Serialously with Annie Elise - 325: He Was Watching Her Every Move: The Stalking & Murder of Kristil Krug

Starting point is 00:00:00 My name is Dan Krug. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. My wife isn't responding to text messages or phone calls. As the Christmas holiday period approached in the winter of 2003, police in Broomfield, Colorado, were dispatched to the home of a 43-year-old mother who had stopped responding to calls and messages from family. The report from Dan was, we have been involved in the stocking case. It started small. strange messages or unsettling emails, there was this sense that someone was watching her.

Starting point is 00:00:35 You took my children's. Mother, every hell. I would have a serious. I'm a time. I'm talking about it. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of serialistly. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of seriallessly with me, your true crime bestie, Annie Elise, and I am here to break down a roller coaster of a case for you today.

Starting point is 00:01:24 If you thought that the catfish mom on Netflix thing was a wild story, that was like a precursor to today's case because today's case has so many twists and turns and like just sick, sycophant behavior. I don't know what sick ofam means, but I feel like that was the time to use it. Let's actually ask, hold on, what does sick fam mean? Maybe I'm going to need to cut that out. What does sycophant mean? Oh, come on, Siri. towards someone important in order to gain advantage. Okay, maybe it could, all right, maybe this could be used, whatever. My point was, I wanted to say just sick behavior, but then the word sycophant came to mind. I just love that word. I don't know why. I just love it so much. But anyway, this is a wild one.

Starting point is 00:02:10 So, like, yeah, if you thought that that Netflix catfishing mom was a loony tune and, like, that was a crazy story that where you, like, didn't see what was coming, this one is going to floor you. and today we're talking about a woman named Christiel Krug. Now, in a lot of ways, Christel was like any one of us, just a mom, a wife, a daughter, just living her normal everyday life. Never in a million years did she think that she was going to find herself smack in the middle of a real-life horror story. So like I said, this case has everything. I'm talking stalking, harassment, fake phone numbers, some very, very deeply deep. disturbing twist. And like I said, it's a freaking roller coaster. And what makes this case even more

Starting point is 00:02:57 heartbreaking is that in the final days of her life, Christiel was actually thriving. She was rebuilding. She was rediscovering herself. She was finally looking ahead at a future that she was excited about, never knowing that that future was about to be ripped from her, stolen from her. But before we get into this unimaginable case, I do want to share some exciting news with you. And that is that my YouTube series, 10 to Life, which so many of you probably discovered serialessly because of 10 to Life, well, it is officially launching as a podcast tomorrow, October 7th. Now, if you've been with me from the very beginning, you know 10 to Life is where it all started. And now it's where we really go beyond the headlines and unpack everything, just together piece by piece,

Starting point is 00:03:43 and just go through all of it. So really quick, before we dive into today's story here on Serialously, do me a favor, whatever podcast app you're listening on. search for 10 to life. Hit that follow button so that you don't miss anything. If you're watching this over on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed to my main channel, this one, Annie Elise. But it's the only way that you're going to get notified when our first and any new episodes drop.

Starting point is 00:04:08 And trust me, you are going to want to be the first to know. So with that being said, we're now going to get into today's case, which is just so horrific. It honestly feels like something straight out of a horror movie. So, you know, grab whatever. whatever you need to feel safe, grounded, and ready, because this one is definitely heavy. So, guys, let's get right into it. Kristiel Krug was born on November 24, 1980 in Boulder, Colorado.

Starting point is 00:04:35 She was known for being very kind, generous, having a sense of humor that was just completely contagious. Even if the joke didn't land, she just would have this huge, ginormous, infectious smile and this loud laugh that would still get everybody just cracking up alongside her. Just they weren't laughing at the joke, but they were laughing right there with her. And Christel had two big passions throughout her life. The first was modern dance. She said that it made her feel alive, and you really could see her light up whenever she was practicing, any time she was dancing, or finally nailing a new move.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Now, her second passion was science. Science for her was a way of explaining things that seemed unexplainable. And sure enough, when it came time to decide on a degree path and a career after high school, there was a no doubt in Christel's mind. She wanted to study to be a biochemical engineer. She earned a scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines, one of the top engineering schools in the country, and that's where she started her college journey. Later, she transferred to the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she then later graduated with her degree in biochemical engineering. Now, after graduating college, Kristiel landed an absolute dream job at a local tech company, a very well-known company in the

Starting point is 00:05:49 science world that creates different lab instruments, different software that's used in schools, used in businesses all around the world. This was like a dream job for her. And she excelled there pretty much from day one. She genuinely loved what she did for work. But even with her career thriving, Christel also was focused on building a happy and fulfilling personal life, a life at home. So in the early 2000s, Christel met a man named Daniel Krug. And there's not a ton of information about the early days of their relationship and, you know, how it got started, when they first went on their date, anything like that. But it's clear that things got very serious between the two of them. They each knew that they had found their person. And in 2007, they made it official.

Starting point is 00:06:32 The two of them got married. Eventually, they decided to start a family, and over the years, they had three children, two daughters, and a son. So now Christel was feeling like her life was complete. She had this mega amazing work, this, you know, career that she was so passionate. passionate about. She loved it so much. She also had this very fulfilling, very happy life at home, three beautiful kids, three amazing kids who were her whole entire world. And here's a quick clip of Christine's father sharing exactly what kind of mother she was to those kids. As a mom, she got her kids involved in so many things. She was always running them all over the place with complete dedication to make sure that they involved in the things that made them happy. So she

Starting point is 00:07:13 She juggled a lot of balls and pulled it off amazingly. From the outside looking in, Christel's life was perfect. Like I said, she had a successful career, a husband who adored her, three beautiful children who looked up to her and idolized her. But as we have learned, time and time again, appearances can be deceiving. Because by October 2023, the life that Christel had worked so hard to build was starting to unravel. and it quickly began spiraling into a complete nightmare. It was October 2nd, 2023 to be exact, and Christel woke up to a very strange, very unexpected text

Starting point is 00:07:54 message from somebody from her past. The message was from a man named Jack Anthony Holland, who apparently went by both Jack and Anthony for short, as you'll hear in some clips that I'm going to play for you later on. But Christel had briefly dated him between the summer of 1999 and the fall of 2000. So remember, at this point, it was now 2023. It had been over two decades. Why was she hearing from this ex? It was basically just a college romance, one that Christiel had lost interest in fairly quickly, if we're being honest. And, you know, we've all been there. You're young. These people were young. They had dated for a little while. But in the grand scheme of things, their relationship didn't work out. It hadn't really meant much to Christiel either. And so it just fizzled out. But anyway, she's now getting this text message. Two decades later, and this guy Jack wrote, Hi, Christel, it's Anthony. I hope it's okay, I looked you up.

Starting point is 00:08:47 I go to Boulder every few weeks, and I thought that we could hook up. You game? So, I mean, a text message that I will give him credit. He was very straight to the point, very clear, very, you know, direct. He was reaching out interested in having sex. No strings attached,

Starting point is 00:09:01 not necessarily rekindling their once college romance, but hooking up because he goes to Boulder from time to time for a few weeks. But Christel was a happily married woman. She was doing well in life, in love in her career. She was a loyal married woman at that. So she decided to leave his ass on red, ignore this message. Sure, she could have responded, even if it was just turning him down and saying no,

Starting point is 00:09:26 but she figured it would probably be way less messy if she just ignored the text message altogether, just didn't even engage. The very next day, though, she received another message from Jack. Only this time he seemed very, very angry for ignoring her. It read, are you there? You should say yes when I offer a pity fuck. Whatever, I saw your picks. You got fat. Bet your loser husband won't fuck your fat, cunt, dumb cunt. You should kill yourself. Don't waste my time. I mean, first and foremost, a very mean message, yes, but also unhinged. All sorts of spelling errors, no punctuation, bad grammar, which looked like I'm not trying to be the grammar police in all of this. But as you just heard, I reread it exactly as he said it. So I don't know, you know, if the Not the context is obviously the context, but you know, like the pacing. I don't know if that was supposed to be different, but he just kind of was like spiraling and rapid fire rage texting her. So clearly things went from zero to 100 really, really fast. Christiel hadn't even seen Jack

