Dr. Insanity - How Police Captured Colorado's Smartest Killer

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

👉 Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind: https://link.outskill.com/DRINSANDEC1 (Discount for the first 1000 people) Dive deep into AI and Learn Automations, Build AI Agents, Make videos & images – all for free! Bonuses worth $5100+ if you join and attend. (December 6th & 7th) ------ This is the mother of 43-year-old Kristil Krug. In a few seconds… She's going to find Kristil’s lifeless body… inside this very garage. And this… is Daniel Krug. The man who killed her. He’s heading in for another normal workday — just minutes after leaving his wife's body hidden in the garage of their own home. He believes his plan is bulletproof… that police will spend weeks chasing a ghost… and eventually arrest someone else for the m*rder he committed. ----- This video was made for educational purposes only. The video is presented to provide genuine footage of police incidents to promote transparency in government while providing educational, informative and newsworthy content allowing viewers to examine and assess public safety material. This is a fact-checked documentary using authoritative sources.Explore the podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the mother of 43-year-old Crystal Krug. In a few seconds, she's going to find Crystal's lifeless body inside this very garage. Hello? And this is Daniel Krugge, the man who killed her. He's heading in for another normal workday, just minutes after leaving his wife's lifeless body hidden in the garage of their own home. Holy fuck. For the last four months, this man has been engineering the most calculated homicide plot Colorado has ever seen. Creating fake identities, manipulating Crystal's children, and setting up the perfect scapegoat to take the blame.

He believes his plan is bulletproof, that police will spend weeks chasing a ghost, and eventually arrest someone else for the murder he committed. And despite nearly perfect detective work, his plan works exactly. the way he intended. Husband said there was a dude who's been stalking her and threatened to kidnap her. Oh my god, this can't be true. I was in person who attacked her.

I'm not. I'm not. Yeah. Missed y'all. Missed all. Yeah. You're good to meet. I talk to the doctor to talk about.

Can I have an idea what's going on? Yes. This is Crystal Krug, months before her murder. She lives here with her husband, Daniel Krug, and their three children. Both Crystal and her husband are well-educated and seem to have built a comfortable life together with their kids. But behind closed doors, something dark is happening that will destroy this beautiful family. All because Crystal's been dealing with a stalker obsessed with her, sending her constant threats and claiming to watch her every move.

This officer is here to check her car for GPS trackers or anything that could explain how this stalker keeps finding her. In reality, the stalker is much closer than anyone could have imagined. You can see, like, it's a little bit dirty sight. I want to see plug marks, but... Like, my street looks like this all the time. There's no one out there. Like, I know the normal cars. Yeah. So I don't know where he's following you from. Okay.

I can only assume a tracker. Nothing jumps out at me. I know. I know. I'm there. I'm hoping it's just to mess with me. The officer continues searching the vehicle top to bottom, but finds nothing suspicious. So before leaving, he offers Crystal a few safety recommendations and reassures her that they'll keep looking into her case.

Not long in the course of the investigation, Broomfield police receive another call. This time from Crystal's husband, Daniel, reporting a break-in at his home. An officer is dispatched to check things out. Unknowingly, this encounter will be the start of one of the most calculated murders the United States has ever seen. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, definitely. I'm Austin, Johnson.

I'm down. Nice to meet you. Johnson, nice to meet you. So as I pulled in, I saw someone run out, jump over my gate, and take off that way. Got it. I didn't think to call you until my wife got home recently, and we realized the spare key that we keep in the garage isn't there. Okay. According to Daniel, the only thing that's gone is their spare house key.

If someone stole that, it means they aren't done and might have plans to come back at some point. The officer advises Daniel to change their locks immediately, while police look into who this intruder might be. When no one realizes tonight, is that this is no random incident. It's the opening move in a plan that's been forming for months. And this break-in is just step one. Nine days after Daniel reports the break-in, his wife Crystal wakes up to another uneasy morning. For weeks now, she's been receiving strange anonymous messages. When the weather cools down, Golden Nugget Online Casino turns up the heat.

This winter, make any moment golden and play thousands of games. like her new slot Wolf It Up and all the fan favorite Huff and Puff games. Whether you're curled up on the couch or taking five between snow shovels, play winner's hottest collection of slots from brand new games to the classics

you know and love. You can also pull up your favorite table games like blackjack, roulette, and craps or go for even more excitement with our library of live dealer games. Download the Golden Nugget Online Casino app and you've got everything you need to

layer on the fun this winter. In partnership with Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call ConX Ontario at 1-866-531-2600. 19 and over. Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggettcasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. The growing sense that someone out there has an eye on her. Until now, none of it had a name attached, but a faceless presence that kept getting closer. But today, that changes. As Crystal gets the kids ready for school, makes her morning coffee, and heads out for work, her phone buzzes. She glances at the screen and sees a name she hasn't thought about in more than 20 years. Jack Anthony Holland, a man she dated briefly as a teenager. The message is short,

crude, completely out of nowhere. Hi, Crystal. It's Anthony Holland. I hope it's okay I looked you up. I go to Boulder every few weeks and thought we could hook up. You game? At first, she didn't think much of it. The two last spoke years ago, and even then he was harmless. So she ignores it and moves on. But the next day, everything changes. Are you there? You should say yes when I offer pity.

Whatever. I saw your pigs. You got fat. You should . Saw you at the dentist today. Your license plate expired. Got to fix that. Gotta fix that. Suddenly, Crystal's fear becomes reality, and she begins living with the terrifying possibility that she's being watched.

And now, she's certain. Anthony is the one who's been harassing her for weeks. She becomes hypervigilant, installs cameras around the home, dash cams in her car, and starts carrying a concealed handgun everywhere she goes. By late October, Crystal's barely sleeping. She keeps a spreadsheet of her star, stalker log, documenting every message she gets.

Then, almost a month later, a new email from Anthony confirms her worst fears. This your husband? Drives like slow old lady. He needs to drive safe. The email comes with an attached photo showing her husband Daniel at his workplace. Now the stalker isn't just targeting Crystal. He's coming after her family. Crystal realizes she can't handle this alone, so she hires a private investigator to track down Anthony's addresses

in digital history. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop.

Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.com. Then, on Halloween night, she calls the police. So, how can I help you tonight? What's going on? Yeah, so I have an ex from a very long time ago, who has occasionally down me on social media, and it's never been an issue. So this month, so this month I have received numerous text messages, and then today I got an email that is very threatening,

and it escalated to the point that he took a recent picture of my husband, at his work location, so the stocking is getting a little too aggressive at this point in time. So my last contact with this individual was five years ago, where I told him I was happily married. I had no interest in what he kept contacting me. He kind of blew things up and then blocked me. I blocked him, haven't heard from him since. After explaining everything to the officer, she documents each detail and forwards the case to the department's investigative unit. Within hours, the file lands on the desk of Detective Andrew Martinez, a seasoned investigator who's worked some of Broomfield's toughest cases, including abductions and violent crimes. Martinez schedules a formal meeting with Crystal for the following week, hoping to get a clearer picture of what exactly is happening and who this Anthony really is.

When she sits down with Martinez, the situation has already escalated far beyond what Crystal first reported. So, I mean, like, he saw, like, full pictures of my family, of my kids. Like, I locked down my protocol real fast after this because it was pretty alarming, right? Where he's like, we're meant to be together. And my family loves that we're talking. And I'm like, whoa, you think that we're like in our relationship? So I shut it down real hard. I said, this is really creepy for me.

You need to stop. And he got, like, real emotional. And then blocked me. I'm like, good. And I blocked me in and I'm like, and then I shut down Facebook entirely. The one development that I have, I did get the full loan report from the PI problem and you'll see this in this report. There are tons of phone numbers associated with them. There are tons of addresses.

He moves everywhere in between like three different states. As Crystal walks the detective through her evidence, two details immediately stand out. First, her stalker isn't just texting her from random numbers. He's using multiple phone lines and different digital identities, finding ways to reach her, even after she changes her information. Whoever this is, they're persistent, resourceful, and frighteningly determined. Second, her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Holland, is tied to several addresses and multiple phone numbers. Whether it's instability or an attempt to stay off the grid,

it convinces Martinez that Crystal is dealing with someone who either doesn't want to be found or someone who's planning something far worse. With all of this in mind, Martinez wraps the interview with Crystal and begins the digital side of the investigation. He sends warrants to service providers, requesting phone records, email logs, and account information to track down the stalker. Unfortunately for Martinez, these companies will make a mistake that will soon prove deadly. While waiting for the digital evidence to come back,

Martinez decides to follow up on something else. The garage break-in Daniel reported back in September when a stranger supposedly stole their spare house key. He brings Daniel in for a formal interview, wanting to know whether he's noticed anyone following him, but instead of clarifying things, Martinez is about to learn something far more unsettling about the Krug household.

And I guess at what point did she tell you that he re-contacted her this last time? Uh, it was either November 1st or November 2nd. It was after she... had gotten a picture of me at work. That she brought me up to speed on. That.

Gotcha. Okay. And the first contact that he initially made with her was back on October 2nd. I guess why that month gap, do you think, before she told you? I'm sure she has mentioned to you that she and I are going through a rough patch, kind of on the rocks. so probably didn't seem that pressing until it was. Sure.

And she didn't mention that to me that you guys were having a rough time currently. Are you guys in the process of separating, getting divorced, or working through things? Should be determined. My brother, Matthew, is a cop. So I have a retractable ass steel baton. Yeah. As I said, not right now, but otherwise, it's on me all the time. I sleep with it next to me. I've bought some additional security cameras from the house. So what am I doing? I'm panic. And I'm doing a shit job to protect my wife.

So I'm not doing good. Yeah, you can see that. So with that being, I know that Christel, we put her car on a lift on Tuesday afternoon to see if the there's any sort of GPS tracking or anything like that. We couldn't find anything on the car. If Anthony is watching you guys, it's going to be in person from a distance or nearby or however. So that poses an interesting issue in itself.

From Daniel's reactions, it's clear the stalking is taking a toll on him too. His wife is terrified, his family feels. haunted and he's struggling to understand how any of this is happening. Detective Martinez wraps up the interview but something Daniel said lingers in the back of his mind. He revealed that he didn't know about the stalking for almost a month, not until Crystal finally showed him the email with the photo taken outside his workplace. So Martinez decides to look deeper into the family dynamic and what he finds is concerning. He learns that the couple have been going through a rough patch recently.

hostile or dangerous, but they were trying to work things out, doing what they believed was best for their kids, and holding their family together the best they could. With how much the stalker seems to know about their lives, Martinez briefly wonders if someone inside the home might be manipulating the situation, and for a moment, he even considers the possibility that Daniel might be messing with his wife as some twisted way of trying to fix their marriage. But that idea is quickly dismissed. There is no evidence backing any of it and all signs still point to Anthony. Not to mention, Crystal herself is fully convinced her ex is behind the stalking campaign. Throughout November, the harassment continues to escalate

with more messages and threats. Crystal continues documenting everything and constantly monitors her cameras. By early December, she finally receives a message that gives her the smallest breath of air. Hey, gorgeous, I can't visit you anymore. No more Colorado time. My girlfriend doesn't want us talking without her. She says you'll let the cops get me after you get rid of him. For the first time in weeks, Crystal and her family feel a brief sense of relief. It sounds like Anthony is backing off, maybe even leaving the state. But in reality, this is just the stalker's final move to make them drop their guard before he strikes. The day starts like every other day. Daniel leaves for work while Crystal heads out to

drop the kids off at school. During those minutes, someone approaches the front door, tapes over the ring doorbell camera, and slips inside the house. Minutes later, Crystal drives back home, pulls into the garage and steps out of the car. She has no idea. Someone is waiting for her inside, and the moment she closes the car door, he attacks. The stalker strikes Crystal in the head, stabs her, and leaves her bleeding on the floor. After months of plotting, This is the moment he'd been waiting for. Later that morning, Daniel tries calling Crystal from his office, but she doesn't answer or respond to texts.

Hours pass, and there's still no sign of her, so Daniel finally decides to call police. From field dispatches meeting? Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. Okay. Uh, my wife isn't responding, uh, to text messages or phone calls. Okay.

