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00:00My name is John O'Hare. I am a police officer with the Broomfield Police Department.
00:07Officer, how did this case begin for you?
00:10On December 14th of 2023, I was dispatched to a welfare check at the Krug household.
00:18Broomfield dispatches meeting.
00:19Hi there. My name is Dan Krug.
00:22Dan Krug was calling and asked that we check on his wife, Christele.
00:26My wife isn't responding to text messages or phone calls.
00:35Said that he had not been able to reach her for about three hours.
00:38We've had threats against us. We have both been targeted by a stalker.
00:44Dan said that this alleged stalker had made threats to both him and his wife, Christele.
00:51Which is why I'm nervous that she's not answering me.
00:56The first thing I did was walk right to the front door.
01:00Kind of peek inside. Everything looked orderly, quiet.
01:04I gave it a wild knock.
01:07My thinking at the time was it's very possible she's not even home.
01:11So I wanted to see if I could peek into the garage.
01:16Quickly realized that I'm not tall enough to see in those windows.
01:19I went back to my patrol car and I pulled it into the driveway so that I could get my push bumper close to the garage and use it as a step up.
01:31I stepped up on it and looked in the window.
01:33I immediately see Christele apparently lifeless. She had some type of wound to the head.
01:411-51, send medical. I got a female down in the garage.
01:48Roquefield police! Roquefield police!
01:51Oh, f***!
01:54Immediately I just checked for any signs of life at that point.
01:57Does she have a pulse? She does not.
01:591-51.
02:00I immediately started CPR.
02:01There was a stab wound on her chest.
02:05Send the next unit an emergent, please.
02:06As the paramedics arrived, I opened the garage door and a woman came up and I believe this woman was Christele's mother.
02:14I arrived.
02:15I need you to stay out, please.
02:17I said, that's my daughter.
02:20She came running up to me and said, Christele is dead.
02:24It's just shocking.
02:25Oh, my God.
02:26I don't know.
02:27You don't want that to be your reality.
02:32Oh, my God.
02:33This can't be true.
02:35This can't be true, can it?
02:37It was chaos.
02:40I heard screaming coming from the top of the hill.
02:44My house.
02:45Hey, stay back.
02:45Stay back.
02:46Stay back.
02:46Stay back.
02:46This is my house.
02:47I understand.
02:48I see a man come running down the hill.
02:52This is Dan.
02:54This is her husband.
02:55Woo!
02:57This man just lost his wife.
03:03And he is beside himself.
03:07I'm with Dan and he's on the floor and he's crying.
03:12They all just kind of said, I can't believe this happened.
03:14He did it.
03:16The stalker did it.
03:18We were on heightened alert.
03:19We were very, very concerned for Dan's safety.
03:21This is after Christele was murdered.
03:23You're worried that Dan may be next in this stalker's sights.
03:27Correct.
03:28We thought Dan Krug was next.
03:30The community was very alarmed.
03:32Is this a murder scene?
03:34There's a killer out there and we're going to go after him.
03:36The point of this happened where Dan took to torture the police scene.
03:40More calls.
03:41The
03:48鬼 call.
03:51The
03:52The
03:54Life
03:54The
03:55The
03:59The
04:01The
04:03It's a weird feeling standing there when somebody's being told,
04:30I'm sorry, but your loved one has died.
04:33Victims advocate Heather Eights is trained to comfort those in emotional agony, like Dan Krug, who dashed home from work and learned his wife, Chris Steele, had been found murdered in their garage in suburban Broomfield, Colorado, on December 14th, 2023.
04:52This man has been going through a stalking case with his wife. He's being stalked as well, and now she's gone.
04:59As investigators searched the crime scene for clues, Heather drove Dan to the police station. An officer's body camera recorded the ride.
05:12He was crouched over to the side of the passenger door, and it was very much,
05:17I'm comforting Dan by rubbing his back.
05:25Dan and Chris Steele had been married for 16 years. The couple, both 43, had three young children.
05:32What did he say in the car?
05:33In the car, he was pretty focused on the kids.
05:36He was very adamant about wanting to be the one to tell his children.
05:40Under the command of Broomfield Police Chief, Ania Hempelman, investigators were doing everything in their power to find the killer.