Starting point is 00:10:27 in years, literally since shortly after their breakup in the year 2000. So now she's hearing from him two decades later. She leaves his ass on red for 24 hours and what? He turns into a complete psychopath? I mean, sure, they had briefly exchanged messages a few times over the years, but it was never anything flirtatious. It was never anything weird. Just quick little catch-ups, little how you doing, hey, like hope all as well, things like that. Then they wouldn't talk for another few years until like, hey, hope all as well. And the exact dates that I saw were 2002, 2005, 2010, and 2016. So again, every few years or so, but even now, it had been, what, four, five, six, seven years since their last exchange. Meaning that it wasn't super out of the ordinary

Starting point is 00:11:14 that he had found her number and was texting her, but now these rage text messages, these hookup text messages, this was out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was how up front he was about wanting to hook up with her, not to mention how aggressive he had gotten and how quickly. But like I said, they hadn't seen each other since college, so she hadn't known Jack as an adult. Maybe he had turned into this, you know, aggressive douchebag with age. Who knows? I mean, she had no way of knowing. So again, she didn't want to engage. She ignored this message. I mean, yes, the words were pretty harsh, but not really harsh enough that it hurt her feelings. This guy knew nothing about her. If he thought those things about her,

Starting point is 00:11:55 then who cares, whatever, so be it. But then on October 31st, she received another text message from Jack. And somehow, this message was even worse than the last. because this time there was a picture with the message, and the picture was of Christel's husband Daniel. In this picture, Daniel was seen getting out of his vehicle at the place that he worked in Glendale, Colorado, and based on what he was wearing in this photo, it looked like that photo had been taken and sent to her that very day. The text message that was sent along with this photo said, is this your husband? Drives like a slow old lady, can't believe you want to suck his dick, but not mine. He needs to drive safe. Don't want a clear rubber hose in his tailpipe,

Starting point is 00:12:40 which again, kind of fractured, you know, not great grammar, but basically saying like, hey, is this your husband putting that threat, that fear to her. Like, I know where he works. I can see him anytime I want. Here's a photo of him. I'm going to talk shit on him saying, you know, can't believe you're sucking his dick, but not mine. Then at the very end, a threat where, I mean, at least I believe this is a veiled threat where it says, don't want a clear rubber hose in his tailpipe, carbon monoxide, all of the suffocation things. You get what it means. So I don't need to explain how terrifying this message was for Christiel to receive. Things had gone very quickly from this old fling trying to get back in touch with her to

Starting point is 00:13:19 then getting mad at her rejection to now stalking her very closely, close enough that he discovered where her husband worked. Now the first two messages that Jack had sent were rude were mean, yes, but now it was downright scary. Again, threatening even. So unsure of what to do, Kristille went to the police. And I think everybody always wants to believe that nothing bad could ever happen to you or your family, right? That maybe people are all bark, no bite, but that nothing will ever materialize. But then there's moments where fear really does creep in. And you wonder, what are people capable of, truly? So she did the right thing. She went to the police because she felt like it was better to be safe than sorry. So she filed a harassment complaint with the

Starting point is 00:14:03 Broomfield Police on Halloween Day, which talk about like an actually very scary Halloween, right? I have an ex from a very long time ago who has occasionally over the last 20 years found me on social media apps or whatever and contacted and it's never been an issue until this month. So this month, I have received new. text messages and then today I got an email that is very threatening um threatening against both me and my family um 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 he took it himself I don't know that's just the thing so my my last contact with this individual was

Starting point is 00:14:57 four, five years ago, something like that, ended on a, on a social media app of messages back and forth, 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. I haven't heard from him since. Okay. This all started this month, and I have a whole log. I have all the text messages. I have the email. I have not responded or engaged at all. But the text messages started on October 2nd, asking to meet up, saying that he looked me up, quote, because I've never given him my phone number. I've never given him my email address.

Starting point is 00:15:38 I've never given any kind of contact information at all. He ended with that he hoped that I killed myself. Hadn't heard from him at all until today. Today he sent an email to me with a picture of my husband asking if this was my husband. It's a recent picture of either today or within last couple of days because it's in his work location with snow on the ground and saying that he hopes he drives real safe and that nothing gets in his tailpipe.

Starting point is 00:16:11 Okay. And I, again, have not responded. So I'm very concerned for my safety. So I guess my question for you is, is there a course of action to possibly take? that could potentially safeguard me from this individual. And I guess what, I guess, options I might have here. What do you know about him?

Starting point is 00:16:35 Like, do you know where he lives currently? Do you know? So he is a bit of a drifter. Not that he's homeless or anything, but I went to, after early October, I paid for whatever background searches like on the Internet. That's only like a truth finder. It looks like he's all over the place.

Starting point is 00:16:56 don't see a current address in Colorado, but clearly he's in Colorado. And his very first text message to me said that he gets into Boulder every couple of weeks or something like that. Okay. So he's clearly in Colorado. I just don't know where. And the phone number that he texted me from, again, I will send you all information, including the phone number he texted me from and the email that he sent just today.

Starting point is 00:17:20 But that isn't even registered to anybody. So I don't know if it's blocked or spoofed or what it is. And I wouldn't want to, my inclination is to not respond to this or engage with him at all for whatever delusions that he thinks that were in some kind of relationship 20 years later, and I have never even seen him. You know, like, it's just, this is, this is a little obsessively strange. Yes. Yeah, I agree. And there could be like a slew of reasons of why it's kind of been sporadic over the years. We will never really know until we can try to maybe talk to him.

Starting point is 00:17:55 but that's where we can start for right now. So a few days later on November 2nd, the case was finally assigned to an investigator, Detective Martinez. Now, it sounds like things were moving in the right direction, right? There's now a detective on the case. Things are getting handled. They're going to start looking into this.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Hopefully, all of the concerning behavior and text messaging and stalking stops. But by then, Jack had already sent more messages. But this time, he had switched up and he had reached out by email. So Jack wrote, to Christine saying, your license plate expired. You got to fix that. Husband's good. You and your husband down to Eiffel Tower. Now, if you don't know what an Eiffel Tower is, I'm going to explain it to you

Starting point is 00:18:36 really quick, but it is thoroughly disgusting. I mean, you know what, to each their own, okay? But it's basically a sex position when three people are involved. And I'm not going to, like, do an actual, like, drawing graph for you, but basically the positions of the three people, it forms the Eiffel Tower. So Google it at your own discretion, but that is what he was insinuating with this text message. So again, very creepy, very unwarranted sexual advances. But the scariest part about the email was that he had been absolutely right. Christiel checked her tags on her car and realized that they did expire. They expired in October. So if the pictures of Daniel at his workplace hadn't already convinced her that this guy was serious and also that he was

Starting point is 00:19:22 nearby. He was watching her every move. I mean, this now clearly solidified that. He was watching them. He had access to them. He was getting very bold, even bolder by the day, arguably. And from there, the messages just kept coming and coming. The following day was a photo of a man's penis. The day after that was a topless male. The picture was very grainy, very hard to see, but she assumed that it was Jack sending photos of himself. Then on November 4th, she received another text message. But this time, it was from a different number, an unknown number. And this person was saying, hey, I saw your ad with your phone number on it, posting, you know, the ad posting that you wanted a train, also known as multiple men, basically being sexually active with you at one time, one after another. So clearly at this

Starting point is 00:20:11 point, Jack hadn't only seemingly been stalking her and threatening her and sending her unsolicited penis pictures, but he also had posted her phone number somewhere online, with some sort of ad soliciting sex, saying that she wanted a train run on her, also that random men would now get in touch with her to try to hook up with her. Now, I'm not saying that the police weren't doing their jobs or weren't trying to help Christiel out at this point, but I will say that they were working a little too slowly for how quickly everything was happening. The detective on the case didn't even formally interview Chris Steele until the seventh. And by that time, she was constantly, just consistently being harassed every single day. And of course, the interview was just that, an interview.

Starting point is 00:20:56 I'm sure they were taking notes, trying to come up with a game plan as for what the next moves were going to be, but nothing was really being done to actually stop what was happening. I have never dealt with like this kind of level in like an online version. And I think to myself of like advice that I give to my kids, like, watch out for online people. I'm like, this is exhausting. This is real, like, I can't believe, like, any kids would be dealing with stuff like this that comes from all directions at any time. You know, it's just, it's a lot, and it has definitely made me, like, paranoid everywhere I go, unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Yeah. No, I can completely understand that. Yeah. And I keep trying to remind myself, this is intending to be terrorizing. This is intending to scare me. This is pretty alarming, right? Where he's, like, we're not to be together, and my family loves that we're talking. I'm like, whoa, you think that we're like, whoa, you think that we're,

Starting point is 00:21:44 like in her relationship. So I shut it down real high. I said, this is really creepy for me. You need to stop. I'm married, happily married with children. You need to stop. And he got like real emotional, real hurt. It wasn't angry, but it was hurt. He real like over the top emotions. And then, and then blocked me. I look, because you can see when things get, once you blocks you on Facebook. I'm like, good. And I blocked me in and then I'm like, and then I shut down Facebook entirely before the pandemic. So like, there was no way to get a hold of me on any kind of old email address or old way, and that's when this starts. A lot of, like, very sexually explicit, very graphic, very, um, just like poke the bear kind of thing.

