Transcript of He's Right Behind You

I'm John Quinones. Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier, vanishes while on duty at an army base in Texas. Her family demands answers. How can she go missing on a military base? That's too ridiculous. The search goes on for months. Where is Vanessa? Where is Vanessa? And a dark story starts to unfold. She told her family that she was being sexually harassed and wasn't reporting it out of fear of retribution and retaliation. What investigators finally uncover is horrifying. Find out how one soldier, a beloved sister and daughter, ignited a movement and sparked a reckoning in the US military. Listen to Vanished: What Happened to Vanessa? A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Listen now wherever you get your podcast. From field dispatches. I don't think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird. My wife is responding to phone calls. We've had threats against us. Can I get maybe a wellness check at the house? We do offer checks all the time. Most of the time, it's uneventful. What's your wife's name? Chris Field. K-r-i-s. S-t-i-l. We have both been targeted by a stalker. The report from Dan was, We have been involved in this stalking case.

Threats have been made against my life and threatening to kidnap her, which is why I'm nervous that she's not answering me. I have not been able to reach my wife for, I think he said two or three hours, and I just want somebody to go check on her and make sure she's okay. We'll also send officers over to the house just to check the house and see what's going on. The goal was to make contact with Christine and to make sure she was safe. Officer O'Hara went over to the house. Very textbook response. He parks down the street, walks up. He came across one of the neighbors who was at the front door of Christine's house to check on her. Hello. Oh, I was just on their neighbor, and they called and they're like, Can you please do us Did he send us a message? Oh, yeah. He sent us as well. Just next door? Yeah. Okay. Great. Well, you got this. All righty, man. Appreciate it. He basically told her he would take over from there. He had knocked on the door, couldn't see Anything obvious through the windows. Goes around to the garage.

The windows are at the very tippity top of the garage. You can't see into them. Officer O'Hare decided to pull his vehicle up into the driveway. He used his patrol car to climb up on so he could see in the garage. And saw Christie laying there in what he appeared to be blood. 151, send medical, and 110. I need a force entry. I got a female down in the garage. So when he finds her, he immediately runs around to the front door. He kicks open the front door. Her. Romefield Police. Romefield Police. Oh, holy shit. You can see there's a good amount of blood that's on the wall behind her, some blood coming from her head that you can see. And he immediately starts trying to conduct life-saving measures. Is he thinking that maybe there was an accident? Initially, he thought, Well, I'm not sure if this is a fall or what because it's near the stairs and there's a little concrete ledge. Female has some head wound. She is warm. I'm on CPR. He went above and beyond to try to save her. Yes, and that is priority one, two, and three. Officer O'Hare refuses to give up with chest compression after chest compression.

Nearly 500 of them. 151, let me know when the next unit is close. I'll open the garage for particularly medical. Copy. I have three units from your one. Yes. Medical on scene. What do you remember about the morning of December 14th? Dan said, I can't find Christie. I thought, Oh, she's probably just not answering your phone. Let me go over and I'll find out what's going on. Linda gets to her daughter's home just as Officer O'Hare is letting the medics into the garage. Garage is open now. Hello, ma'am. Hello. I need you to stay out, please. Officer O'Hare does direct her away at that point in time. I need you to come over here for a minute, okay? So we can work. We can. She's okay. What are you thinking has happened? You know, you go to a place, it's like, what is happening? This can't be happening. Okay. I need a tag out, man. She's got a head wound. I don't know if it's from falling or something else. Probably falling, but I don't know, man. I'll be right back, guys. I'm just going to the car here. Hey, man, just run interference for me.

I don't know if that's a relative or neighbor or what. We're going to clear the house. Medics are in the garage. Brooklyn police, anybody inside? Make yourself known. Rooffield police, anybody inside? Brooklyn police, 35, warning. Anybody inside? I got a couple of rooms to the left over here. Let me know when you're coming around. The RP said there was a stalker trying to be kidnapping, so just heads up on that. Clear here, coming out. Brookfield police. Okay. They do a quick clearance of the house to ensure that nobody else was in the home. You go one way, I got the other. I'm going straight. Another one on the left. Go. Clear here. No real sign of anything. Cpr being done in the garage. She's got a good head wound. I think it's been fallen down, but I'm going to reevaluate that right now. They started to realize that something was off, that there was foul play. Guys, do you see anything other than a fall type of wound? That's a stab wound. Yeah, it's on the chest. Right, ready? Yeah, call it. Damn it. Paramedics, unfortunately, locate the stab wound to Chris Steele's chest. And it was catastrophic head trauma to the back of her head.

So we have a visible stab wound, you guess? Yes. Right above her heart. They do declare her time of death shortly afterwards, having seen no signs of life. Once you start to look at this and you think this is a Homicide. There's an assailant out there. Yes. Let Henry know that. When we do have a homicide, everybody who was here, sprang into action right away. I am a victim advocate with the Broomfield Police Department. We're on scene with victims that are dealing with the worst day of their life. Oh, my God. We were directed towards Chris Diehl's family. This can't be true, can it? Can it be true? How did you even wrap your mind around it? Just a lot of denying, like, this can't be happening. This can't be happening. You just go completely numb. There are words to describe it. Who's in charge of the doctor? We couldn't even know what happened. We hear a very large, very loud scream coming from up the street. Hey, family's here. Tell them to park on the side. We see a man running down the street. It ducks into the first level of prime scene tape and runs towards the house and is yelling, That's my house.

That's my house. Hey, stay back, stay back, stay back, stay back. This is my house. It just runs into the arms of one of Christie's family. And we realize that that was Dan, that that was her husband. It's probably her husband. That's her husband. They embraced him in a hug. Did you guys start together? Then Detective Waight started speaking with Dan. I didn't have a lot of questions right now. Unfortunately, you don't have a lot of answers for you. I was tasked with making sure Dan was okay. He had gone weak in the knees. He couldn't stand anymore. Dan is almost hurdled over with his hands on his stomach bent over. That's great. I placed my hand on his back and his shoulder just so he knew I was there, that somebody was there. This man right now has just lost his everything. He's lost his wife. He's lost the mother to his children. And now he has to do everything. And that was heavy. This doesn't happen in Broomfield. My first priority he was, Let's get this person. Police are jumping into action, trying to figure out who'd want to kill this wife and mom of three.

