn't that frustrating? Yeah, that's really wild. So they must not have tried very hard. And all of a sudden with her murder, they actually said no. She had also hired a private detective. And the private detective gave her... several addresses, but they weren't sure which one was the correct one. But his living situation sounds like he may have changed frequently. Yeah. And he was living with his elderly couple. Right. So.

35:59 You can understand that it might be a little difficult, but the fact that they found him so quickly after his death. That same morning, 500 miles away in Broomfield, Colorado, before the sun had even risen, Christille made sure the children were up for school. She made their lunches while Dan readied their backpacks. They had one hour to get ready for school and eat breakfast. Like most mornings, it was a mad dash to get everyone out the door and where they needed to be. Dan drove their oldest daughter to the bus stop at 6.45, returning a few minutes later complaining of stomach distress, which prolonged his usual departure time. At 7.42, Christille drove the two younger children to school and returned at 7.58. Later, it would be discovered that at 8.15, three of the four cameras at the Krug's residence went dark. Dan left for work at 8.24, 30 minutes later than normal. Despite running late, he stopped at a local cafe to get coffee. When they prepared an iced latte rather than his usual hot beverage, he demanded they remake it and waited. It was a 45-minute drive to his office in Glendale. At 8.56 a.m., Christille sent a text to Dan. Can you get eldest daughter after school? I need to meet with Martinez.

37:16 Later, Martinez would dispute that they had a meeting because it was his day off. Dan texted back at 9.17. Sure thing. FYI, I forgot my chicken on the counter. Please put it in the fridge. By 9.30, he was seated at his desk. Christille hadn't responded to his last text message. At 10.03, he texted, Did you tell eldest daughter you were picking her up early? Just need to know what time so I leave work. He didn't receive a response. At 10.33, he texted Detective Martinez. Hi, Martinez. Christille didn't say what time you were meeting, and I think her phone is off. Please have her text me the time to pick up eldest daughter. I'm headed into meetings.

37:57 Okay, remember, we're calling her eldest daughter because we're trying not to use her name. But also, isn't it really weird that he's texting the detective? It is. Yeah, it is very strange. At 11.47, he again texted Christille. I'll plan on 30 minutes early if I don't hear otherwise. Text me back. Just before noon, he again texted the detective with a screenshot of the unread messages to Christille. Quote, this feels weird. At 12.02, he called the non-emergency number to the Broomfield Police Department with the call that we heard at the top of the show. He also called Christille's mother, Linda, and a neighbor to check on her. I think I have forgotten to mention that Christille works from home and she's busy. You know, she has meetings all day. So he hasn't heard from her in just a couple of hours. So he contacts the detective. He calls the police department and then he reaches out to Christille's mother and a neighbor, you know, all saying something doesn't feel right here.

38:57 It seems like a lot. We'll be back after a break. Music With Anthony's movements accounted for, investigators began taking a much closer look at Dan. After seizing his car, they discovered that he'd turned off his dash camera shortly before stopping for coffee that morning. Then, the digital evidence began pouring in. Within hours of Christiel's murder, a digital forensic examiner began digging into the electronic trail left by her stalker. Investigators discovered that some of the messages had originated from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Dan's workplace. They also learned that burner phones connected to the stalking had been purchased using a Visa gift card registered to Dan. and location showed one of those phones traveling with Dan's personal phone on multiple occasions.

39:56 Investigators also found disturbing searches about head injuries, 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. There was another problem with Dan's timeline. At 8.56 that morning, he had received a text message from Christille. But forensic evidence showed that her phone had last been actively used at 8.22 a.m. Investigators eventually discovered how a message could have come from Christille's phone more than half an hour after someone had stopped using it. It's really frustrating that police now are going through all this digital evidence from the stalking and finding these things.

40:37 Yeah, all of a sudden this investigation is just falling into place within hours of her death. What really happened? Investigators now believed that after Christille returned from dropping the younger children at school, Dan attacked her inside their garage. Christille was struck repeatedly in the head with a blunt object and then stabbed in the heart. The attack appears to have taken her completely by surprise. There were no defensive wounds and little evidence that she had been able to fight back. This was particularly remarkable because by then, Christille had become so frightened of her stalker that she had taken to carrying a gun in a holster. It never left the holster and she was a fighter. She would have fought back if she had the opportunity. Investigators believe Dan then used Christille's phone before leaving the house, setting up messages that would be delivered later and to create the appearance that Christille was still alive after he had gone to work. Dan left the house at 8.24 a.m.