Starting point is 00:22:27 Two days later, on the ninth, Christiel had a dentist appointment, and she went just trying to ignore everything that was going on, try to keep her day and plans, you know, as usual, hoping that maybe Jack would just leave her alone. But of course, that didn't happen. She got another text message from Jack, and this time it said, 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. Just absolutely disgusting. And let me say this. Anybody who says the term nutted grosses me the fuck out. It is so disgusting. So Christel immediately got in contact with the detective because again, Jack had hit the nail on the head once again. She had been at the dentist that day. And there was no way that Jack would have known. that unless he was nearby watching her, stalking her. Which I want to just say this too. To be clear, I don't know if the part about him, quote, nutting on her car was true. I'm assuming not, since it would be

Starting point is 00:23:25 DNA evidence on her car, but still, I mean, gross. So needless to say, after the dentist, Kristiel just booked it home. She was not going to risk to making any stops and having some sort of, you know, interaction with Jack. She just wanted to get home. Once she got there, she locked herself inside the house until her husband Daniel came home so that she would no longer be alone any longer. Now, on that day, Detective Martinez apparently was able to do some digging. And he discovered two things. Number one, the number that Jack was texting from wasn't a real phone number. It was a text now number.

Starting point is 00:24:00 And for those of you who are unfamiliar, text now is an app that you can download. Then once it's downloaded, it gives you this random number. You can text people from it as long as you have Wi-Fi. So it's kind of marketed as having, you know, unlimited free service. You can text anyone. You just have to be connected to Wi-Fi. I'm not trying to give anybody any ideas here. So slow your role. But I do think that a lot of people who are in toxic relationships do use text now because you can keep making just this endless amount of new phone numbers, meaning that you can never really be blocked from somebody's phone. It's actually pretty dangerous and upsetting, in my opinion. So if Jack sent one text from a random number, and then Cristiel blocked that number, he could immediately just make a new number, I think even for free, potentially, then just text her from that new number and then keep repeating that same cycle, same pattern. So it's either a toxic person or a stalker's paradise. I don't know, maybe people use it for more like PG things, but that unfortunately is just

Starting point is 00:25:00 the only options that I'm familiar with that I've seen. Now, the second thing that Detective Martinez was able to identify was that the phone carrier that Jack was using was Verizon. Now, neither they're one of those things really seemed all that relevant, but it will make a lot more sense here shortly. So I want to just state that fact and put a pin in it, because we will come back to that. So for a few days after this whole dentist incident, things actually started to get pretty quiet. Cristiel slowly started to feel a sense of relief with that as well, thinking, okay, you know, maybe this chaos is finally coming to an end. Maybe he's bored and he's finally going to leave me alone since I haven't been giving him any responses.

Starting point is 00:25:40 by November 13th, that false sense of relief, it was completely shattered. Do you ever feel like you're doing everything right, you know, working out, eating clean, all of the things, but you're still dealing with bloating, cravings, or I don't know, maybe just low energy? Because that was me up until recently. But then I found kettle and fire bone broth, which I didn't expect this to like solve my problems or like I didn't even know bone broth could do that but honestly it definitely has now here's what I love about it it's packed with protein also is packed with collagen it helps support digestion it keeps me full it gives me steady energy and it is so so easy and you know I love anything that is a life hack and you know simplifies my routine

Starting point is 00:26:31 and it's literally two minutes in the microwave and then I'm good to go and what I love the most is how it actually fits into my day. Because in the morning, if you want bone broth, you can sip on it instead of grabbing a protein bar or a protein shake. It's 19 grams of protein to like start your day off fully strong. But for me, like when I'm in that afternoon slump and I'm hungry, I need energy, but I don't want a full meal, you know, and normally I would reach for like the cheeses or junk food, I'll just heat some bone broth up and it keeps me full until dinner. Also, there's been nights where in the evening, it just kind of feels like my new little fall cozy ritual and that's like indulgent and like, I hate this word, but hearty, you know what I mean, where it's like filling

Starting point is 00:27:08 and cozy and good. Kettle and Fire bone broth is rich, savory, slow simmered, and it's made with 100% grass fed and finished beef bones or organic free range chicken bones. No additives, no preservatives, no weird stuff, just real ingredients. Now for a limited time, you can get a free carton of kettle and fire bone broth just by going to kettle and fire.com slash a.E. Just buy any three in store and they'll pay you back for one. This works on any flavor at any retailer. And you can also find them in over 22,000 stores nationwide, including Costco, Walmart, Target, Publix, Whole Foods, Kroger, Sprouts, you name it. So that's K-E-T-L-E-N-FIRE.com slash A-E. I'm a girl's girl, and I don't gatekeep. I don't believe in it. And ladies, I just want to be real with you for a second.

Starting point is 00:27:59 Maybe it's TMI, but we're in the bestie zone, so I feel like I need to be honest with you. I feel like so many things can throw off our vaginal health. Tight clothing, working out, periods, even stress. And whenever that balance is off, if you know what I mean, it can lead to discomfort, not feeling your best and not feeling super confident, not feeling confident with intimacy. And that is where O positive zero vaginal probiotic comes in. It is specifically formulated to support vaginal health by helping balance pH, support healthy vaginal, you know, healthy flora, all the things, the pH, all.

Starting point is 00:28:33 of it, and basically it's kind of like giving your body exactly what it needs to help keep everything in check. Euro is made with a blend of four powerful probiotic strains plus prebiotics, and it's backed by clinical research. And when it's taken daily, you can see noticeable benefits within eight weeks, sometimes even sooner. So many women talk about how it's given them greater confidence, improved comfort, and yes, even better intimacy. So take proactive care of your health and head to O-Positive.com slash A-E or enter A-E at checkout for 25% off your first purchase. That's O-P-O-S-I-V dot com slash A-E for 25% off. Christel received yet another text message from Jack on November 13th, so about six weeks

Starting point is 00:29:25 since that very first weird text message. And this time, this text was a long one. So buckle in. And I am going to read this verbatim. But again, this is, you know, because there's poor grammar and bad spelling and all of that. But you'll be able to make sense of it, at least the context of it. So it says, he don't deserve you. You know it.

Starting point is 00:29:48 He don't satisfy you. That's why you keep all your fuckboys on the side. You're a dirty slut and I know how to satisfy you. Admit that no one satisfied you since me. I see you flirting with waiters, almost begging for sex, licking your lips and you have your tits out. Don't know how many fuckboys you kept, but I'll save you. I know he's keeping us apart. You don't belong in that big house. You belong with me. I'll get rid of him and then we can be together. So easy. Then in this next sentence, he uses a derogatory slur, so I'm going to

Starting point is 00:30:23 abbreviate it, but he says he got an R-word midget on security. They let me park and walk right into his building, been there for weeks. Give me the signal and he won't come home. Every married bitch I ever banged wanted to get rid of the husbands. I'll do it for us. Help me get rid of him and then we can be together, just like you want. I'm planning a big B-day party for you. Just you, me, and 20 friends. I know you're a dirty slut. I'll treat you right. You can be slutty with me, and I'll take you. You don't want the fake married life. You want to be dirty. I'll save you. Help me get rid of him and we can get away. I know he's stopping you from talking to me. You don't want him. I know you want me. I mean, very upsetting, am I right? And when Christiel read this

Starting point is 00:31:10 message, her heart just completely sank. There was no doubt in her mind that Jack was telling the truth here, that he had been clearly watching her. He knew details about her house, about Daniel's work, her appointments, her car. So he had been telling the truth all those times. Why wouldn't he be telling the truth this time when he said that he had been at Daniel's job every day? I mean, who even knew what this guy was actually capable of? So she immediately called the police, just terrified that they were too late. What if something terrible had already happened to her husband Daniel? Now, fortunately, the police took it very seriously. At the very same time, in fact, officers not only stormed into Daniel's workplace, but they also had to have.