We've had threats against us. We have both been targeted, uh, by a stalker. Uh, threats have been made against my life. Okay. Uh, and, and threatening to, like, kidnap her, which is why I'm, yeah. I'm nervous that she's not answering. Within minutes of Daniel's call, an officer is dispatched to the Krug residence to check on Crystal. At the same time,

Daniel also calls Crystal's mother, asking her to go check on her daughter, sending her straight into the worst moment of her life. While she makes her way there, the officer reaches the house first. Hello. Oh, I was just on their neighbor, and they called now. Can you go see if you'll answer? Oh, yeah, he sent us as well, so. Just next door? Okay.

All right, well, you've got this. All righty, man. Appreciate it. The house looks quiet and the officer doesn't notice anything wrong from the outside. But before he clears the call and the officer doesn't notice anything wrong from the outside. But before he clears the call and drives off, something nags at him. So he brings his patrol car a little closer to check the garage where he's about to uncover a tragic, horrifying sight.

As the officer leans in for a closer look, he spots a body, lying on the floor, motionless, with blood smeared across the wall. 151 sent medical and 110, I need a force sentry. I got a female down in the garage. Sir, Mike, now. Ropeil Police! Roanfield police! Oh shit. Holy shit.

The officer steps into the garage to find Crystal with what looks like a severe head injury, so he immediately begins performing CPR, working on her for several moments with no success before opening the garage door to give medics access. But instead of paramedics, someone else, soon around. drives. Garage is open now. What are you open now?

Hello. Hello, ma'am. I need you to stay out, please. No, thank you. Tragically. Tragically, as the garage door, As the garage door is lifted to get medics in, Crystal's mother catches a brief glimpse inside, just long enough to see an officer performing CPR on her daughter.

Before she can process what she's seeing, another officer quickly arrives to shield her from this nightmare. I need you to come over here for a minute, okay, so we can work. I understand. I need you to come on over here, okay? He's okay. I know, I know. Give me a favor, go and sit inside so we can work. work on her okay so we can try to get her to help okay what's your name linda linda okay my name's officer's tomorrow okay i'll come out here i'll give you some news as soon as i can i'm sorry she's okay i have no idea just yet but i know that they're working on her the officer in there has been working CPR on her and i think she's doing okay okay she did he's the

one that called us and let us know okay do it go ahead take a seat for a minute i'll be right back here okay i need to tag out man she's got a head wound i don't know if it's from falling or something else, but probably falling, but I don't know, man, that's a good one. Usman said there was a stalker, threatened me to kidnap her, so, I don't know. Oh, she's not. No, she's unresponsive. Decent head wound. Where we have more room in place, man.

While medics continue working on Crystal inside the garage, an officer stands outside reassuring a distressed woman who's just arrived. Unaware that this is Crystal's mother, she's shaken and terrified by the horrors she witnessed inside the garage. Linda would later learn that none of this was random, and finding her daughter like this was always part of a twisted plan. Back inside the garage, medics keep working, still trying to revive Crystal, not yet aware of the fatal wound hidden beneath her clothing. Guys, you see anything other than a fall type of wound? Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

Yeah, that's a stop. We're in there. That's right, ready? Okay. Oh. Damn it. Yeah, I don't know. Can you have any idea?

How old? Her, the dispatch could tell us. The husband called in to check on her. I don't know right now, but dispatch should have it. So we have a physical stabling, do you guess? Yes. Right about her heart. And then.

Let's... Fuck. We are racist Ali? Yes. Yes. Germain, are you good with this? Or are you... How recent is this from?

Husband said he couldn't reach her for... Transport. We don't know if it's within 10 minutes, man. Okay. Yeah. Hosten has not been able to reach her by any means for a few hours. For a few hours. Stavl into chest, let Henry know that.

Medics work for only a few minutes before realizing realizing there's nothing more they can do beside Crystal's body tucked inside her purse the officer notices a handgun she never even had time to reach for with the immediate area secure officers spread out throughout the house searching every room for the attacker but no one is inside and as officers step outside the home they start noticing small details that don't line up with an impulsive crime yeah i don't know the back story husband said there was a A dude who's been stalking her and threatened to kidnap her. And Martinez was involved.

And Martinez just said, hey, this is a big old... I don't know. I don't know the history on that part. Martinez does, though, and he said he's coming in. So, other than that, we're just kind of securing the scene and waiting for detectives, you know? See what they need. I kicked that, yeah. That's interesting.

Yeah. That is very interesting. Almost like dude might have stuck around from this way. I wonder if maybe the door was unlocked, that's how we got in. You know what? Deadbolted when you... You know what? I don't know.

I kicked it and it went pretty easy, so I'm going to say no deadbolt. It wasn't deadbolted and it was just... Handel was locked. I saw her camera, I booted it. Officers quickly confirmed the door was unlocked and a strip of blue tape had been placed over the ring doorbell camera. Whoever did this, clearly planned it and came prepared. became prepared. As police continue searching the scene, more family members begin arriving one by one, each of them unknowingly walking into the worst moment of their lives, while officers prepared to deliver

the news no family ever wants to hear. I don't know anything just yet, ma'am. I don't know anything just yet. Are you... I'm just her mom. She's a... I'm a family friend. Family friend? Family friend from... I live friend because we house there. We asked her to come up on the door. Okay. Is her husband almost here? Is he gone? Is she gone?

We want to give you guys all the information altogether. We don't want to have to repeat the information over and over for you guys to continue anything, so... He said he was on. What did we do to work? No, no. They won't say. They won't say. They don't figure it out.

Oh, my gosh. We can't get them. Who's in charge of the doctor who's in charge of the doctor? We can't know what happened. Absolutely. And as soon as someone frees up, who can tell you, I'll send him your way, okay? Our son's on his way. Is this your daughter, sir, or your daughter-in-law?

That's my daughter. This is your daughter, and so her brother is on his way. Yeah. With Crystal's father. With Crystal's father and brother now at the scene, the weight of what's happened settles over the family and it grows heavier by the minute. The only person missing is Crystal's husband, Daniel, the man who feared he wouldn't be able to protect her for weeks. Now he's on his way to find out those fears have come true. As they wait for him, detectives arrive at the scene and begin coordinating their next steps to hunt down whoever did this.

