The Tragic 2012 Murder Of Cari Farver Explained

Oxygen writes that in the fall of 2012, Dave Kroupa met Cari Farver at the auto repair shop where he was working in Omaha, Nebraska. ABC News explains that Kroupa was new to town and had recently begun dating after separating from his ex and mother of his two children, Amy Flora. Farver dropped off her vehicle at the shop and by all accounts, Kroupa was instantly smitten with her. One friend, Amy Long, went on to say that "She (Farver) had a laugh, she had a smile. She lit up a room ... You couldn't help but notice her. You were drawn to her."

Per The Cinemaholic, Farver was then a 37-year-old computer programmer and mother to a son named Max (via ABC News). Shortly after meeting, Kroupa and Farver began dating. The pair agreed that neither wanted a serious relationship. In fact, Kroupa had been seeing a series of other women prior to dating Farver. One of these women was Shanna "Liz" Golyar, whom he had met on a dating app (per Distractify). At the end of their first date, Kroupa and Farver had an encounter with Golyar when she showed up at his apartment without warning to pick up some of her items.

Despite this awkward moment, Kroupa and Farver's relationship intensified, so much so that Farver began to stay at Kroupa's apartment because it was closer to her work (per Distractify). ABC News reports that on November 13, 2012, Kroupa left his apartment and said goodbye to Farver. That was the last time he or anyone else would see her alive.

ABC News states that shortly after leaving for work, Kroupa received a message from Farver saying that they should move in together. This took Kroupa aback and he declined the suggestion. Farver then replied "Fine. I hate you. I'm dating someone else. I don't want to see you anymore. Go away." According to Distractify, Farver subsequently sent texts to her mother, Nancy Raney, and her teenage son stating that she had moved to Kansas. She then missed a series of important family events, including her half-brother's wedding and her father's funeral. Oxygen writes that a concerned Raney reported her daughter as missing, to no avail.

She worried that Farver, who had bipolar disorder, had stopped taking her medication (via ABC News). The police, however, were not concerned with the situation. Meanwhile, The Cinemaholic reports, both Kroupa and his ex-girlfriend, Golyar, began to receive disturbing messages from Farver.

As Oxygen explains, both he and Golyar were threatened and harassed by texts and emails from Farver. One of the messages, per ABC News, read, "I hate you so much that I want to drive a knife in your heart."At one point, Kroupa believed that Farver was stalking him. Later, Farver's SUV was found parked at Kroupa's apartment building. Only a fingerprint that did not belong to Farver was found on a mint container. The alarming behavior, however, only escalated from there.

In August 2013, Oxygen states that Golyar called Kroupa (above) and informed him that her house had been set on fire and that her pets had died in the flames. By this point, Distractify explains, the couple had rekindled their relationship. It seems that Farver's threatening messages had provided them a chance to reconnect. This, however, was short-lived. Farver later sent a message that confessed that she had set Golyar's house on fire. Kroupa then moved to Iowa hoping this would deter Farver from sending more messages or taking further action. Meanwhile, Farver was still missing and two Iowa detectives, Ryan Avis and Jim Doty, decided to take on the case.

Per ABC News, no one was safe from Farver's fury. Amy Flora, Kroupa's ex, was also sent messages. By 2015, no one had seen Farver in years. Avis and Doty began to investigate. While Avis searched for clues that Farver was still alive, Doty explored the possibility that Farver was actually dead. Both detectives found it bizarre that Farver had not touched her bank account since she had reportedly left town. Ultimately, this made them believe that Farver was in fact dead. Moreover, the detectives were interested in speaking with Golyar, as she had been at the center of Farver's crazed messages.

According to Oxygen, detectives became suspicious of Golyar when she made claims that Amy Flora had been harassing her. Golyar told police that she believed that Flora was impersonating Farver and that she was the one who was actually sending the messages to her and Kroupa. Shortly after, Golyar was shot in the leg at a park and claimed that Flora was her assailant. ABC News reports that the detectives did not believe Golyar, and had started to believe that Golyar was involved in Farver's disappearance. Doty and Avis then asked a digital forensics expert to go through both Kroupa and Golyar's phones.

The Cinemaholic writes that Kroupa and Golyar agreed to this in order to uncover where Farver was sending her messages from. Instead, detectives exposed that Farver was not sending the messages at all. Anthony Kava, the digital forensics administrator, explained to ABC News that "Cari, or ... the impostor who was pretending to be Cari, sent Dave about 15,000 email messages over a three year span. ... It might've been upwards of 25,000 or 50,000 texts in all." Who, then, was sending these messages? As it turns out, a digital trail led detectives directly back to none other than Golyar.

ABC News explains that Avis and Doty discovered a flurry of disturbing evidence against Golyar on her phone. This included a photo of Farver's car that was taken prior to its discovery in Kroupa's apartment building (via Oxygen). According to The Cinemaholic, there was also a photo on Golyar's phone of a woman who was tied up. This photo had been sent to Kroupa from an account with Farver's name. Perhaps even more shocking was the revelation that Golyar had been spending upwards of 50 hours a week impersonating Farver. Text messaging apps with a scheduling function and several fake email addresses with Farver's name were all found on Golyar's phone.

Per Distractify, Golyar was brought in for questioning and detectives decided to play along with her claims that Flora had been harassing her. They told Golyar that they believed her story and that Flora was their main suspect in Farver's disappearance (per ABC News). They asked Golyar to contact Flora to ask what she had done to Farver. Golyar then came up with emails with chilling details about Farver's death. In these emails, Flora divulges that she had stabbed Farver to death in her car. The IP address of those emails, however, belonged to Golyar.

Furthermore, The Cinemaholic reports, Farver's car was searched and her blood was found on the passenger side cushion. The fingerprint on the mint container was found to be Golyar's. A digital camera belonging to Farver was also found in Golyar's home (per ABC News). On December 22, 2016, Golyar was charged with Farver's murder.

Despite this, ABC News writes that the case against Golyar was shaky. As James Martin Davis, her defense attorney, explained, "Not only was there no body, there was no crime scene, there was no murder weapon ... There was no proof that she even died." However, all that changed when Kroupa handed over a tablet that had an SD card belonging to Golyar. The Cinemaholic states that investigators found a photo of decomposing body parts on the SD card. One photo had a foot with a tattoo of a Chinese symbol on it; Farver had that same tattoo. Oxygen reports that this led to Golyar's conviction and she was sentenced to life for Farver's murder.

With Golyar in prison, Kroupa stated that "Nancy (Farver's mother) and Cari's son were foremost ... in my mind ... They're, unfortunately, the ones that have to live with the repercussions” (via ABC News). Nancy Raney (above), Farver's mother, says she is thankful that Avis and Doty did not give up on the case. She also stated, "If I could talk to Cari right now, I'd say 'I love you. I'm so glad that you are in my life. You have a beautiful son who's got a wonderful life coming, and I miss you terribly.'"

According to ABC News, Golyar continues to deny that she had anything to do with Farver's murder. But as The Cinemaholic points out, Golyar committed this crime simply because she wanted to be the object of Kroupa's affection. In her eyes, she had to eliminate the competition. Farver's body, per WOWT, has never been found.