41:36 and began what on the surface looked like an ordinary morning, coffee, work, text to his wife, and eventually growing concerned when she didn't respond. As Dan's interview began at the Broomfield police station, he was out of sorts, still overwrought with emotion, and unable to answer questions with more than a few stuttered words. His speech was at times unintelligible. When asked what he did at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, he handed over his badge and said, money. When asked about the state of his marriage, he said, not good. He admitted that they discussed divorce, but that he didn't want to end their marriage. The detectives informed Dan that his three children were at the police station. His in-laws were also there. The officers wanted to know how Dan wanted to inform the children of their mother's passing. They offered to have their trained expert tell them, but Dan insisted he wanted to be the one to tell them.

42:31 Before they left the police station with their grandparents, Dan told his children that their mother had been hurt and died that day and that she would not be coming home. The children were confused and devastated by the news. Linda and Lars took them to their uncle's house where the family had gathered. Remind me how old the children were? 14, 11, and 8. I heard the audio of Dan telling his children. It's heartbreaking. I think the police at this point obviously are suspecting him and didn't want him out of their sights for too long, but it's heartbreaking to hear that. When Detective Martinez walked into the room, the detective most familiar with Chris Steele's stalker, Dan began to weep again and repeated, I was supposed to protect her.

43:13 The detective laid a sympathetic hand on Dan's shoulder and apologized for not answering his earlier text. By then, Dan's tears had dried. He took off his glasses and refused to make eye contact, a crumpled tissue in his hand. Eve remained stoic, answering questions in a quiet, almost whispered voice. As the questions intensified, Dan's body language became closed off as he shifted uncomfortably on the couch. The detectives asked if he was aware that his home's cameras had been disabled at 8.15 that morning, although the garage camera captured Dan leaving his home at 8.24 a.m. Dan said that wasn't possible. They never turned off the cameras. Maybe they'd lost internet connection briefly, he pondered. Detective Martinez asked.

43:57 Who do you think killed her? I think it's Anthony. What if I told you that we had already spoken with Anthony and there's no way he was in town today? And I have nothing and I'm fucking terrified to bring my children home. What are you terrified of? If it wasn't him, who was it? I ask you that. If you were watching these facts unfold in front of you in a movie, what would you say happened? There has to be someone else. I loved her. There has to be someone else. But I don't know who that is. Help me make sense of it. I don't know. I'm not the one who does this. I don't have a narrative or story that I can offer you. I get the narrative you're putting together, but it alleges that I would do this to my children.

44:40 I love and adore my children. Despite the evidence he was presented with, Dan was adamant that it was Anthony Holland, Kickman, who committed Chris Teal's murder, even after he was confronted with evidence that it was impossible that he'd been in Broomfield that day. The tension in the room intensified further when Detective Jennifer King Sullivan said, There's. No physical way that Kickman could have been involved in this based on where he's at right now, so the mystery continues and. Dan rolled his eyes and interrupted, It has to be the husband. I get the narrative that you're trying to put out there, but it alleges that I would do this to my children. Provide us a different explanation then. There has to be someone else. I'm tired. I want to go home. I don't want to be here. I want to hug my children. You have your theory. It is wrong. Please find the right one. I have to say here, I listened to about two hours of this interview and his voice, I know I'm doing a horrible job.

45:41 He was like doing this weird whisper talk and talking emphatically at different times. Sounds kind of like Batman to me. I know that's going to sound odd. Um, I did link, I think it's from YouTube, what I watched, so if you are interested, I would encourage you to go watch it, but it's just baffling to me. When Detective Martinez told Dan that some of the messages Christille received had been traced to the IP address at his workplace, Dan seemed momentarily flummoxed, but quickly recovered. He pointed out that anyone could sit outside the building and access the company's public Wi-Fi. After all, the stalker had taken a photo of him at work. The detective read Dan his Miranda rights. As the interview neared its end, investigators pressed Dan one last time and his approach noticeably shifted.

