Part 1: "Puppet Master" Killer Set Up The Most Elaborate Murder Plan To Kill A Woman

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0:4282 days before the murder, there is a break-in. and in the event of a break-in, usually something is going to be stolen from the house. Most times, it's going to be whatever that is within reach and is the most valuable. Nobody is breaking and entering, risking jail time to steal a can opener and the remainder of your laundry detergent. They want electronics. They want cash. They want things that they can resell and make money from. This is a literal cash grab with a side of trespassing. That's what most break-ins are. It's devastating, but at least you know that the motive is very clear. Whoever did this wants money.

1:18They're committing atrocious crimes to make money. But what if someone breaks into your house and they take something that is not of monetary value? They don't steal the$1 ,000 iPad that's in Clearview or the phone or the car. They steal your journal that you write in every single day. It's not a password book. You don't have some sort of ledger for Bitcoin in there. It's just like your deepest inner thoughts, leather bound journal that financially would fetch no more than $10 on the market resold. Or what if someone breaks in and you check the entire house up and down, nothing's been taken, nothing.

1:53And it's not like they didn't have time. And then you, you walk by the console under your TV and there's the picture frame, the picture of your entire family that you framed last year during Christmas. The frame is still there, but the photo is gone. they had time to take the photo out of the frame but they didn't take anything else no valuables what are they planning on doing with the picture or you go upstairs to try and collect yourself you're about to shower and in the drawer your hairbrush is gone it's missing or maybe they take that one magnet that you have on the refrigerator that you bought during your first time going to Yosemite what the hell are they going to do with that or any of these things these are the things that will keep people up at night it's not just like the random violation of someone breaking into your home, which is typically the only private place that people can truly feel safe, but it's the fact that you don't know who did it.

2:42You don't know why they did it. It's clearly not for money. Then what is it for? Are they going to come back for the Krug family house in Colorado? It's even more alarming than all of those. Daniel Krug, the father of three kids and husband of Christelle Krug, calls 911. Daniel's standing at the end of his driveway talking to the officer and he's explaining, I mean, as I pulled in, I saw someone run out, jump over my gate and take off that way. Like he walked in on this trespassing on someone breaking and entering. Okay. Got it. I didn't think to call you until my wife got home recently. And we realized the spare key that we keep in the garage isn't there.

3:22So if someone breaks into your house and they only take the spare key, the only reason they would do that is to come back later. But to do what? Over the course of the next 82 days, it will be like the person who broke into that house never even left the house. Strange things are going to start to happen to the Krug family, almost driving them to the point of being completely paranoid. And then finally, one of them is going to be killed in that very house.

4:11We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the national network to end domestic violence. They are a nonprofit dedicated to ending relationship workplace and stalking violence. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. And we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. Today's episode includes mentions of stalking, DV, so viewer discretion is advised. And please take care, take breaks, and with that, let's get into it.

4:41When you read a lot of fiction books, there's going to be patterns that you're noticing. And it's not just like the tropes. It could be the seven-point structure, the hero's journey, save the cat is like a popular one. It's the outline of the story. And oftentimes, I mean, I highly doubt authors are even using outlines like this. What saved a cat? I'm about to tell you. It's like a storyline. A lot of movies and books follow this exact point, progress. It's like the progression of a story. Right, right. Like third chapter breakup? Yes, like a third chapter breakup that I always complain about.

5:14It's like that. But like third chapter breakup is maybe more so a trope, but this would like fit into the whole from start to finish. There's almost like an outline of ups and downs. And it's very interesting. I think it's because humans are comfort creatures. We enjoy stories with similar journeys, similar endings. The hero's journey is probably the most recognizable one in the US. Hero's journey must start in the hero's ordinary world. We have to see the hero in their regular life before the adventure begins. They're bagging groceries at the grocery store. We have to see their family. We have to see what's at stake for the hero.