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And I immediately saw her at the base of the stairs. It's just minutes after Christie's crew's body has been found in her garage. Home security video and police body cameras capture the action. Did you check your ring footage? Yeah, he did. She had a stab wound in her chest. Christie's Krug is dead. We were on high alert. We had just have wrapped up our holiday party. Everybody had ran back to their desks, and we're grabbing their radios, and we're heading out. Let's huddle up here for a second, figure out what we got. You got the photos? Yeah. Hang out for just a minute. So the response is pretty much everybody all hands, is on deck. Okay, so you want it all the way across the street? Is that far enough? All right, let's go take a look. The next thing as we walked into the house was there's just not a lot of disarray. There's nothing that would jump out to you as, Oh, a crime happening in here. No struggle. Typically, if there's an intruder, there's signs of that. Some drawers being left open, things overturned, a mess. There wasn't anything overtly unusual Can you hear how they looked ransacked, looking like that.

That's the garage? Yes. There wasn't anything ordinary until you got into the garage where Chris Diehl's body was. Do you see that blood? Yeah. When someone is killed in our city, We're going to drop everything and do whatever we need to do to figure out what happened. Broomfield is a beautiful city just outside of Denver, here in Colorado. You can have the downtown area as well as escape to the mountains. I like to call it a little big town. Once people find their place in this town, they stay. Lots of development in the last few for a few years. We have just under 80,000 people who live in Broomfield. When you look at our crime stats, very low crime. So the Croogs lived in Anthem neighborhood, which is a highly-taught-after neighborhood. Pretty quiet. I would say we don't probably respond to a lot of calls there. Christine's dad, Lars, immigrated from Norway back in the '70s, moving to Colorado for a job in the aerospace industry street. He meets and marries Linda, who worked in IT at the time. What was life like for you those early days of raising a family here? We started out very modestly in a mobile home, not far from here.

Crystal hated that idea. She was born in a mobile home. She hated that narrative. No middle name, just Crystal? Yeah. It's a Norwegian name, and such a unique name anyway. So everyone's going to know who Christil is. She doesn't need a middle name. Christine's parents split up when she and her brother were young, but they're on good terms. So she continues to spend time with her dad, even helping him restore his classic cars. I'd go drag racing. Her and her and her brother, we'd I'd be my pit crew. We had a lot of fun with that. So it was clear that she had maybe an engineer's type mind early on. She also had a very artistic mind as well. She loved to paint and dance, of course. What were her hopes and dreams? She had a big interest in chemistry and biology. And then, of course, the dance side and the artistic side would kick in, and then he'd have a talk with her about, Well, that's not really going to make you very much money. So think about that. The practicalPractical side. Look at the practical side. So she did both. Christine got her degree in chemical engineering, and along the way, she met Dan Krieg.

What was it that connected them? She was excited about the relationship. She thought she found someone that was compatible intellectually. It was that relationship where they did everything together. After seven years of dating, they tied the knot. So was this boxed away for the longest time? Yeah, it's been boxed away since their wedding, which was in 2007. So we went looking for her wedding dress, and we tried on so many. This one is just so gorgeous. It's in satin. You fell in love with this. Oh, yeah, she did. She was just so happy. She tried to stay It wasn't a budget, but she saw this one, and I saw this one and got to tears about it. So I said, You know what? I'll just pay for it. Christine and Dan appeared to be a very successful couple. She was a global project manager. She was born to be a mother and an engineer. She could do everything, and she was an extraordinary parent. Dan Crook worked for the State of Colorado. He was a budget finance type of guy for them, pretty high up. Dan and Christine settled in this tidy suburban neighborhood outside Denver with their three children, the picture of happiness.

Then there was the first hint of trouble. When Dan says he spotted an intruder running from their garage. Hi there. My name is Dan Krug. I'm reporting a treach passer on my property. Okay, and I'll start ahead over there, okay? Okay, thank you. It was just three months before Christine Steal's murder, September 2023. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, definitely. I'm Austin Shanty. I'm Dan. Nice to meet you. His garage door was open, and he saw an individual. She could not provide a lot of detail about running from the garage. I think it was a guy, but it was so fast. Yeah. Blue jeans, gray shirt, run out, jump over my gate, and take off that way. Got Break-ins are somewhat common around that area, and when people leave their garages open, but usually tools and valuables that are visible or what's taken. Everything seems to be there. Okay. Except a spare key. The house, Keith. Okay, got it. Dan says he was especially concerned about the intruder because his kids were just a few feet away in the house, on the other side of the door to the garage. I cared less about following him than getting inside and checking on my kids.

Yeah, absolutely. My daughter is adamant. No one came in the house. She never heard the garage door open. She was in the living room right next to it. He went over this area. Okay. So if anything else comes up missing, anything weird, somebody coming up and trying the door, anything like that, just give us a call. Okay. The patrol officers that took that report did an area canvas, but couldn't find anybody. Then a few days later, Christie gets an unnerving blast from her past. Christie begins receiving text messages in 2023. The person identifies themselves as Anthony Holland. The initial Text message starts off innocent enough. And it said, Hey, this is Anthony. I come to Boulder every few weeks. Do you want to hook up? And the only Anthony she knew of was Jack Anthony Holland. Chris Steele met Anthony when she was in high school. Anthony and Chris Steele met while working at the J. C. Penney's. Tell me about Anthony. He was a very nice guy. He was fun. We liked him. Everybody liked Anthony. They went to parties and hung out together. For Halloween, the two dressed as Raggedy Ann and Andy.

But the relationship didn't last for more than a year, probably. Well, he had dropped out of high school. She was headed to college. It sounds like they were on different paths. Well, exactly. Their life goals and ambitions were two completely different tracks. Anthony had tried to contact Christine a number of times over the years to rekindle their romance every time she was very kind, but also rejected him. Christine told Anthony that she was happily married, that she had children, and she wasn't really interested And so they stopped communicating. But now, seven years later, it seems Anthony may have returned, and soon, a second message. You should say yes when I offer pity. Saw your pics, you got fat. You should kill yourself. Anthony had never been violent. He had never been lewd or threatening. And so this really was different than all of those times. It went from a minor annoyance to pretty serious to fear and alarm as things continued. That's when she receives the photo. He was right around the corner. And she's worried about her safety, her husband's safety, her kid's safety. This is a little obsessively strange. Halloween, 2023. Kids everywhere are trick-or-treating.

