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Kristil Krug was living in constant fear. She was struggling to cope with the escalating behaviour of a who had been sending threatening messages, and, at the same time, her 16-yearwas coming to an end. Kristil was always looking over her shoulder and simply didn’t know who to trust.

It was 2023, and biochemical engineer Kristil, 43, was still living in her family home in Denver, Colorado, with her husband Daniel Krug and their three But Kristil had ended her marriage, and they had been sleeping in separate rooms for almost a year. She was trying to divide their finances and sort out a custody agreement. When it came to Krug, she told loved ones she “couldn’t stand the man” any more. But Kristil had bigger problems.

In October, Kristil started to get text messages from an ex-boyfriend, Jack Holland, who she hadn’t seen since she was a teenager. They had communicated occasionally over the years. Jack said he was still interested and Kristil made it clear she wasn’t. Then the texts and emails suddenly became aggressive. Jack seemed to know details about where Kristil was – like he was watching her.

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At one point, an advert was taken out on a sexual classified site with her details published, requesting multiple men for sex. Kristil only found out when she started to receive unsolicited pictures of male genitals and unwanted offers for sex. Kristil started to make a record of the abuse and changed her number.

She also changed her routine when dropping off and picking up her kids, just in case she was being followed. She even bought a gun and had cameras installed in her home. But it didn’t stop. She was even sent a picture of Krug at his work place – seemingly threatening him.

At the start of November, Kristil went to the police and gave a statement and details of the stalking. She gave them Jack’s name and said she believed he had her, and her family, under surveillance. “This is exhausting,” she told them. “It’s a lot, and it has definitely made me paranoid everywhere I go.” She said she didn’t know at what point Jack might “come out from the bushes”.

Police scanned Kristil’s car for GPS devices, but, unbeknown to her, they didn’t contact Jack, who lived eight hours away in Utah. Meanwhile, Kristil grew increasingly concerned.

At one point, she texted a family member saying, “This is making me very scared. He may very well escalate to approaching me in person because he promised to see me soon in the last message. When he does, I don’t think it will be to say hi.” She was also scared that any of the men who had replied to the sex ad might come and find her, thinking she wanted to sleep with multiple partners.

Harrowing scene

On 14 December, Krug, who worked for the health department, called Kristil’s mother, Linda Grimsrud, from his work place saying she wasn’t replying to his messages after he’d left her that morning – then he called the police and asked them to go to the house to check on her. When officers arrived, they broke down the door and discovered Kristil on the floor of the garage. She’d been bludgeoned over the head and stabbed in the heart.

As they began CPR, Kristil’s mum arrived at the harrowing scene. Then Krug appeared. He fell to his knees with his head in his hands. Tragically, Kristil couldn’t be saved. Had Kristil’s stalker caught up with her?

Shocking discovery

All three surveillance cameras that Kristil had installed were not recording. The one in the garage was covered with tape. And neighbours’ cameras captured no one entering the home.

Police went to see Jack Holland in Utah. He was totally shocked at the accusation that he had been stalking his ex-girlfriend– he insisted he hadn’t spoken to her in years and had an alibi for the time of the murder. Investigators started to trace the messages that Kristil had been receiving and made a shocking discovery.

The sex advert that had been placed with Kristil’s details was traced back to an email address that had elements of the ex-boyfriend’s name – however, it had been created using the WiFi at Krug’s office. The texts had been sent from a phone that had been bought with a gift card registered in Krug’s name. The photo of Krug at his work place had been taken in selfie mode, by himself.

Police determined that Kristil’s stalker was, in fact, her husband. And they were convinced he was the one who had killed her, too. Krug was arrested, and went on to plead not guilty to murder and stalking.

At the trial in April this year, the prosecution said that Krug, 44, knew his marriage was falling apart so he had pretended to be Kristil’s ex-boyfriend and play “puppet master” by creating a terrifying stalking scenario in a twisted attempt to try to unite them against a common threat. When Kristil didn’t look to Krug as a hero, she started to document the stalking in detail, and soon he would be found out.

Witnesses testified that while Kristil had mainly believed Jack was behind the stalking, she had lost trust in everyone and had said that she couldn’t even rule out Krug as a suspect. Krug started to realise that he could be facing criminal charges, and he was going to lose his wife when she found out what he had done.

Stabbed in the heart

Prosecutors revealed that the night before Kristil was attacked, Krug had looked up searches on head trauma. Then, on 14 December, he’d turned off the cameras in the home. He waited until after Kristil had returned from dropping two of her children at school then he’d attacked her from behind. He’d knocked her out then stabbed her in the heart. Then he’d gone to work – calmly stopping at a café on the way to pick up his usual latte order.

The defence said that there was no physical evidence or DNA to link Krug to the crime scene. The prosecution said that was because he had worn gloves. They also pointed out that he had approached her from behind because he knew she had a gun and pepper spray on her, and she would have violently fought back.

A man who had stalked his own wife for months would have been able to perfectly plan his attack. Krug was found guilty of first-degree murder, criminal impersonation and stalking. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The couple’s children now live with Kristil’s brother and his wife. Kristil spent the last months of her life living in terror of a man she thought was lurking in the shadows. In fact, the threat was living under the same roof.

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