5:46Then there will be a call to adventure, usually not inviting. It's like they hear someone scream and they don't want to go investigate. gate. They get a video that's like, you need to come save me, but they're scared. This is no adventure to Disneyland. It's typically a threat or a massive problem. The hero will refuse the call. They will hesitate. They'll try to go back to their ordinary life, but now they can't bag groceries without thinking about everything that they saw in that video and they need to go save somebody. They need to be the hero. They're going to cross the threshold into the new world, letting go of the ordinary world.

6:16They're going to meet friends, make enemies, friends along the way. They get small tests. Then they'll meet a mentor. Usually the hero's journey has a mentor who's going to give them advice and tools. And then they'll start approaching the inmost cape. It's like they're getting closer. The hero's journey is almost like this palpable center core of the universe type of fight. They're getting closer to the central challenge. Or it's a lot of times a central location where the challenge is going to be. They're on a literal journey to the top of Mount Everest. Think of this as the part of the movie where they turn the exposure and the brightness down And then you like can't see anything anymore Everything looks like it's filmed on a potato on a cloudy day No more sun, more dread, doom, gloom That's all you get Then it's the ordeal, the life or death crisis It's death or rebirth That's the moment And of course they're not gonna die They're gonna be reborn And then finally that's the end of stage one They receive a reward for surviving Usually it's some sort of knowledge or reconciliation It's not like a prize and then the hero is going to try to go back into the ordinary world.

7:19But then the bigger fight happens. You thought the first fight was the big fight? No, this is the real fight. Their whole family is dead or something of that nature. It's the resurrection, the final test where everything is at stake. Everything learned up until this point must be used. And finally, the hero returns home transformed with knowledge, with gifts, with love. Ultimately different because they're a hero now. And then you have the similar and somewhat familiar save the cat. You introduce the protagonist to the world. The world is flawed. And you can tell from the beginning it's flawed.

7:53And then a secondary character will say something to the protagonist. It hints at the entire journey the protagonist is going to take. Protagonist is like, I don't know. This is so dumb. She's like reading a romance book. And this old lady walking by, she's been divorced five times. And it's like, love is never dead. Then there's some sort of catalyst, some sort of incident that will be the protagonist's call to adventure. That's all part of act one. Then it's act two. For the first 20 % of the act, protagonist is on the up and up. They're transforming. They're making friends. They're small hiccups, but they're B-rollable.

8:27Meaning in a movie, they're usually learning how to use their newfound superpowers. But they superpowers so hard that they accidentally fling themselves through the window of an elderly facility where all the senior citizens are playing bingo. And the music cuts. The senior citizen looks up. One of their dentures fall out. Protagonist gets up, brushes off the wrinkles in their shirt. And then they smile sheepishly. It's B-rollable. And then it cuts to them walking in New York City, blending in with the normies before the bad guys start closing in. And then the stakes get raised and raised. It's all fun and games.

8:59But now something big is about to happen. The threat is huge. And the threat is personal. Somebody took Grandpa. And then by the end of Act 2, Grandpa is dead. act three the protagonist is at their lowest point they're at the what's the point of even fighting anymore they took grandpa before they learn or they realize something or they find something in grandpa's journal that was like stephanie never stop fighting you were made for this and then it changes everything and it causes them to stand up and that escalates typically to the happy ending the finale the end saving the cat who they name after grandpa's favorite snack Black sesame rice crackers.

9:38Which actually, saving the cat is supposed to happen in the beginning. It was like the whole theory where to show the audience that you should like the protagonist, the protagonist should do something like saving a cat early on in the movie or the book. Okay. The point is, if you read a lot of bad fiction, you notice these frameworks. If you read a lot of good fiction, which most fiction is good, you won't even notice these frameworks because they either don't follow it to a T or they do it so well that it just feels like a brand new story in a brand new world. But ultimately, most books can be boiled down to the three-act structure, which is how I'm going to boil down this case for you.

10:15Not because I think that this is reminiscent of a fictional storyline, but because somebody involved in today's case thought that their plan would play out like the movies. They even mentioned movies and fiction multiple times. So with that, let's get started.