Little do they know. The killer they're looking for is still in the area, much closer than they think. So I pulled my car around in the garage to see if her car was in the garage, and I immediately saw her at the base of the stairs, a blood smear on the wall. and I came around and booted the front door. It turns out it wasn't locked. There's also a piece of masking tape over the ring camera, almost like somebody approached from the side

and taped it. And then maybe she opened the door for somebody. The first thing I noticed was an obvious head wound. They noticed after tearing the shirt and everything off, she stabbed right there. So that's what we got. Husband should be here any minute. Okay, so I need to be here.

I need another detective up here to start working with canvassing. I need you to stay here and Martinez is coming here, so he'll be good. With that, I want you and Martinez to work on this. I'm going to give, and then... Markisius is working on the stocking report. Yeah, about here's the thing. But we've got to be careful of us. We have to be careful.

We don't know. Everybody that's here is still supposed to be. So we need to be sure that we stay focused on that. Yep. As investigators discuss plans to interview Crystal's family and her husband, husband Daniel, he arrives on scene, cutting the conversation short. And right away, he makes it clear to everyone that he's nothing more than a devastated victim, overwhelmed by what's happened to his wife. Okay, I need you to stay back, sir. I understand, I need you to stay back here.

Family's over here. Family's over here. Churches, the forest! I don't know! I don't know! I can't. I can't. Please, please. I mean,

a lot of questions right now. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of answers for you. And to let me know what you want to do right now. You can have a problem. You can help together and get started out. We'll be fast. Oh. Oh.

At least someone leave me over there. At this time, officers have no reason to suspect Daniel of anything. So they treat him with care as he goes through this traumatic moment. But beneath that devastation lies a cold, heartless man. because Daniel knows exactly what happened inside that garage, and Daniel is the killer himself. Every tear and shaking breath is part of his act. One he will continue selling to police and Crystal's family standing just a few feet away.

I was the person who attacked her. They're not going to say, no, this is anything. We're just going to tell her that we don't tell. We don't tell. This is a family mother. We're just going to figure out of reunite people. I can protect him. Just make sure that the transportation.

As this tragedy unfolds, Crystal's mother embraces Daniel trying to comfort him, having no idea, The man she's holding is the one who murdered her daughter. Unfortunately for officers, the hardest part of the job still isn't over. As the family grieves outside the home, a detective is sent to the school to pick up Crystal's children, who still have no idea what happened to their mother. When the detective finds Crystal's eldest daughter, she's already shaken. She's been watching the live camera feed on her phone and saw enough to know something terrible happened. But what she tells the detective next is what truly alarms her.

Her mother's stalker has been hinting at something far darker recently, and he might have deadly plans for the rest of the family. My phone notified me on my house cameras going off. There was police at my house and an ambulance, and there was a stretcher. I couldn't bring myself to see who is off. So I call my mom and dad. My dad picks up, and he's crying. They're probably about seven minutes away, okay?

I'm not going to lie, something happened, okay? That's why you're here, okay? Do you know what's going on? I do, but I can't. I'm not going to tell you, okay? Because we're still actively investigating what's going on out there. So I don't want to give you wrong information. That's the last thing I want to do, okay?

What is the thing going on at home? So the student has been threatening my mom. I was talking to her. taking photos of my dad saying that he's going to kill him. Who? Do we know who this person is? One of her ex. I don't know his name. Like an ex-boyfriend?

Yeah. Okay. And they broke up a while ago. They ended it as friends. So this has all come to a really big shot to her. And so he's been contacting her from different numbers, sending pictures of my dad. saying he's going to kill them. He hasn't mentioned anything about me and my siblings yet, which is good.

He's like he posted something to a website of trying to recruit guys to help him with whatever plan he's doing. How did you guys learn about that? He's been contacting my mom through all of this. So my mom has contacted the police and she has like a whole bunch of people on the case. But the thing is he's making it sound like, she's helping him. Helping him. And she's not. Helping him, like, try to kill your dad?

Yeah. And so, like, we're afraid that the police are going to turn on us. Okay. So she's been trying to protect herself. What Crystal's daughter reveals isn't just alarming, it's sickening. Because this so-called stalker isn't just threatening the family. He's twisting the narrative inside their home. He's making it look like.

Crystal was secretly working with him to kill Daniel. Manipulating the kids into believing their own mother is dangerous while positioning Daniel as the helpless target who needs protection. To the kids, their mother starts to look untrustworthy. To detectives, Daniel starts to look like a victim, and to the stalker, everything is going exactly, according to plan. It's a disturbing, genius level of premeditation, carried out by a man willing to use, anyone, even his own children. The detective logs this information and coordinates with Crystal's sister-in-law, Kate, to get the children safely out of the school. Back at the crime scene, detectives continue their work. They canvass the neighborhood, speak with neighbors, and begin

collecting every CCTV clip they can find to reconstruct the killer's movements. By this point, there's enough evidence tying Crystal's ex-boyfriend Anthony to months of harassment, allowing police to obtain a nationwide arrest warrant for stalking. across the country are notified to be on the lookout for him. Additionally, with a homicide on their hands and a killer on the loose, investigators can escalate the case and issue exigent circumstance warrants to service providers to finally speed up the digital data they've been waiting on.

If Martinez received those files weeks earlier, things might have been very different. In the meantime, Daniel, along with the rest of the family, is taken to the police station for formal interviews. At this stage, it's standard procedure, And investigators are simply looking to collect statements. But about two hours later, when detectives finally sit down with Daniel, his routine interview will begin to take a very different turn.

So your home security system, you access that through your personal phone? Google Nest. Google Nest, okay? Uh-huh. Hi. Hi. I'm just fixing me.

Okay. Just a home. Okay. So I have your permission to operate this phone and get what we need? Yeah. Okay. So how many different cameras do you have? Four.

Doorbell. Um, side of the house, driveway, back door. Home, have you had it. The other couple years, the others, all since September. Wait. We had an intruder. I called the police. He came when we had a garage intruder.