Starting point is 00:31:51 had officers going directly to their family's home where Kristiel was. They just wanted to make sure that they were covering all of their bases and that everybody was okay. Which, to their surprise, or maybe not, I don't know, there was no evidence of Jack anywhere in Daniel's building or any evidence that proved that he had ever been there at any point in time. Maybe he had seen enough of what the workplace looked like from the outside. I don't know, just kind of like he had seen from their house. But the point is, there didn't seem to be any sort of immediate threat here. I mean, that didn't mean that the whole thing wasn't still a threat in and of itself, but it didn't seem like there was an immediate threat to anybody's physical safety because

Starting point is 00:32:30 of him being on site. And looking a little bit further, the text message had said that it was all up to Christel. And she had never officially given him the green light, the okay, go ahead and off my husband, right? Now, when it comes to the investigation after this specific point, I definitely did have some questions, because apparently they were able to get Jack's two most recent addresses, which were in Idaho and in Utah, his most current being in Utah. Other than that, though, I mean, sure, there was an open case file and they were taking all of Christiel's calls and listening

Starting point is 00:33:03 to her concerns, but it doesn't seem like they were doing anything to really actively stop this guy. And the thing is, if we're just being honest, when it comes to a lot of stalking and harassment cases, there's really not a whole lot that can be done until something. bad happens. That's why it's so scary. Because it's not illegal to send a bunch of text messages or a bunch of unsolicited dick pics to your ex of 20 years. Is it weird? A hell yeah. Is it creepy? 100%. But really, what can the investigators actually do about it? I mean, yes, they could look into it a little bit more. And I will say, I guess the detectives did have the intention of filing a search warrant to at least get some of the information on the email addresses that were being used,

Starting point is 00:33:48 but somebody, I guess, screwed it up and made a typo on the warrant. So that stalled things. Because even the slightest typo or misspelling can completely ruin a search warrant. They can't just take it to a judge and be like, hey, you know what? It actually is supposed to say this, but you get what I mean, you know, my bad. So they had to start the entire process all over again, which they ended up telling Kristiel it could take weeks to do that. Which why they didn't just contact Jack directly and speak with him. Your guess is as good as mine. It's a very good question because it certainly wouldn't be too difficult to find his information. In fact, Kristiel had literally done all of the digging that the detectives would even need to do.

Starting point is 00:34:27 She literally showed up at the police department with her own file that had all the information that she was able to find on Jack. I mean, she was just a very intelligent woman. She wasn't the type of person to just sit back and hope for the best. Yet despite her files having his most recent address, his potential phone numbers associated with his name, even potential license plate numbers, nobody reached out to him, not a single person. Which this is insane for a lot of reasons. I mean, of course, you should always take a woman's safety seriously when they're being stocked. But you'd also think that if you are literally handed information on a silver platter,

Starting point is 00:35:03 the least you could do is make a couple phone calls, right? It's no surprise that after everything that had been happening, Christine had become a shell of her former self. She was paranoid about everything. Anytime her phone pinged, she was terrified that it was going to be another text message from Jack. She was scared that one day his threats wouldn't just be threats anymore, but they would be promises.

Starting point is 00:35:24 She was scared to even leave the house. She was scared out of fear that Jack was always somewhere nearby, just watching her, watching her every move and drafting his next text message. Not to mention, she was terrified for her kids. By this time, they were 8 years old, 11 years old, and 14 years old. So they weren't little babies who you could shelter and shield from all the bad in the world.

Starting point is 00:35:47 They were old enough to understand something was going on. She did her best to protect them and shield them, but kids are smart. They pick up on way more than we give them credit for, so I'm sure that they could tell that something just wasn't quite right. And what scared Christel even more was the thought of Jack potentially turning his attention onto them. If he had figured out where Daniel worked, it definitely would not be difficult for him to find out where the kids went to school or what their routines were. So Christel started skipping her kids' important events, even things like her daughter's dance recital, which was incredibly

Starting point is 00:36:21 painful. She wanted to be there. She didn't want to be the mom who didn't show up, but she was scared that if she did show up, she was putting her kids in harm's way. And dance was something particularly that the two of them had always shared together. Christel loved that her her daughter was just as passionate about dance as she was. But again, the fear of drawing attention to her kids, or worse, leading Jack straight to her kids, it was too much for her to risk. So at this point, Kristiel and her husband Daniel knew they needed to protect themselves and protect their family as best as they could. So they began taking all of the precautions that a lot of people take, not only in these kinds of situations, but even before a situation like this occurs.

Starting point is 00:37:01 They got security cameras installed all over the house. Kristiel bought a gun. Even though they didn't want to scare the kids, they also made a plan. They made sure that the kids knew what they needed to do if there was ever a situation where a stranger approached them in public or a stranger came to their school saying that they needed to pick them up, you know, having a safe word, a code word, just roleplaying all of these different scenarios so that, God forbid, if anything ever actually happened, they would be as prepared as possible to react.

Starting point is 00:37:31 And above all else, they just tried to get back to how life was before all of this, before Jack was stalking them and harassing them because they didn't want to allow him to ruin their lives. Or, I mean, at least the goal was to not allow him to ruin their lives. But the texts never stopped. They kept coming, although I will say they weren't as threatening or as notable as the other ones that I've shared. But by December 14, 2023, so a month after that really scary text message came through, all hell had broken loose. On December 14th, 20203 at 12.03 p.m., Christiel's husband, Daniel, called the Broomfield Police Department. He explained who he was, but they already knew who he was. They were very familiar with he and Christel's case. They knew about the stalker, the harassment, everything. So they assumed that this was another call, that there had been another thing.

Starting point is 00:38:26 threatening text message that had been sent. But this time, Daniel wasn't calling about Jack sending a text message, not a strange call, not a strange text. It wasn't about that. This time, he was calling because he was worried about his wife, Christiel. He was still at work. That's where he was calling the police from, but he told these detectives that Christel hadn't answered her phone or responded to any text messages for about three hours at this point. This was also very unlike her. It was out of character for her, especially, with everything going on, she knew to check in with her husband, so he was very worried. Apparently, Christiel had told him that she had a meeting with Detective Martinez that morning, which, okay, great, no big deal. But three hours seemed like a really

Starting point is 00:39:08 long time for her to not check in with him and say, you know, hey, the meeting's running over, I'm still here, or starting late, that's why I'm still at the police station. I mean, it's not like they would have taken her phone or not taken a break during that meeting, so she certainly could have notified her husband. So basically, he was just very, very worried. And he wanted to make sure, you know, hey, I just want to clarify that I haven't heard from Christel. I want to verify she's still there, still at the station, still talking with Detective Martinez, and that I'm just overreacting and paranoid. From field dispatched meeting. Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. My wife isn't responding.

Starting point is 00:39:50 to text messages or phone calls. Okay. And we've had threats against us. She was supposed to meet with Detective Martinez today, but I can't get a hold of him. Can I get either someone in the house to check in with Martinez or maybe both, maybe a wellness check at the house? Yeah, we can go check the house.

Starting point is 00:40:18 What's the address? It is a 3-1-3-2 promontory loop. I can spell that in you, because. And what's a good phone number for you, Dan? And where are you currently located? I'm at work. I'm in Glendale. Okay.

Starting point is 00:40:37 All right. What's your wife's name? Chris Field. K-R-I-S-T-I-L. Okay. And last thing? K-R-U. She texted me like, I don't know, three-ish hours ago, and I've asked her multiple questions since then, and she's not responding.

Starting point is 00:41:03 What was going on when you talked to her about three hours ago? Was she okay? Was she having medical things? Anything going on? She asked me to pick up our daughter from school because she had to meet with Martinez. Okay. So she was supposed to, like, come into the PD and meet with Martinez? Yeah, that's what she said. Okay. All right. And then, what is her phone number just in case? Oh, God, you just got a brand new cell phone because of this.

Starting point is 00:41:37 Give me one second. I need to pull it up. I don't have it memorized. Okay. I'm sorry. Her cell phone. Do you know what time the meeting was supposed to start? Like, did she have an appointment?

Starting point is 00:41:52 No, I had no idea. All I know is in the text that she sent me, she asked me to pick up her daughter because she had to meet with Martinez. Okay. I got nothing. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. What kind of vehicle does she drive?