05:50We immediately started doing interviews, talking to neighbors, canvassing.
05:56Several hours had passed since Dan Krug's emotional ride to the police station.
06:01He had settled down, and he told detectives there was nothing out of the ordinary that morning.
06:08Mornings are very routine in the house.
06:13He said they got the kids to school, and Chris Steele seemed fine when he left for his job
06:19at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
06:23While I was driving, my phone dinged.
06:28Dan said Chris Steele texted him, asking if he could pick up one of the kids after school.
06:36But when he texted back and asked what time, he said Chris Steele never responded.
06:42And that was weird.
06:45So weird, so out of character for Chris Steele, Dan called police and asked them to check on her.
06:52I got a female down in the garage.
06:54There are not words that can describe what you feel as a parent at that point.
06:59It's probably some parent's worst nightmare.
07:05These are some memories, aren't they?
07:07Chris Steele's parents, Lars and Linda Grimsrud.
07:11She was an engineer.
07:12She had incredible skills in math, sciences, chemistry, physics.
07:17But she also had the talents in the arts.
07:20She loved to just get out and live life.
07:22Throughout her life, Chris Steele spent countless hours working with her dad
07:27on classic muscle cars in his colorful garage.
07:34We'd work on the cars, we'd race the cars.
07:36Chris Steele always felt very comfortable coming over here.
07:39If we needed to talk or whatever, this is where we would sit and just enjoy each other's company.
07:44But those fun, casual conversations suddenly turned disturbing in the fall of 2023,
07:52when Chris Steele first told her father that she was living with intense fear.
07:58She sat here and told me that she was being stalked.
08:01And that just shocked me when I asked her, well, have you talked to the police?
08:06Chris Steele had called the police and met with Broomfield detective Andrew Martinez.
08:11She came into the interview room and just kind of took over and just told me everything without hesitation.
08:19Their conversation was recorded.
08:21I keep trying to remind myself this is intending to be terrorizing.
08:24This is intending to scare me.
08:26Chris Steele told Martinez that on October 2nd, 2023,
08:30she received an unsettling text from someone named Anthony,
08:34who said he would be coming to the area and asked if Chris Steele wanted to hook up.
08:40And how does she respond to that?
08:42She did not respond.
08:44The following day, Chris Steele told Martinez she got more texts from Anthony that included obscenities and said,
08:53you should kill yourself. Don't waste my time.
08:56Somebody who wants to hook up now is saying, go kill yourself.
08:59How do you interpret that second text?
09:03It's a pretty extreme reaction to not getting a response.
09:06Chris Steele told Martinez she knew an Anthony from her past.
09:12Anthony Holland, a boyfriend she dated for about a year after high school and into college.
09:18The two broke up in the fall of 2000.
09:21Lars and Linda say, back then, Anthony made a good impression.
09:26Very friendly, very courteous.
09:28He always had good manners.
09:30In 2002, out of the blue, Anthony contacted Chris Steele.
09:35According to Chris Steele, Anthony never seemed to take no for an answer,
09:40contacting her again in 2005, 2010, and 2016 via Facebook.
09:47He's like, we'll have to be together.
09:49I said, this is really creepy for me. You need to stop.
09:53Chris Steele deleted Facebook and thought she'd heard the last of Anthony Holland.
09:57But then came the text in 2023.
10:01Like, this was alarming. He's never said this kind of stuff to me before, so.
10:06Over the next two months, Chris Steele said she received alarming message after message,
10:11through text and email.
10:13They included threats to her and Dan, including this disturbing photo of Dan
10:18getting out of his car at work, which prompted Chris Steele to first come forward and call police.
10:25A few days later, this text to her.
10:29Saw you at dentist. See you soon.
10:32That suggests he might be surveilling them both, right?
10:35Correct.
10:36This now is escalating.
10:38The harassment is just constant,
10:41and she's just believing that every corner presents some sort of danger for her.
10:46To gather evidence and locate Anthony Holland,
10:50Detective Martinez was required to file search warrants with the phone and email companies.
10:56A slow process.
10:58Getting that information takes time.
11:00Sometimes those companies are reluctant,
11:02or they slow walk getting that information to you, correct?