Christine Krug's text messages have been run-of-the-mill for three weeks. Then she gets another disturbing upping mistakes. It refers to her husband and also has an attached photo of Dan Krug. This your husband? Drives like slow old lady. He needs to drive safe. That picture signified to Chris Steele, this person is actively following not only me, but my family. And that's where you really see her level of concern and alert raising. Now it appears that her ex-boyfriend, Anthony, is actually stalking her in person. And this latest message is even darker. Don't want to clear a rubber hose in his tailpipe. That sounds like a threat, and it's also something that she had already noticed had been in her car. A month earlier, Christine found clear plastic tubing sticking out of her car from a hole in the trunk. She says, Initially, I didn't think anything that much of this, but now I'm concerned that this was an attempt to cause harm to me or my family. While one end stuck inside the car, the other apparently had been inserted into her tailpipe. When she found it, it had been charred a little bit, probably by the exhaust.

She went to the Mazda dealer. My name is Jordan. I'm a service adviser here at Siltahar Mazda. I was always excited to see her name on the schedule. She was always really nice and kind and patient. Good morning. I'm thinking we could bring your Mazda in for its 5K service and tire replacement. This is the mechanic's routine video inspection of Christie's car from that day. Nothing concerning today in terms of wear. Just looks about normal, so everything's looking good there. When my technician was doing his inspection of the car, we noticed that the plug underneath was missing, so there was just a big hole. You don't want gunk getting up there, so we're going to want to replace that. That's when Christie asks about that tubing. The plug hole would have been in this general area where the spare tire swoops down. She described hosing like this in the hole sticking out of the bottom of the car. Well, she wanted to know if it was normal for a car to have any tubing like this going in or out of it, which no, it should not have any tubing going in or out of the car.

She seemed just a little frazzled and scared. Did you think that this was potentially a dangerous situation? Yes, we were really concerned, like somebody was trying to pump carbon monoxide into her car. When I read the story of what happened, it just brought it all back. Just didn't feel good. It is very disturbing, very disturbing. And then three days later, she gets yet another strange email. The stalker mentioned that her registration was expired, and so that really threw her into a tailspin. I mean, to her, he was right around the corner endangering her family. Christie also gets this photo of a shirtless man with another message. Are you interested? The impression is that the person knows a lot about her whereabouts. She said, I need to let you know I'm being stalked. I'm getting emails from Anthony. He's threatening me with the things. He's saying just bizarre things. Did this sound like the Anthony that you knew? No. Holy cow. What the heck happened to Anthony here? The guy went off the rails. It's around this time that Christine contacts police. That call is captured on the officer's body camera. Hi, this is Officer King.

How can I hope you tonight? I have an ex from a very long time ago. I have received numerous text messages, and then today I got an email threatening against both me and my family. My The mission for you is, is there a course of action to possibly take that could potentially safeguard me from this individual? You can always go and apply for a civil protection order. I have never even seen him. This is a little obsessively strange. She told me she'd hired a private investigator to find out where Anthony was. There was no record of him being in Colorado. Not knowing where Anthony is only adds to Christine's paranoia. So Dan installs security cameras in the house and both buy dashcams for their cars in case he's following them while they're driving. And now something more bizarre. She soon starts getting messages from a flood of men with really intense responses to what they thought was a post online offering to have sets with her. Really depraved stuff. That had to be very disturbing. Very disturbing. She was just beside herself. Ultimately, she was able to locate this ad that had been placed that did include her phone number.

It was asking for men to send photographs of their genitalia. And it was soliciting multiple sex partners to be with Christine at the same time. It's time now for a full-out police investigation. She wanted the stalking to stop. This is exhausting. It's a lot, and it has definitely made me paranoid everywhere I go. She was terrified, absolutely terrified. I need to report threatening emails and phone calls from a stalking ex. I reached out to Christine and arranged an interview with her. She agreed to come in and meet with the police because these messages are still continuing. You're on the ground. Wonderful. Thank you. When Christine met with me for the first time, she was vibrant, full of character, but also very direct and to the point. It has definitely made me paranoid everywhere I go, unfortunately. I can completely understand that. Yeah. I keep trying to remind myself this is intending to be terrifying. This is intending to scare me. So like, take it back. The intention to make your life miserable and cause disruption. Yes. Some emotional turmoil is exactly what he's going for. The problem is there's not enough evidence connecting Anthony to those messages, so police have got to tread lightly.

If I get involved too early and start trying to be like, Hey, knock it off. This isn't okay. It usually throws fuel on the fire and emboldens because look at me, this cop- Getting no consequence. Right. This cop came to me and I had no consequence. He just told me to knock it off like, what did you do? You'll see how this escalates without me responding or saying anything. You'll see even in the timeline, in the order of things, this is not someone who's thinking at all. It's one of those things where you're just like, I'm not dealing with somebody who can ever be reasoned with. She, first and foremost, wanted the stalking and the behavior and the contact to stop. So if that's civil protection order, if that is criminal charges, I don't care. Stop this and don't ever keep thinking that you're going to contact me in another six years from now. Then the ever-organized engineer surprises Detective Martinez with her own fully-detailed spreadsheet. I have to wait a bit. This makes it so much simpler. Okay, I did a timeline for you. Okay. In this timeline, we dated summer of '99, very briefly.

She really had details of what had gone on. It came to be referred to as the Stalker Log, which was a comprehensive document of every contact she received from the stalker. That spreadsheet is just so organized and meticulous. It really gives you a sense of who Chris Steele was as a person. Chris Steele also explained to him all of the background of her relationship with Anthony, who he was and who he had been previously in her life. I was going to college. I was on my engineering track. There was just a total different lifestyle choices. We argued, but never in a violent way. It was just he was super emotional. So anyway, I broke it off with him, and we ended barely amicably. Anthony had reached out to her several times in the 20 years since they broke up. Over both email and Facebook. Usually, it's just light, easy. Like what's going on? Yeah, like trying to just start a conversation. She made it clear she wasn't interested. I'm married, happily married with children. You need to stop. And he got real emotional, real hurt. It wasn't angry, but it was hurt and then blocked me.