Starting point is 00:42:12 Oh, God, let's see here. It's a Ray Mazda 3 hatchback A license plate I'm sorry I can't say It's okay No that's okay

Starting point is 00:42:24 775 ISM 775 ISM is in Mary Mary Okay All right And then you said this was a Is this like a case for somebody threatening You guys

Starting point is 00:42:37 Yes Okay Martinez knows those all of this. We have both been targeted by a stalker. Threats have been made against my life. Okay. And threatening to like kidnap her, which is why I'm nervous that she's not answering me. Yeah. Understandable for sure. Let me get this going in here. So we will get this in. We'll try to track down Martinez as well. And then we'll also send officers over to the house just to check the house and see what's going on. If you hear from her before then or something changes,

Starting point is 00:43:14 just give us a call back, okay? Okay. I can't focus here at the office. I'm going to be wrapping up as fast as possible and heading home. It takes me 45 minutes. Okay. All right. Sounds good. I'm on the way. Okay. We'll let them know and we'll have an officer call you, okay? Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Bye. Bye. Now, this not only confused everybody at the station, but it really worried them. Because Detective Martinez hadn't scheduled a meeting with Kristiel that day. Not that morning, not that afternoon, not at all. She definitely was not at the station that day.

Starting point is 00:43:53 She never had been. So they immediately sent officers to Christine and Daniel's house to do a wellness check. It was probably nothing. It was probably just paranoia overreacting. Her phone had likely just died, and she forgot to plug. plug it in, right? Well, when the first responders arrived at the house and knocked on the front door, there was no answer, no movement inside the house, nothing that they could see. So then they moved over to the front windows. They looked inside, trying to make out anything that they could, but they still

Starting point is 00:44:21 didn't see anything. The officers even knocked really loudly on each of the front windows, just in case maybe Chris Steele had been sleeping, or maybe she was in the shower, or maybe she had been ignoring her husband Daniel for whatever reason. But still, nothing. The garage was a pretty normal one. There were two big windows on the side, but they both had the blinds completely pulled down. Then on the actual garage door, there were those little tiny windows up at the top of it, along, you know, the whole top strip. But they were so high up that you couldn't easily look into them. You needed a little bit of a boost or a stepstool. So the officers decided to pull the patrol car into the driveway, right up to those windows. Then they were going to climb on top of the

Starting point is 00:45:02 patrol car so they could get a better look inside the garage. And when they did, they saw something that nobody was expecting. When the responding officer, Officer O'Hare looked into the garage, he could see clear as day that there was a woman in there, a woman lying on the ground and not moving. There was also this area with a few steps that lead to a door to the inside of the house. You know how you'll walk up a couple steps in a garage and then go into the house? and her body was lying right there near the bottom of those steps. She was lying on her back, not moving, not responsive, and even worse, in a puddle of blood. 151, send medical and 110. I need a force entry. I got a female down in the garage.

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Starting point is 00:49:58 And he immediately knew that this woman was Christiel. Rochfield Police! Roleafel Police! So after breaking in the front door, the officer was finally able to get inside and was able to get to her, but she had no pulse that he could feel. Yet her body was still warm to the touch. Yet despite all the efforts that the medical team made and, that first responders made, there was nothing that they could do.

Starting point is 00:50:24 Christel was officially pronounced dead at 12.43 p.m. Now right away, the investigators knew that this was no accidental death. Christel had been murdered. This was clear. There was a stab wound near the left side of her chest, as well as what the police report described as, quote, substantial wounds on the right side of her head near her temple. And aside from her injuries, the crime scene really was another thing that stood out to these investigators. It was very suspicious. First of all, there were no signs of forced entry, not anywhere in the home. I mean, the officer literally had to bust down the door just to get

Starting point is 00:51:01 to Christel. No windows were broken. The doors were all locked. It was sealed up like Fort Knox. And as odd as all of that was, the biggest red flag was that the doorbell camera on the front door of the home had blue painters tape put over the camera portion of it. Clearly, someone had been very intentional and made sure that they weren't caught on this newly purchased ring cam that Kristille and Daniel had installed. And like I mentioned a few minutes ago, there were cameras literally all over the house, inside and out. Daniel and Christel had been prepared for something like this. They knew that something like this was a possibility. But the odd thing about these cameras was that three out of the four cameras had been turned off for a pretty significant

Starting point is 00:51:47 portion of the day, specifically during the time that Christel was murdered. And that fourth camera? The fourth camera was on the front door. The one that had that blue painter's tape just completely laid on top of it. So as they're looking into the footage and trying to see like, what's really going on here with these cameras? What do you know? All three cameras magically came back on later in the day. Which, it's kind of odd that the cameras were, you know, quote, malfunctioning during the times that they were needed the most. And when Crystal was murdered, but it seemed as though that was done intentionally. Something that's also worth mentioning is the location of where Christiel's body was found.

Starting point is 00:52:25 We know that she was found at the bottom of the stairs in the garage, and we also know that her purse and her keys were next to her body. So it seems like she was about to get in the car and possibly leave. Now, inside her purse that was next to her was her gun. So if she thought that she was in danger, there is no doubt that she would have pulled it out and at least tried to defend herself. So now the question was,

Starting point is 00:52:47 How could someone have gotten inside her house without any signs of forced entry at the perfect time when she was home alone and the cameras were turned off and just snuck up on her without her even knowing that they were there? And I know that that is not impossible. Please do not get confused or get me wrong with that. I have seen this in way too many cases to count. And if I've learned anything over the years of doing these cases, it's that anything is possible. But what I've also learned is that if something seems too coincidental to be true, it's likely because it is. Now, right away, the investigators honed in on Jack, obviously. He was the biggest suspect here.

Starting point is 00:53:27 He had the motive. He certainly had the means and the opportunity, considering he was constantly stalking her and knew her every move. And it seemed like this case was one that was going to be very simple and quick to solve. Jack had been stalking Kristiel for months, ramping up his threats, making her feel unsafe everywhere, including in her own home. And as unfortunate as it was, it was likely that Jack had finally decided that he was done with this cat and mouse stalkery kind of game.

Starting point is 00:53:55 If he couldn't have Kristiel, nobody could. And then everyone would finally be able to see how serious he was, how serious he had been about his undying love for her. And as you can imagine, I mean, Christel's husband, Daniel, was just beside himself, distraught. He was later taken into the police station to answer some questions, and he pretty much expressed the same feelings that the detectives had. It had to have been Jack, right? This couldn't have been random. This wouldn't have been, by chance.

Starting point is 00:54:23 It's too big of a coincidence. Now, Daniel refers to him as Anthony in this interview that you were about to hear. But I just wanted to remind you that Jack and Anthony are the same person. He goes by both names. I mean, who do you think, who do you think killed her? I think he's kicking him. I think it's Anthony. Okay. If not him, I have no other situation.

Starting point is 00:54:56 He had. He had clearly been watching her enough to know her everyday routines. When she left the house, where she was going, what she was doing. So it wouldn't be too crazy to imagine that he knew that there would be a small gap in time when Daniel left for work and Christiel was home alone. But what Daniel hadn't realized is that the investigators on the case had already started working with the Utah police, tracking down Jack's location.

Starting point is 00:55:20 They even gave him a surprise visit at his house just hours after Christel's body had been found. I'm going to ask you a couple of names to see if you recognize any names. 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 Kroog? No.

Starting point is 00:55:41 No? How do you know Crystal? She was an ex-girlfriend. She was an ex-girlfriend. How long's ex? Like how long ago? Um, 1999. Oh, so like a long while ago?

Starting point is 00:55:52 She was my very first girlfriend that way. Oh, okay. When was the last time you talked to Crystal? Has it been a minute? Um, it's been a minute, yeah. Like, since you moved from Durango? Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:56:06 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 going to give you a phone number. And it's to a sergeant with the Broomsfield Police Department.

Starting point is 00:56:24 Okay. He would like you to reach out and talk to him. All right. 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. He had asked us to come out here to your house and talk with you. They were debating on, you do have an active warrant out of Broomfield Police Department,

Starting point is 00:56:50 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, if that makes sense. When you call and talk to him, you can talk to him about that as well. When you call that number, that's his cell phone, just talk to him. And here's the thing, after finally speaking with Jack, the investigators were kind of like, wait a minute, none of this is making any sense.

