Her Husband Was Her Stalker All Along — And Tech Giants Let Him Hide Until He Killed Her

She carried a gun for protection. She went to the police. She did everything right. Kristil Krug still ended up dead in her own garage with her skull crushed and a knife through her heart. The man who killed her was not a stranger. It was her husband. And for months, tech companies held the evidence that could have saved her life.

Krug was a mother of three from Colorado. The harassment started in late 2023. Messages from someone claiming to be her ex-boyfriend. Threatening texts. Threatening emails. They came out of nowhere and they did not stop. She went to the local police. A detective sent warrants to Google and the mobile providers, asking for information that would unmask the stalker. Then they waited.

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Weeks passed. No response. No identity. No answers. Krug lived in constant fear. She started carrying a gun. One December morning after dropping her kids at school, she pulled into her garage. Her attacker was waiting behind her. She never had a chance.

A wellness check from her husband led police to her body. That same day, with a murder now on the books, the warrants were rushed. Within hours, they had their answer. The stalker was not an ex-boyfriend. It was Daniel Krug. Her husband. He had been terrorizing his own wife while sleeping next to her every night.

He was convicted of stalking, murder, and criminal impersonation. Life in prison. But her family could not stop asking the same question. What if those companies had answered faster?

Her cousin Rebecca Ivanoff is a former domestic violence prosecutor. She is convinced Krug would still be alive if the warrants had been processed in days instead of weeks. She would have known who was after her. She could have planned. She would never have let him get behind her in that garage.

The family decided to change the law. On May 1, Oregon became the first state to pass Kristil’s Law. Social Media companies now have 72 hours to comply with law enforcement warrants in stalking and domestic violence cases. Communication companies have five days. Before this, there were no rules. No deadlines. No consequences. Police sent requests into a void and victims paid the price.

Republican Representative Kevin Mannix wrote Oregon’s original anti-stalking law in 1995. He immediately recognized the problem when he heard Krug’s story. Companies were processing warrants on a first-in-first-out basis. Six weeks was typical. He called it a no-brainer to create a special category for situations where someone’s life is on the line.

The family is now pushing for the law in Colorado, other states, and federally. Krug’s mother Linda Grimsrud said hearing the law passed felt almost like hearing the guilty verdict. But they are not done. She wants this to ripple beyond America.

Experts say the problem is global. In Australia, police can ask for expedited disclosures but there is no statutory requirement. Cases only get escalated once the risk has clearly intensified, not during the earlier stages of stalking. In the UK, researchers say technology-facilitated abuse has become so widespread that the term itself is almost useless. Nearly all abuse now involves technology in some form.

Krug’s mother addressed the tension between privacy and safety directly. She said it is a tough topic because it touches on freedoms and rights. But in this age of technology, she does not believe people should be able to hide.

Kristil Krug had a degree in biochemical engineering. She was a dancer. A fiercely protective mother. Her kids are now 17, 13, and 11. Her mother says she would be proud of the law that carries her name. One small ripple in the pool. One family trying to make sure another family never sits through what they sat through.