With these new texts and emails flooding in, Christine can't figure out how she was found after all this time. I shut down Facebook entirely before the pandemic. So there was no way to get a hold of me on any old email address or old way. She wanted an order of protection filed to keep Anthony away from her. Why It wasn't that done? Temporary protection order was what she was going to seek, which would require him to be served for paperwork in person. Because I don't have an address, I can't submit that civil protection order, unfortunately. For him? Yes. And there are tons of addresses. He moves everywhere and between three different states. Christine took great ownership in her personal protection. And then locking doors everywhere, being super hyper vigilant of everything that's around. I do have weapons in my home. I am intending to I'm going to have to register for a course here to relearn. It's been a long time since I've shot my guns, but to relearn and get familiarized with my handgun. How much did the kids know what was going on? Were they aware that she was getting these talking messages?

So she was telling them all about what they needed to do, if an intruder came in. I mean, it was awful. I want them to also know that they can stand up for themselves in situations that might be threatening, and that I have a handle on and that they don't need to worry. So I think there's something there that my oldest said. She's like, I'm glad that you told me something. She's like, it was making me feel worse when we just heard you guys talking in hush tones. With Christine struggling with anxiety, a victim's advocate connects her to a support group and counseling. I think a lot of this is the trying intentionally to scare me as opposed to actually trying to approach me. But my fear is when does that switch happen where he suddenly gets emboldened because I'm not responding? Her fears seem to be realized as the messages now turn into direct threats. I'll get rid of him, and then we can be together. Give me the signal, and he won't come home. Rastiel was carrying a firearms. Tell me about that. I think it made her feel safer. Yeah. She had some measure of control in that whole out-of-control situation.

She throws herself into firearms training, and then turns to a relative who sells concealed carried purses for help. So when she came to you, what was she looking for? She was looking for a purse to conceal her, her firearms that Lars, her dad, had given her. She told you she was very nervous. She was really rattled when she got there. Usually, Christie is bubbly and just lively and loves life, but she knew she was in trouble. She chose this bag? Yes. This is the bag? Yes, this is the purse that she chose. It looks very unassuming. I would never guess that there was a gun in here. That's what can still carry purses. They're supposed to be discrete. You don't want people to know that you are carrying a firearms. When you're walking and you look at something suspicious, you're supposed to unzip the zipper and put your hand in this pocket and just look around your surrounding. And if you see something dangerous, then you're ready for And then you can just draw really fast. She was absolutely terrified. She was terrified primarily for her children and then for her husband, Dan Croke. Still, for Christine, the anxiety has been unrelenting.

You will never stop. You will never stop. The pressure is rising, and it's now Dan's turn for a police interview. I'm panicked, and I'm doing your job. Protecting my wife. Fx's English teacher is back. Good morning. Where did we leave off? Inferno, page 52. And that color isn't amazing on you? I am in hell, Dante said. The critically acclaimed comedy returns. My mom is in town, and it's stressing me out. Your mom's still alive? I'm 35 years old. Fx's English teacher. You cannot save the whole world. So should I just give up? Yes, give up. We all have. All new Thursdays on FX. All episodes now streaming on Hulu. Eight years ago, I blew my football career. He dropped it at the one-yard line. On September 30th, Chad powers arrives on Hulu. If I can't play as Russ, I'll play as someone else. My name Chad. And last name? Liza. From executive producers Eli and Peyton Manning. Remember, you're wearing a prosthetic mask. This is acting. And starring Len Powell. He thinks you're a rubber chewtoley. Not rubber. I'm a man. Made a face. The Hulu original series Chad Power's premier September 30th. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Terms apply. Chris Steele expressed immense frustration with the fact that the police couldn't locate the ex-boyfriend. It seemed that he was very elusive and very good at hiding his tracks. The cat and mouse game goes on. Just days after meeting with police, Christine's phone lights up with another Another creepy message. Saw you at the dentist. See you soon. When he says he sees her at the dentist, she's really concerned because she believes Anthony is in Colorado and is watching her. Ms. Steele. Mr. Henry. Yeah, Ms. Mature. Very good to meet you. I thought to talk to you. She calls police because this message brags that bodily fluids were left on her car. A police officer takes a look. Nothing jumps out at me. I know. The in-person stuff that scared the crap out of me. My locus was starting since last Tuesday. It's been almost every day since. Okay. Christine has found out from her private investigator that Anthony is driving a silver Toyota Camry, and now she's on constant look out for it. I don't know if you've seen these Toyota Camrys? Oh, yeah. They blend. They are the most anonymous car I've ever seen.

I call them wallpaper cars. At A silver? It's like a cloud. Like, literally, you see right through it. It's like, real. Christine tells the officer that she's doing everything she can to keep herself safe. I've got a buddy system, especially with things that are coming up here. My oldest is dancing in the Boulder Ballet's Nutcracker, and there's going to be long rehearsals late at night on the campus. So, yeah, I'm going to buddy up, and I already talked to some people that will help escort me in my car. Since she's always loved dance, Christine Cristille has passed that passion on to her oldest daughter. She was so active in all of her daughter's performances, and would be backstage, and would be like a mom backstage, helping all the little dancers get out to the stage on time. Cristille is crushed. She can't attend her daughter's performance for fear she might attract unwanted violence from her stalker. How hard was that for her? It was devastating to her. So how does the stalker seem to know Christine's every move? One theory is that he might be using a tiny GPS tracker like this because it's magnetic and can easily be hidden in her car, transmitting her wearabouts.

So investigators bring her vehicle in for a closer look. She drove a Mazda little hatchback, but we can use this as an example. What we did is we put it on the lift so we could see under it. If you look under vehicle, check in and around the tires, because if it's magnetic, it'll pretty much stick anywhere under the car. Another concern area is these door panels. Anywhere here, you can easily remove these door panels and check under where the computer port is. There's some that you can buy that just plug right in there. Anywhere pretty much where you can get something the size of an air tag into. Five men spend two hours pouring over every inch of Cristil's car and come up empty. Despite all their efforts, the threats against Cristil and Dan continue. Dan. So Dan also comes in to talk to Detective Martinez. What's his name again? We call him Kickman. Anthony. Anthony. That's right. Kickman, that nickname was coined by one of the Krug children. The email address that it came from had the word kick in it, and they also thought that if he ever came to confront Christine.