A month after Daniel reported the garage intruder back in September is when the stalking first began. And by then, the couple had already installed multiple cameras around the house, plus their ring doorbell. But even with all that security and after police confirmed they had no GPS trackers on their cars, the stalker still found a way to follow them, sending Crystal a photo of Daniel walking into work and texting her about seeing her at the dentist. So as the detective scrolls through the surveillance footage to understand the timeline, he notices something strange that catches Daniel off guard. So when do your cameras go off? Do you ever happen since, Who's turn off?

24-7. Okay. They don't turn off. You, um, if you lose the internet or in the app, you can turn them off. And who has the ability to turn off the cameras? Who has the ability to go in the app and turn these off? Uh, Christine, me, and, um, um, um, um, um, die, I can't think. It's all right.

It's all right, Dan. Home chose all four. Oh, perfect. I can... Settings. Okay. Oh, just us. Just us.

Okay. The detective's question here isn't by chance. It's prompted by something peculiar he noticed on the surveillance app. All of the Holmes cameras shut off at 8.15 a.m. and they stay off until 10.15 a.m. Only the camera pointed out. Outside the garage remains active during that entire two-hour window. This instantly narrows the murder time frame to those two hours. Just then, Martinez finally arrives at the interview room.

He's the lead detective who's been handling Crystal's stalking case for months, and now that case has become something far worse. He sits down with her devastated husband, feeling the weight of the loss they both couldn't prevent. They didn't save Crystal, they couldn't protect her, and now they're here. mourning her loss, trying to piece together what happened. It's not your fault. I'm sorry, I didn't answer.

It actually wasn't in today. As Daniel breaks down, something. catches Martinez's attention. Daniel is crying, but there are no tears. The detective finds it strange and more than a little concerning. Wanting to probe deeper, Martinez asks for a moment alone with Daniel to see what's really going on beneath the surface. And the moment he starts asking questions, things get heated. Fast. I know you said that you don't think that there was somebody else. She said. Okay.

Why do you keep asking? I'm just trying to put everything together to kind of get a bigger picture. Because you said she's been acting kind of weird lately and, you know, being very secretive and withholding of information for you. So I'm just trying to understand, I guess, so we can backtrack what she's been doing this past month. Martinez's question here is telling of what he's thinking. He's not ruling out Daniel as a possible suspect. After all, the couple were going through a separation period, and this is meant to probe

whether jealousy or something else could have played a role in Crystal's death. Sensing the tension in Daniel's response, the detective decides not to press any further. But as they step out for a quick break, Daniel says something that makes it obvious he struck a nerve. I've seen enough for this. It's always the husband. I gather. After detectives collect the initial information from D. Daniel, his children finally arrive at the police department.

They still don't know what happened to their mother, only that something is very, very wrong. Daniel is notified of their arrival and given a choice. Should he be the one to tell them? Or leave it to officers and Crystal's family? Instead of letting someone else deliver the news, Daniel insists on telling them himself. A decision that appears compassionate on the surface,

but underneath, it's a way. for him to control the narrative and shape how his children see him, even in a moment of tragedy. Following this, investigators sit down with Crystal's family to begin their interviews, and this is where things start to take a concerning turn. Up until now, the case seems straightforward. Crystal has a stalker, her ex-boyfriend Anthony. That stalker killed her. Find Anthony, and you find Crystal's killer. But once detective starts speaking to Crystal's parents, Brother and sister-in-law, things become far more complicated. And what they learn next will force them to reconsider everything they think they know about Crystal,

her marriage, and even her stalker. So you're understanding, I guess, of there, is the ex-husband who has been kind of... It's not a husband, it's a next boy from him. I can what she was 18 years old? Okay, gotcha. Can you think of any, I guess, recent, is he reached out to you? Have you seen any...

No, he's never contacted me. He had a restaurant told me that he had a message to her again two days ago or so. I don't know, that he was ready to come back and so she can go ahead and offer his husband now. Make it look a little like she was in on this whole deal with killing her husband, I guess. Kate, do you think there's anything, doesn't feel right, doesn't seem right, something that, I don't know? You just feel like might be important to our investigation. I don't know. Like, I just, I know that Kristio was, like, very concerned and worried about this guy.

And I just always felt like it was, like, there was something weird about it, like, but I can't put my finger on it. It just, I feel like she had said that that it was, like, this Anthony guy, that it seemed very different than past behavior in him, like, that he was never sexual in the past. and that these were, like, very, like, hypersexual things. And so I think even at one point she was, like, questioning whether it was actually him. I don't know if you necessarily know anything. I didn't worry about that, but they also just kind of mention you guys are kind of close and just see if there be some sort of insight on that at all. Insight on their merit?

Or just, was there issues going on? Were they having problems? Was there, you know, kind of anything was kind of... She had shared with me that they had... separated. Okay. But we're still living together a year ago. And I had asked her if she, over text, if she had, um, if she believed that it was Anthony. But she didn't believe at the time that I was asking her that it was anybody, but Anthony. She was fully convinced that it was Anthony. Okay. My mom has always been, like, suspicious. I just, like, don't know where that comes from. Okay. Um. Can you elaborate on that? Like, suspicious how or... My mom? Yeah. I don't know because she like the difficulty finding Anthony like why is it so hard to find Anthony why can't either you know it's a phone records or IP stuff or so my mom had that frustration and so I think her mind starts to wander towards like conspiracy type things

right of like oh maybe it's the husband or maybe it's Dan and I don't know I don't see it there just because, I don't know, Dan just seems so incapable of doing something like that to me. Why do you see that? I just... I don't know, I talked to him, and him and I just hung out and talked about two hours. And he was, like, very concerned about, like, giving his family together and talking about being vigilant but not paranoid. Even though Crystal's brother Lars sounds skeptical of his mother's suspicions, she isn't exactly wrong as, on the surface,

it makes no sense that Anthony couldn't be tracked down for months. Lars would also go on to explain that Crystal and Daniel saw their marriage very differently. Crystal wanted out, Daniel didn't. And the family seemed to view their relationship as dysfunctional, but not violent. But listening to these statements, one thing becomes very clear. Every family member felt that something about the stalker was off. There was a shared intuition they couldn't quite articulate. And when detectives sit down with Crystal's mother, she makes that suspicion very clear.

