Twisted story of how man was allegedly framed for murdering first love he hadn’t seen for 20 years

Utah server Anthony Holland had just bought a new Adidas sweatshirt at Kohl’s and was relaxing at home after a later shift at Texas Roadhouse the night before when cops showed up at his door.

It was December, 14, 2023, and he was unaware that Kritsil Krug, his first teenage love who he had broken up with more than 20 years earlier, had been murdered in her suburban Denver, Colorado home.

He told a jury on Wednesday that detectives asked him if he knew Krug and admitted he had ‘no idea what was going on’ when they came to his house.

Kristil, a 43-year-old engineer, was found fatally bludgeoned and stabbed in the garage of the home she shared with her husband and three children in Broomfield, about halfway between Denver and Boulder. 

Holland was testifying in the trial of Kristil’s husband Daniel Krug, 44, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, stalking and criminal impersonation.

Prosecutors allege that Krug, knowing Holland had made occasional attempts to reconnect with Kristil since their 2000 breakup, executed a campaign of stalking and harassment of his wife while pretending to be the Utah server.

He set up email addresses using elements of Holland’s name and sent threats to kidnap Kristil and ‘get rid’ of her husband, according to prosecutors.

Holland, who traveled from his home in Eagle Mountain, Utah to testify, said detectives asked him if he knew Kristil when they arrived. 

He told them she was his ex-girlfriend and testified on Wednesday that she was his first love.

The pair had met when Holland was 17 and Kristil was 18, he said, but he hadn’t seen her since they broke up since the end of 2000.

He did email her in 2004 ‘just checking in and seeing how she was doing, and she told me that she couldn’t talk because her boyfriend would get mad at her,’ Holland testified Wednesday, wearing a suit, tie and tie clip.

He contacted her again ‘several years later’ through Facebook and they became friends over the platform, he said.

But she ‘stopped being my friend’ and blocked him after he sent a message he couldn’t clearly recall on Wednesday.

When asked by the prosecutor whether the message told Kristil that Holland still loved her, he testified: ‘Probably.’

That was the last communication they’d had at the time of his murder, though, Holland said,

Kristil had told authorities that final interaction with Holland had occurred in 2016.

By December 2023, Holland testified, he ‘had now idea how to get ahold of her.’

He told the court that Colorado detectives traveled to interview him at his home on January 2, 2024 but he’d learned of Kristil’s death a few days before that.

A mutual friend who’d gone to school with Kristil ‘alerted me and told me what was going on.’

Holland’s sister also testified and verified photos that showed her brother had been with her and other relatives in Idaho and Utah on many of the dates the ‘stalker’ had sent photos and surveillance purportedly from Colorado.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kristil’s family stifled sobs and dabbed away tears as they watched a Broomfield officer discover the Colorado mother bloody and unconscious in the garage during body camera footage shown to jurors. 

Officer John O’Hayre was dispatched to the house on December 14, 2023 in response to a wellness check called in by her husband, who told police he’d been unable to reach his wife for three hours.

O’Hayre’s body cam also showed how, as he called for backup and began CPR on Kristil, her mother arrived at the open garage door. 

Linda Grimsrud testified on Monday that Krug had called her to ask that she also check in Kristil because he was alarmed that his wife hadn’t answered his messages. 

The court on Wednesday also witnessed Krug’s arrival on scene in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of Kristil’s body.

Panting and distraught, Krug – who’d driven home from work following his calls for  wellness checks – ran across the street after parking and sobbed into the arms of waiting loved ones.

When asked by police for permission for searches of the home, he distractedly exclaimed, ‘Go, go go!’

As other family members comforted themselves in the street, Krug staggered to the curb, rocking back and forth and later falling to his knees with his head in his hands.

Red-faced and mumbling, much of what he said was barely audible.