46:30 He began portraying himself as the wronged husband, telling detectives that Christille had been keeping secrets from him and sometimes disappeared for hours without explanation. He didn't directly accuse her of having an affair, but Dan seemed to be planting the possibility that there might have been another man or men in Christille's life. Before he left, Dan relinquished his phones and laptop and was subjected to a full body search, fingerprinting, and DNA retrieval. He also surrendered his clothing and shoes before offering these parting words. I want you to find out who did this. Just don't stop looking elsewhere. I just want the fucker to pay. He took my children's mother before Christmas. They're never going to get over that.

47:16 I don't care if you capture them. I don't care if you kill him. Find him. Don't just assume it's me. Keep looking. Although there wasn't enough evidence to arrest Dan and he was free to leave, he would be tailed by police in the coming days. They would have constant eyes on him. Police also interviewed Christille's family and close friends. Linda told investigators that Christille and Dan's marriage had been over for a year. Christille had once planned to stick things out until the youngest child graduated from high school, but that had become untenable for her. She loathed Dan, and he refused to leave. Christille opened a new bank account and had begun the process of separating their finances, but Dan wanted control of the children's college accounts. Linda said she had a gut feeling that Dan had been the one orchestrating Christille's torment. Christille, in fact, had confronted Dan about potentially being her stalker. He adamantly denied having anything to do with it, but she couldn't shake the thought.

48:17 After he left the police department, Dan went to Christille's brother's house where the family had gathered with his children. He said to Christille's stepsister, Jenna Erickson, who is an attorney, I'm going to need help finding an attorney. It's always the husband. She was gobsmacked that that's what he was thinking of less than 12 hours after his wife's tragic death. Linda was equally shocked the next morning when Dan started talking about how he was planning to get rid of all of Christille's belongings. Within hours of Christille's murder, Broomfield Police Digital Forensic Examiner Randy Filak was on the case digging into the digital evidence to build a case. Now that the stalking case had become a homicide investigation, police submitted emergency requests for phone, email, and internet search records for Christille and Dan. Information that would have taken weeks to secure now flooded in quickly, and for Dan, well, it didn't look good. Investigators discovered that the security cameras at the front door, back door, and side of the house had been manually turned off the morning Christiel was killed. Evidence later showed that Dan had used Christiel's phone to disable the security system at 8.15 a.m.

49:26 One camera near the garage remained on, likely to show Dan leaving for work, while the doorbell camera had been covered with blue painter's tape. They also took another look at the photograph the stalker had sent Christille showing Dan arriving at work on Halloween. Digital evidence revealed that the picture had been taken in selfie mode using a timer. Prosecutors said Dan had propped his burner phone on the back of his vehicle, staged the photograph himself, and then sent it to Christille while posing as her stalker. Randy Filak also found another damning connection between Dan and the burner phone. When Christille didn't immediately respond to one of the stalker's messages, the burner phone sent the word, test, to Dan's work phone. Dan's phone replied, yeah, suggesting Dan was checking to make sure the burner phone was working properly.

50:18 But perhaps the most damning evidence came from Christille's own phone. On the morning of her murder, Dan received a text from Christille at 8.56am, more than half an hour after surveillance footage showed him leaving the house. The message asked him to pick up one of their children because she supposedly needed to meet with Detective Martinez. To Dan, it appeared to provide a perfect alibi. Chris Steele must have still been alive after he left for work. Except Chris Steele hadn't sent it. Investigators discovered that the message had been written earlier and scheduled to be sent automatically. Other messages had also been scheduled from Chris Steele's phone, including one to her father, Lars, brother, Lars Jr., and to Detective Martinez. The messages created an entirely new story, supposedly in Chris Steele's own words, quote, I can't keep up the lies. I had an affair for 18 months. We framed Anthony. Dan was supposed to kill himself in depression, not grow a spine. I just confessed to Martinez. My now ex-boyfriend and I are going there now. Push Dan to not press charges. Prosecutors later argued that Dan had programmed the messages before leaving the house, attempting to make it appear that Christille was still alive after Dan left for work. There was no evidence whatsoever that Christille had ever had an affair. This last series of messages seems really odd to me. Obviously, Dan sent them, you know, trying to make it look like Christille sent them. But