11:05Yes.
11:06Chris Steele had been searching for Holland on her own.
11:08She hired a private investigator and eventually located him living in Utah, about 500 miles away.
11:17Chris Steele shared her discovery with Detective Martinez, who chose not to contact Holland.
11:23I explained to Chris Steele that we wanted to gather as much evidence as possible
11:27and ideally obtain an arrest warrant so when law enforcement does go to Anthony's door,
11:33we can take him into custody and not have to walk away.
11:39But Laura says Chris Steele had been losing patience with the investigation.
11:43She made the comment that she felt they had abandoned her,
11:47that they weren't doing things aggressively enough.
11:51Chris Steele had taken steps to protect herself and her family,
11:55including installing security cameras.
11:58She was scared.
11:59I said, well, this sounds serious enough that you need to start carrying.
12:04You'll use one of my guns for right now.
12:07Is this the very gun that she took with her?
12:08That is the actual gun that she initially then carried.
12:13Dan was also interviewed.
12:15The threats were taking a toll on him as well.
12:18I went to the grocery store briefly on Tuesday and someone behind me dropped a can and I panicked.
12:32So what am I doing?
12:33I'm panicking.
12:36And I'm doing a lot of protecting my wife.
12:42So I'm not doing good.
12:44Dan told Martinez the stalker had a nickname.
12:48We call him Kickman.
12:49Where'd that name come from?
12:51Kickman, Dan had told me, was because the suspect email that was initially contacting Chris Steele
12:59was ahollandkicks at gmail.com.
13:04As the weeks went by and Martinez's investigation continued,
13:09Lars and Linda say the constant threats were ruining their daughter's life.
13:14It was just heartbreaking.
13:15She was just in tears.
13:16She was just like, what am I going to do?
13:19How am I going to live?
13:20Did she feel she was being hunted down by Anthony?
13:24Yes.
13:26Chris Steele also shared her fears with siblings Jenna Erickson and Josh Adamson.
13:32She was terrified.
13:33Did she ever express to either of you the fear that this man, I think, is going to kill
13:39me?
13:40Yes.
13:40She said it's either going to be me or him that's dead and I'm going to do everything in
13:45my power to make sure it's my power to make sure it's not me.
13:46When Christine Krug was found dead in her garage, Detective Martinez had only one suspect in mind.
14:10My initial assumption was that Anthony Holland had gone to her home and murdered her.
14:18Within hours, local police descended on Holland's home in Eagle Mountain near Salt Lake City.
14:25So you're alone in the house.
14:28What do you hear?
14:30Pounding at the door.
14:31Like, big time.
14:33So I go to the door.
14:36I see like eight cops.
14:39I had no idea what was going on.
14:41Where's your ID at?
14:42In my room.
14:43Have you ever heard of the name Crystal Krug?
14:48They asked me if I knew Crystal Krug, and I told them I did know her.
14:53She was my very first girlfriend ever.
14:56When was the last time you talked to Crystal?
14:57Has it been a minute?
14:59It's been a minute, yeah.
15:01When was the last time you had reached out to Crystal?
15:05It was around 2014, 2016.
15:08Anthony says he'd reached out to Crystal on Facebook years before.
15:13What are you thinking?
15:14Why would they come all the way here to ask me about Crystal?
15:17I thought it was for that message where I said I missed her.
15:21That's the only thing I could think of, because I was like, I haven't contacted her since then.
15:24They didn't tell you that Crystal Krug had been murdered?
15:28No, they did not tell me.
15:29Police were there to gather information from their suspect, not give it.
15:34They asked me where I was that day.
15:36Can I prove where I was?
15:38Anthony had made a purchase just hours earlier at a coal store near his home.
15:43What'd you buy?
15:45A sweatshirt, this one right here.
15:46And he still had the receipt.
15:49The purchase was made at 12.16 p.m.
15:53Investigators say Chris Steele was attacked around 8 a.m.
15:57Turns out that was one of the most important purchases you have ever made.
16:02Because it was my alibi.
16:04Because there's no way I could have made it from Colorado back to Utah to buy the sweatshirt.
16:13It was an eight-hour drive.
