SERIALously - 325: He Was Watching Her Every Move: The Stalking & Murder of Kristil Krug

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Starting point is 00:00:30 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 2023, 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.

Starting point is 00:00:59 There were strange messages or unsettling emails. There was this sense that someone was watching her. You took my children's mother every hell. I was a real serial type. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of serialously with me, your true crime bestie, Annie Elise, and I am here to break down a roller coaster of a case for you today. 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. But 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.

Starting point is 00:02:27 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. 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

Starting point is 00:02:50 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 heartbreaking is that in the final days of her life, Christiel was actually thriving. She was

Starting point is 00:03:33 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 serialously 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, and just go through all of it. So really quick, before we dive into today's story here on

Starting point is 00:04:18 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 00:04:38 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 you need to feel safe, grounded, and ready, because this one is definitely heavy. So, guys, let's get right into it.

Starting point is 00:05:00 Kristiel Krug was born on November 24, 1980 in Boulder, Colorado. 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,

Starting point is 00:05:34 any time she was dancing, or finally nailing a new move. 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 no doubt in Kristiel'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, Christel landed an absolute dream job at a local tech company, a very well-known company in the science world.

Starting point is 00:06:19 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.

Starting point is 00:06:54 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. 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 about. she loved it so much. She also had this very fulfilling, very happy life at home, three beautiful

Starting point is 00:07:23 kids, three amazing kids who were her whole entire world. And here's a quick clip of Christel'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 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,

Starting point is 00:07:54 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,

Starting point is 00:08:15 complete nightmare. It was October 2nd, 2023, to be exact, and Christine woke up to a very strange, very unexpected text 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:09:00 But in the grand scheme of things, their relationship didn't work out. It hadn't really meant much to Christel 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. 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, 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 life. 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, 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

Starting point is 00:10:07 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.

Starting point is 00:10:29 All sorts of spelling errors, no punctuation, bad grammar, which looked like I'm not trying to be the grammar police and 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 context, the context is obviously. 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 in years, literally since shortly after their breakup in the year 2000. So now she's hearing from him two decades later.

Starting point is 00:11:04 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 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.

Starting point is 00:11:53 What was out of the ordinary was how upfront 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.

Starting point is 00:12:17 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, 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.

Starting point is 00:12:49 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, 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 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 then getting mad at her rejection to now stalking her

Starting point is 00:13:52 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, Christel 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.

Starting point is 00:14:30 So she filed a harassment complaint with the 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 numerous text messages and then today I got an email that is very threatening. threatening against both me and my family 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 okay so my my last contact with this individual was four five years ago something like that ended on a on a social

Starting point is 00:15:32 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 haven't heard from him since okay um this all started this month and I have a whole log I have all the text messages I have the email um I have not responded or engaged at all um but the text messages started on October 2nd um 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 I've never given any kind of contact information at all um he ended with that he hoped that I killed myself hadn't heard from him at all until today today he sent an

Starting point is 00:16:21 email to me um with a picture of my husband asking you 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 okay um the so and 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 um that could potentially safeguard me from this individual um and i guess what I guess, options I might have here. What do you know about him?

Starting point is 00:17:05 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 00:17:26 I don't see a current address in Colorado. Okay. 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. So he's clearly in Colorado.

Starting point is 00:17:39 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. But that isn't even registered to anybody. So I don't know if it's blocked or spoofed or what it is.

Starting point is 00:17:56 And I wouldn't want to... My inclination is to not... respond to this or engage with him at all for whatever dilutions 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 a little obsessively strange. 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 00:18:25 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. 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 have to.

Starting point is 00:19:01 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 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

Starting point is 00:19:48 workplace hadn't already convinced her that this guy was serious and also that he was nearby, he was watching her every move, I mean, this now clearly solidified that. He was watching them. He 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

Starting point is 00:20:33 a train, also known as multiple men, basically being sexually active with you at one time, one after another. So clearly at this 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

Starting point is 00:21:15 Christel 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:21:46 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:22:07 This is pretty alarming, right? Where he's like, we're not 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 should have done real hard. I said, this is really creepy for me. You need to stop. I'm married, happily married with children.

Starting point is 00:22:22 You need to stop. And he got, like, real emotional, real hurt. It wasn't angry, but it was hurt and 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.