51:48 why would Christille all of a sudden send all these messages saying, I had an affair, like, to... Detective Martinez and her family. It doesn't make any sense. I mean, Dan's just desperate at this point, right? He's just trying to put more messages out there and hope that they point attention away from him. It doesn't make any sense because there's not another man. They would know pretty quickly that there wasn't another man. Maybe Dan is trying to, there's another suspect out there. Yeah, he's trying to muddy the waters, I guess. But one of the things that stands out in the message was when he talked about Dan suddenly growing a spine. Where is the evidence that Dan ever had a spine? I'm not seeing it. Yeah, good point. Christille's autopsy was performed the morning after her death. It showed that she had been hit over the head with a blunt force object several times, then fell face forward onto the garage steps, injuring her forehead.

52:40 Then she was hit again in the back of the head. There were no defensive wounds. The blows to the back of her head likely killed her, but her killer turned her over, and stabbed her in the heart to ensure her death. One thing the medical examiner was certain of was that the attack was abrupt and Christille died quickly from her injuries. She had had no time to react. Her car door was open, her purse with her gun inside had fallen to the ground near her. On December 16, 2023, around 6 p.m., Dan was on his way to King Soopers when eight police cars followed him and pulled him over. While Detective Martinez was cuffing Dan, he sneered, Do you want me to tell your kids that you killed their mother or do you want somebody else to? Dan responded solemnly, I want to talk to my attorney. He was arrested for first-degree murder, two counts of stalking, and criminal impersonation.

53:34 He was stopping to buy flowers for his daughter, who was performing in the Nutcracker that evening. In April 2025, Daniel Krug's trial began. Dan, now entirely gray, remained stoic throughout the two-week trial. The prosecution's case was largely built around the mountain of digital evidence investigators had uncovered. They argued that Dan had begun planning the stalking and harassment months before Christille's murder, purchasing burner phones and creating fake email and messaging accounts to convince Christille that Anthony Holland was stalking her. By December, prosecutors argued, Dan's plan was falling apart. Rather than driving Christille back to him, the stalking had pushed her further away, and she had begun to suspect that Dan himself might somehow be involved. He was running out of time. If Christille discovered the truth and went to the police, the entire scheme would unravel.

54:30 Anthony Holland took the stand at the trial. He later told 2020 that he tried to stare Dan down in the courtroom, furious that Dan had stolen his identity and and attempted to frame him for stalking and ultimately Chris Steele's murder. Dan refused to meet his gaze. Another surprising prosecution witness was Dan's former girlfriend Carrie, whom he had dated for a couple of years in high school and college. After Carrie ended their relationship, she began receiving messages through AOL Instant Messenger from strangers urging her to give Dan another shot. Dan had created these identities. When she refused to get back together with Dan, the messages became increasingly abusive and threatening, at one point calling her a whore.

55:15 Police eventually traced the messages back to Dan's IP address. Carrie obtained a temporary restraining order against him and the messages stopped. She initially pursued a permanent protection order, but dropped the matter after Dan hired an attorney. The experience had been traumatic, but Carrie had moved on with her life and hadn't thought about Dan in years. But Christille's death had shaken her badly. When Carrie found out about Dan's arrest, she came forward. No one found her. She came forward. So it was quite heroic that she testified. Yeah, good for her. And I can imagine how traumatic that must have been. The defense focused heavily on the lack of physical evidence connecting Dan to Christille's murder. Dan and Christille's oldest daughter was called as a defense witness.

56:01 she testified that the clothing police examined was the same clothing she had seen her father wearing when he drove her to the bus stop that morning. The defense pointed out that no blood or DNA from Christille was found on Dan's clothing or in his vehicle. The defense chastised investigators for not testing Christille's phone for fingerprints, even though prosecutors claimed that Dan had used it after killing her. They focused on unknown DNA found on Christille's neck, and the blue tape covering the ring camera also contained DNA that did not belong to Dan. Neither murder weapon, the object used to bludgeon Christille nor the knife used to stab her, was ever recovered. Prosecutors countered that there was a roughly five-minute period in Dan's morning that they could not account for, giving him an opportunity to dispose of the weapons and any other incriminating evidence before continuing on to work. Dan did not testify at the trial. We'll be back after a break.