Starting point is 00:57:24 You see, Jack had an alibi, and a pretty good one at that. The first being that he was at his home in Utah just hours after Chris Steele had been murdered, despite it being about an eight-hour drive from where he lived to where Christia lived. He was home just within hours. So they looked into whether or not he could have traveled by plane if he could have flown there. But there was no evidence that he had taken a plane that day in an attempt to flee the scene and make it look like he had been in Utah the whole time. And on top of that, he hadn't just been sitting at home or been by himself where it would be

Starting point is 00:57:57 difficult to verify that alibi. But rather, he and his wife had been at the local Coles store buying a sweatshirt. They even had a receipt to prove that they were at Coles, again, eight hours away in Utah, at the exact time of Christine's death. On top of that, license plate readers got his plates on camera near his address in Utah around that same time. So, I mean, it doesn't get much better than that in terms of how alibis go, right? But still, one thing was for sure here. Christine had been murdered in her own home, in cold blood. But if not by Jack, then who? And this is where things start to get really, really interesting, guys. The investigators were

Starting point is 00:58:40 sitting down and basically trying to come up with a game plan of how to approach all of this. Jack had said he wasn't anywhere near the crime scene, and they really couldn't dispute any of that. They didn't have a single thing to argue against what he was saying as far as where he was that day. All they had was suspicion and the track record of him being the stalker and the harasser and the texter, simply because he had seemingly been stalking her and threatening her family for months. So again, what are the odds of Christine ending up murdered and it having absolutely nothing to do with Jack? But during this whole surprise visit to Jack's house, he was very cooperative with the police. He even let them check all of his devices. And guess what? When they searched those devices, there was no sign that he had made any contact with Christiel at all recently, let alone during the times that she was getting all of these very scary, stalkery messages, which was weird. If these messages weren't coming from Jack's phone, they had to be coming from somewhere. Maybe he was using a burner phone, maybe he was using a work computer, maybe he was using something else, something, anything

Starting point is 00:59:45 that would explain why there weren't any messages or evidence of messages on his personal phone. And as we know, the detectives had done some research into where these messages were coming from. But remember, all that they knew was that the service provider was Verizon and that the messages were coming from a text now number. So not really very helpful in this situation. So now the forensic IT experts began doing a reverse search, trying to see what they could find. And I genuinely mean this when I say it, but what they found was pretty much the furthest thing from what any of them could have ever. imagined. The evidence showed that the messages had been sent from a Wi-Fi network whose address was not in Utah where Jack lived, but from an address of 4,300 Cherry Creek Dive South in Glendale,

Starting point is 01:00:35 Colorado. And this address was very important, because this address just so happened to be the address of Daniel's workplace, Christel's husband. Now, as of all of that wasn't sketchy enough, The detectives were also able to determine that all of these text messages that had been coming from Jack all this time had been coming from a burner phone, a burner phone that was paid for with a gift card, a gift card that was registered in Daniel's name. And that burner phone also had Verizon service. What if I told you that we had already spoken with Anthony and there's no way that he was in town today. that I have nothing. And I'm fucking terrified to bring my children home. What are you terrified of? If it wasn't him, it was it?

Starting point is 01:01:48 all of our locks after the garage insurer. I'll do it again. I got the cameras. I don't know. Who else? Okay. So there's a lot of moving parts to this investigation. There's a lot of things that we're doing and working on.

Starting point is 01:02:18 and a lot of, I mean, our entire investigation unit, I would say, fairly, is working on this, right? Because like I said, we take this very seriously. This doesn't happen very often in Brumfield. Well, and we take all crime very seriously, especially crime like this. So one of the things that we really started looking into today in an effort and effort to find Anthony is, what is it, the Gmail, what was the other? Text now numbers. Text now numbers and things like that.

Starting point is 01:02:58 I don't know what text now is. It's like an app that you can get fake phone numbers and contact people through Wi-Fi. Yeah, it's like a Wi-Fi only. All the spoofing, got you. Kind of. Yeah, not really spoofing, but like if I wanted to text somebody, let's say I was buying something on Craigslist

Starting point is 01:03:19 and I didn't want them to know my real phone number because I don't want them coming back to me or whatever. I would just get a text now account and it would almost like a Google Voice, whatever, okay? So the really weird part about looking into some of that stuff because

Starting point is 01:03:34 we have what we call exigent circumstances right now. You understand what that means? So for us and our legal mumbo-jumbo, that means that someone died and we're looking into it very seriously, and so there's a sense of urgency in getting that information. Okay, so companies are more likely to cooperate with us if we're investigating that

Starting point is 01:03:58 versus harassment or stalking or... Remember how we talked. When I said it, my legal paperwork a test, a while, but because somebody was murdered today, we have the ability to tell them that, and they will generally provide us with information immediately. That's what exigent circumstances means. Okay. Because we're trying to find the killer. So some of that information that we've been able to receive today is a little bit, I don't know, concerning, I guess. The Gmail account that, and you can speak more

Starting point is 01:04:43 specifically. And that text now number we were talking about, the number that he initially texted Christio from. 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

Starting point is 01:05:01 at your office. It doesn't make any sense. Well, he took the photo of me out of my office. Right. Right. But both of those accounts originated from IP addresses that list back to your office. I don't know what to do with that.

Starting point is 01:05:26 Well, tell us about the IP address. Do you know anything about the network or anything at your work? No. I do money. Yeah, I know. But here, I believe me, I know nothing about tech stuff. tech stuff. That's why I keep looking to him to explain this crap, is, um, I still know there's, there are, there are Wi-Fi access throughout the facility for employees, and there's

Starting point is 01:05:57 public Wi-Fi access throughout the entire facility. Okay. C.P.H.E. Guest, I think is what it is. And we literally post the passwords in every single meeting room. Okay. I don't know. It just doesn't, it's not adding up. It's not adding up. and what I want you to know is that and feel that based on what you've told me and what I've learned about, your relationship is that it sure sounds like you were I don't know, just sort of, I don't know if it was being used

Starting point is 01:06:48 or what it was, but you guys were kind of going through the motions in your marriage And I think all this stocking stuff became an opportunity for you guys to get closer or for you to try to dig about this affair that she's having or maybe try to confirm or not confirm this mystery time lapse, disappearances of hers. because you're a smart guy and you couldn't give the information from her by asking her so well I've heard of a lot of crazy stuff

Starting point is 01:07:36 and and this seems to be sort of like minded to someone who's smart like you, and who's analytical like you? That's right. Christiel had been stalked, threatened, slut-shamed, and harassed in the weeks leading up to her murder, not by an obsessed ex-boyfriend who was jealous of her life and her success. She had been stalked and harassed by her own husband. Daniel had been the one behind the screen this entire time. This was something that the

Starting point is 01:08:13 detectives were very confident about. Every road of led back to Daniel. Zero Rhodes led back to Jack. Other than the fact that the person who signed the messages was signing them as Jack, there was nothing that linked the two of them together. And as we know, anyone can sign any name when they send something, right? So on top of the already damning evidence that was stacked against her husband Daniel, the investigators also discovered that the only two people who had access to the camera's security codes, meaning the only two people who were able to turn those cameras on or off were Christine and Daniel. Now, Christiel surely wouldn't have turned them off, so that only leaves Daniel. And when he was asked

Starting point is 01:08:52 about those three cameras being turned off that morning, he couldn't even come up with any sort of bullshit excuse. He was literally speechless. Oh, and did I mention that he was also late to work that morning, giving him the perfect amount of time to kill his wife, Christel, and then come into work like nothing ever happened. When the investigators brought Daniel in for more questioning on December 14th, they also read him his Miranda rights, and they asked him to explain everything top to bottom. They wanted to hear his version of events of what happened the morning of Christel's murder. And here's what happened through Daniel's point of view. He started off the interview by denying having anything to do with Christel's death. He didn't murder her. He didn't know who

Starting point is 01:09:37 murdered her if it wasn't Jack. I mean, the whole spiel. And he claimed, that the morning of Christel's murder had started off like any other day. Usually, Christel took the kids to school while Daniel was finishing getting ready for work. Then, by the time that she was back, he would already be gone and headed into work. But this day in particular, he claimed that he was still home when Christel got back from dropping the kids off at school. And he said that he was still home because he was having diarrhea. His words, not mine. He said that he was stuck in the bathroom, and that's why he ended up running late and getting to work late. He even made a point to say that it wasn't anything suspicious. It was just bad timing. And according to him,

Starting point is 01:10:15 Cristiel was surprised to see him still there. But he said, other than that, there really was nothing else to note. He and Christel quickly interacted before he left and went to work, and that was the last time that he ever saw her. They shared a couple text messages after that, one being the text message that said that she was going to go meet with the detective that morning, which then, now, after that, we know the rest of the story from there. She wasn't answering his text or her phone call, so he called the detectives to verify that she was still at the station. But the thing about this interview was that Daniel seemed to be getting a little antsy during it. Gone was the super cooperative morning husband act that he had been portraying earlier that day.

