Kristil's Law presented to Oregon Legislature in 2026 session

In December 2024, a bizarre murder case made headlines across the country, Kristil Klug of Broomfield, Colo., had been murdered in her home, an ex-boyfriend was implicated in the following months for stalking and harassment. However, police quickly uncovered after her death that it was her husband, Daniel Klug, who was behind it all.

From October to December 2024, Daniel Klug impersonated Kristil's ex-boyfriend, sending graphic and demeaning texts, photos, comments about her life, and even a graphic classified ad impersonating Kristil. She reported everything to law enforcement, kept detailed stalking logs, and hired a private investigator to try to locate her ex-boyfriend. Law enforcement issued search warrants to communication companies in mid-November that would identify the perpetrator, but none of that information arrived until it was too late.

Kristil's cousin, Becky Ivanoff, is a former domestic violence prosecutor, pro tem judge, and dean of the University of Oregon Law School. She is the driving force behind "Kristil's Law," which is appearing in front of the Oregon legislature in the current session. In an interview with The Eagle, Ivanoff shared details on the law which has bi-partisan support and is being championed, in part, by Representative Kevin Mannix. The representative was the main driver of modernizing Oregon's stalking laws in 2023. New laws around the use of AI and deepfakes went into effect in January of this year. Kristil's Law, if passed, will go into effect in July.

Immediately following Kristil's, murder law enforcement issued an exigent circumstance request, a warrantless request for information when there is an imminent threat to life or safety. According to Ivanoff, this approach returned the information previously sought through search warrants in under an hour, revealing the true identity of the one behind it.

"In April of 2025, I was reflecting on the evidence and what occurred [and] I saw clearly in terms of the steps Kristil took that she did everything right," said Ivanoff. "Law enforcement took the steps available to them to use the power of a search warrant. The system operated as it's currently structured, and she still got killed. The fact that information came through so quickly pursuant to the exigent circumstance request reveals it is possible for timely information to be turned over to law enforcement and, ultimately, victims."

Kristil's Law is designed to require any communications company that receives a search warrant to respond within 72 hours when law enforcement is investigating a crime of stalking, violation of a stalking protective order, or any crime constituting domestic violence. Communications companies are defined as all the places in which communication could take place, including internet service providers, electronic service providers, even social media channels.

"We wanted to remove any barrier or potential concern on the part of communications companies about whether they should comply," said Ivanoff. "Kristil's law says, in this narrow swath of cases that relate to crimes that we know can so quickly escalate, you must respond in 72 hours. There are all sorts of factors that can go into escalating a situation, and the lethality risks expand exponentially when you have certain types of factors present, even if a relationship has not previously been marked by domestic violence but otherwise includes hallmarks of coercive control."

Oregon passing Kristil's law will serve as a model for other states in the country to pass similar legislation. In Colorado, there is already commitment from Majority Leader Duran to make the law her first legislative priority for the 2027 session. "Our family's goal is to have Kristil's Law passed in every state in our country," said Ivanoff. "We'd also like to see federal legislation that requires the same thing. I feel a responsibility to use this platform that we've been given for good, and I do feel like we can save lives and immediately impact the safety of survivors in our home state and, ideally, across the country...[With this law], we celebrate [Kristil's] legacy, because I know she would want something positive to come out of what's been just a horrific tragedy."

This article was written as part of January's National Stalking Awareness Month which seeks to raise awareness and provide education on this type of criminal behavior.