57:09 After deliberating for about a day and a half, the jury found Dan guilty on all counts. First-degree murder, two counts of stalking, and a criminal impersonation. He displayed little emotion as the verdict was read. Later, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At sentencing, Christille's family and friends spent nearly an hour and a half describing the woman they had lost and the devastation her murder had left behind. Christille's sister-in-law read statements from Christille and Dan's children about the loss of their mother. Judge Priscilla Lowe sentenced Dan to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus another nine and a half years for the stalking and criminal impersonation charges. Dan's parents were not at the sentencing. One of Dan's brothers said they couldn't bear to be there. After his conviction, Dan continued to maintain his innocence. In a jailhouse call with his parents, he complained about having to listen to people he had once considered family speak against him at the sentencing hearing. He said he didn't know how he was supposed to show remorse for something he insisted he hadn't done.

58:14 Dan told his family he was deeply depressed, sleeping as much as 16 hours a day. Quote, I sleep, I read, and I cry. That's about it. He insisted that Christille's real killer was still out there, warning his family that his children could be in danger and needed to be taken out of Colorado. His mother said in a stern voice, Dan's older brother, Jeremy, a police officer, warned Dan that support within the family was beginning to erode. Quote, I want to believe you very much. There's a lot that's come out and as imaginative as I can be with finding explanations and ways to theorize how, you know, this or that could have really been the reality, some of it is beyond my creativity. In March 2026, or Governor Tina Kotek signed Christille's Law, named in her honor. Although Christille lived and was murdered in Colorado, the push for the law began with her cousin, Becky Ivanoff, an attorney in Eugene, Oregon, and former Lane County Deputy District Attorney who had worked with domestic violence survivors. After Christille's murder, Becky worked tirelessly advocating for changes in both Oregon and Colorado, hoping other states would eventually follow. The law addresses one of the most frustrating aspects of Christille's case, the delay in obtaining digital evidence that could have identified Daniel Krug

59:47 as the person behind Christille's harassment before her murder. Previously, Colorado and Oregon had no legal deadline requiring communications companies to to respond to search warrants, and responses could take weeks or even months. Under Christil's law, social media companies must respond to qualifying search warrants within 72 hours, while other communications providers have up to five business days. The requirements apply to warrants involving investigations of stalking and domestic violence, including certain violations of stalking protective orders. Companies that fail to comply can be held in contempt. The new warrant requirements became law on May 1, 2026. Becky and the lawmakers behind Christille's Law hope it will provide a model for similar legislation nationwide, turning what investigators learned from Christille's murder into protection for other victims of stalking and domestic violence.

1:00:43 The reason Dan was arrested so quickly was because, once a major crime like murder has occurred, communications companies are required to comply quickly and If the law would have been in effect before her murder, Dan likely would have been caught much sooner, and it's devastating to think that Christy could still be here with her children and family. But I think she'd be happy that this law, with her name, will hopefully save other women. I think this law is such a great place to start. The phone companies got this information to the Broomfield police within an hour of her death, and it's just so shocking and upsetting. Yeah, it's just really... sad and frustrating that they weren't able to get that information, you know, months earlier.

1:01:25 Beyond her professional accomplishments, Christille was known for her kindness, generosity, and infectious laugh. She was brilliant in the sciences and built a successful career, but she was equally passionate about the arts, especially modern dance. She loved being a mother and was so proud of her three children. She poured her time and energy into helping them find their passions in life. Linda and Lars say the children are doing well and the family is doing everything they can to give them the life that Christille would have wanted for them. They live with Lars Jr. and his wife, but the entire family is there to support them. Linda says she finds moments of peace when she looks at her grandchildren because she sees Christille in them. Christille's family continues to gather each year on her birthday, celebrating her with her favorite German chocolate cake. On December 14th, they come together again to honor her, lighting a candle and raising a glass of red wine. And Lars is passing along something else Christy loved. In the same garage where they spent countless hours working on old cars together, her children are now learning to do the same. Lars says they can already pick up the same electric screwdriver Christy used and tear apart a carburetor. He believes Christy would get a kick out of seeing her children carrying on something that meant so much to her. Rest in peace, Christille. There is a lot to unpack here.

