Cari Farver was an American single mother who went missing in 2012 and was never found. She was supposedly sending threatening messages to her boyfriend Dave Kroupa and his girlfriend Shanna Elizabeth “Liz” Golyar for three years before authorities later discovered she was dead.
Sadly, her body was never found and what exactly happened to her is still shadowy. In all of this, she has been reported dead and Golyar was found guilty of the murder. Here is the true story and how it unfolded.
She was involved in a Casual Love Triangle that Led to Her Disappearance
Cari met Dave Kroupa in October 2012, and they casually started dating. She was not the only woman Kroupa was seeing at the time. He was also casually dating Elizabeth Golyar, whom he met on a dating site.
While Farver was visiting Kroupa’s home, Golyar showed up at the door upset that Kroupa was seeing another woman.
Unsettled, Cari left the house and returned to her home in Macedonia, Iowa. Kroupa continued casually dating the two women.
Cari Farver’s Disappearance
On November 12, 2012, Farver was last seen at Kroupa’s residence at 6:20 a.m. She spent the night there because it was closer to her work and she had late-night work to do.
Even after her disappearance, she was still active on Facebook and sent a resignation letter to her office, urging them to employ Liz Golyar to replace her. She purportedly sent a message to her mother, Nancy Raney, claiming she had gotten a job elsewhere.
Her mother thought it was out of Farver’s character. Anyway, she texted her back, asking when she would pick up her teenage son since she left him with her while going to Kroupa’s.
When Nancy Raney realized she had not heard from her daughter for days, she filed for a missing person on November 16.
Even at that, Raney kept receiving text messages from Farver’s cell which was never found but traced to an environment near Golyar.
Even After Her Disappearance, there were Harassment Messages from Her to Golyar and Kroupa
From the day of her disappearance, Farver’s Facebook was active. It became worrisome when both Golyar and Kroupa started receiving texts and emails of harassment. It would later be discovered that the emails came from as many as 30 email accounts and so were the text messages.
The messages continued and to make it worse, there were also physical attacks. Golyar reported vandalism of her property at different times and each time it happened, Farver would send them emails claiming responsibility.
In August 2013, after Golyar and Kroupa ended their relationship, Golyar’s home burnt, killing her 4 pets. Investigations showed that the fire was intentionally put and it was proven when Kroupa and Golyar received emails supposedly from Farver, claiming she was responsible for the fire and wished it killed Golyar and her kids.
The Truth About the Harassment
While Kroupa and Golyar were receiving harassment messages, Kroupa’s ex and mother of his two children, Amy Flora was also receiving threats from a supposed Farver.
In 2015, the story changed when Golyar claimed that Flora was all along behind the messages. She also claimed to have been shot in the leg by Flora, using Kroupa’s gun.
After a closer look at it, it was discovered that Golyar’s story about the shooting kept changing. Further investigation linked the messages they had received to Todd Butterbaugh, a man Golyar dated from 2010 to 2015.
Interestingly, she was dating Butterbaugh while also dating Kroupa and she never mentioned to Butterbaugh about being harassed by anyone.
See Also: Amy Fisher: Her True Story and Movies About Her Life
Her Death and Discovery
Although Farver’s body was never found, there are pointers that she was killed. So, who killed Cari Farver?
Since her disappearance, authorities tried to find out what exactly happened to her. It was difficult to find the truth as a few people may have received messages from someone posing as her.
Nevertheless, after a series of thorough searches, Golyar’s fingerprints were found in Farver’s Explorer vehicle.
Further checks showed blood in the vehicle and after DNA, it was concluded that the blood belonged to Farver.
In 2016, authorities found LG cell phones, cameras, memory cards, and several other things that pointed to her as the imposter.
One thing she did great was masking her tracks by shielding her IP address and sending the messages at a different time from when they were composed.
After numerous forensic investigations, it was concluded that Farver was killed by Golyar. An image found from a device linked to Golyar showed Farver’s tattoo which her mother confirmed that Farver had the same. Forensics proved that the tattoo at the time it was taken belonged to a dead person.
On August 15, 2017, Golyar was found guilty of first-degree murder by Judge Timothy Burns. She was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole and an additional 18 to 20 years for arson.
Golyar’s complete case has drawn attention and remains one of the most difficult murder cases in recent times.
Cari Farver’s Story in Popular Culture
Cari Farver’s story has been documented in movies and documentaries. In 2022, a drama thriller, The Disappearance of Cari Farver was released. The film featured Rebecca Amsalag as Cari, Alicia Witt as Liz, and Zach Gilford as Dave Kroupa.
Also, a documentary, Lover, Stalker, Killer was released in 2024.