I know you said, and I kind of learned on seeing that she was married, had three children. Her life was hell always left once in the last year. Her husband and her were not in good terms. He was in complete denial. She told me how he was. Did she ever give you insight on what kind of led her to feel like her marriage was over? No, our dad is explosive, but I've never seen him, you know, hurt her. He would hurt the kids, but, you know, some people think the corporal punishment is a pay of the kids.

But he would hurt the kids. She was worried about that. I don't know what to say as a kid. But he was in, she told me he was in denial, and she told him his marriage was over, but she was, stay until graduated. I have this. I just a gut.

I can't shake him. What's that feeling telling you? I just, I can't, I can't shake this question to see the one that's been doing this with empty. Needless to say, hinting that Daniel might somehow be involved with the stalker is an alarming accusation. And it makes things even more complicated for the detectives.

At this point, the family itself is split. Crystal's brother Lars completely dismisses the idea that Daniel could be involved, calling it nothing more than a conspiracy. But others felt that there was something off about Anthony and the entire stalking agenda. With all statements collected, detectives wrap the family interviews and regroup to make sense of everything they've gathered. By combining everything they've learned, detectives land on a clearer picture of where the investigation now stands. The family interviews raised enough concern, and there was enough tension in the marriage that detectives decide they can't rule out Daniel yet, and he officially becomes a potential suspect. But even with Daniel now on the radar, Anthony remains as the obvious prime suspect in Crystal's homicide.

His threats and weeks-long stalking campaign still place him at the center of the investigation. With that in mind, detectives know their next move. It's time to find Anthony. At around 3 p.m. that afternoon, police finally get their first real break in months. After digging through everything they have on Anthony Holland, investigators land on a possible address in Utah. Because they can't reach him themselves, Broomfield detectives coordinate with Utah County Sheriff's Office, sharing his name, photo, and the address where he's believed to be staying. Up until now, Anthony has only existed as a name in emails and threats,

a distant figure who no one has actually seen. So when officers finally get a hit on his location, it becomes the first real chance to confront the man they've been hunting for months. I'm going to ask you a couple of names to see if you recognize any names. Okay. Do you, have you ever heard of the name Crystal Krug? She may have been Grimsrod when you knew her. Yeah. And do you know a Daniel Krug?

No. No? How do you know Crystal? She was an ex-girlfriend. She's an ex-girlfriend? Oh. How long's ex? Like, how long ago?

Um, 1999. Oh, so like a long while ago? She was my very first girlfriend ever. Oh, okay. Um, when's the last time you talked to Crystal? Is it been a minute? Um, it's been a minute, yeah. Like, since you moved from Durango?

Yeah. Yeah. So that would have been, what, back in 2014? Yeah. Have you had any contact with anybody in that area since? Anybody, or have they contacted you at any time? No. I'm gonna give you a phone.

number and it's to a sergeant with the broomsfield police department he would like you to reach out and talk to him all right um they have an incident i don't know the full details of their incident out there and so i'll let him talk to you about that aspect um he had asked us to come out here to your house uh and and talk with you um they were debating on you do have an active warrant out of Broomsfield Police Department and they were debating on if they were going to have us arrest you or not. They are not going to have us arrest you on it.

I'm going to advise you of the fact that you do have a warrant out of Colorado and you can talk to this sergeant about the details of it. Does that make sense? As officers speak with Anthony, he appears intoxicated and confused. After being briefed on the situation,

he gives his timeline, insisting he never left Utah and spent the morning with family, nowhere near Colorado. Once they collect Anthony's statement, Utah officers leave to begin verifying every part of his story. In the meantime, detectives back in Colorado regrouped to reassess the investigation. With Anthony still denying involvement, Detective Martinez turns back to the one angle he hasn't

fully explored yet, Crystal's husband, Daniel. Since he never ruled out jealousy or affairs as a possible motive, he decides to dig deeper into Daniel's past. That's when he stumbles onto something interesting and very unsettling. While searching old reports, Martinez finds a closed but unresolved stalking complaint from years earlier. The victim who filed it is a woman named Carrie. And as it turns out, she was Daniel's ex-girlfriend. The more Martinez reviews, the more disturbing the pattern becomes.

The report claims she was stalked for weeks by an obsessed man who impersonated multiple people, manipulating her through fake identities. Detectives quickly locate Carrie and bring her in for an interview. When they sit down with her, they uncover a story so disturbingly similar to crystals, it opens up an entirely new theory. I think it was, you know, like I said, a couple months I broke up with him a couple months into my freshman year.

And he, you know, he was pretty emotional, I would say, sort of desperation would maybe it would be a word I would use to describe after the breakup of please don't do this kind of crying, that sort of thing that I can recall and then I started to get messages

from his roommate and that person's name is Tom on AOL Instant Messenger and I know Tom is real because they were roommates if I called him Tom would sometimes pick up the phone and they had a joint room in a joint phone. Tom, his role, I would say, was sort of to gain sympathy from me for Dan and continue to encourage me to communicate with Dan.

There was perhaps some indication that he was because of the breakup, just really not doing well. So this, you know, made me keep communication up with Dan. Tom ended up being Dan, right? So all these people I'm going to tell you about end up being Dan Kroog, not Tom. Yeah, even though Tom is a real person, he was not sending me these messages. Suffice it to say, what Carrie tells detective sounds all too familiar. Everything she describes echoes the same pattern detectives have been seeing with Crystal, but the parallels don't stop there. Things I remember is I, we, a group of my friends from our dorm had met, I don't even know how, some cadets from the Air Force Academy, and so we all went to, I think we went to a movie, something super innocuous and there was like a group of us. I must have told Dan about that. And I think it was two or three days later. I got a message from someone named Nick Clark. And Nick basically said, I'm a cad at the Air Force Academy. I don't. you went out with these people and I want you to know that he came back or these people came

back and said that you slept with him. So now there's this rumor going around the whole academy that you're an easy target kind of thing. And Nick, I think, sort of the purpose of sabotaging anyone I was meeting if they were associated with the Air Force Academy. Of course, the person that I met and which the movies with was, like, I want nothing to with you, you know. And so shortly, I don't know, a while after that, I started actually these more seriously

dating Air Force cadet named Mark Hansen. Then, of course, Lake Clark made a reappearance, and I was getting pretty consistent messages from him. And so he said, you know, we need to find out who's doing this. And he got me a meeting with the Office of Special