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10:56Act one is the promise. You get thrown into the world and you don't really know what's going on. And the Krug family house sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood where all the neighbors are closely stationed nearby. Their houses are very close in proximity. The streets are smaller. The sidewalks are well maintained. People like to walk their pets outside. It's the neighborhood that a lot of the houses decorate for Christmas. and at night you have to close your blinds. Otherwise the red and green, not so jolly anymore. They're going to drive you crazy when you're trying to sleep. But not December of 2023.

11:28Something happens in the neighborhood. As the Christmas lights are going off, police are stationed behind do not cross yellow tape. It's been like that for a while. Eventually a neighbor stops the car in front of an officer and asks, are we safe? Neighbors are asking, are we safe? I mean, it's a good question. Considering in one of the houses that looks just like the others on the outside, it's like a regular nice family suburban home, there is one family that is preparing for something. That's what it feels like. They have a whole gun safe filled with weapons, and there's schedules to go learn and how to use these guns.

12:03They have family codes. These are not just shared between parents, but with the children. Orange means caution, near normal operations. Red, high alert, limit visitations. like they're talking to each other like today's cold orange or right now it's cold red yeah or like certain activities are orange red nuclear and they have like a whole they wrote it down okay nuclear means lockdown separate locations active threat i think it is a pretty good idea to teach kids about active threats and what to do in case of emergencies but the level at which this particular family is preparing, it seems like there is an imminent threat that they know about, not just like a potential what if.

12:47The whole family has to know and they have all these thorough, well thought out plans on how to keep everyone safe. On a separate piece of paper, it reads, needs gun training, add walking lights, add fence lights, add outdoor cameras, add front door security, protection orders in place, trim landscaping for visibility, add extra security system replace sliding glass door with regular doors what are they preparing for and do the neighbors know like are they all preparing for the same thing why are all the neighbors scared too december 14th there is a wellness check being done at the krug house the officer goes to the front door to knock and there's someone there just standing in front of the front door a woman in a big puffer jacket outside inside outside and she looks a little startled oh i was just i'm their neighbor and they called me they're like can you go see if she'll answer the door so a neighbor was asked to check up on the residence of this house too and she's like you got it you got it from here she walks off the officer starts knocking on the door nobody responds he peers inside the window i mean the rest of the house and the property it seems completely normal is there police cam footage of these yes so there's no coffee table that's overturned inside there's no broken glass there's i mean there's nothing according to his official report later He's looking through the front door window.

14:02Nothing is amiss. There's no coffee table that's been overturned. No broken glass. There's nothing. According to his official report later, quote, everything looked orderly, quiet. I gave the door a loud knock. He says that he thought whoever he's checking in on probably isn't even home right now. And he's about to drive off in the patrol car when he decides, I'm just going to see if there's a car inside the garage to be extra thorough. The Krug family garage has those windows at the very top of the garage that let sunlight in, but they're so high up that you can't even really tippy-toe and see into them.

14:37So the officer walks back down to his car, and just when it seems like he's about to drive off, he drives his car right up to the garage, climbs on top of his car, so that he can get up to one height to peer through the garage windows. And as he's balancing and peering through the window, he's shining a flashlight through. and according to the officer's police report, he says he very quickly sees a woman lying on the garage floor and she is very clearly not moving. He says he quickly gathers. The woman is very close to the steps that lead into the house. So she's not close to the garage door that slides up and down.

15:12She's close to the door that goes into the house. She has a winter coat on. The hood is pulled over her head, but her face is showing. So she's lying on her back and she's really, really still. He immediately radios in 151 send medical and 110. I need a forced entry. I got a female down in the garage. He runs to the front, kicks open the front door, books it to the garage. He's not even clearing the house. He doesn't know if somebody else is in the house. The first words to come out of his mouth when he opens that garage door is holy shit, shit, holy shit. And it sounds like he's trying to calm himself down from the panic.

15:47According to the report, I noted a significant amount of blood, which appeared to be fresh. Noted by the bright red color. The blood is running down the wall and the woman's head is about two feet away from the wall. So there seems to be some sort of blood splatter or a traumatic event enough that blood would end up on the wall. There's more blood underneath her head. According to the report, he says he very quickly sees that she's clearly not moving and he gathers. Okay, so she's close to the steps and there's blood on the wall. There's blood on her. it seems like she probably might not be alive.

