Daniel Krug drove to work as if it were just another ordinary day. No one, absolutely no one, could have imagined that only hours earlier, he had murdered his wife, Crystal, and staged the scene in an attempt to escape justice. Meanwhile, at Crystal's home, her mother arrived after receiving a call from Daniel saying Crystal wasn't responding. When she reached the house, she witnessed [music] police officers desperately trying to save her daughter's life inside the garage. >> Hello understand how this tragedy unfolded, we have to go back 4 months. Outwardly, Crystal and Daniel lived what looked like a stable life with their three children in a nice home in Broomfield, Colorado. Both were educated and employed, but [music] inside the home, a darkness was growing. It began when Crystal believed she was being stalked by someone dangerous. She told police someone was watching her, sending threatening messages, and seemed to know her daily routines. >> This is rare, but if somebody does do something weird like this, it's usually obvious. >> Yeah, >> I guess. What do you think? >> Yeah, I know. >> The least no car that keeps popping up that you can think of that's like, hey, it's weird. I saw X car or anything like that. Well, I ran a background check on him and I know what vehicle he drives and I can't I never see that vehicle, but nondescript vehicle, >> the Camry. >> Yeah. >> And so, this would be my next question. >> Yeah. Are you sure he is actually putting eyes on you and following you or is he just saying stuff that's specific but general enough that he could you're like oh >> so the only way that I could think of that this event that he would be able to say what he did without putting eyes on me is he had a tracker on my phone and my phone picked up literally in that building and it didn't pick up any of the other surrounding buildings. But otherwise, like where I park and then where I went to tell me that I went into my dentist >> street when there's like so many other businesses there. The inerson stuff that's scaring the crap out of me and why I vlogged this was starting since last Tuesday and it's been almost every day since. >> Okay. >> I've gotten a few days break >> and it's always been text message or has it been >> and emails? >> Email. Okay. So, >> well, thank you. I would recommend, like I said, keep just make sure you're keeping doors closed, locked, all that good stuff. I mean, all the time cameras now everywhere around the property. >> Well, thank you. >> All right. You're very welcome. All right. And then if anything else, >> you know, all of a sudden something weird happens or all of a sudden you go, "Oh god, how did we miss the hat or something like Call us. Don't wash it. Call us and let us know." Even if I thought there was something, we'd swab it and test it and and see what happened. But I mean, I don't even see anything to to do that. An officer checked her car for a hidden GPS device, but found nothing and could only offer safety recommendations. Soon after, police received a call from Daniel reporting a break-in. He claimed he saw someone run from the backyard and believed they had taken a spare house key from the garage. >> I ran out at 4:15, 420ish. So, I left. I watched the garage door closing. Not necessarily closed. >> Okay. >> Uh my my wife drove that point home on me. >> Uh ran up to the store. I'm uh came back about 450 455. >> Uh as I came down, the door was open. >> The bigger one or the third? >> The double bay door. >> Okay. Uh, so as I pulled in, uh, I saw someone I I think it was a guy, but it was it was so fast. Yeah. >> Uh, blue jeans, gray shirt, >> run out, >> jump over my gate. Okay. >> And take off that way. >> Got it. Okay. >> Uh, I cared less about following him than getting inside and checking on my kids. >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I didn't think to call you until my my wife got home recently and we realized the spare key that we keep in the garage isn't there. >> Okay. Where was that kept at? >> Uh, toolbox. >> Got it. Okay. Um, did you notice any tools or anything missing? That's a pretty common item. No. >> No. Uh, >> it's all all basic tools anyway. Nothing fancy. >> Sure. >> Uh, no tools missing. Uh, the bikes are all hanging on the wall still. None none of those are gone. >> Got it. Uh, skis are in there, golf clubs. >> Everything seems to be there. >> Okay. >> Except a spare key. >> The house key. Okay, got it. >> Officers advised Daniel to replace all the locks, not knowing this was actually step one in Daniel's plan. 9 days later, Crystal began receiving disturbing messages again. Her phone displayed the name Jack Anthony Holland, an ex-boyfriend [music] from over 20 years ago. The first message asked to meet and have some fun, which she ignored. The next