Hello and welcome to another episode of Just Melissa.

It was December 14, 2003, in Broomfield, Colorado, a quiet suburban street, the kind where Christmas lights flicker on in neat rows, and neighbors wave while walking their dogs.

Inside one of those homes, a mother of three was being hunted.

Her name was Christiel Krug, and she believed she was being stalked by her

ex-boyfriend. But the truth was darker, because the stalker wasn't a stranger. It wasn't an ex.

It was her husband. On this episode, I'm diving into a case that feels like it was written for a psychological

thriller, except every word is true. It's a story of control, deception, and the terrifying

manipulation of technology, a case prosecutors called an example of pure depravity.

This is the story of Christiel and Daniel Krug and the stalker who never existed.

To the outside world, the Kruggs were ordinary.

Daniel Krug, 43, was a data systems engineer, and Kristiel, also

43, was a biochemical engineer and mother of three. They lived in a tidy broom-filled home

halfway between Denver and Boulder, surrounded by bike paths, coffee shops,

and the slow hum of suburban safety. Friends described Christiel as brilliant, funny, and deeply

devoted to her kids. Her mother called her the kind of woman who made every holiday magical.

But behind that perfect image, things were falling apart. After 16 years of marriage,

Christiel was planning to leave Daniel. She told close friends she wanted full custody of the children and that

she did not feel safe. One friend later told investigators, she said she didn't trust him, not anymore.

It started in October of 2003 with anonymous texts and emails, messages that claim to come from

Christiel's ex-boyfriend, a man by the name of Anthony, who lived in Utah. They were invasive and

threatening. One message said, I saw you at the dentist. Another warned, your husband's car was parked

too close to the school. One email even included a photo of Daniel himself getting out of his

...