In November 2012, Shanna “Liz” Golyar murdered Cari Farver, then spent the next three years pretending to be her while sending tens of thousands of texts and emails to their shared love interest.
The murder of Cari Farver is one of the most chilling — and bizarre — true crime cases in modern American history. The 37-year-old woman from Iowa started a whirlwind romance with Dave Kroupa of Omaha, Nebraska in October 2012 — and two weeks later, she vanished, never to be seen again.
Kroupa, however, had nothing to do with her mysterious disappearance. Farver was abducted and murdered by Shanna “Liz” Golyar, a woman Kroupa had been casually dating before he met Farver.
For the next three years, Golyar posed as Farver, sending thousands of text messages and emails to Kroupa and Farver’s family members. She even sent threatening messages to herself so that Kroupa wouldn’t catch on to her act.
Because the texts and emails were coming from Farver’s accounts, it wasn’t until 2015 that authorities really started looking into her disappearance. As they began investigating Golyar, they learned the entire ruse went much deeper than anyone could have ever imagined.
The Whirlwind Relationship Of Cari Farver And Dave Kroupa
In 2012, Dave Kroupa was working at an auto repair shop in Omaha, Nebraska. At the time, he was hoping for a fresh start in life. He’d just split up with his long-time girlfriend, Amy Flora, with whom he shared two children. He soon decided to sign up for an online dating site, where he met Liz Golyar.
The two began seeing each other, but before things could get too deep, Kroupa reportedly informed Golyar that he wasn’t looking for anything serious. Golyar, a single mother, was happy with that arrangement — or so she claimed.
Several months after meeting Golyar, Kroupa spotted Cari Farver when she walked into his shop. He immediately knew there was something special about her.
“When we looked at each other, there was a little spark,” Kroupa later told ABC News. “She’s showing me something inside the vehicle and we’re standing there, and we’re very close… and there was some tension.”
Kroupa asked Farver out on a date, where they discussed that neither of them was looking for an exclusive relationship. The two returned to his apartment, and as Farver was leaving later, she passed a woman in the hallway. It was Golyar, who had dropped by unannounced to pick up some of her things.
It was this chance meeting — a meeting that couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds — that would change the course of both women’s lives.