1:02:43 Yeah. I think that you were biting your tongue. There's things that you wanted to say, but you were waiting to the end. Well, it's just a really wild case. The whole, you know, stalking thing, there was a lot of thought and planning and effort that went into that from Dan. So it's really just, you know, over the top, the amount of premeditation involved here. What would Dan have done if Chris Steele had answered the first message from Anthony Holland? And she would have been like, yeah, let's wake up. Oh, God, I can't even imagine. That would have set him off. It would have changed everything, right? It would. Well, but not necessarily for the better. I mean, he might have gone crazy and killed her right then if she had done that. But yeah, it's hard to imagine.

1:03:27 Well, at first I thought that Dan might be sending the message to Christille to win her back, to ingratiate himself to her rather than murder her. What do you think about that? Do you think his intent was to try to win her back? I mean, maybe that was his initial intent, but if it was, it wasn't very well thought through. I mean, how are you going to win somebody back by harassing them from allegedly another person? I suppose maybe His thought was that that would drive her to him like for protection or for security. But it just, it didn't seem like a very, you know, well thought out plan. Christille, and I hope I portrayed her as such, was a badass woman. And Dan is just kind of a, I don't really, a putz for lack of a better term.

1:04:12 One point, the detective in the case, Detective Martinez said that he thought that Christille was a lot tougher than Dan. Like, She didn't need his protection because, you know, she knew how to protect herself. And look at all the things that she did. You know, she was like, we're going to install these security cameras. I'm going to get a gun. And she took all these measures and she meticulously kept the records. And, you know, Dan was supporting her a little bit. But, you know, she was really figuring things out on her own. There are so many things about this case and Dan that really made me angry. But how do you put your children through what he put them through? Not just taking away their mother, but making them be scared. Yeah.

1:04:52 Knowing that there's this person out there that might be watching them. Yeah, for months ahead of time, these children were terrified, right? Because they think someone is watching their parents every move, following them around, threatening them. He killed her in the only home that they've ever known. Mm-hmm. He couldn't let them have one last Christmas together. Mm-hmm. Forever, they will associate the month of December with her mom's murder. Yeah, just awful. And calling Linda, Christille's mom, to go check on her. She might have been the one to find her, and she didn't find her, but she saw her. But she did end up seeing her, yeah. Yeah, the policeman got there first. Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that. She'll have those images for the rest of her life. Yeah, it's cruel.

1:05:33 It's so cruel. What do you think about the police and their investigation into the stalking incident? I mean, it's pretty disappointing. Yeah. I would say. I don't know how much of it was because they didn't put in the effort versus, you know, not having that law in place that you talked about. Maybe they didn't get the information they needed, but it just seems like a bit of a lackluster effort to try to find out what was really going on. At least one of the telecommunications companies responded and said police do have the ability to put, you know, like a rush on those people. Yeah. And I don't think they did it in this case. Yeah, it seems like they didn't treat it as urgently as they should have. I can understand that, you know, the police are obviously busy. There's a lot going on and maybe some things seem less serious than others. But the nature of the messages and the fact that there were photos, it seemed like this was a very serious case of stalking, something that could be a definite threat to their safety. So I don't know why they wouldn't have taken it more seriously.

1:06:35 Do you think they have some culpability? A little bit, yeah. I mean, if they had taken it more seriously, then it's very possible that she would still be alive today. I do have empathy for them, especially Detective Martinez, because he did say, like, I think about her every day. I'm sure it weighs on him and the other investigators heavily. Do you think Dan loved Christille? I don't know if he did at one point, but he certainly did not love her at the end. That's not how you treat someone you love. Right. Either obviously killing her, but... Even the stalking thing. In the head and then stabbing her in the heart. Yeah. That seems really unnecessary. Yeah, I don't know how someone could do something like that.

1:07:18 But I was going to say, even if he started the stalking thing without the intent of killing her eventually, if he started that to try to get her back to him, that's just not something, if you truly loved someone, that's not what you would do. One thing that I hate is that Dan thought he was so smart because he did fool the police, partly because they didn't have all the information they needed. But I hate that he thought he was winning. Yeah, it gave him probably a lot of confidence that he had gotten away with this stalking thing for so long that he probably felt much more confident in his ability to get away with murder. Watching his police interview was devastating. just repugnant to me. His emotions were so over the top. And he was just play acting, like I said. He was pointing to his badge going, money, money. It was just so gross.

