A Colorado man has been charged with murder of his wife last month after he spent months pretending to be an ex-boyfriend she hadn’t seen in more than 20 years.
Daniel Krug, 43, sent Kristil Krug, 43, multiple threatening messages while pretending to be the former boyfriend, prompting her to report the ex to police in October, KUSA reported.
Kristil Krug told police that the ex-boyfriend had sent her messages for years but that she didn’t respond and they stapped. But communications began again on October 2, she told detectives, but with an “escalation” that gave her concern for herself and her family, an affidavit for her husband’s arrest says.
Those included:
- An October 31 email with a photo of Daniel Krug getting out of his vehicle at work that day
- A November 2 email that noted Kristil Krug’s license tags were expired
- A November 9 text messaging saying she’d been seen at her dentist’s office
- A November 13 message that was so vulgar and threatening that Glendale Police went to Daniel Krug’s workplace to check on him while Brumfield Police checked on Kristil Krug at her home
- Additional messages on December 5 and 6
Police say it was all part of Daniel Krug’s plan to pin his wife’s December 14 murder on the former boyfriend. On that day, Krug called police and asked for a welfare check, saying he hadn’t been able to contact his wife for several hours and that she’d had an appointment with the detective in the stalking case, although the detective said no such meeting was planned.
An officer went to the Krug home and go no answer, but when he looked into the garage windows, he saw a woman on the floor. He called for assistance and forced his way into the home and garage. The woman had no pulse and was pronounced dead when medics arrived.
An autopsy report said she had two wounds to the head and one stab wound to the chest.
Investigators quickly learned that the home was equipped with four motion sensor cameras, but three of them had been offline for most of the morning Kristil Krug was found dead. Additionally, there was painter’s tape over the doorbell camera.
After checking neighbors and their surveillance cameras — 42 homes — detectives said they found no evidence of an “unknown person” at the Krug home.
Daniel Krug was the last person to see his wife alive, the affidavit says, and evidence showed that only he or his wife could have turned off the motion detectors. And then came the real kicker: The IP address used to send the threatening messages from Kristil Krug’s “ex boyfriend” originated at Daniel Krug’s work place.
Investigators also said that the former boyfriend lives in Utah and was seen on surveillance video shopping on the day of Krug’s dentist appointment and the morning she was murdered.
Kristil Krug’s family further told investigators that she planned to divorce her husband and seek full custody of their children. One family member said their relationship was “not good.”
Daniel Krug was arrested on December 16 and charged with first degree murder. He is being held on a $5 million bond and is due in court again in February.
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[Featured image: Daniel Krug/Broomfield Police Department]