Starting point is 00:22:48 A lot of, like, very sexually explicit, very graphic, very, um, just like, poke the kind of thing. 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

Starting point is 00:23:38 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 DNA evidence on her car, but still, I mean, gross. So needless to say, after the dentist, Christiel just booked it home. She was not going to risk to making any stops and having some sort of 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

Starting point is 00:24:20 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. 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 Christiel blocked that number, he could immediately just make a new number, I think even for free potentially, then 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

Starting point is 00:25:26 for more like PG things, but that unfortunately is just 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 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. Christel 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

Starting point is 00:26:09 many responses, but 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 and it's literally

Starting point is 00:27:02 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 cheese hits 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

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Starting point is 00:29:09 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. Christiel received yet another text message from Jack on November 13th. So about six weeks since that very first weird.

Starting point is 00:29:57 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. He don't satisfy you. That's why you keep all your fuck boys on the side. You're a dirty slut and I know how to satisfy you. Admit that no one's 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

Starting point is 00:30:45 and then we can be together. So easy. Then in this next sentence, he uses a derogatory slur, so I'm going to 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 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?

Starting point is 00:31:56 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 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

Starting point is 00:32:38 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 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 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,

Starting point is 00:33:18 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 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. happens. That's why it's so scary. Because it's not illegal to send a bunch of text messages

Starting point is 00:33:53 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. 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,

Starting point is 00:34:37 which they ended up telling Christel 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, Christiel had literally done all of the digging that the detectives would even need to do. 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,

Starting point is 00:35:19 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, the least you could do is make a couple phone calls, right? It's no surprise that after everything that had been happening, Christel 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. She was scared to even leave the house. She was scared out of fear that Jack was always somewhere nearby,

Starting point is 00:36:00 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 eight 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:36:40 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 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 daughter was just as passionate about dance as she was.

Starting point is 00:37:08 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, Christel 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. They got security cameras installed all over the house. Christel 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 role-playing all of these different scenarios so that, God forbid, if anything ever actually happened, they would be as prepared as possible to react. 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.

Starting point is 00:38:12 Or, I mean, at least the goal was to not allow him to ruin their lives. But the text 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, 2023, at 12.03 p.m., Christel'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 threatening text message that had been sent. But this

Starting point is 00:38:59 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, Christel. 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, Christel 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 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

Starting point is 00:40:04 I'm just overreacting and paranoid. From field dispatched, maybe. Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. Okay. My wife isn't responding to text messages or phone calls. Okay.

Starting point is 00:40:26 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 a... 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 00:40:48 What's the address? It is a 3-1-3-2 promontory loop. I can spell that in a minute. 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 00:41:07 All right. What's your wife's name? Chris Field. K-R-I-S-T-I-L. Okay. And last thing? K-R-U-G. Okay.

Starting point is 00:41:20 She texted me like, I don't know, three-ish hours ago. Okay. And I've asked her multiple questions since then. Okay. And she's not responding. Oh, okay. What was going on when you talked to her about three hours ago? Was she okay?

Starting point is 00:41:38 What 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. And then what is her phone number just to be?

Starting point is 00:42:02 Keith? Oh, God, you just got a brand new cell phone because of this. 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? 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 to meet with Martinez. Okay. I got nothing.

Starting point is 00:42:36 I'm sorry. No, that's okay. What kind of vehicle does she drive? Oh, God, the fear. It's a Ray Mazda 3 hatchback. License plate. I'm sorry, I can't say. That's okay.

Starting point is 00:42:54 No, that's okay. 775 ISM. 775 ISM is a Mary? Mary, yes. All right. And then you said this was a, is this like a case for somebody threatening you guys? Yes. Martinez knows all of this. We have both been targeted by a stalker. Threats have been made against my life.

Starting point is 00:43:20 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

Starting point is 00:43:40 If you hear from her before then Or something changes, 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

Starting point is 00:43:58 I'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 Christel that day. Not that morning, not that afternoon.

Starting point is 00:44:19 Not at all. She definitely was not at the station that day. 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 overreact. her phone had likely just died, and she forgot to 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,

Starting point is 00:44:43 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 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

Starting point is 00:45:24 or a stepstool. So the officers decided to pull the patrol car into the drive. right up to those windows. Then they were going to climb on top of the 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.

Starting point is 00:46:11 151. Send medical and 110. I need a four-centric. I got a female down in the garage. Look, you guys know me. I love true crime. more than most people. But you know what I do not love about it? Thinking about true crime all night when I should be sleeping, not just reeling and staring at the ceiling and thinking about the latest case that I've been researching. And I used to spend so many hours just researching these cases, scaring myself, then lying awake, tossing and turning because I can't seem to turn it off. Then the next day, I'd drag myself around with way too much caffeine to you know, try to just get by in the day. And it was awful. It was just like this horrible cycle

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Starting point is 00:50:25 but there was blood on the wall nearby as well. 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.