16:23This is a life-threatening fatal amount of blood. He's calling for backup. He's calling for paramedics. He's administering CPR and he's trying to gather as much information as possible. Initially he realizes that there's trauma near her right temple but because of all of the victim's hair he can't make out what is causing the bleeding. He just knows that she's bleeding. It could have been a fall. Her neck is kind of slanted to the left. It could indicate a broken neck. It also could have been from a small caliber weapon but he can't be sure. So if it was like a not a small caliber weapon, it probably would have left a certain type of fragmentation to the head that he would have been able to quickly identify.

16:56So he's so unclear about what even caused this. All he knows is he's not picking up a pulse. He opens the big garage door that leads out into the driveway because he just got radioed in that paramedics are about to pull up. So he wants them to have direct access into the garage because every second is life or death. He opens the big garage doors and instead of uniformed officers or medics, there's an older woman softly walking towards the opening of the door and she catches him performing CPR. She catches a glimpse of someone laying on the garage floor covered in blood and his report reads, it appeared to me the woman was either a neighbor or a relative.

17:35She was visibly upset, clearly seeing me perform CPR. I quickly asked the woman to stay away from the garage knowing other officers were coming into the area. I requested via radio that they contact this woman and escort her from the garage. It seems like she's freaking out. There's multiple angles of this, of the older woman walking up to the garage, but it seems like she takes a step back and then she wants to go forward. But then probably her logic is like, no, let the police officer do the medical help. You're not going to be helpful. So then she eventually walks down away from the garage door down the driveway.

18:06How old is this woman? I would say maybe 60s, 70s. Oh wow. I mean this is a family member who just walked in at the precise time that her loved one is on the floor, on the garage floor covered in blood and an officer is performing CPR. Does she see exactly who's down there? Yeah. And it's not an accident and it's not a coincidence. All of this was planned. Even her showing up at that exact moment was planned by somebody else. She's escorted away from the garage and all the backup officers arrive at the scene. Paramedics rush in and they realize it's not a head wound that they're working with. I mean, she does have a head wound, but that's not the only thing.

18:47Under her thick winter coat, there's one mark and she has been stabbed near the heart. Who would want someone in the Krug family dead? And does this have anything to do with the break-in that happened 82 days ago? So act two of a fictional story usually is the confrontation. It's the structured escalation. It's kind of the why. Why are we even talking about any of this? 35 days before the murder, there is a text message sent to Christelle Krug. Christelle is? Christelle is the mother of three and the wife of Daniel Krug. So 82 days before the murder, Daniel Krug calls the police and is like, hey, I just saw some guy break into our house and I talked to my wife and we realized the only thing stolen was our spare key.

19:33Now, 35 days before the murder, so this is after the break-in, Christelle Krug gets a text message. Saw you at dentist. I like clean teeth for my COCK. You got me so horny and slutty in my car, so I nutted on yours. See you soon. Christelle is like the dentist. How would anybody know that she's at the dentist? Christelle checks her car for a tracker or anything else. And there's nothing. I mean, she hasn't posted on social media. She's barely online these days. She values privacy over everything else since the stalking started. She took down all her personal photos, family photos. How would they even know that she's at the dentist?

20:13And the dentist, the plaza that the dentist's office is in? Wait, wait, wait. So this is a stalker? Yeah. And this is not the first message? No. She's been getting messages all month long. and he say he nutted on hers yes on her car but she doesn't see any of it this is the first time the stalker is like i saw you at the dentist at this time and she knows there's no way it's not even just a message of like i i want you to like you know the stalker was saying all things like i'm gonna kidnap you you should leave your husband for me but now it's very specific i saw you at the dentist. Was she? Yeah.