Starting point is 01:10:54 Now he pretty much just said, that's all that happened. Now, if you don't mind, if you're not arresting me, I'm leaving. And he did. Now remember, this was all happening on the 14th, the same day that Kristiel's body was found. And already, investigators had uncovered plenty of red flags pointing to Daniel. And it's a little frustrating, honestly, because they dragged their feet while Kristiel was alive and begging for help. But now, once she was gone, things were moving very, very fast. And I feel like that's always kind of how it goes, right? It's like it's too little too late.

Starting point is 01:11:25 Which, of course, it's a good thing that things were moving fast, but still, it's frustrating. And just when Daniel couldn't look more suspicious, investigators learned a major piece of the puzzle from the people who knew Christel best. Because now they didn't just have a timeline and some evidence, but they had a motive. Today's episode is sponsored by Better Health. October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and this year, we are saying thank you therapists,

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Starting point is 01:13:05 and stepmom, and these two were more than willing to share the reasons why they also believed that Daniel is the one who killed Christel. To put it bluntly, their relationship just was not good. And it wasn't something that had just recently started, or it wasn't something that started due to the whole stalking situation, which we also know was never even orchestrated by Jack in the first place, but the two had been in rocky territory for a while. And apparently, Christel had made it known that she wanted a divorce. And it wasn't just simply her saying that she was thinking about a divorce or that she was planning on it or that she was, you know, deciding and weighing her options. She was actively planning it. It was only a matter of time before the divorce was

Starting point is 01:13:48 finalized. In fact, Christine's dad told law enforcement that just three days before her murder, she was showing him pictures that she was saving in a file on her phone. And she was using these photos and saving them so that she could use them in a custody battle for her three kids. She wanted full custody. The police report kept it vague, and it just said pictures. But my first thought, whenever I hear of somebody saving pictures for a court case, is something that has to do with physical abuse. Again, we don't know for sure.

Starting point is 01:14:15 That's just where my mind went, whether it was abuse against her, the children. I'm not really sure. Maybe that was the case. Maybe it wasn't. But regardless, Christiel was not only planning on leaving Daniel, but planning on fighting for full custody of their three children. which we know that is a big motive for somebody. And just to really solidify how serious these claims were,

Starting point is 01:14:37 the investigators also went to Christine's mom, basically asking her the same kinds of questions. You know, would Daniel have had any reason to hurt Christel? Well, Christel's mom pretty much confirmed it. She said the same thing that her dad and the stepmom had said. It was clear that Christel was no stranger to confiding in her parents about her marital struggles and just her overall unhappiness.

Starting point is 01:14:58 They all knew that she was unhappy. Now this was the second time that Christel's mom had spoken with the detectives, but this time she wasn't in so much of a panic and she was able to actually have more clear thoughts going into this conversation and she wanted to be as thorough with them as possible. So she started by telling the detectives that, yes, it was true that Christel and Daniel were in the process of splitting up and ultimately getting a divorce.

Starting point is 01:15:23 She also knew that it was pretty much all Christel's doing. Daniel didn't want this. According to her mom, this was something that she had actively been planning for a while now. About a year prior to her death, she had packed up all of her things in the primary bedroom that she used to share with Daniel as well, and she had moved into one of the kids' bedrooms. So it had actually been a year since they even shared a room together, let alone a bed. Kristiel's initial plan was to wait until one of her kids was out of school to officially file for divorce. I'm not exactly sure why.

Starting point is 01:15:53 I think it's safe to assume that she was trying to do what she thought was best for her family, and we do see that a lot in marriages that are struggling. They just think, you know, I'll just hold on until the kids are out of the house. I'll hold on until at least one of them's out of the house. Something like that. And it seemed that that's what Christiel was doing as well. But apparently she had confided in her mom that she couldn't wait any longer. She had been unhappy for far too long.

Starting point is 01:16:16 In the months leading up to her death, she had already started organizing the bank accounts. She had started handling the small, tedious steps that come with preparing for a separation, where you're going to have to divide your assets, your money, everything. And that wasn't the only thing that her mom shared with the investigators. Now, for context, Christel was murdered on the 14th, and this interview happened just two days later on the 16th. And in those two days, in that very short window of time, Christine's mom said that she saw Daniel acting strangely, off even.

Starting point is 01:16:50 According to her mom, Daniel had already made it clear. He was planning on selling the house. And not only that, but he also had already started getting rid of Kristiel's clothing and her belongings, which I don't know about you, but that is a big red flag to me. Two days after your partner, your wife, your spouse is murdered in cold blood in your house, you are selling the house, which is a crime scene. You're getting rid of their clothes. You're getting rid of their personal belongings, trying to wipe them off the face of the earth as though they never existed. That don't feel too right to me. like something does not feel right. Also, they had three kids, which you would think that he would

Starting point is 01:17:28 want to save a few things for them, right? Something to hold on to, something that would mean the world to them as they grew up, a piece of their mom. But what really stood out to Christine's mom was how Daniel was acting, not only that he was trying to like, you know, wipe a clean slate of everything, but his actions. Because he didn't seem devastated. He wasn't talking about Kristiel or the fact that their kids had just lost their mom, he didn't seem distraught or grieving. The only thing that he seemed upset about was that the detectives were questioning him. According to him, he felt like he was being framed and that was his focus. Not the murder, not Christel, just himself. Which, honestly, let's just call it what it is. That says a lot, right?

Starting point is 01:18:11 Now, the final nail in the coffin was when the detectives were finally able to go through all of the neighbor's security cameras in the area. Because remember, this was 2023. Pretty much everybody had a ring doorbell camera by this point or some sort of security system in place. And to nobody's surprise, they saw that there wasn't a single unknown person entering or exiting Daniel and Christel's house. It was just them and the kids. So here's what the detectives think actually happened. The investigators believe that Daniel knew that it was only a matter of time before Christel left him.

Starting point is 01:18:46 Like Christel's parents said, it wasn't a statement. secret. She was leaving. So, panicked, he decided to start pretending to be Jack, and he started stalking Christel, harassing her, sending her those messages about how she's fat, how she's a slut, all of those horrible things. And they say he did this not so that he could hatch this diabolical plan to frame Jack for Christel's murder, but rather it was done in an effort to get Chris Steele back. Now, I know it sounds really insane, even saying that out loud, but let me break it down because the detectives believe that for whatever reason, Daniel thought that in some sort of fairy tale universe, that this situation would bring them closer together. And I don't know what

Starting point is 01:19:31 movie he was watching that made him believe that that could actually be true, but that is what he believed. And I got to just say, I do see a little bit of a similarity with the Kendra Lakari case, the catfish mom case because for whatever reason, I personally believe that she was sending those text messages because she was jealous of her daughter and she had this, you know, infatuation with Owen, but some people believe that she was doing that to bring her daughter and her closer together. So it's not the craziest thing we've ever heard. But the detectives say this is why so many of those messages from fictitious Jack were centered around Daniel, about Daniel being in danger and him being stalked and him being in harm's way.

Starting point is 01:20:11 He wanted Chris Steele to have this kind of like, aha moment realizing that she still loved Daniel and that she can never live without him and that now that there was a possibility of him being in harm's way, she was scared to death and she just wanted to be with him. Again, very fairy tale, very fiction. Okay, my man, like get a grip, stop watching Lifetime movies. And as we saw, that did not happen.