16:14Anthony also showed police some of his employment records.
16:19They proved he'd been in Utah all along, never traveling to Colorado, as the messages from Chris Steele's stalker led cops to believe.
16:28I had a bunch of receipts for my work, showing the days that I worked.
16:33And they took those, took my receipt from Kohl's, and went to the squad car and made a phone call.
16:42Came back in and told me I was free to go.
16:44Back in Colorado, Dan was still face-to-face with investigators.
16:55He told them his theory of the crime.
16:58So in my brain, the story that I have is someone came to the door, maybe she went outside to get a package, and they must have come in.
17:14And she's, she's a fighter.
17:16She's, she's strong.
17:21She would have fought.
17:22Earlier in the interview, Dan requested he tell the children what had happened to their mother.
17:31Your kids do not know yet, okay?
17:34Are they here?
17:35They're here.
17:36Arrive in the hall.
17:38I, I, I should tell them the children.
17:41You want to tell them?
17:43I just don't know.
17:46They're called.
17:46Okay.
17:47Watching their response is just heartbreaking.
17:55Investigators were working every angle.
17:58They checked those security cameras Christiel had installed on the house.
18:02The doorbell camera, the side camera, and the side house camera were all manually turned off.
18:09Except for that one nest camera near the garage.
18:12Police canvassed Dan and Christiel's neighbors in search of anything their home security cameras might have recorded.
18:20I saw you had a ring doorbell camera.
18:22Do you mind looking, reviewing that camera?
18:23Oh goodness, absolutely.
18:24If possible, you guys can review the last three to five hours.
18:28They also enlisted Randy Pilak, a digital forensic examiner with the Broomfield Police Department,
18:34to take a closer look at those disturbing messages to Christiel.
18:39I think it was probably four hours, five hours after the murder was reported to us.
18:45Now that the stalking case had become a murder investigation,
18:50Pilak was able to file new expedited requests for information.
18:55He quickly discovered that messages from two accounts used to harass Christiel had been sent from the same location.
19:03Both came back to the same IP address.
19:05That IP address was the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is where Dan worked.
19:15The messages to Christiel threatening her, threatening her husband,
19:19had been sent using the Wi-Fi system at Dan's office.
19:26For the first time, detectives believed Christiel's stalker could be sitting right in front of them.
19:32Could he be her killer as well?
19:37The entire air was just kind of evacuated out of our investigations room,
19:42and we realized that we need to focus on Dan and where he's been and what he's been doing.
19:49Martinez, along with Detective Jennifer King Sullivan, confronted Dan.
19:54What if I told you that we had already spoken with Anthony, and there's no way that he was in town today?
20:12And I have nothing.
20:16And I'm terrified to bring my children home.
20:20But even as Dan claimed ignorance, the detective saw that his body language told a different story.
20:37What were you seeing with Dan?
20:40He took a defensive posture.
20:41He sat back in the couch a little bit.
20:45He crossed his arms.
20:48Kind of like, I have nothing to explain.
20:51I think his head is spinning, thinking about what else are they going to find.
20:56The mystery continues, and...
21:19If you were watching these facts unfold in front of you in a movie, what would you say happened?
21:29There has to be someone who is...
21:32Moments after detectives told Dan Krug they had eliminated Anthony Holland as a suspect,
21:39Dan calmly insisted he was not the one who stalked and murdered his wife, Christiel.
21:45I loved her.
21:46There has to be someone who is...
21:49But I don't know who that is.
21:57Martinez and King Sullivan didn't believe a word of it,
22:01and were struck by how stoic, how unmoved Dan was.
22:06He had no reaction, and really no explanation.
22:11Help me make sense of it.
22:12I don't know, I'm not the one who does this.
22:16I don't have a narrative or a story that I can offer you.
22:24Within minutes, Dan Krug had gone from sympathetic victim to murder suspect.
22:29I get the narrative you're putting together,
22:34but it alleges that I would do this to my children.
22:38I love and adore my children.
22:40It's a pretty frightening idea that the biggest threat to you and your safety
22:46is actually living in the same house as you.
22:50We need to process you for physical evidence, okay?
22:55He knows that we're on to him.
22:58We just didn't have enough evidence at that point to take him into custody.