day, the messages became vulgar, threatening, claiming he had seen her at the dentist and knew her expired license plate. Details that made Crystal believe she was truly being watched. Crystal installed cameras around the house, added a dash cam to her car, carried a gun, lost sleep, and created an Excel stalker log to document everything. Nearly a month later, Anthony emailed a photo of Daniel at work, showing he was watching the whole family. Crystal hired a private investigator and formally contacted police on Halloween night. >> So, how can I help you tonight? What's going on? Yeah. So, I have an ex from a very long time ago who has occasionally down me on social media and it's never been an issue until this month. So, this month I have received numerous text messages and then today I got an email that is very threatening and it escalated to the point that he took a recent picture of my husband at his work location. So, the stocking is getting a little too aggressive at this point in time. So my last contact with this individual was 5 years ago where I told him I was happily married. I had no interest in what he kept contacting me. He kind of blew things up and then blocked me. I blocked him. Haven't heard from him since. >> The case was assigned to detective Andrew Martinez, [music] an experienced investigator in violent crimes and abductions. Martinez noticed something strange. Crystal had been harassed since early October, but only told Daniel a month later. Right after Anthony sent a photo of Daniel, it was the first time Martinez considered the possibility that someone inside the home might be manipulating the situation. But for the moment, all clues still pointed toward Anthony. As November and early December passed, the threatening messages intensified. [music] Crystal became exhausted and increasingly fearful. Then suddenly, Anthony [music] messaged that he would no longer come to Colorado. The family relaxed, unaware this was Daniel's final setup. On the morning of the murder, Daniel left for work and Crystal dropped the children off at school before returning home. Someone had taped over the Ring doorbell camera. When Crystal pulled into the garage and closed the door, the attacker struck, hitting her in the head and stabbing her in the chest. Crystal collapsed on the concrete floor, bleeding out. from work. Daniel called Crystal repeatedly. When she didn't answer, he called police, emphasizing threats from a supposed stalker. >> Dispatches meeting. >> Uh, hi there. Uh, my name is Dan Krug. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. >> Uh, my wife isn't responding uh to text messages or phone calls. Okay. >> We've had threats against us. We have both been targeted uh by a stalker. Uh threats have been made against my life. Okay. >> Uh and and threatening to like kidnap her, which is why I'm >> Yeah. >> nervous that she's not answering. >> He also phoned Crystal's mother, sending her straight into the tragedy unfolding at the house. >> A welfare check officer arrived. The house was quiet. >> Hello. Oh, I was just on their neighbor and they called. They're like, "Can you see? She'll answer this." >> Oh, yeah. He sent us as well. So, [music] after speaking to neighbors and preparing to leave, he circled back and looked through the garage window. Seeing a body on the floor. >> 151 send medical and 110. I need a force sentry. I got a female down in the garage. >> Rodale police. Rdale police. Oh [ __ ] Holy [ __ ] [sighs] [sighs] What the hell? >> [sighs] >> Holy [ __ ] What is going on? >> Officers forced entry, performed CPR, and opened the garage for paramedics. >> 151. >> Female has some sort of head wound. She is warm. I'm on CPR. Copy. Starting CPR 29. >> Hello, ma'am. I need you to stay out, please. >> She's got a head wound. I don't know if it's from falling or something else, but probably falling, but I don't know, man. It's a good one. >> Husband said there was a stalker threatening to kidnap her, so I don't know. >> I notified Detective Sergeant. >> Yeah, she's not. >> No, she's unresponsive. When medics exposed Crystal's chest, they immediately saw a deep stab wound over her heart. She could not be saved. [music] Crystal's gun was found in her bag. She never had a chance to reach it. The front door was unlocked except for the handle. The deadbolt wasn't engaged. The ring camera had been intentionally covered. Family members arrived one by one, but were kept outside, unaware Crystal had already died. Daniel arrived last crying. grieving. Police still saw him as a victim. >> Okay, I need you to stay back, sir. This my help. >> I understand. I need you to stay back here. Family's over here. Family's over here. >> Don't worry. Don't kill us. >> I can't really quickly. I know a lot of questions right now. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of answers for you, but I know what you want me right now. together. >> I didn't protect her. >> I was there for her. I protected her. >> Let them know. When police interviewed Crystal's children, her oldest daughter described the man who threatened their family and [music] sent pictures of her father. >> My phone notified me of my house cameras going off. There was police at my house and an ambulance and there's there was a stretcher. I couldn't bring myself to see who was on the stretcher. So, I called I called my mom and dad. [music] My dad picks up and he's he's crying. >> They're they're probably about 7 minutes away. Okay. Um, I'm not going to lie. Something happened. [music] Okay. That's why we That's why you're here. >> Do you know what's going on? >> I do, but I can't. I'm not going to tell you. Okay. Um, because we're still actively investigating what's going on out there. Um, so I don't want to give you wrong information. That's the last thing I want to do. Okay. Um, what has been going on at home? Um, so this dude has been threatening my mom. um stalking her [music] uh taking photos of my dad saying that he's going to kill him. Uh he also >> who do we know who this person is? >> One of uh her ex. I don't know whose name >> like an ex-boyfriend or >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um and they broke up a while ago and they ended it as friends. So this has all come to a really big shock to her. Um, and then so he's been contacting her from different numbers, sending pictures of my dad saying he's gonna kill them. He hasn't mentioned anything about me and my siblings yet, which is good. Um, but he's like he posted something to a website trying to recruit guys to like help him with whatever plan he's doing. Um, and then he's like, >> "How did you guys learn about that?" >> Um, he's been contacting my mom through all of this. So, my mom has contacted the police and she has like a whole bunch of people on the case, but the thing is he's making it sound like she's helping him and she's not. And so, >> helping him like try to kill your dad. >> Yeah. And so, like we're afraid that the police are going to turn on us. >> Okay. >> And so, she's been trying to protect herself. From the children's perspective, Daniel was the target. From police perspective, Anthony was still the main suspect. From the stalker's perspective. Daniels, everything was going perfectly. Police expanded the investigation, collecting neighbor footage, building a timeline, and issuing a nationwide alert for Anthony. However, when investigators tracked down Anthony, everything became clear because what they discovered did not match the profile of a dangerous stalker at all. >> I'm going to ask you a couple names to see if you recognize any names. >> Oh, okay. >> Do you have you ever heard of the name Crystal Krug? She may have been Grimsrod when you knew her. >> Yeah. >> And do you know a Daniel Krug? >> No. >> No. How do you know Crystal? >> She was an ex-girlfriend. >> She's an ex-girlfriend. Oh, >> how long's your ex? Like how long ago? >> Um, 1999. >> Oh, so like a like a long while ago. >> She was my very first girlfriend ever. >> Oh, okay. >> Um, when was the last time you talked to Crystal? Has it been a while? A minute? >> Um, it's been a minute. Yeah. >> Like since you moved from 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 him. >> All right. >> Um, they have an incident. I don't know the full details of their incident out there and so I'll let him talk to you about that aspect. Um, he had asked us to come out here to your house. uh and and talk with you. Um they were debating on you do have an active warrant out of uh Broomsfield [music] Police Department. Um 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 [music] about the details of it if that makes sense when [music and snorts] you when you call and talk to him. >> Yeah. I don't know why I did. I didn't. >> So that's just cuz he got that active warrant. I don't know the details of the stalking warrant. Is a stalking warrant. Um you can talk to him about that as well. Um this when you call that number, that's his cell phone. Just talk to him. [music] Introduce yourself. >> Anthony was living and working steadily in Utah. Employment records, surveillance footage, witness statements, and his personal timeline all confirmed that he had not left the state on the day Crystal was killed. The distance and travel time alone made it impossible for him to have been in Colorado at the time of the attack. With such solid alibi evidence, Anthony was officially eliminated as a suspect. And from that moment, the entire theory of an outside stalker began to collapse. If Anthony was not the killer, if no stranger had approached the house, if there