Lover, Stalker, Killer (2024)

So, Lover, Stalker, Killer kind of blew my mind. I went into it totally blind, and this documentary reminded me why I love technology and why I love True Crime content. This one does a fantastic job at keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time, right up until the end.

The First Fling: Liz

The star of this show, is very clearly, the very well-spoken and likely well-edited narrator of Dave Kroupa. We are introduced to him at the top, meeting him where he was at - looking for a harmless fling online. He makes it VERY clear that he only wants sex, and doesn't want a committed relationship - having kids and having been recently divorced.

Liz Golyar was his first step back into the dating pool, and she was a ton of fun, Dave claimed. Soon after, though, he moved on.

The Beauty: Cari

Cari Farver was a customer at Dave's shop, and this soon led to a brief romantic tryst between the two. She was right on board with just having some fun, and so was Dave - so they did. How lovely!

And soon, Cari began texting Dave, rather aggressively about their relationship, pushing to move in. Suddenly Cari changes. Anger. Shocking anger, actually.

So he goes home and sees that Cari's things are gone, and the story ends there, right? Wrong.

The Stalker: Cari

She begins texting Dave frequently, wildly mean, rude, and threatening bullshit. As more time went on it was clear this was a form of harassment. Like. BAD harassment.

Cari's mom suspects something doesn't add up and files her as a missing person. Good job Mom!

So the police make contact with Dave - asking about Cari's disappearance, and he shows them the messages. And the police do what they frequently do, and they assume Cari's batshit crazy, and move right along.

So Cari, the Stalker, starts talking to Cari's Mom- and was communicating with her briefly, and also becomes harassment.

Cari's Mom is over it.

Liz shows up to Dave's apartment and her car has been keyed; Liz has also been receiving the harassment.

The Investigation: Omaha Police

So the police are now involved and looking into the harassment and stalking reports that Dave brings to the station.

The Stalker, Cari, is now becoming wildly out of control. Several different phone numbers, and violent messages. Addressing his current location and actions. Including at work.

So the police do a reverse stakeout- in which they case the site and look for any possible viewpoints from the stalker's perspective.

No dice.

The Victims: Dave & Liz & Amy & the Kids

The mind games that Cari keeps playing with Dave are intentionally harmful. She tells Dave that she's in the same complex, living near him in building 12. The only thing is, they end at 11.

Then we see that Cari is in Liz's house and spray paints words all over the garage. And threatens to harm her.

Dave and Liz rekindle their relationship and are now back together because they understand what the other was going through.

Amy, Dave's ex, has the kids and refuses to let them back to Dave's place. Understandable under the circumstances.

So Cari breaks into Dave's place and scares the shit out of them with signs of violence left behind, and it's quite clear that the point at which a human is physically injured is imminent.

The Investigation: Omaha Police

The police are back in the game and seek an arrest warrant for Cari Farver. But no dice again. Can't find her anywhere.

Threats are frequently coming in from Cari, and the paranoia sets in with time.

Then there's the fire.

The police are now, very clearly, taking this seriously.

The pets are dead. The house is in ashes.

The kids are alright, but Liz is distraught.

Cari committed Arson at Liz's house. Everything she owned was gone.

The fire investigator found that it was clearly an intentionally set fire, and not an accident.

Liz moved away and didn't let Dave or anybody know where at all she had gone.

Dave was sad about losing Liz.

So Dave moved too. Re-vamped his whole life. New phone and car and house.

Until.

One Year Later.

Yeah. You heard me.

The Investigation: Sheriff's Office

So the bigger boys get involved, and we see that they are more interested in finding Cari than ever before, but not because she's been harassing and committing crimes. But because she disappeared, and was never found again.

They are given permission to take over the case and they meet with Cari's mother.

She makes it very clear that she doesn't think that Cari was behind any of the scary things but also points out that she understands if Cari wanted to leave the area for any reason she totally could- but as her mother, she needed to know if Cari was okay.

And then they mention that Cari had mental health issues and that it could be a problem that got out of control without Cari's medication. And they made a point to show that her medication was not taken with her, wherever she went.

The Return: Cari

Dave gets back online looking for dates in his new hometown, and Cari comes back by catfishing him. And suddenly Amy becomes a target because Dave is near her again.

Amy starts receiving messages that Cari is watching her and the children, and begins making very vibrant and aggressive threats towards Dave and Amy's family, especially the children. So Dave's father buys him a gun. Honestly. I don't blame him for this. He hides it in the house in a closet.

The Investigation: Sheriff's Office

So the Sherriff's Office talks to us about Cari's house, and Cari's last bank records. They are extremely suspicious. Nothing was taken and no money has moved since the day she went missing.

Cari's timing is suspicious too. She has a teenage child and a father who was ill and dying.