23:01On his way out, Dan kept insisting the real killer was still on the loose,
23:08and he made a desperate plea.
23:10Might as well...
23:11He took my children's mother for Christmas.
23:20When did you find out that Dan was now a person of interest in this case?
23:41I think at his interview, so that same day when they held him, they held him pretty late.
23:49An autopsy revealed what happened to Christele.
23:53She had been attacked from behind with a blunt object.
23:57Bludgeoned to death in the head and rolled over and then stabbed in the heart.
24:01With Dan now the prime suspect, the detectives wanted to know more about his relationship with Christele.
24:11According to Christele's parents, it wasn't good.
24:15She said, well, I'm sleeping on the couch, Mom.
24:17But you knew there was trouble in paradise, right?
24:19Yeah, and especially in those last few months.
24:23Christele's family says those troubles were caused by Dan's fiery temper.
24:27What set him off?
24:29It could be anything, but it was usually if he was losing control.
24:34Christele's sister, Jenna Erickson, says she could always tell when Dan was angry.
24:39His face would get really red when he was getting frustrated.
24:44I vividly remember seeing his face get red.
24:46They had a thing where they'd go, okay, walk away.
24:49You need to walk away.
24:51And so, you know, they were trying to manage it.
24:54But in the weeks before her death, according to her parents, Christele was getting ready to leave Dan.
25:02She didn't want to have this marriage anymore.
25:04She had decided that she needed to get a divorce.
25:08As the detectives methodically built their case, more evidence was uncovered on Dan and Christele's cell phones
25:15by digital forensic expert Randy Pilack, including texts from the morning of the murder.
25:22So on Christele's phone, we see text messages to Lars, Detective Martinez, and then a text message to Dan.
25:30The one Dan said he received while driving to work about picking up one of the kids at school.
25:36But Pilack discovered those texts had been set on a timer.
25:41It was a new feature on the phone Christele had.
25:45Who do you believe pre-programmed those messages?
25:48Dan Krug.
25:50And he did it to do what?
25:51To hide his actions.
25:55Pilack says the messages were pre-programmed before Dan left the house.
26:01And we believe Christele was deceased.
26:03That, for him, then, would establish an alibi that, well, I had already left and my wife is alive, right?
26:10She's texting me.
26:11Correct.
26:11All while Dan casually arrived at work.
26:18Pilack discovered more damning evidence from Dan's phone.
26:22Internet searches like, what happens when you're knocked unconscious?
26:27Do people really go unconscious when hit in the head?
26:30And how hard for head trauma to go unconscious?
26:34All searches were the day before the murder.
26:37It was rather damning.
26:39Just two days after Christele had been murdered, detectives Martinez and King Sullivan felt they had enough evidence to charge Dan Krug with stalking and murdering his wife.
26:56We begin following him.
26:59Cutting up to the stop sign now.
27:02How many cars are we talking about?
27:04Probably eight cars.
27:06We're like, that's him.
27:07He's alone in the car.
27:08Hey, be ready to pop that once he gets it in the park.
27:10We follow him all the way to the grocery store.
27:12Pulling into King Super's parking lot.
27:14We wait for him to park.
27:17We quickly converge on his car.
27:19Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
27:24Show us your hands.
27:25Hands on your face.
27:27Hands on your face.
27:29Hands on your face.
27:31So we surround him.
27:34Pull him out of his car and tell him he's being arrested for the murder of his wife.
27:38On the road.
27:44I asked him just one question.
27:50Do you want me to tell your kids that you killed their mother or do you want somebody else to?
27:55That's quite a line.
27:57That goes back to when he said he wanted to tell his kids that their mother was dead.
28:06I, I, I should have a joke.
28:08After I asked that question, he just said that he wanted to speak with his attorney and then looked away from me.
28:16All right.
28:18Good luck.
28:19And I shut the door and he went to the county jail.
28:21Get one leg up and then kind of swing around.
28:26I felt a huge relief.
28:28They got him.
28:29It felt like a burden had been lifted that he had been arrested.
28:33And soon, Christiel's family would come face to face with the man detectives say murdered her.
28:42He looked right at me and smiled at me.