Investigations at the Air Force Academy. I sat with them, and they kind of laid the emails out on table and they said, we've had like a forensic psychologist, sort of professional, look at all these emails, and we've, it's damn, it's what they said. Carrie would go on to explain that despite their suspicions, there was never enough evidence tying Daniel back to the messages she received then. Everything had been sent from a public library, and because of that, her accusations remained just that, suspicions. But even with

proof. The similarities between the two women's experiences are impossible to ignore. And for the first time, detectives begin considering a fourth possibility they never imagined. What if Daniel has been playing everyone? What if he's been impersonating Anthony? What if he's always been the architect behind the entire stalking campaign? Detective Martinez receives the intel from Cary's interview, and with that, Daniel officially becomes an equal prime suspect alongside Anthony. At this point, the only thing that can give them a definitive answer is the digital evidence. So while they wait for that, Martinez received something he can work with immediately, the full set of surveillance footage collected from the neighborhood and Daniel's workplace.

This case has hours of surveillance, body cam, and interrogation footage we can't fully include here. If you want the extended cut of this video, plus the full raw interrogation and body cam videos, we've uploaded everything on our Patreon. With that pool of evidence finally in their hands, investigators sit down and begin reconstructing the full picture of what happened before Crystal was killed. Shortly before 8 a.m., Crystal arrives home after dropping off the kids. She pulls into the garage, closes the door, and everything looks normal. Minutes later, at 8.15 a.m., the entire security system goes offline.

Every camera except the outside garage camera is taken down for the next two hours. At 8.25 a.m., that lone camera records something deeply concerning. Daniel leaves the house to go to work later than he normally does, and shortly after the time, medical examiners believe Crystal was killed. From there, workplace footage shows Daniel moving through the building around 9 a.m., greeting co-workers and appearing completely normal, as if nothing had happened at home. And when investigators check footage from surrounding houses, they find no one approaching the property all morning. Everything about the timeline makes Daniel look more suspicious by the minute. With all these new developments, detectives bring Daniel back in for another interview.

He walks in expecting routine procedural follow-ups, completely unaware of how much has changed since the last time he sat in this room. This is when Daniel's months-long, carefully crafted plan begins to crumble. This time, Detective Martinez walks in with a completely different energy than before. He's no longer feeling Daniel out. He's here with one clear objective. Confront him with what's been uncovered and see if his version of events, finally breaks. All right.

How are you feeling right now? Just kind of about everything. No. Um, everything hurts feeling. I have two different voices going through my head right now. I have

my brother Matthew. Again, I've mentioned him. He's, uh, the sheriff's lieutenant. I have his voice say Uh Talk to the police And a typical

Comfashary American prosecutor So I have Lynn's voice in my head Going Get a fucking lawyer I don't know I just want this to be done I don't want I just don't want

Right away Daniel doesn't open the interview casually He opens it with a calculated trick. By hinting at getting a lawyer, he's warning detectives, push too hard, and this interview is over. It's clever, but Martinez has a counterplan. Instead of confronting him, he'll pivot the conversation to his relationship with Crystal,

making it feel like safer ground to get Daniel comfortable and talking. But if Daniel had any motive to take Crystal out of the picture, this is where it would surface. Well, I'm sure, especially you guys are trying to work together to be safe, Keep your family safe. As functional as it is, you still both had the common goal of keeping it safe, right? I had her as a partner to protect the family, but it didn't feel like a partner who valued me. And I told her at that point, I told her I didn't want to die for someone who didn't care about me anymore.

That's really hard. I was hurting when I said that. And what I wanted was her to say, she didn't care about me. She didn't. Although Daniel is being honest about what was going on in their marriage, to detectives, moments like this only add to their suspicions. Resentment, rejection, a failing marriage, these are all things that in the wrong circumstances can turn into a motive. And this is exactly where the interview takes a sharp turn. What Daniel doesn't know yet is that since his last interview, detectives received something they kept secret for this exact moment.

One of the tech companies finally responded to their urgent warrants and provided some of the digital data they needed. data they needed. And as it turns out, the emails the stalker had been sending, the messages that terrorized Crystal for weeks were coming from somewhere much closer to home. One of the things that we really started looking into today in an effort to find Anthony is the Gmail. So some of that information that we've been able to receive today is a little bit concerning, I guess. the Gmail account, the Kickman account that you guys initially received with the photo of you in it, and the phone number, those originated through their IP addresses at your office.

It doesn't make any sense. Well, he took the photo of me at my office. Both of those accounts originated from IP addresses that list back to your office. There are Wi-Fi access throughout the facility for employees, and there's public Wi-Fi access throughout the entire facility. Right now, we're working with the director to get all of the IP information to see what devices we're using that specific address during that time. Because I guess the biggest concern is just the timing of everything that it just doesn't quite, make sense to have somebody create an account, take a photo, and then immediately send it off, and then the account is no longer being used.

Not of this makes sense. Daniel looks thrown off. Unsure where Martinez is going with this. The emails tied to the stalker connect back to Daniel's workplace, a detail he clearly didn't expect detectives to know. He seems nervous, but still. So detectives decide it's time to push further because they have something else they withheld from Daniel until now. During the investigation into Anthony's alibi, officers in Utah forwarded something small but important.

A time-stamped shopping receipt placing Anthony in Utah that morning, miles away from Colorado at the time Crystal was killed. Martinez and his partner decide it's the perfect time to see how Daniel reacts when the they push him directly and force him to confront the possibility that he might be the stalker. Also, let's add on top of that the fact that there's, as far as we know right now, there's no physical way that Kikman could have been involved in this based on where he's at right now. So, you know, the mystery continues and... That has to be us. Things are certainly pointing in one direction right now.

Well, and you've given us reason. Here's the other thing, Daniel, is I sympathize with the fact that you're in an extremely frustrating situation. I know you want to be a part of your kids' lives. But you can also sense that's why we're asking all these questions about infidelity and everything else. Is there some other mystery man that we don't know about? I have been faithful. Period. You know Anthony has reached out to her in the past, number of times.