Starting point is 01:20:34 I mean, yes, she did contact the police when she thought that he was in danger because she actually is a good human. She had empathy for the father of her children and the man that she once loved. She wasn't a psychopath, but it didn't mean that she wanted to, like, fall back in love with this guy and be with him forever. So then, the investigators believe that at some point,

Starting point is 01:20:53 Daniel realized he was in way too deep. Kristille had become paranoid of someone who was never even watching them, and she started taking matters into her own hands, getting the gun, getting the security cameras. So they say he started panicking, worrying about one day, her finding out the truth, that he had been the one sending those messages. He knew that she was

Starting point is 01:21:12 never going to stop until she had the answers, and once she got those answers, he would be totally completely screwed. He'd likely be arrested for impersonating her ex, for stalking her. Even if he wasn't arrested, there would be no chance that he would get custody of the kids. So because of that, he orchestrated her murder. He knew her daily schedule. He knew that they could get the kids to school, pretend that he had gone to work by the usual time and then kill her in cold blood. He made sure that all of the cameras were either covered up or, you know, coincidentally not working during the time that she was murdered. And best of all, she would never expect it. As she was heading into the garage to leave for the day, he hit her over the head multiple times,

Starting point is 01:21:53 knocking her fully unconscious. Then he stabbed her directly in the heart. She hadn't seen him coming. She had no idea that he was going to hurt her that morning, let alone murder her. He took her by complete surprise. Now, the exact object that he hit her over the head with is still unknown. It's only been described as a, quote, blunt object. Maybe since the attack took place in the garage, it was something that was nearby, like a tool, a wrench, a hammer or something. Maybe it was just anything heavy that you would typically find in the garage. Then, after Christiel was dead, Daniel used her phone to send him the text message about,

Starting point is 01:22:30 having a meeting that morning with Detective Martinez, just really setting the footwork and the groundwork to put the rest of his plan in motion. Then he went to work like usual, knowing that his wife and the mother of his three children was at their home, dead in their garage, bleeding, right before Christmas, mind you. I mean, what a sick, twisted, and I'm just going to say it, perverted person too, because of those text messages, right? So really, he seemed confident about his plan. I mean, it wasn't this spur of the moment thing. He had planned it all out. He had taken a lot of careful consideration in his planning. But to be honest, I'll just call it like it is. It doesn't really seem like a very well thought out plan. I mean, did he just assume that they would

Starting point is 01:23:15 arrest Jack for her murder without looking into Jack's alibi or verifying that those messages had ever really originated from him? Did they also think that they wouldn't look into any other possible options of who had killed her, that they would just easily go directly to Jack? I mean, it just kind of seems like a no-brainer to me. So with ample evidence now stacked against him, Daniel was arrested on the 16th, just two days after Christel's murder. He was charged with first-degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. He, of course, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Starting point is 01:23:49 And about a year and a half later, his trial finally began in April of 2025. This was about Dan losing control. He was not in love with Christel, and that resentment had turned to a rage by the time we get to December 14th. Think about what he did to her. 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. Now, a lot of what was discussed at his trial was things that I already went over, but there were two very interesting things that were uncovered that I want to share with you, just in case, you know, you had any lingering doubts that Daniel was the one who killed his wife

Starting point is 01:24:26 Kristiel, but the first thing was that on December 13th, the day before Kristiel's murder, Google searches on Daniel's phone showed that not only was he planning her murder, but planning exactly how he was going to kill her. And like we always say, the Google searches, they will get you every single time. So he was searching things like, when is a head injury a cause for concern? How hard would you have to hit someone in the head to make them unconscious? Also, how long can you be unconscious without brain damage? Which let me just say what it is, okay? There is no world where he was just randomly looking these things up the day before Chris Steele was knocked unconscious and then stabbed. I mean, in my opinion, there is just no way that those things

Starting point is 01:25:13 magically lined up in the stars. That is intent and that is premeditation. And we love to see dumb criminals, right? Not only did he not think that Jack would have an alibi and that the police would look at anybody but Jack, but this fucking moron also went to Google. We love to see it. We love to see when criminals are that stupid. Now, the second thing that I wanted to mention to you was that one of Daniel's exes also testified, and what she had to say about him was pretty freaking awful. This ex was from many years before. She and Daniel had dated when the two of them were in high school and then into their college years. Their relationship was one that was never super serious. I mean, they were still teenagers, and like a lot of relationships at that age,

Starting point is 01:25:53 they quickly grew in different directions, and she was no longer feeling it. So she broke up with him. But just like with Christine and Daniel's marriage, Daniel was not having it. He didn't understand why she wanted to end things. And whether it was jealousy, embarrassment, or feeling like he owned her, or a combination of all three of them, who the heck really knows, but she testified that he made it very clear to her that she was making a big mistake. And get this, not long after she dumped his sorry ass, She began getting really weird messages. These messages claimed to be written by all sorts of different people. Some of them would be signed by Daniel's roommates at the time.

Starting point is 01:26:31 Some were signed by his buddies. But there was one thing that all of these messages shared in common. They were threatening. They were abusive. They were scary. Now, at first, she thought, okay, he just has these really good friends who are willing to go to bat for him after he's been brokenhearted. But somehow she eventually learned that it wasn't his friends who were sending these messages. It was him. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And these messages were so constant and so scary that

Starting point is 01:26:56 eventually she went to the police. Pretty much went to them begging them to help her. And in the end, she was granted a protection order against him. Now this was way back in 2001, but we know a tiger doesn't change his stripes, leopard doesn't change his spots, all the cliche sayings, you get it. So when she now saw this major breaking headline with her crazy ex-boyfriend's picture on the front news of every single news site, newspaper, all of the things, and had words attached to his photo like stalking and murder, she knew she had to come testify. She knew she needed to reach out to the investigators. So basically, Daniel was like a serial stalker.

Starting point is 01:27:33 He was no stranger to sending whatever threatening messages he could to get his way, though, ironically, he didn't get his way both times that he did it. So in the end, the jury found Daniel guilty on four charges. One count of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of stocking and one count of impersonation. As a result, he was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Christiel's family gave a brief speech after the guilty verdict was read, and I got to say, my heart really goes out to them. Take a listen. The past 16 months now since Christel's just horrible and brutal murder have been absolutely

Starting point is 01:28:13 traumatic for this entire family and extended family and all these all these friends and especially for christie's three wonderful children it's been it's been awful their lives have been forever altered there's no amount of justice that that can bring her back but it is a relief to know that the person who thought he was going to get away with it with this convoluted alibi picture and trying to blame it on somebody else that that didn't happen. Now look, I am always happy to see justice served in these cases. Don't get me wrong. But I'm also always so appalled and disheartened by the fact that they ever even happened in the first place. Cristille was an amazing woman, a mom, a daughter,

Starting point is 01:29:01 a friend, even a wife. And the truth is, she did care about Daniel. Even if it was no longer at a romantic level, or even though she had this unhappiness in their relationship, she made sure that his safety was a priority. She still cared about him. I mean, a feeling that Daniel obviously just couldn't reciprocate. His selfish needs were too important to him. And I feel like I say this all of the time, especially when there's children involved. But like, you're doing this selfish action because you don't want to lose custody of your children and you think that there's no way out. Or I guess that could be one of the arguments. It could also just be hatred and retaliation since she didn't want to be with him anymore. But if it at all goes back to the custody issue, because you love your kid so much, you

Starting point is 01:29:41 want custody of them, you can't live without them. Well, now your kids are living without both of their parents. So you're only hurting them. And I don't understand why grown adults can never seem to do that kind of critical forward thinking to realize like, oh, this isn't an action that is going to solve my problem and allow me to be with my children. But in fact, it's going to make my children's life a lot worse. So if I'm trying to say, it's all for them, I'm selfless, I love them, you know, all of these things, it's really actually going to make their lives way worse. So I'm going to take a beat and not be a selfish prick and just, like I all say, just get a divorce because I love my kids so much and I don't want to hurt them. But it's like

Starting point is 01:30:24 these people just have blinders on and all they can see is their own selfish needs, their own rage, their own priorities, their own entitlement, and it's infuriating. Maybe that needs to be a new tagline. Instead of just get a divorce, put your children first. I mean, it sounds so stupid, right? it's like, hello, duh, that's what happens when you become a parent. You always put your kids first. And I'm not trying to get super literal where people are like, no, you put your spouse, then God, then your kids. Like, I'm just talking like, do what's best for your kids or don't have them, period. I don't know. I could rant on this for days, but I'm not going to put you through that torture. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this case. Let me know what you think. It certainly was a wild one. And it's

Starting point is 01:31:03 kind of scary because it serves as a reminder of like, you never know who you're sleeping next to. I mean, in this case, they weren't sleeping in the same bed, but like, you never know who you're married to. You never know what somebody's true intentions are behind the scenes. And that's really scary. Now, before we go, I just want to thank you guys again for tuning in and give you that reminder that 10 to Life is officially launching tomorrow as a podcast. So again, whatever podcast app you're on right now, Apple, Spotify, IHeart, wherever you're listening from, search for 10 to Life. and follow along so that you don't miss those episodes. More content for you to binge and help you get through the week.

Starting point is 01:31:42 So until the next one, guys, be nice, don't kill anyone, don't join any cults, just get a divorce, and don't get any burner phones. Like, don't be a freak. Don't, like, harass people via text message. Just, ugh, don't. All right, okay, okay, bye. Thank you.

Serialously with Annie Elise - 325: He Was Watching Her Every Move: The Stalking & Murder of Kristil Krug

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