28:46And here, for the first time, Dan's side of the story.
29:03When Deputy District Attorneys Kate Armstrong and Stephanie Fritz were assigned to prosecute Daniel Krug,
29:17they say they were struck by his downright stupidity in believing he could get away with murdering his wife by impersonating her ex-boyfriend.
29:27The audacity with which he thought he could manipulate not only his family, his loved ones, but also the police department.
29:35And some of this is sophisticated, is it not?
29:39It's sophisticated, but not too sophisticated because we were able to figure it out.
29:44The trial began in April 2025.
29:51When he first came in, he smiled at me like he was saying, hey, thanks for being here for me.
29:59I believe my facial expression made it very clear that I was not on his side.
30:05The prosecution laid out Christiel's final hours of life for the jury.
30:10On December 14th of 2023, Christiel Krug started her day like any other day.
30:17She took her younger two children to school.
30:20And when she returned?
30:22Christiel pulled back into her garage.
30:25She gets out of the car when she is attacked from behind.
30:28And did she ever see him approaching, do you think, or was this an ambush?
30:33It was an ambush.
30:34She had two or three skull fractures.
30:36As she's laying on the floor bleeding, he pushes her over, gets over her and stabs her just above her heart.
30:45And why do you suppose he had to do that vicious last stab?
30:50I think it was rage.
30:51I think it was control and power that he wanted to exert over Christiel.
30:55Dan had been losing that control for a long time, say prosecutors.
31:01Their theory of the crime is that Dan sent Christiel those disturbing messages in an attempt to drive her closer to him and not leave,
31:12hoping she'd see him as her heroic protector.
31:15It was not working.
31:18The stalking was not leaving her back to him.
31:21I think it then turned to, I'm still losing her, kind of a, if I can't have you, nobody can.
31:30The prosecution says that in the last days of her life, Christiel had begun to suspect that her stalker was possibly her husband.
31:39We know from Dan's own interview that she confronted him and said, I can't rule you out as the stalker.
31:48She said that right to my face, that she wanted to know if it was me.
31:54And I told her no.
31:55You felt the walls closing in.
31:57Closing in.
31:58He was going to lose Christiel anyway.
32:00He was going to be exposed as the stalker.
32:03So he did that last fatal act and murdered her.
32:06Prosecutors say Dan tried to outsmart investigators, pre-programming those text messages on Christiel's phone before he left the house, assuming he wouldn't be caught.
32:21Were we not able to discover that that was a delayed send text, it would have appeared as though Christiel was still alive when he left the house.
32:30At trial, the long list of digital evidence against Dan was laid out.
32:35The threatening texts, the emails, the internet searches, also included that photograph of Dan arriving at his office, attached to a menacing email seemingly sent by Anthony Holland to Christiel.
32:52But there was one problem, according to the state's digital expert.
32:57Who took this picture, do you believe?
32:59Dan. Dan took this picture.
33:00Pilack discovered that the phone, which snapped that photo, was in selfie mode, using a timer.
33:10A fact that Kate Armstrong reminded the jury about in her closing argument.
33:16That's when the judge allowed cameras into the courtroom.
33:20The phone was propped on the back of this vehicle next to him.
33:24The defendant took this photograph and then he sent it to his wife.
33:26We respectfully disagree with the prosecution in this case.
33:31Defense attorney Philip Geigel argued the murder investigation was poor.
33:36The blunt object used on Christiel's head and the knife used to stab her were never recovered by police.
33:44The defense also zeroed in on the fact that Christiel's phone was not tested for fingerprints or DNA.
33:51Why not the phone?
33:53The prosecution wants to believe, well, you know, there may not be a lot to be found there.
33:57Well, you won't know if you won't try.
33:59Geigel said other forensic tests supported his claim that Dan is innocent.
34:05They submitted the chest swabs and you know whose DNA wasn't there.
34:10The person who lived in the house, the person who ate in the kitchen with them, the person who shared the living room.
34:16That idiot right there.
34:18There is absolutely no physical evidence on Mr. Krug's clothing.
34:22There's no blood found on that car inside or out.
34:25It's searched three times.
34:29In week three of the trial, the jurors began deliberations.
34:34After a day and a half, verdicts were reached.