She's been very up. Right. The last time was 2016-ish. He had asked her at one point if she wanted to ask this. If there's any bit of question about infidelity, whether it's with Anthony or anybody else, we might create an account to see if Christel's actually interested in Anthony. So we ask her, push the bounds a little bit. and see if that will confirm our suspicions of infidelity.

You don't get the response and the openness you once did for about 28 days from October 2nd to October 31st. So you amp it up a little bit. Send a photo of yourself to her. An account you created. I get the narrative together, but it alleges that I would do this to my church. But I think ultimately what happened today,

would bring you the closest to your children that you've probably ever, ever been in your mind. I will have you very close to my teacher. You're afraid to lose time with him if you get the divorce. Clearly, detectives managed to perfectly articulate Daniel's reality, one he may not have even fully admitted to himself. He has a man so terrified of losing his children, so desperate to stay in control of his family, that he would do anything if he felt it slipping away, even if it meant murder.

The detective's brutal honesty leaves Daniel speechless. He doesn't argue or deny it. He just sits there in quiet resignation, wearing the look of someone who is realizing everyone can see straight through his lies. If you were watching these facts that pulled in front of you in a movie, what would you say, habit? There has to be someone else. That was able to turn off the cameras,

that was able to use your IP address from your work to create accounts, to send messages and photos to act as a stalking suspect. I don't know. I'm not the one who does this. I'm analytic network, and I read and write fiction at home. I don't do crime drama. I don't know what any of this is. Kickman is six and a half hour drive.

And then, in fact, he was contacted in his house. severely intoxicated. There's no way he could have made that drive. All this time that we've been looking for him for the protection order. And you just found him today. Like that. They've been chasing their own dog. It sounds like you're accused. We have a lot of information that points your direction.

And we're hoping that you could provide explanation other than it wasn't me. I don't have a narrative of a story that I can offer you because I thought we were at the same time. What would you think or what would you say if we told you that other people you talked to that are close to your wife expressed that she had maybe told them that she's suspected you of... She said that right to my face, that she wanted to know if it was me. I told her now. But I think there's more to the story. I don't know, it just doesn't, it's not adding up. I'd like to know what happened this morning.

I'd like to know what caused you to get so upset to hurt your wife, because I believe that's what happened. Well, I want to know what happened. We haven't been there to know. There's only one person in this room that can tell us. I think you got confirmation or found out that she had a boyfriend this morning, or something happened that pissed you off and you did something that you regret now because you can't go back i've answered all of your questions that again you have your theory please find the level

you're dumb as calm as he's been this entire interview daniel finally decides he's had enough and drops the act his story has crumbled detectives see straight through his lies and he knows it With nothing left to cling to, Daniel quietly asks for an attorney and the interview comes to an end. Even though he continues insisting he's innocent, there's one detail Daniel admits on his own, one no one even knew about until now. Crystal herself confronted him about being the stalker. Hearing that from Daniel's own mouth hits Martinez hard, because to him, that sounds like the kind of confrontation that could have pushed everything over the edge.

But without hard proof, detectives can't yet say Daniel is truly responsible. So with the interview over, Daniel is processed for physical evidence and escorted out of the police station. But before he leaves, he turns back and tells detectives one final thing. I won't be just like to do this. Because I've answered. You don't believe that? Fine. Just don't stop looking elsewhere.

You're okay. Find. Find the fucker who did this. Are you married? Your kids? Divorce? Right not yet. I don't care if the couch room.

I just know what the fucker he made. He took. My children's mother for Christmas. Over the next two days, the case becomes the department's top priority. Every available officer is working on it, and this is when the investigation finally begins to break wide open. Officers in Utah finally finish verifying Anthony's alibi. They find surveillance footage showing him in Utah at the time of Crystal's murder,

murder, and there are no travel records or license plate pings placing him anywhere near Colorado. Then, the last of the digital evidence arrives, and this time, it's overwhelming. The burner phones used to send the threatening messages to Crystal were purchased with a visa gift card registered under Daniel Krug's name, and cell tower records show those burner phones were always in the same location as Daniel's personal phone, meaning he was carrying both devices at the same time. And then comes the final blow. Detectives uncovered Daniel's Google searches from the night before the murder. How hard would you have to hit someone in the head to make them unconscious? When is a head injury a cause for concern? Piece by piece, the picture comes

together. There's no Anthony. There's no mysterious stalker. It's always been just Daniel. Detectives now understand exactly what happened. Daniel created the entire stalking persona in a twisted attempt to regain control of his failing marriage. And when Crystal began to suspect the truth, Daniel killed her to cover it up. On December 16th, an arrest warrant is issued for Daniel Krug. Officers are dispatched immediately, finding him on his way to his daughter's dance performance. As patrol units close in, Daniel's movements strike them as suspicious. He appears to be heading back towards his car and officers believe he may be trying to get away.

This is a detective. Get him out. Go. Go. Go. Go on the island. Just get right. All right. We're coming up and we're in front. Just get up and bump the back. No, fuck. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Go, go, go. Go, go, go, go. Go, go, go. Go, go, go. Shot your hands. Shot your hands. Hands on your feet. Hands on your feet. Daniel Krug is taken into custody without incident. In the weeks that follow, police finish their work. The digital forensic evidence, the surveillance timeline, the phone data, all of it leads

back to the same person. Investigators become certain that Daniel Krug acted alone. He created a fake stalker, framed an ex-boyfriend, manipulated his wife, his wife, his his children and law enforcement. Before the case reaches trial, Daniel formally pleads not guilty. In April of 2025, his case moves into the courtroom. The story prosecutors present is devastatingly clear. This was about Dan losing control. He was not in love with Kristiel and that resentment had turned to rage by the time we get to December 14th. Think about what he did to hurt. You don't do that to somebody you love. Think about the absolute nightmare and hell that he

made the last few months of her life. On the other hand, Daniel's defense argues that there was no physical evidence placing him at the crime scene and that he could not have been the killer. We know the physical evidence and there is an enormous disconnect between that and the circumstantial picture that the prosecution wants you to believe. Mr. Kroog did not kill his wife. He did not commit these crimes. both sides make their case, the jury deliberates for nearly two days, and on April 17, 2025,

they return with their verdict. We the jury find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. Daniel is found guilty of first degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. He is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.