Utah man eyed in Colorado murder believes victim’s spirit urged him to buy sweatshirt that helped clear him

On the afternoon of December 14, 2023, Anthony Holland was watching television when law enforcement showed up at his home near Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Honestly, I thought I was going to go to jail for something,” Holland recalled in an interview with “48 Hours.” But he said he had no idea what crime he had committed.

“Have you ever heard of the name Kristil Krug?” one of the investigators asked him. Holland said he dated a woman named Kristil Krug. In fact, she was his first love. They separated in the fall of 2000 and haven’t spoken in years.

Unbeknownst to Holland, Kristil Krug, 43, a mother of three young children, was murdered in the garage of her Broomfield, Colorado, home around 8 a.m. that day.

The death of Kristil Krug and the investigation into who killed her are the subject of “The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug,” an all-new “48 Hours” narrated by correspondent Peter Van Sant airing Saturday, Nov. 29 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

In the weeks before her death, Kristil Krug told police that she and her husband Dan Krug had received threatening text messages and emails from a stalker, whom she believed to be Holland.

So, hours after Kristil Krug’s murder, Colorado investigators asked Utah police to visit Holland at his home, about 500 miles from the crime scene.

But Holland had an airtight alibi. At 12:16 p.m. on the day of the murder, he was at a local department store buying a sweatshirt, preventing him from making the round trip to Colorado. He showed the police a stamped and dated receipt. He was immediately cleared by the police.

Holland told “48 Hours” that he believes Kristil’s “spirit” played a significant role in establishing his sweatshirt alibi and exonerating him that day.

“Why did you have to have that new sweatshirt that morning?” Van Sant asked Holland. “I just had a craving. I need another one. I don’t have enough,” Holland replied.

Holland added that his late mother also played a role in clearing his name.

“I believe, for example, my mother or Kristil, because she was murdered before I went to the store, a little bit before… her spirit could have traveled, and I believe they had some of it because I just had a desire,” he said.

“It was like going to the store. Going to the store. So I went,” Holland said. “And then I came home and I was hanging out, lying on my bed, watching TV, and I heard a knock at the door.”

Two days after Kristil Krug’s death, police arrested her husband Dan Krug and charged him with stalking and murder.

Holland still has this sweatshirt. Its value to him extends beyond a piece of clothing, but as a symbol of justice for a woman he once loved.