The kids even said this, that she would kick his butt. My panic level has gone considerably higher. And Dan is afraid. He is on edge. I'm panicking. And I'm doing a hard call of protecting my wife. He expresses concern and helplessness. Get yourself in a place where You're not overly paranoid, but still vigilant. I'm failing. I'm felling, I'm felling. Did you feel your daughter's life was in danger? Yes. I just felt like, How is this going to end? What's going to happen here? There's real concerns of safety. Probable cause did exist to believe that Anthony was the stalker. An arrest warrant was put out for Anthony. It wasn't that anybody was going to his home to go serve him the warrant. Correct. But if he got stopped or pulled over or something, he could be arrested. He could. He would be held. During Thanksgiving, that was a different time for you all because usually you're so together, but that year was very different. Yeah, it was. They decided to split up the family for Thanksgiving, so they weren't all in the same place at the same time. That had to be heartbreaking. Yeah, it was.

Police dispatch patrol cars to watch over the family during the holiday. What How much toll was this taking on her, emotionally and mentally? I don't think she was sleeping. She was just exhausted. I've never seen my daughter like that before. She went from a very light-hearted woman with a really wicked sense of humor to someone who was watching her every move. You can see that last day, the day before she was murdered on her own dash cam, you can just see that she's exhausted, that this has taken a toll on her, and she just looks like a of her former self. Then a message for Detective Martinez that could change everything. That message said that Christine Krug lies. That she has been having an affair and that the whole stalker situation is something that she and this affair partner have concocted. The Krug family is now facing its worst case scenario. She keeps disappearing for hours. All sorts sequence you should keep. And the investigation hits a roadblock. Blue tape had been placed over the ring doorbell. Blue tape? Yes. Covering the camera. It was very shocking. Show it your hands. Roofill police. Reveal police.

Reveal police. Everybody inside. Make yourself known. Email has some head wound. And immediately I thought, the stalker got her. He did it. He said he He was going to. He did it. And Chris Steele had gotten an ominous email with a picture of Dan, indicating that the stalker was also stalking her husband. My immediate mission is to sit with a man who just discovered his wife had been murdered. I felt like she was keeping me serious. The message said that Christie could keep lies. That she has been having an affair. You just can't begin it. I felt like I was looking at the wrong person the whole time. You took my children's offer. Shut your hands. Shut your hands. What started as a months long case of stalking and psychological torment has devolved to a chaotic sea, captured on body cameras in Broomfield, Colorado. Christine Krug, a 43-year-old mom of three, is found murdered in her garage. What's going through your mind, Linda? I'm just thinking she's down. She's down. He got her. That's dad. I was running towards the house, and I said, That's my daughter. Oh, God. She's gone. She's gone. Why? She's gone.

Linda was standing right there and said, She's dead. They killed her. Well, we immediately The lead conducted all hands on deck, so the investigations unit got paged. All my detectives came out. My first priority was, Let's get this person. We do think he's been here before. We knew she had a stalker. We believed it to be her ex-boyfriend, and he would It was still large. We started canvassing the neighborhood. Detectives were assigned to track down Jack Anthony Holland, who was our prime suspect. We have a lot going on at once. We quickly learn that there are cameras all over the crew residence. So of course, we are taking high priority to try to get access to any footage from those cameras. Some detectives were working on authoring search warrants. Others were responsible for digital forensics. Looking into the accounts where Christine had received messages from her stalker. We need this information right now. There's not really anything out of place in this house. For a family with three kids, it was very clean, very well organized. There was no immediate signs of any struggle, of the house being burglarized. Everything seemed to be in place.

Everything was contained to the garage. Chris Steele had been hit in the head and was knocked unconscious. So she was bludgeoned with something with exceptional force, and then she was rolled over and stabbed directly between two ribs and into her heart. Stabbing someone in the heart is extremely evil and extremely personal. The attack happened right there. This is not something that happened somewhere else, and then she was placed there. She was in her very initial stages of coming home. She had her coat on. It was not like she had had time to settle back into her house. We knew that she had a concealed carry permit for a gun, and we noticed that the gun was still in the purse. It makes you wonder why she wasn't able to access it. Christine had been receiving harassing messages for months and believe they were coming from her ex-boyfriend from two decades ago. And it appears her stalker had even trailed Dan and took a photo of him arriving at work. Dan was potentially the next victim, so we really wanted to talk to him. That's the husband. I remember having to help him to the car because he was He was very weak.

He was very shaky. I could feel him tremble. Police bring Dan here to what they call a soft room where they interview victims. It's the very place he and Cristil had sat just weeks prior, talking to detectives about their stalker. Have a seat on the couch. You might be more comfortable than everywhere else. So... We set up our conference room so that we can watch Daniel Krug's interview. He was upset and sad as the detective started. God, I can't think. It's all right. It's all right, Dan. Your home security system, can you access that through your personal phone? Google, Google, that's it. Detective, wait. And Dan starts to go through the camera app on his phone. Home, home, home. Home shows all four. Oh, perfect. I don't know what that was. Home. I was assigned with speaking with Dan because of my handling of the stalking up to this point. When I walked in, he became very emotional. I know I'm I did what you said. I called police. I couldn't reach you. I did what you said. I called him. I called him, please. I couldn't reach you. I did what you said. I did what you said.

Is that your fault. I was supposed to protect her. Once he calms down a bit, detectives begin asking Dan questions about his wife of 16 years. What's your guess this interaction has been like leading up to this? Just it. I… I It felt like she was keeping secrets. She didn't tell me about Pac-Man. She kept disappearing for hours. Dan felt Cristille was keeping secrets, and they were just an unaccounted for time that Dan was concerned about. She kept leaving early, coming home late. I asked, why she wouldn't tell me. Then the investigator, trying to access video footage from the Krug household, notices something curious. So you said the cameras are on all the time. Yeah. It looks like about 8: 15, a lot of them go off. Side yard. When the signal gets weak, they don't turn off. Dan was very unsure as to how they were shut off, but he was aware that the only way that they could be shut off is through his device, Christine's device, or their oldest daughter's device. Most of the cameras had been turned off around 8: 15 AM, except for the one on the garage, which captures Dan leaving that morning.

