Liz Golyar Murdered Her Crush's Girlfriend — Then Pretended To Be Her For Three Years (2024)

Shanna "Liz" Golyar killed Cari Farver, her love interest Dave Kroupa's new girlfriend, in November 2012, then spent the next three years sending tens of thousands of text messages and emails posing as her.

In the fall of 2012, Liz Golyar, a single mother living in Omaha, Nebraska, was dating a man named Dave Kroupa. Though Golyar and Kroupa had agreed to keep their relationship casual, she became enraged when Kroupa began seeing someone else —and brutally murdered the innocent woman.

On Nov. 13, 2012, Golyar stabbed Cari Farver to death in Farver’s car. But that’s not the most disturbing part of the story. For the next three years, Liz Golyar pretended to be Farver, sending tens of thousands of text messages and emails posing as her victim.

Golyar downloaded text scheduling apps, burned her own house down, and even shot herself in the leg while carrying out her disturbing ruse. But in 2015, her lies began falling apart.

Police eventually uncovered the truth and arrested Golyar for the murder of Cari Farver, bringing her “extreme level” of deceit to light at last and providing much-needed closure for Farver’s grieving family.

The Murder Of Cari Farver

In 2012, Shanna “Liz” Golyar met Dave Kroupa on an online dating website. From the beginning, Kroupa told her that he wasn’t interested in anything serious, and Golyar seemingly agreed. However, that October, Kroupa went on a date with a woman named Cari Farver — and Golyar immediately became upset.

According to court records, Dave Kroupa’s first date with Farver was on Oct. 29, 2012. While they were at dinner, Golyar began “blowing up” his phone with calls and text messages. Kroupa told her that he was on a date and wasn’t able to respond immediately — so Golyar showed up at his apartment.

Kroupa and Farver had just walked into Kroupa’s home after dinner when Golyar started ringing the doorbell. She was crying and told Kroupa that she wanted to gather some of her belongings from inside. Kroupa apologized to Farver and agreed to meet her at her place later in the evening after speaking with Golyar.

Cari Farver never interacted with Liz Golyar that night aside from passing by her on the way to her car — but Golyar apparently decided that Farver had to go.

Over the next two weeks, Golyar made a fake Facebook account and tried to add Farver as a friend, spray painted Farver’s car, and seemingly began stalking the innocent woman. Cari Farver spent the night of Nov. 12 at Dave Kroupa’s apartment, as she had to be at work early the next morning, and he lived closer to her office than she did. But after she left for work on Nov. 13, she was never seen again.

It’s unclear exactly what happened that morning, as Liz Golyar maintains her innocence to this day. But at some point, Golyar stabbed Farver to death, perhaps while sitting inside Farver’s car. Police later found a large bloodstain beneath the fabric of the passenger seat.

Unfortunately, Liz Golyar’s disturbing crime spree was just beginning.

Liz Golyar Begins Her Twisted Ruse

Immediately after killing Cari Farver, Liz Golyar texted Dave Kroupa from Farver’s phone, pretending to be her. She told Kroupa that she wanted to move in with him even though they had discussed keeping things casual. When Kroupa declined, Golyar began sending bizarre messages.

Kroupa later told Dateline, “As soon as I text her back, I get a text back that says, ‘Fine, I don’t ever want to see you again, go away, I’m dating somebody else, I hate you,’ and on and on and on.”

Thinking the text was from Farver, Kroupa was baffled by the sudden change in her personality. He assumed their short relationship was over, but he kept receiving threatening texts.

At the same time, Golyar texted Farver’s mother, Nancy Raney, and told her that she got a new job in Kansas and would return for her 15-year-old son once she found somewhere to live. Raney thought this was odd, and she eventually reached out to the police to report Farver missing. However, since Farver was still seemingly sending texts and emails from her devices, the authorities assumed she’d run off willingly.

Farver had a history of bipolar disorder, and though she’d been stable for years, the police theorized she’d stopped taking her medicine, leading to her odd behavior.

It would be three years before investigators finally took Farver’s disappearance seriously.

How Liz Golyar Spent Three Years Posing As Cari Farver

While Dave Kroupa continued receiving unhinged messages from Farver’s number, Liz Golyar reached out to him and informed him that she’d been getting threatening texts and emails as well. The two of them bonded over their shared trauma and began rekindling their relationship.

Kroupa told ABC News, “It was actually extremely common for [Liz Golyar and I] to be… hanging out on a couch, watching TV or something and both of our phones would start blowing up with text messages and emails from Cari.” Investigators later discovered that Golyar had downloaded apps that allowed her to schedule texts in advance.

Whenever Kroupa and Golyar’s relationship started to fizzle out, something drastic would happen involving Farver, bringing them together once again. For instance, just after they broke up in August 2013, Golyar called Kroupa in a panic, saying that her house had burned down, killing her four pets trapped inside.

Soon after Golyar hung up the phone, Kroupa received a text from Farver’s number that read: “I am not lying I set that nasty wh—e’s house on fire. I hope the wh—e and her kids die in it.”

When they broke up again in November 2015, Golyar tried a different tactic. She went to the police and stated that she thought the harassing texts weren’t coming from Cari Farver after all. Golyar claimed that Kroupa’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children, Amy Flora, had actually killed Farver and had been posing as her.

These outrageous assertions would mark the beginning of Golyar’s downfall.

The End Of The ‘Extreme Level Of Deception’

The police quickly cleared Flora — but they didn’t tell Golyar that. Instead, they asked her to help them with their investigation and reach out to Flora to get details about the crime.

Golyar almost immediately forwarded them an email that was supposedly from Flora and included gruesome details about Farver’s murder. It noted that Farver had been stabbed “three to four times” and stuffed into a garbage bag.

However, the real turning point in the investigation came in December 2015, when Golyar called 911 from Big Lake Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, saying Flora had shot her in the leg. Again, police quickly cleared Flora — but they asked Golyar if they could search her devices to gather evidence against her alleged shooter.

Scattered across Liz Golyar’s phone, tablet, and an old SD card, detectives found mountains of shocking evidence. They discovered that Golyar had sent 15,000 emails and up to 50,000 texts posing as Farver over the course of three years. What’s more, they uncovered a deleted photo of a dead body with a tattoo on its foot —the very same tattoo that Farver had.

After an extensive investigation, police arrested Liz Golyar and charged her with the first-degree murder of Cari Farver on Dec. 22, 2016. She was ultimately found guilty in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“The successful investigation,” stated the Omaha Police Department, “brought to light an extreme level of deception that law enforcement rarely encounters.”

After learning about the crimes of Liz Golyar, go inside the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer that brought about groundbreaking anti-stalking laws. Then, read about Betty Broderick, the scorned wife who shot her ex-husband and his new wife in their bed.