1:08:05 Yeah. Well, it sounds like, again, he was very confident in his ability to fool the police. So he probably thought he was putting on an Oscar-worthy performance with all this stuff. Well, and initially, they did buy his performance, too. So I don't know. One thing that surprises me was that they issued an arrest warrant for Anthony Holland. They couldn't follow through with it because they didn't know where he was. But did they have enough evidence against poor Anthony Holland? Sure doesn't seem like it. No, just because someone had used his name and there was text messages. An arrest warrant doesn't. Mean that you're going to jail necessarily, right? I guess they just wanted to bring him in and have him answer questions. He probably would have been cleared quickly.

1:08:50 Yeah, I would think so too. But still, justice for Anthony. Well, and if they had, you know, if they had located Anthony and arrested him, then again, all of this... might have taken care of itself because they would have gone deeper in the investigation and hopefully they would have discovered that these messages were really coming from David. I don't know how they found him so quickly after Christia was murdered. That is really baffling too. This case reminds me a little bit of a recent Netflix true crime documentary we watched. I think it was called a toxic love story. And it was also about like somebody that made it seem like they were being stalked and harassed, but it was really coming from, you know, a different person than you thought it was.

1:09:30 That case was so twisty turny. It was really crazy, but it just makes me think like if you're the police and like kind of these over the top type of stalking allegations come in, I'm sure they, I'm sure they didn't just take it. for granted that it really was Anthony, but you have to keep an open mind. I think they thought it was Anthony. It sounds like they did, and maybe they should have been a little more open-minded that it could have been something else. But it just seems like, just based on that documentary as well, that you have to really look at these situations and say, not necessarily the obvious person here that's doing it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There's so many things about this case that are maddening to me, but I hated, I mean, I hate Dan, but the way the messages that he was sending, they were also just so gross and obscene and like the spelling errors and the poor English, like painting Anthony is just like this buffoon.

1:10:29 Well, yeah. And painting him as a really disgusting, awful person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's really not necessary. But again, I think Dan thought he was brilliant and thought like, oh, by doing this, I'm going to really make it seem realistic and believable. Won the train advertisement for Christille's birthday. Oh, God, yeah. It's just so gross. And having men send her pictures. Yeah, I mean, that's... Just gross. Really gross. Horrible man. So you don't think that he intended to kill Christille initially, but he just was in too deep, and that's why. You know, I didn't think so. I thought probably his intent was to try to get her to come back to him for security and protection and things like that.

1:11:13 But then at the same time, maybe he was laying the groundwork to kill her eventually, right? Maybe he was putting this out there as evidence that the police could look at later and say, oh, it must have been this stalker, D'Anthony, that did this. I don't know. I would suspect he didn't intend to kill her from the beginning and that eventually... He realized it wasn't working. But then he was losing control over his marriage and his situation. So that might have been enough to take him over the top. That's what I was going to say. It's guys like that. They have to have control. And when they feel that control is slipping away from them, that's often when they do something extreme. Sometimes men will do anything except to be an actual good partner to their significant other. I think this is the first time that this has ever happened. But I watched a 48 Hours, a 20-20, and a Dateline on this case. And it was kind of funny because 2020 and Dateline, it was both their season premiere this year.

1:12:09 So it was just kind of funny that they all did the case. And it was Dateline's 3000th episode. Wow. I also started to read a book called Inside the House, The Murder of Christelle Krug. It was the most inaccurate thing I've ever read in my life. And it was really kind of stressful because I read about half of it and then I realized... that they were contradicting information of other things that I was reading. And I'm not sure if this book was written by AI or... But there was all these... Nothing was accurate in it. It was really frustrating. I mention it only to tell people, be careful what you're reading out there because AI is generating a lot of stuff that is just totally bogus.

1:12:54 It said she was born in Minneapolis. And there were so many inaccuracies. They had. text messages after text messages, and they were made up. And it was just bizarre to me how wrong this was. Oh, that's really frustrating and disappointing. And it's probably going to happen more and more. True. Well, let us know what you think about this case. Something that I keep thinking about doing, I know so many women have been through stalking situations. And I'm thinking about doing like a listener episode. People want to share their stories because I think that's the best way to educate people is when people are vulnerable and share their stories. So let us know what you think about that and if you would be willing to share your story. Well, I know that you enjoy doing this case together today, but I know there is somewhere that you would rather be right now.