20:52And the dentist plaza has like a ton of other businesses in the same plaza. So if someone even just tracked her phone, it would be unclear which business or establishment she's visiting. How would they know specifically she went to the dentist that day unless they're tracking her car or they're watching her in person? Then another message. He doesn't deserve you. You know it. He doesn't satisfy you. That's why you keep all your fuckboys on the side. You're a dirty slut and I know how to satisfy you Admit that no one satisfied you since me I see you flirting with waiters Almost begging for sex Licking your lips and you got your boobs out Don't know how many fucking boys you kept But I'll save you I know he's keeping us apart You don't belong in that big house You belong with me I'll get rid of him and then we can be together So easy The stalker sends another message They have random security They let me park and walk right into his building Been there for weeks Give me the signal and he won't come home.

21:47Every married bitch I ever banged wanted to get rid of their husbands. I'll do it for us. Help me get rid of him and then we can be together just like you want. I'm planning a big birthday party for you. Just you, me, and 20 friends. I know you're a dirty slut and I'll treat you right. You can be slutty with me and I'll take you. You don't want the fake married life. You want to be dirty and I will save you. So these are all send like separate times? Yeah. Halloween is probably the scariest message to date. It's a picture of Christiel's husband Daniel While he's leaving work This your husband drives like slow old lady Can't believe you want to suck his dick but not mine He needs to drive safe Don't want to clear rubber hose in his tailpipe Does he?

22:28What exactly is the photo like? It's of Daniel getting out of his car Going into the work Is it very close by? Really close It's like if someone were to park nose in And then I were to drive right by And take a picture out my window oh you're driving by their car and snapping a photo huh it's not from five parking spaces away it's like if you're at a trader joe's and you're driving by one of the parked cars and you just stick your hand towards the passenger seat and take a photo okay what was like the first message though that she received are you gonna go over that okay no whoever the stalker is they're now following the entire family but how i mean it's like they have eyes and ears everywhere how do you follow an entire five-person family?

23:15Four days later, a picture of a man's private parts come in with the question, what do you think? It's only escalating. And this all started October 2nd, 2023. So the break-in happens earlier than this, but the first message, the very first message comes in October 2nd, 2023. Christelle gets this. It's, hi, Christelle. It's Anthony. Hope it's okay I looked you up. I go to Boulder, Colorado every few weeks and I thought we could hook up. Christelle doesn't respond mainly because it's like a really odd message from an old, old friend of hers. It's her old high school boyfriend. Christelle is now married.

23:53She has three kids. One of them I think is in high school now. Like she, who's thinking about, yeah, who's thinking about their high school boyfriend from decades ago? It's not like they have the same her girlfriends either he knows she married a guy uh named krug and they have three kids why would she even meet up with him they haven't even spoken in so long but the next day another message are you there you should say yes when i offer a pity fuck whatever saw your pictures you got fat but your loser husband won't fuck your fat just you should kill yourself that just second day yeah but it's not just text messages emails are coming in your license plate expired gotta fix that she checks her license plate is expired you and your husband down to eiffel tower then the dentist messages and christelle starts feeling rightfully paranoid but there's also nothing that indicates that somebody is following her i mean she's been tracking what cars have been on the street outside her house all normal cars that always pass by nothing abnormal i would imagine that there's more than one exit out of the neighborhood.

25:00So if Christelle switches it up each time, then how would he even follow her out? Christelle calls an officer to the house to check out her car. There's nothing. There's no tracker. There's nothing. But they can't even do anything. Even though every day there's a new message, if it's not from the stalker, it's from somebody else. Like a text message from someone else, seemingly unrelated. Hi, saw your post on Ion Canto. Are you still looking for some men to join you? So I guess it's like a... Like a group sex. Yeah. Yeah. Christy will respond. Can you tell me which ad this was for? About you wanting a train?

25:33I believe someone may have taken out an ad with my number. Could you share the link or the title of the ad, please? No response. Whoa. The entire Krug family has this heightened sense of anxiety about all of this. I mean, the pictures, the stalking, the threats, it's just starting to become overwhelming. They try to track down the numbers sending the messages. It only leads them to other dead ends. And the stalker keeps switching numbers. Sometimes the messages would have thinly laced threats of kidnapping Christy, killing Daniel. This seemingly very normal suburban family, the Krugs, they start changing their entire lifestyles.