As he tries to explain things to the detective, another strange discovery, this time with the doorbell camera. Why is it blue? Why is it blue? It was blue very much at the day. Some type of blue tape had been placed over the ring doorbell. Apparently, there's some blue tape over the ring doorbell. It was very shocking. The entire camera feed covered, and it was impossible to see who had put the tape there or when. Meanwhile, detectives are hunting down Christie's stalker, who they believe to be her ex-boyfriend. We had a name, and we had some identifying information, and we found it. This discovery Just earth-shattering. Crystal, police, secure time of yourself, known. When Christie and her brother were a lot younger, we would do the Shirley Temples and things to continue to share a little togetherness with his grandkids. I pick them up from school, we have some snacks, and we have a mocktail fun drink, and we have some fun conversations about school. How about the children? How How did you break the news? They're at the police station. They said, We have people that are trained in breaking this news. We could help you with that.

Dan says, No, I'll go in there and I'll tell them. The heart-wrenching moment of Dan Krug, breaking the news to his children about the loss of their mother, was recorded and released by police. What happened to mommy? Mommy got hurt. Is she okay? No. Mommy is not okay. Mommy's not going to be okay. Mommy? Mommy, dad. Those kids are devastated. They love their mom. Their world shatters. The kids came out to us. I just remember my one granddaughter just hugging me and sobbing. Shocking for everybody. It was a hard scene. Awful. Although emotions are raw, investigators have more questions for the grieving husband. Detective Jennifer King-Sullivan joins Dan in the room. My immediate mission is to sit with a man who just discovered his wife had been murdered. Do you need anything right now? Do you want some water? Still with our main goal in mind of finding out who did this to Chris Hill. Dan tells us about his interactions with Chris to Christine that morning and describes it as pretty typical. Christie packs lunches. I pack the backpacks while she gets ready. I took to the bus stop, and I went home. She left to take them to the bathroom.

I went to the bathroom. I came out after Christine had come home. She was telling me that I had to get going. Just weird. I said goodbye, and I left. I drove into the office. Dan tells police that his wife had sent him a text asking him to pick up their daughter because Cristil was going to meet with Detective Martinez. I texted her asking what time, and she didn't answer. Big what I finished my meeting, and I still didn't have an answer. And that's when I called the non-emergency line. Detectives then ask Dan for more details about Cristil, and it turns out there The marriage was on the rocks. We have not been in a good place for a while. We live together. We have joint finances. We obviously co-parent the kids. We do maintain separate bedrooms. They were disconnected. It didn't sound like there was a lot of love left in their relationship. It hurt me that she didn't tell me about the stalker when it started did. But she brought me in right away once he sent her a picture of me. I told her I didn't want to die for some reason.

He didn't care about anymore. That's really hard. And I told her, I wanted a divorce. As officers interview Dan, other detectives are tracking down Christie Neil's ex-boyfriend, who she believes has been stalking her, sending disturbing messages for the past few months. Our immediate priority was to find the stalker. And we had a name, and we had some identifying information automation. We started digging into anything that could give us a clue as to his whereabouts. We issued at Bolo, we believe this person to be involved in a homicide, armed as dangerous. They utilize license plate readers to determine that his most recent activity was in Utah and not in Colorado. They coordinated with the local Sheriff's office that polices Eagle Mountain, Utah. They go and contact Anthony, who they saw from outside, just sitting in his house. We track down Anthony ourselves for an interview. On December 14th, 2023, you get a surprise visit from police. What happened? I was just hanging out my him, watching TV like I always do. All of a sudden, I hear loud knocking on the door, like pounding. They asked me if I was Jack Anthony Holland. I told them I was.

What are you thinking is happening? I had no idea. Anthony was very confused. He did not have any idea what they were talking about. And what are they telling you? Nothing. They asked me if I knew Christie's crew, and I said, yes, I knew her. She was my ex-girlfriend. He remembers that when they first met, he and Christine were both teenagers. Is working at JCPenney. She was beautiful, to be honest. We hit it off right away. We were talking, occasionally in the break room, and we went to this party. The music was going, lights were going. Then we we kissed, and it was every day after that. And then the relationship didn't last. Why? I was lying to her all the time. And she sensed that I was lying to her. Anthony did make an effort to stay in touch with Christine after the breakup. The communication was too much. And so around 2015, they stopped communicating. Christine had been complaining to police in October that she was getting text. She thought from you, did you text her in the month of October? Ever? No. Did you text her as the month went on into the next month?

Never? No. Where were you on December 14th? A Kohl's buying a sweatshirt. And Me going to Cole's was not normal. I just got up and I was like, I'm going to go shopping today. So you had an alibi? I had two alibis because I was at work the night before as well until late. Even better for him, Anthony's got an alibi for when the stalker took that picture of Dan at his office. My sister has pictures of me at the exact time and the date on Halloween. So the alleged stalker, who in fact was never a stalker, hadn't stopped Christine Krug at all. Anthony had all been eliminated from being the person who killed her. Around that same time, we had started to collect more and more information about the phone numbers where all these messages originated from. What did you find when you began to look at the IP address and where these messages came from. They came from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which I know was also where Dan worked. The IP address is connected to Dan's place of employment? Yeah. That's when we recognized maybe Dan had never been a victim of stalking.

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We eventually all ended up at the police station. They don't want you to talk too much together initially, so they very quickly separated us and put us in an individual interrogation room. I sat down with Linda, and that's Christie's mother. She's very, very emotional. Kathy, you just can't begin it. Oh my God. She had told me that Christie married Dan in 2007, and as of late, their relationship became rocky. Her life was hell these last months and last year. Her husband and her were not in good terms. He was in complete denial. She told me that her marriage was over. Here in the last few months, she just loathed him. I kept thinking, Why are you staying? You should go. There was this gut feeling that she couldn't shake. What's that feeling telling you? I can't shake this question. Is he the one that's been doing this with Anthony? In your interview with the police, you told them you had a gut feeling. I couldn't rule out Dan. I kept saying, I don't know. Maybe not. So it was just one of those you didn't want to believe it. It did raise flags. I'm thinking there's a possibility that Dan can be involved.

The alleged stalker had an air-tied alibi. He did not commit the murder. As soon as we ruled out our prime suspect, we had to start looking at other suspects. And that's when we turned to Daniel Crook. Who do you think killed her? I think it's Kekeman. I think it's Anthony. Okay. I'm so honest. If there's somebody who still got symptoms... He's still thinking that he has the upper hand and knows all of the information. What if I told you that we had already spoken with Anthony, and there's no way that he was in town today? I have nothing. Then I'm probably terrified to bring my children home. What are you terrified of? If it wasn't him, who was it? Then detectives drop another bomb on Dan Krug. It turns out they know that some of those disturbing messages being sent to Christine have been sent from a place Dan knows all too well. Those originated through their IP addresses at your office. It doesn't make any sense. Well, he took the photo of me at my office. Right. But both of those accounts originated from IP addresses that was back to your office. I don't know what to do with that.

