Colorado Woman Tried to Escape a Phantom Stalker — Until the Truth Came Out: It Was Her Husband All Along
She called the police months ago, frightened and exhausted, certain that someone from her past had started to harass her. She believed it was an ex-boyfriend from two decades earlier. It was late October 2023 when Kristil Krug, a chemical and biochemical engineer, first contacted law enforcement in Broomfield, Colorado, saying she’d been receiving texts and emails from a man claiming to be her former partner. The messages grew more disturbing over time. They hinted at being watched, even sending photos of her car outside a dentist’s office and of her husband at work — things no random stalker should know.
Kristil kept a careful log of every message. She told police she found it “exhausting.” She upgraded her home security, began carrying a concealed weapon, took firearm safety classes, watched over her children more closely. Her fear was growing.
She believed that this ex-boyfriend — someone she hadn’t spoken to in years — was back, trying to break in, trying to destabilize her life. She sensed he knew too much. That fear drove her to contact the police, to put pressure on authorities to see that she was in danger.
But while Kristil believed the threat came from the past, investigators soon discovered a chilling truth: the messages had originated not from an ex at all, but from her husband, Daniel Krug. For months, Daniel had used burner phones, fake email accounts, and digital tactics to impersonate that ex, to instill fear, to drive Kristil emotionally to rely on him again.
In December 2023, Kristil dropped off two of their three children at school, came home, and was ambushed in her garage. That morning, Daniel had disabled security cameras, covered their doorbell’s lens with tape, and tampered with surveillance systems. He assaulted Kristil — inflicting blunt-force trauma and stabbing her in the heart. Later, he used her phone to send messages and text others to make it look like she still lived, to fabricate an alibi.
As investigators dug deeper, they found that the supposed ex-boyfriend was in Utah at the time — with a solid alibi. Every threat, every text, every photo had been traced to IP addresses, to burner devices, even to accounts connected to Daniel’s workplace. Evidence pointed to a man trying to control his spouse by fabricating a stalker nightmare and then silencing her forever.
In April 2025, a jury convicted Daniel Krug of first-degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional nine and a half years on the other charges. The court determined that his actions were a calculated web of digital deceit, emotional abuse, and violence.
Kristil, remembered by friends and family as kind, bright, and creative, was not just a victim of violence but of betrayal on a level many struggle to grasp. She had tried to protect her children, tried to make sense of frightening messages, tried to believe it was someone from her past. Instead, the danger was the person she shared a home, a life, children with.
Her three children, now raised by relatives, carry the loss. Her father, Lars Grimsrud, told the court that the crime robbed them of a mother and a wife in one terrifying moment. The family, the community, and observers everywhere have been left to wonder how someone could engineer such horror from inside the home.
Kristil’s story is a stark reminder: danger sometimes hides not in the shadows outside, but in the deceit within. Her courage to speak, to file reports, to try to defend herself might have saved lives — though tragically, not her own. Her truth now stands as warning and wake-up call to those who believe that safety begins at home.