The investigators mention it to Cari's mother, and they all agree that Cari did not leave on her own and that she was likely deceased. Especially because she had not been seen for two years in person at this point. So they reframe the investigation, and our rockstar IT guy takes the spotlight

The Investigation: Tony Kava Cracks the Code

This guy is literally so cool. He cracks the code in this case. Tony combs through the two years' worth of messages by tracking different IP addresses behind VPNs, writing a code to create a program that sorts through several thousand of them, and narrowing down the most common IP addresses used that were not used through a VPN service.

And by god did he do that shit.

He finds an IP address to one of his employee's houses. Shocking I know. So they hide all of this information deep in encryption for the Sheriff's Department. So they dig a little bit and ask this guy about who in the house uses the computer.

And guess what-

He has a girlfriend.

Liz Golyar.

Liz wrote the messages. The texts. The emails. Liz keyed her own car, set her own house on fire. Killed her own pets. Stalked Dave and Amy and the kids. Messaged Cari's mother. Got back into Dave's arms several times after the likely murder of Cari, and the assumption of her identity. Liz was the one who tagged the garage and broke into Dave's house and slashed her own clothes.

Liz stole Cari's identity and killed Cari.

The Investigation: Gathering Evidence

This case was also very difficult to gather evidence for, simply because Liz was attempting to be extremely covert with all of her choices.

They track her vehicle. They find a fingerprint in Cari's car.

They find that she's driving around Amy's house daily.

And then the gun goes missing.

The Shot Heard Round the Park: Liz

This case takes a turn when Liz calls 911 on herself after having shot herself in the leg.

So now the police interview Liz about being shot in the leg, and SHE claims that a woman ran out of the woods. Claiming it was Amy. In reality, the police believed that Liz broke into Dave's apartment, stole the gun, and then shot herself.

So the investigators use this as a way in.

Show us how bad Amy really is. Show us that Amy really did kill Cari, and what she did that makes her so dangerous now.

And Liz went ahead and told on herself.

The Investigation: Cari's Car

The messages from "AMY," were Liz writing to herself using VPN services to hide her IP address and using multiple emails.

The investigators convince Dave to move in with Amy again, and as SOON as Liz sees his car in the driveway, Liz starts falling apart, and so does her story.

So Liz sends all of this information to investigators that AMY is supposedly sending her. And it's very violent information about a stabbing in the car.

And they find the blood that had soaked deep inside the seat pad. This is the last evidence we have of Cari's life.

One of the emails claimed that "Amy" burned Cari's body somewhere, but no body was ever found, and this became the most difficult portion of the case to overcome for the prosecution. No body, no crime, right?

The Interrogation: I'm not Lying.

The interrogation footage is really interesting to me, only because of Liz's delusion. Like, you're caught. And when the investigator lets her know that she's been caught, all that comes from her mouth is denial. HARDCORE denial. So much denial in fact, that she asks for an attorney and pleads NOT GUILTY.

The Evidence: The Smoking Gun

The tech bro's at the Sherriff's Office discover a photo out of an old SD card they find that was from Liz's old phone around the time that Cari went missing. And they find this image that was so, so incredibly bizarre.

It was tiny and blurry and it was almost indiscernible- until Tony Kava, rockstar sleuth, pulled out his copy of Gray's Anatomy. Boy, do we love a textbook moment.

Ever heard of Venus Marbling?

Long story short, the Veins under the skin darken, and this image you see above is an image of a dead Cari Farver's foot, with marbled veins, and a known tattoo on the top of the foot meaning "Mother."

And Liz had taken this photo on her old phone.

The Trial: Did I do the right thing?

The documentary here skips most of the trial footage and instead skips mostly to the verdict.

Liz Golyar is found guilty of Pre-Meditated First Degree Murders, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In this case, we were lucky that justice was served. The relief that Dave, Amy, and the kids received on that day, and the closure for Cari's family, are all quite immense.

Cari: Mother, Liz: Killer

The footage they show of Cari is so heartwarming and tragic. She was a wonderful mother that had a future and a positive outlook. And Liz took that all away. Dave feels it was his fault, and has some complicated feelings about it, but if I could, I would assure him that he was in no way responsible for entertaining Liz's psychosis and that she was too far gone before he ever met her. How do I know this?

Check this out.

She murdered her baby son Cody too.

"In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, her ex-boyfriend, Raymond Strahan, likened Golyar to a simmering pot that was just waiting to boil over."

"To this day, Herr's family believes he was framed by Golyar and coerced into confessing to Cody's murder."

Thankfully this looney is locked away for good, even though it took two or more murders of humans, the death of a few animals, and a shitload of grief to get there.

Check out this book if you want to learn more about these cases.

-WTTSS

-B