In 2012, newly single Dave Kroupa moved to Omaha, Nebraska, with the hopes of getting back into the dating game. He’d just come out of a long-term relationship, and he was eager to make new connections. He created an online dating profile and met Liz Golyar, a single mom and animal lover. Soon after he met Golyar, another single mother, Cari Farver, walked into Kroupa’s auto shop to have her car repaired. He felt a connection instantly.
So far, so familiar. However, Kroupa could scarcely have predicted what would unfold from there: a twisted, tragic love triangle that put him and everyone he cared about at risk. His story is the subject of Lover, Stalker, Killer, a new documentary from Curious Films (Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee), which crafts a shocking tale of harassment, digital deception, and murder.
“We enter this story from the perspective of Dave, who is caught in a complete web of falsehood,” director Sam Hobkinson (Fear City) tells Tudum. “I wanted the storytelling to somehow reflect that confusion, and ultimately, his total disbelief when he realizes what’s happened.”
“As a director, it was a gift of a story,” Hobkinson continues. “Especially if you’re interested in making structured narratives that are about deception and identity.”
Kroupa and Golyar met on an online dating site in 2012. They saw each other regularly, but Kroupa told Golyar he wasn’t looking to commit. Golyar appeared fine with that. A little while later, Kroupa met Farver, who lived an hour away in Macedonia, IA, at his auto shop, and later asked her out. On one of their early dates, the two ended up in Kroupa’s apartment; as she was leaving, Farver passed a woman in the hallway. It was Golyar, who claimed she’d dropped by Kroupa’s apartment to pick up a few of her things. This chance meeting would change all of their lives forever.
Over the following two weeks, Farver and Kroupa continued to see each other. On Nov. 12, 2012, Farver spent the night with Kroupa. He later told police that in the morning, he gave her a kiss goodbye and went to work. By all accounts, that was the last time anyone saw Farver — but although she seemed to disappear into thin air, she remained in constant contact with Kroupa, sending him and his ex-girlfriend thousands of threatening texts, claiming he’d ruined her life.
At the time, Golyar claimed she received similar texts from Farver, warning her to leave Kroupa alone. Farver’s mother, Nancy Raney, also received messages: Her daughter informed her that she’d moved to Kansas for a new job, and would be in touch to discuss picking up her 14-year-old son, Max. Raney suspected something was wrong and alerted police. “It’s very important that [Farver’s mother] was in the film to speak for Cari and speak to her own experience. She was really frustrated by, frankly, the negligence of the initial police investigation,” Hobkinson says.
Weeks passed, and Farver missed several family events, including her son’s 15th birthday, Thanksgiving, and her father’s funeral, ABC News reported.
“Everyone’s perception of [Cari] has been completely distorted by the fact that somebody hijacked her identity,” says Hobkinson. “One of the things that I hope the film does is somehow cement her true identity.”
By spring 2015, no one in Farver’s family had seen her for two and a half years. Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office investigator Ryan Avis and sergeant Jim Doty heard about the case, and were so intrigued by the story of Farver’s disappearance they volunteered to take it on.
By re-examining evidence, Doty and Avis were eventually able to determine that Farver hadn’t sent any of those texts herself: It was actually Golyar, who had murdered Farver in 2012, then held onto her phone to pose as Farver digitally, covering her own tracks and making it appear that Farver was instead victimizing her. And it was Golyar who burned down her own house — with her pets inside.
A major break in the investigation came when authorities found that Golyar’s phone contained a photo of Farver’s car, as well as logins for dozens of fake email accounts. Eventually they were also able to gain access to a tablet, which contained an old memory card that belonged to Golyar, on which thousands of photos were stored, including one of Farver’s dead body. On Dec. 22, 2016, Golyar was charged with the first-degree murder of Cari Farver. She was found guilty, and is currently serving a life sentence.
Watch Lover, Stalker, Killer on Netflix now.
