A past boyfriend is cleared as the victim’s husband faces charges.
On a quiet afternoon in mid-December 2023, a man named Anthony Holland was settled in his home near Salt Lake City, watching TV, when officers knocked on his door. The sudden visit caught him off guard. The sight of badges and serious faces made his mind race, leaving him unsure of what was happening or why they were there. He later said he feared he had been wrongfully identified as a suspect in a murder case that, in an instant, would turn his life upside-down.
One of the officers asked if he knew a woman named Kristil Krug. Holland said he once dated someone with that name many years earlier. She had been his first love, but their relationship ended in the fall of 2000. After that, they went their separate ways and had no contact. Holland had no idea that on that same morning, hundreds of miles away in Broomfield, Colorado, Krug, a 43-year-old mother of three children, had been found dead in the garage of her home. He would, indeed, become law enforcement’s prime suspect.
In the weeks before her death, Kristil Krug had told police she and her husband, Dan Krug, had been getting harsh messages from someone she believed was stalking her. She thought Holland was behind them. Because of that claim, investigators reached out to Utah police within hours of her death and asked them to find Holland. With the crime scene more than 500 miles away, officers needed to know whether he had traveled or had any way of being involved.
Holland told officers he had been out running errands that day. What he did not yet realize was how important those errands would become. At 12:16 p.m., several hours after the murder, he bought a sweatshirt at a nearby store. The timestamp on the receipt showed he could not have reached Colorado and returned in the short window between the crime and his purchase. When he showed the officers the receipt, they saw the timeline for themselves. The proof was clear, and he was ruled out on the spot.
Holland later said he felt the pull to go buy that sweatshirt for reasons he did not fully understand at the time. He said the urge came on strong and would not leave him alone until he did. He also shared that he felt guided by loved ones who had passed, including his late mother and even Kristil. To him, the timing felt beyond chance, although he couldn’t have known at the time that this would clear him as a suspect in the case.
Two days after the murder, police arrested Kristil’s husband, Dan Krug, and charged him with stalking and murder. Holland still keeps the sweatshirt he bought that day. To him, it is far more than a spare piece of clothing. It represents the moment his life could have taken a far different turn, as well as a reminder of a woman he once cared for whose life was cut short.
Sources:
Store receipt provides alibi for Utah man eyed in murder 500 miles away
Twisted story of how man was allegedly framed for murdering first love he hadn’t seen for 20 years
Join the conversation!