Would you know anything about the network or anything at your work? There's public WiFi access through to throw out the entire facility. After I confront him with those two big facts, you could see his physical reaction. Sitting back in the couch, he brings his knees to the side and takes a defensive posture. No physical way that that king man could have been involved in this based on where he's at right now. So the mystery continues, and I'm going to ask you to be done. He leans back in his chair. He rolls his eyes just like you guys are a bunch of idiots. I get the narrative you're putting together, but it alleges that I would do this to my children. Provided It's a different explanation then. There has to be someone else. The demeanor had changed, and Daniel was hesitant and not as responsive and not as upset as when the interview had first begun. Sure. I saw a lot of dramatics. This is it. This is a nightmare. He rolled his eyes a lot. He seemed bothered by our questioning. Well, tell me. Help me make sense of it. I don't know. I'm not the one who does this.

I don't do crime drama. But Dan, the end of the interview was reached because he said he didn't want to talk to us anymore, that he wanted to go home. I'm tired. I don't I don't want to do this. I want to be here. I want to hug my children. You have your theory. It is wrong. Please find the right place. The last task that we have is to collect physical evidence. Please. Which includes his clothing. Dan was let go that evening because we didn't have enough physical evidence to prove our case. In the face. I walked Dan to the lobby of the police Department, and we're in conversation. At what point did you find him doing this? He was really just trying to bleed with me about maintaining an open mind. Just don't stop looking elsewhere. I'm not going to do this. He took my children's mother for Christmas. I know the truth, and I know you need to find the right person. You question him, and then he walks home that night, freely. We had a lot of information pointing his direction. We had a lot of work to do. Andrew Krug had left digital fingerprints, and we started finding the trail.

He was searching this the day before she died. When Dan is released, we arrange for a 24 hours surveillance. So you were watching him? We were. We're always aware of where he's at at any time while the rest of the detectives are building the case. And it's just digital work on the computer. A lot of digital work, a lot of specialized software and programs. Detective Randy Pylaak is a digital forensics expert at the Broomfield Police Department. We were able to find inconsistencies with events events that happen the morning of December 14th. Christine comes home, there's a period of inactivity on the phone, and then suddenly her phone then logs into Google Home, take several security cameras offline, except for the driveway. And then there's a scheduled send message that goes to Dan later. A scheduled message? Yeah. How does that work? There was the ability to schedule a text message in the future. So all you have to do is hold the button down, and it gives you a prompt for when you want this text message to go out. What does What's that saying to you? Dan was building his alibi that he's going to get this text message saying, Hey, I got a text from her.

Well, she had to been alive. I got this text from her. He also programmed her phone to send false confession messages to her brother and to a detective about committing an affair, an affair that she never had. That was important for me to receive, to put the pieces in place for Dan's alibi. Investigators are piecing together what they believe actually happened that morning at the Krug house. First thing in the morning, Dan takes the oldest to the bus stop, comes home. Christine takes the younger two kids to the middle school just down the road, and then Christine gets home shortly after that. I believe that Dan sat and waited, And he surprised her. She bought a pistol. She was ready to defend herself. He used some weapon to hit her over the head as hard as he could. He knew that he had to incapacitate her. One When she fell to the ground, he stabbed her right in the heart. And then you see Chris Steele's phone being accessed. Whoever is accessing her phone is downloading the app to the cameras. Three of the four cameras go off seconds after each other. Dan does whatever process he needed to do to clean things up, puts the tape on the camera, does the messages on the phone, and is off to work.

He stopped for about five minutes. There's an open field there which would have allowed him to dispose of the murder weapon. We have a gap of missing time. We knew that if he took the murder weapons, whatever If there were other items he had to conceal his guilt with him, he'd probably be looking for the first opportunity to get rid of those things. This area being under construction certainly seems like a great opportunity for him to do that. We checked this area. It extends I'm unfortunately not finding anything that was involved. And then he goes to a nearby drive-through coffee shop, gets a coffee like any other ordinary day, and proceeds to drive to work. In looking back at his work camera, he took very specific routes at his work so that he was seen on camera to build his alibi. He receives the text message he sent himself. He starts trying to communicate back with Chris Steele. He doesn't want to be the one to find the body, so he calls the non-emergency line at the Bernfield Police Department and asks for a welfare check. I don't I think this is an emergency, but this feels really weird.

My wife isn't responding to text messages or phone calls. Daniel Krug had left digital fingerprints, and we started finding the trail. Around Halloween, Chris Steele had gotten an ominous email with a picture attached of Dan, and that was indicating that the stalker was also stalking her husband. What did you learn about that picture? That it was taken in like, selfie mode. It's propped up on a car. So your suspicion then was what? The only person that could have taken that picture was Dan. With a burner phone. With a burner phone at his work making death threats to himself. Another pivotal piece of evidence, the location information from Dan's phone and from the account associated with the stalker. There were moments Dan's phone and the stalker's phone, where you're at the exact location. So it all went back to Dan. Everything's gone back to Dan. What about the hookup ads Did you see any evidence that Christine had placed those ads? There was no evidence that she had placed them. Everything on her phone was searching how to take them down. There's no communication records from Christine to any boyfriend. And then, police say they are able to access Dan's Internet searches from the night before Christine's murder.

There was searches for how much head trauma do you have to cause to knock someone unconscious. How long can you be unconscious before you have brain damage? There was really concerning search is consistent with the way that Christie will die. He was searching this the day before she died? Yes. The digital evidence was really the nail in the coffin. Okay, you found. Pint towards your eye. We came up with a plan of how we were going to arrest him. We had arranged for Dan to be followed to and from his daughter's Nutcracker performance. Make sure we're on this. Investigation is behind us. There was two cars behind him. Coming up on to Zunei. I'll hit the work. Probably having a little bit of adrenaline, and man, I could feel it in my body. Oh, here, let's go with the traffic stop. Hey, be ready to pop that once he gets it in the park. Got you. And he'd stop at a local grocery store Get ready. We're coming up in the front. No good for the pin. She's on the island. Go, go, go, go, go, Hands on your face. Hands on your face. Hands on your face.