1:13:46 Is there? Yeah. There's nowhere I would rather be. Really? What did you just tell me? I don't know what you're trying to get at here. You're like, we should install a TV in this room. Right behind you. Yeah. So when I'm presenting the case, you can watch. There's a Tigers game on, which it seems very coincidental that we always record right at the time that the Tigers are playing. We tend to record on the weekends, in the afternoon. So, yeah. I guess it's maybe not that coincidental, but yeah, I don't know. I'm not very happy with the Tigers right now, though, so I am okay with missing today's game. Not very happy. After every game, you come find me and you're like, I hate the Tigers. The Tigers are the worst team in baseball. I'm so tired of it. Well, they just give you this false hope and then they tear it away from you. It's just a constant theme over and over. Not every year with the Tigers.

1:14:35 So I am going to give you an opportunity right now as we are heading into fall. We're in September. Mm-hmm. What do you think is going to happen this year with the Lions and the University of Michigan? Are they also going to pull the hope away from you? Well, they usually do as well. But, you know, I don't know. I have to be honest with you. I have not been keeping up on what's going on with football yet because I just have a hard time getting invested in football until baseball's over. Right. I like to think the Lions are going to have a very good year. Michigan football, probably not as much. Really? I've said that. Yeah. No, I've said that before. But I am hopeful. I think the Lions are going to have a good year.

1:15:17 I think they're going to make the playoffs. Michigan, probably not as much just because of the new coaching situation. I don't know a whole lot about what's going on with Michigan football. Do you know who took over as coach? I don't even know that. So, yeah, I would imagine it'll take them a year or two to get their feet under them. So if you were a betting man, and you kind of are, how much money would you put on the Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl? Oh, to win the Super Bowl? I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl. Oh, so you're not... Don't you sometimes put a bet on them, just a few. Dollars, just for fun? Yeah, just for fun. I might do that as well. Well, how much? Oh, I don't know. I mean, $ 10. $ 10. But the odds will be like, you know, it'll be like 10 to 1 or 20 to 1 that they're going to win the Super Bowl. So a $ 10 bet could pay off a couple hundred dollars, maybe.

1:16:03 Yeah. So this episode, with all the cameras and they put the cameras on our house, when I was researching, I said to you, I was like, our cameras, I don't know, should we upgrade our cameras? And you did. Yeah. I did, yeah. Well, our cameras weren't working very well before, like a couple of them were. But now they are, so don't stalk us. Very intermittent, yeah. So now we have got the camera setup is outstanding. New cameras, they're really nice cameras too. Yeah, where you didn't tell me how much you spent. I don't need to know. But aren't they solar, which I thought was interesting? Yeah, two of the cameras have a little solar panel, so they don't have to plug into the wall, which is really nice because our old cameras... You had to plug into the wall.

1:16:46 And there was cords like in the yard. That was weird. I hated that. So yeah, they're really, they're pretty cool. The brand that I went with is Reolink. And the thing I liked about them is you don't have to pay like a monthly subscription, like with Ring, like the doorbell cameras, you have to pay every month. And it drives me crazy. So I'm like, I just want a camera on my house to be able to be secure. I don't want to have to pay a subscription fee. I did not have the apps on my phone, and I recently put them on my phone because I was inspired by Christille. I would just text you. I'd be like, who's at the front door? Or whatever. So now I have access, and literally the only thing you see on our cameras is moths flying by. We really don't live in a very exciting— not a lot happens around here.

1:17:29 Not a lot happens. But, hey, something does happen. We will be prepared. I want to thank everyone who leaves us messages after they listen to an episode. Engaging with us on social media is a really good way to boost our algorithm and let other people find us. Yeah, and you can leave comments on Spotify or you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts as well. And like you said, it really does help raise our visibility. So we truly appreciate it. And if you'd like to support us, another way to do that is by joining our Patreon, patreon.com slash lovemerrykill. We have just one tier. We keep it simple. It's just $ 5 a month. And for that, you get early ad-free access and you get a monthly bonus episode.

1:18:11 Thanks so much for listening. We love you guys. Until next time. Don't kill your wife. And don't kill your husband. Don't kill. Why do I always say don't? Don't kill your husband. Is that better? Much better. Thank you. Thank you.