Starting point is 00:50:47 Yet despite all the efforts that the medical team made and that first responders made, there was nothing that they could do. Kristille was officially pronounced dead at 12.43 p.m. Now, right away, the investigators knew that this was no accidental death. Kristiel 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

Starting point is 00:51:20 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 to Kristiel. 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 Kristiel had been prepared for something

Starting point is 00:52:06 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 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,

Starting point is 00:52:47 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. 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

Starting point is 00:53:13 and at least tried to defend herself. So now the question was, 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.

Starting point is 00:53:52 Now, right away, the investigators honed in on Jack. Obviously, he was the biggest suspect here. 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 00:54:25 If he couldn't have Christiel, 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. 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 he killed her?

Starting point is 00:55:10 I think it's good. I think he's Anthony. Okay. If not him, I have no other situation. 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 00:55:50 They even gave him a surprise visit at his house just hours after Christiel'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 what Daniel Krug? No. No? How do you know Crystal?

Starting point is 00:56:13 She was an ex-girlfriend. She was an ex-girlfriend. How long's the ex? Like how long ago? 1999. Oh, so like a long while ago? She was my very first girlfriend ever. Oh, okay. When was the last time you talked to Crystal?

Starting point is 00:56:27 Has it been a minute? 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 going to 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 them 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

Starting point is 00:57:09 and talk with you. They were debating on, you do have an active warrant out of Broomfield 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, if that makes sense, when you call and talk to them. You can talk to him about that as well.

Starting point is 00:57:39 And 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. 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 Christiel had been murdered, despite it being about an eight-hour drive from where he lived to where Christel 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.

Starting point is 00:58:23 And on top of that, he hadn't just been sitting at home or been by himself where it would be 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, Christel 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 sitting down and basically trying to

Starting point is 00:59:12 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 What are the odds of Christel 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.

Starting point is 00:59:50 And guess what? When they searched those devices, there was no sign that he had made any contact with Christel 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 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.

Starting point is 01:00:26 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, Colorado. And this address was very important, because this address just so happened to be the address of Daniel's workplace, Christiel's husband. Now, as if all of that wasn't sketchy enough, the detectives were also able to determine that all of these text messages

Starting point is 01:01:22 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. That I'm fucking terrified. to bring my children home.

Starting point is 01:02:04 What are you terrified of? If it wasn't him, was it? I replaced all of our locks after the garage insurer. I'll do it again. I got the cameras and 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 01:02:49 A lot of, I mean, our entire investigation unit, I would say, fairly is working on. is working on this, right? Because, like I said, we take this very seriously. This isn't happened very often in Greenfield. We've lived here for a long time. 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 to find Anthony is, what is it, the Gmail, what was the other?

Starting point is 01:03:24 Text now numbers and things like that 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

Starting point is 01:03:39 Spoofing Gotcha Kind of Yeah not really spoofing but like if I wanted To text somebody let's say I was buying something on Craigslist 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 of account, and it would, almost like a Google voice, whatever, okay?

Starting point is 01:03:59 So the really weird part about looking into some of that stuff, because 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 01:04:28 versus harassment or stalking or remember how we talked when I said illegal paperwork a test a lot 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 because we're trying to find the killer

Starting point is 01:04:53 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 you can speak more specifically. And that text now number we were talking about, the number that he initially texted Christia from. The Gmail account, the Kickman account that he, you guys initially received with the photo of you in it, and the phone number, those originated through their IP addresses at your office.

Starting point is 01:05:37 It doesn't make any sense. Well, he took the photo of me at my office. Right. But both of those accounts originated from IP addresses that list back to your office. office. I don't know what to do with that. Well, tell us about the IP address. Do you know anything about the network or anything at your work?

Starting point is 01:06:04 Or? I do money. Yeah, I know. But like here, I believe me, I know nothing about tech stuff. That's why I keep looking to him to explain this crap is, I still know there's a There are Wi-Fi access throughout. throughout the facility for employees and there's public Wi-Fi access throughout the entire facility. Okay.

Starting point is 01:06:33 You know, C.P.E. Guest, I think is what it is. And we literally post the passwords in every single meeting. 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,

Starting point is 01:07:08 is that it sure sounds like you were, I don't know, just sort of, I don't know if it was being used or what it was, but you guys were kind of going through them emotions in your marriage. And I think all the 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

Starting point is 01:07:58 well I've heard of a lot of crazy stuff 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

Starting point is 01:08:30 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 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

Starting point is 01:09:11 two people who were able to turn those cameras on or off were Christiel and Daniel. Now, Christiel surely wouldn't have turned them off, so that only leaves Daniel. And when he was asked 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

Starting point is 01:09:54 to hear his version of events of what happened the morning of Christiel'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 Christiel's death. He didn't murder her. He didn't know who 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.