were no signs of forced entry, then the question investigators could no longer avoid, who had been creating the story of Anthony from the very beginning. Crystal's family revealed more. The marriage was failing. Crystal called her life a living hell, and Daniel had used physical punishment on the kids. Some family members even suspected Daniel might be behind the messages. more recently um we learned that her and Dan's relationship was not well like that um I think she had approached Dan about the potential of getting a divorce and then he either like wanted to work on it or just didn't want to leave the kids. Um, and [music] so she kind of opened up to me a little bit about that that ice cream night. Um, and just how like she did not really want to be in the marriage anymore. >> She had shared with me that they had separated, [music] >> okay, >> but we're still living together a year ago. that she admitted, you know, that her marriage was over, but Dan didn't want to admit it and he would hurt the kids, but but he would hurt the kids. She was worried about that. I saw it a couple times where he would grab and pull and he's pretty scary when he gets angry. Digging into Daniel's past, Martinez found an old stalking case involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie. A scenario almost identical to Crystal's case. >> I sat with them and they kind of laid the emails out on the table and they said, "We've had like a forensic psychologist or some sort of a psychological kind of reading sort of professional look at all these emails." Um, and we It's Dan is what they said. After that, I started dating a like dating two dates, someone on my own campus. His name was Paul Padilla. >> Um, again, we did something stupid like, you know, we went to play miniature golf. I mean, really innocent kind of stuff. And I think it was shortly after that I started to get these really disturbing phone calls. And so again, I had a landline 2 in my room that I think was part of a central campus phone system. So the last four digits were unique to my room. >> Um, and the phone calls were someone had bought a a voice distortion like the really deep scary kind of voice um machine that I guess you can speak into. And I don't know what these look like, but that's you could tell that's what I I was hearing. Digital evidence soon arrived and changed everything. All cameras inside the Krug home were disabled from 8:15 to 10:15 a.m. The exact window when Crystal was killed. No one else approached the home that morning. The burner phone used to send threats was purchased with a Visa gift card registered to Daniel Krug. Tower records showed the burner phone always traveled with Daniel's personal phone. Gmail logs and the Kickman account traced back to Daniel's workplace IP. The night before the murder, Daniel searched Google for how hard one must strike the head to knock someone out. At this point, the entire Anthony the Stalker narrative completely collapsed. Daniel was the one who created everything, the messages, the fake identities, the threats, and ultimately he was the one who killed his own wife. On December 16th, 2023, a warrant was issued. Daniel was arrested while driving to his daughter's dance performance. >> Go go go. >> Hands on your feet. Hands on your face. >> Hands on your face. >> Hands on your face. >> Hands on your face. [music] You want to toss? Make sure we're good on [music] that. >> Yep. >> With Crystal's [music] father and brother now at the scene. >> Hey Dan, do you want me to tell your kids that you killed their mother or do you want somebody else to? In April 2025, [music] the trial began. Prosecutors described Daniel as a controlling, resentful man who terrorized Crystal for months before killing her. >> This was about Dan losing control. He was not in love with Crystal. 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 the absolute nightmare and hell that he made the last few months of her life. >> The defense argued there was no physical evidence directly tying him to the murder. >> We know the physical evidence and there is an enormous disconnect between that and the circumstantial picture the def the prosecution wants you to believe. Mr. Krug did not kill his wife. [music] He did not commit these crimes. >> After nearly two days of deliberation, on April 17th, 2025, the jury found Daniel Krug guilty of firstdegree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. >> We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. >> He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Crystal's parents said they lost the light she brought into their lives. Her father continues working on cars in the garage, teaching her children to use the very same tools, the tools he once taught her to use, as a way of keeping her memory alive.