34:38Please rise for the jury.
34:40Judge Priscilla Lowe read the verdicts.
34:43We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.
34:48We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of count number two, stalking, extreme emotional distress.
34:56Krug was also found guilty of stalking with credible threat and criminal impersonation.
35:02Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
35:04And at that point, I think I started breathing again.
35:08Krug was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder charge
35:14and an additional nine and a half years for the stalking and impersonation counts.
35:22But right after his conviction, in a video call from jail...
35:27How are you?
35:28Uh, been better.
35:30Daniel Krug told his family that the jury got it wrong, saying the real killer remained at large
35:38and that his children could be the next targets.
35:42I need them safe.
35:46I don't know where or who did this, where he is or who he is.
35:55I need my children out of Colorado.
35:59As Daniel Krug began serving his life sentence,
36:20he continued making video calls to his parents and brother
36:23in the days immediately after his conviction.
36:26The man who viciously murdered his wife, terrorized his own children, and lied to everyone
36:33was seeking sympathy from his side of the family.
36:37I'm probably sleeping like 16 hours a day because of the depression.
36:42I sleep, I read, and I cry.
36:44That's about it.
36:46Okay.
36:47Despite overwhelming digital evidence against him,
36:50Krug fell back to his old ways,
36:52lying to his loved ones,
36:55now claiming he was wrongly convicted.
36:58They never produced a single piece of hard evidence.
37:06His brother, Jeremy, gave Krug a much-needed reality check
37:11that the foundation of the family's loyalty had started to crack.
37:15My support is dwindling.
37:20You know, mom and dad want to believe you very much.
37:24I want to believe you very much.
37:26There's a lot that's come out.
37:28And as imaginative as I can be with finding explanations
37:35and ways to theorize how this or that could have been the reality,
37:41some of it is beyond even my creativity.
37:44The case that ended with a murder
37:49had begun with stalking and criminal impersonation of Anthony Holland,
37:54which begs the question,
37:56what if Detective Martinez had acted on the information
38:00Christiel and the private investigator had uncovered?
38:04They should have found me right away.
38:06They should have found me.
38:07They should have came to my house.
38:09They should have approached me.
38:09They should have talked to me.
38:11But Detective Martinez chose not to call,
38:15telling us he didn't have enough evidence to do so
38:18and was concerned a phone call could exacerbate the situation.
38:23Is this something where you've kicked yourself about this?
38:27This case has haunted me since it occurred.
38:32And the outcome of this case has haunted me for the past two years.
38:40And if you could get in a time machine, perhaps you make that call today.
38:44Absolutely.
38:46And Christiel's parents sympathize with Martinez
38:49and believe their daughter was doomed no matter what the outcome of his investigation.
38:55Inevitably, I think he was going to kill her.
39:02When someone sets their mind to do something like that,
39:04and that's what the plan was,
39:06I don't think that would have stopped the murder from happening.
39:11Christiel's death has left a hole in the lives of those
39:14who experienced her love and joy for life.
39:18I've had lots of other girlfriends,
39:21and I've never been in love with anybody else like her.
39:24She was the love of your life.
39:26Yeah.
39:28Jenna hopes her sister Christiel's story will serve as a cautionary tale.
39:34If it can help just one other person who's in a dangerous situation like she was in,
39:40that it gives them the strength to make a move,
39:42because it can escalate, and it can escalate really, really fast.
39:46What was lost when she was taken from us?
39:54Her light, you know?
39:57Her light.
40:00That's a tough one to talk about,
40:03because there's so much.
40:09I wanted to jump out of that car and say,
40:11Hey, Papa.
40:11Laura still passes his time restoring parts for vintage cars.
40:20That father-daughter hobby is now being passed down to Christiel's children.
40:27They're in here.
40:28They run that same electric screwdriver,
40:30and they can tear a carburetor apart.
40:32So in that way, you're honoring her memory, aren't you?
40:34Well, that's the whole idea.
40:35Yeah, yeah, that's the whole idea.
40:37She would get such a kick out of seeing the kids doing the stuff that she was involved in.
40:43I look at my grandkids, and I find a moment of peace, because I see her.
40:48I'm sorry, I see her.
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