Starting point is 01:10:34 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, Christiel was surprised to see him still there. But he said other than that, there really was nothing else to note. He and Christiel 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 calls. 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. 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.

Starting point is 01:11:32 Now remember, this was all happening on the 14th, the same day that Christine'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, 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

Starting point is 01:12:06 of the puzzle from the people who knew Christiel best. Because now, they didn't just have a timeline and some evidence, but they had a motive. Today's episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and this year, we are saying thank you therapists, because BetterHelp therapists have helped over 5 million people worldwide on their mental health journeys. And that is millions of stories and millions of therapists who have shown up, listened, and helped people take that next step forward. Sometimes it's just knowing the right question to ask or a safe space to cry or even a small win. But those moments can truly change lives. With over 30,000 licensed professionals, BetterHelp makes it easy to find someone who just gets you,

Starting point is 01:12:56 understands you. They even do the initial matching for you. So you don't have to stress over finding the right fit. And if it doesn't click for whatever reason, you can switch any time. So this world mental health day, we're celebrating the therapists who have helped millions of people take a step forward. If you're ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. And our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash AE. That's BetterHELP.com slash AE. dad 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.

Starting point is 01:13:48 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 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

Starting point is 01:14:31 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. 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 a big motive for somebody. And just to really solidify how serious these claims were, the investigators also went to Christel's mom, basically asking her the same kinds of questions. You know, would Daniel

Starting point is 01:15:13 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. 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 Christine and Daniel were in the process of splitting up and ultimately getting a divorce. She also knew that it was pretty much all Christel's

Starting point is 01:15:56 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. Christiel'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. 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

Starting point is 01:16:33 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. 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,

Starting point is 01:17:03 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 01:17:20 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 Christel'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,

Starting point is 01:17:40 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 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 Christel'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 Christel 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.

Starting point is 01:18:29 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? 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.

Starting point is 01:19:10 The investigators believe that Daniel knew that it was only a matter of time before Christel left him. Like Christel's parents said, it wasn't a 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 Christiel's murder, but rather it was done in an effort to get Christel back. Now, I know it sounds really insane, even saying that out loud, but let me break it down,

Starting point is 01:19:50 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 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 detective say this is why so many of those

Starting point is 01:20:32 messages from fictitious Jack were centered around Daniel, about Daniel being in danger and him being stalked and him being in harm's way. 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. 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

Starting point is 01:21:15 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, Daniel realized he was in way too deep. Kristiel 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 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.

Starting point is 01:21:52 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, 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

Starting point is 01:22:32 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, 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 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,

Starting point is 01:23:15 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 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,

Starting point is 01:23:57 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 Christiel's murder, he was charged with first-degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. He, of course, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. 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 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

Starting point is 01:24:37 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, Christiel. But the first thing was that on December 13th, the day before Christel'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.

Starting point is 01:25:10 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?

Starting point is 01:25:31 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 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.

Starting point is 01:25:58 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, 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

Starting point is 01:26:35 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. 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

Starting point is 01:27:16 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 eventually she went to the police, pretty much went to them begging them to help her. And in the end, And 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

Starting point is 01:27:53 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 serious. stalker. 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 stalking, and one count of impersonation. As a result, he was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Christel's family gave a brief speech after the guilty verdict was read,

Starting point is 01:28:29 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 traumatic for this entire family and extended family and all these friends. And especially for Christel's three wonderful children, 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.

Starting point is 01:29:16 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. Christine was an amazing woman, a mom, a daughter, 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

Starting point is 01:29:56 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 kids so much, you 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.

Starting point is 01:30:31 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 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.

Starting point is 01:31:03 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.

Starting point is 01:31:27 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 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

Starting point is 01:32:08 episodes. More content for you to binge and help you get through the week. So until the next one, guys, be nice. Don't kill anyone. Don't join any Colts. 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. limited time, book your escape from sweater weather and into paradise with exclusive savings so you can turn shorter days into beaches, tropical heat, and unforgettable memories. Less daylight, more reasons to book a vacation. Get your exclusive promo goat savings at redtag.ca. Or call 18665 Red Tag. Certain conditions apply.

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SERIALously - 325: He Was Watching Her Every Move: The Stalking & Murder of Kristil Krug

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