We pulled him over in the parking lot of a grocery store right down the road from the family's house. There was no resistance or anything like that. Placed him in cuff. Hey, Dan. Do you want me to tell your kids that you killed their mother, or do you want somebody else to. April fourth, 2025. Opening statements begin in the trial of 44-year-old Father Dan Krug, who's charged with murder in the first degree, stalking, and criminal impersonation. He's pleaded not guilty. This was a premeditated murder. So we wanted to lay out for the jury all of this evidence that overwhelmingly pointed to the only suspect in the case, and that was Daniel Croog. In trial, prosecutors lay out what they say was Dan's motive for murdering his wife. In the spring of 2023, Daniel Krug was losing control, and his marriage was falling apart. Chris Diehl wanted out. But Daniel Krug was in denial. He decided that he was going to play Puppet Master by impersonating Jack Anthony Holland, stalking and terrorizing his family for months before murdering Chris Diehl 11 days before Christmas. This stalking and the planning for it began in early 2023 when he was buying burner phones, creating these email accounts and fictitious phone numbers.

Dan was hoping that this would bring them closer together. I think he was surprised that Chris Dale hadn't told him. And so then on October 31st, you really see him ramping it up and making himself the object of the stalker's threat. And then police got involved. Things start to spiral, get more serious. All of these things were going to start pointing back at him. Chris Steele was not coming back to him. If anything, was more confident she was going to divorce him. The evidence in this case says something far different with what the prosecution has told you. Mr. Krug did not kill his wife. He did not commit these crimes. Dan's defense attorney argued that sloppy police work leading up to the murder damaged the credibility of the investigation. She relied on you. Detective Martinez did absolutely nothing with Holland to try and find him. Nothing. As law enforcement officer, I'm very used to criticism and people second-guessing my decisions. Throughout the investigation, I was relying on my investigative instinct and following the facts. The defense argued that the police Department did absolutely nothing to try to find Anthony Holland. Did the police Department fail her by not exposing sooner that Anthony Holland had nothing to do with this?

Certainly in a perfect world, we would have known much sooner. The evidence that we needed to prove that Anthony Holland wasn't involved. There wasn't very many steps left for us to do. We did fall short, but there just was... He fooled us, too. Among those testifying were Broomfield detectives, Christine's former boyfriend, Anthony Holland, and an ex-girlfriend of Dan's. I was really nervous, and then as I was leaving, I glared at I scared him down. You scared down Dan? Yeah. Why did you want to look at him like that? I wanted him to just look at me in the eye, but he wouldn't look at me. You learned that it wasn't the first time that Dan had been accused of stalking, that he had been accused by an ex-girlfriend of stalking. Yeah, she had dated Dan for a couple of years, high school, into college. And after she broke up with him, he started to stalk her in a very similar way. She started getting all these different communications from phone calls, email accounts, aim a messenger, pretending to be different people. It was messages to encourage me to either talk to Dan, reach out to Dan.

Shortly after that, I started to get these really disturbing phone calls. Here I was being called like a whore and a slut and things like that. That's when it got scary for me. Police eventually trace those messages back to Catholic University in Washington, DC, where Dan was enrolled. When I got the IP address, I was like, Oh, my gosh, it's been him this whole time. Ultimately, trying to get her to come back to him. So she actually filed a protection order against him, and all the contacts stopped. During cross-examination, the defense established that there was a three-month gap between the last communication and the temporary protection order, which was later dropped, but didn't challenge those claims against him. Dan was never charged with any crime regarding those allegations. When we heard her full testimony, it was just so shocking because it was exactly mirror to our daughter. The trial was a very tense experience. The tension in the courtroom was thick. There's no blood found on that car. Inside or out, it searched three They submitted these things for testing, and you know whose DNA wasn't there. The person who lived in the house, the person who ate in the kitchen with them, the person who shared the living room, that idiot right there.

There was no blood on the defendant. There was no blood on his vehicle. Do you think this man who's been planning and stalking his wife for months is going to be so sloppy on the crime scene? He was too prepared to do that. The fate of a Broomfield man is now in the hands of a jury. Jurors take these cases very seriously, and that's what this jury did. Every hour that ticked by increased my anxiety, and certainly that of my team. So the jury comes back in. It is a very quiet and tense courtroom Jury verdict, count number one, charge of murder. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. Guilty, guilty, guilty on all four counts. It was like a relief. This is good. This went the right way. Dan Krug is found guilty and remained silent while being taken away. But he has much to say during his jailhouse phone calls. With Christine, she always loved the piano. It was a lot of complexity and breadth to her. She was just a very interesting person. It was just fun to have conversations with her, even as her dad just talking to her.

God, I miss that. A jury returned a guilty verdict in the trial of a broomfield man accused of killing his wife. Daniel Krug is found guilty of first-degree murder, stalking, and criminal impersonation. Today, the court sentenced Mr. Krug to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It's a just and appropriate sentence for a horrific crime. Dan Krug spoke to his parents in a recorded phone call after his conviction. I sat through an hour and a half of sentencing where people that I considered my family railed against me. I don't understand how you're supposed to show remorse when you denied you didn't. You are our child. We love you no matter what. We are not going to abandon you. Every day is a difficult day. You wake up and you feel the pain, and then you just try to go on with your day. But you always feel it. You have been very careful and very protective of your grandchildren. We want to protect them. They're very surrounded by their mother's family's love. They're in a loving environment. They're given everything that Christie would have given them. How much is she with you, even now?

I always feel her all the time. This area was where we would take walks all the time, and we'd talk about the kids in her life. I loved her when she'd call and say, Mom, let's go for a walk. She loved geraniums. They just represent her spirit, that she's still alive in some way on some plane. She's still here with us. Her spirit's still here with us. So when we see that, that's what we'll think of. Christie's spirit living on in her three children. Her parents tell me that the children are happy in school and in their activities, just as their mom had hoped for them. Meanwhile, their father, Daniel Krug, tells 2020 that he maintains his innocence and will, quote, fight this wrongful conviction on appeal. That is our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm David Muir. And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. He was a rock climber, a white supremacist, a Jewish neo-nazi, a spam king, a crypto billionaire, and then someone killed him. It is truly a mystery. It is truly a case of who done it. Dirtbag Climer, the story of the murder and the many lives of Jesse James.

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