Murder by nature

The Love Triangle of Terror: The Disappearance of Cari Farver Part 1

• Jazmin Hernandez • Season 2 • Episode 2

Share episode

Send us a text

In the quiet heartland of Nebraska, an ordinary man named Dave Kroupa found himself trapped in a nightmare of obsession and terror after a brief romance turned into an unimaginable descent into horror. This chilling true crime story begins with a casual date and spirals into a relentless three-year saga of harassment, deception, and paranoia. After meeting Cari Farver, a vibrant woman with a troubled past, Dave’s life quickly escalates into chaos when Cari mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a trail of unexplainable messages.

Over the next few years, Dave is bombarded with thousands of threatening texts and emails from a shadowy figure, whose identity seems to remain just out of reach. But the torment doesn’t end there. The story delves deeper into the twisted web of lies, heartbreak, and obsession that leads to a disturbing revelation, unraveling a tale of stalking, manipulation, and a tragic loss that shakes everyone involved.

Join us as we explore the haunting case of Cari Farver’s disappearance, the terrifying consequences of a broken relationship, and the lengths a disturbed individual will go to in order to remain unseen—and yet, disturbingly, always present.

This is a story of deception, danger, and the unknown that will leave you questioning how well we truly know the people in our lives.

Support the show

Welcome to Murder By Nature, where the darkness of true crime, unsolved disappearances, and chilling mysteries come to life. I’m your host, Jazmin Ramirez, and if you’re brave enough to join us, prepare for a journey into the unknown.

References:



In the quiet heartland of Nebraska, an ordinary man found himself entangled in an extraordinary nightmare. After dating a woman for just two fleeting weeks, she mysteriously disappeared without explanation, leaving behind only questions—and soon, something far more sinister. Over the next three years, his life became a waking horror as he received an unrelenting torrent of nearly 15,000 emails and up to 50,000 text messages. The messages were venomous, riddled with spite and jealousy, as if authored by an unseen entity hell-bent on tormenting him. What began as a brief romance spiraled into a chilling descent into paranoia, obsession, and fear—courtesy of a stalker whose presence was both intangible and inescapable.


In 2012, Dave Kroupa packed up his life and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, ready for a fresh start. He had recently ended a 12-year relationship with Amy Flora, the two meet in 2000 while working together at a truck stop. They began growing apart after their work schedules conflicted, leading them to split. Amy moved back to her hometown of Omaha with their children, and Dave relocated as well to be close to their kids while their split was amicable, it left him grappling with the uncertainty of single life. To support himself and his kids, Dave took a new job as the manager of a busy auto repair shop, a position that demanded long hours and a sharp focus. But despite his demanding schedule, he felt the pull to re-enter the dating world and see where it might lead him.

In those days, online dating was becoming the go-to way to meet new people, so Dave decided to create a profile on a popular dating site. The prospect of meeting someone new excited him, even though the process felt foreign after so many years in a committed relationship. Within just a few days, he matched with a woman named Liz, a 34-year-old divorced mom of two who owned a housecleaning business seemed approachable and down-to-earth. Liz had an engaging profile and appeared to share Dave’s desire for a no-strings-attached connection, which suited him perfectly At first glance, it seemed like fate was giving Dave a chance to ease back into dating without complications. Although Dave Kroupa was ready to dip his toes back into the dating pool, he made it abundantly clear from the start that he wasn’t looking for anything serious. Fresh out of a long-term relationship, he wasn’t interested in being tied down and set firm boundaries with anyone he met. Liz assured Dave she was also looking for something casual, and their shared understanding set the stage for what should have been a low-pressure, no-strings attached connection. Liz seemed very cool, very smiley, very energetic, very full of life." She and dave shared passions for motorcycles, heavy metal music and sci-fi movies, and they bonded over each of them having a son and daughter. Their first date went well, and they began seeing each other somewhat regularly in downtown Omaha. "It was exactly the right mix: they had my personal space, but there was someone around if they wanted to chat or hang out," Dave thought. "It was exactly what I needed at that part of my life."


In the fall of 2012, six months after meeting Liz, Dave’s otherwise ordinary day at work took a peculiar turn. A stunning woman walked into his auto repair shop, her presence commanding the room as she approached the counter to discuss maintenance for her Ford Explorer. There was an undeniable spark between them, but Dave, ever the professional, refrained from acting on it while on the job. Days later, fate perhaps brought her back into his life when he stumbled across her profile on a dating site. He reached out, discovering her name was Cari Farver. Cari seemed to radiate warmth and energy, the kind of person who could brighten any room she entered. Beneath the lively exterior, however, was a woman who had battled her share of darkness. Diagnosed with depression in her late 20s, shortly after the birth of her son, Max, her struggles escalated to bipolar disorder. By 2012, at the age of 37, Cari had regained control, thanks to her medications and a stable job as a computer programmer. She was determined to live her life fully, even if shadows lingered at the edges of her world. When Cari returned to Dave’s shop a short time later, he seized the chance to deepen their connection. Numbers were exchanged, and plans for dinner at Applebee’s were set for October 29 . During their meal, their chemistry was undeniable, and they quickly established ground rules: neither wanted a serious relationship. Both were dating other people and sought something casual, free from complications. During the date, Dave’s cell phone began "blowing up" with calls and text messages from Liz. He initially ignored the messages, but when they continued, he contacted Liz and told her he was on a date and could not respond.As they were wrapping up dinner they agreed to go back to his apartment, but their night took an odd turn when Liz unexpectedly arrived, she started ringing the bell at the security door of Dave’s apartment building. Dave left Cari in his apartment and went to the security door to speak with Liz. She was crying and upset and insisted Dave let her in so she could retrieve some of her belongings from his apartment. Dave left her at the security door and went back to his apartment to explain the situation to Cari. While it made for an awkward few moments, Cari, composed and seemingly unbothered, brushed it off as “not a big deal” and left Dave to sort things out. Liz lingered for only a moment, catching just a fleeting glimpse of Cari before being ushered out. 


Once Liz was gone, Dave wasted no time calling Cari and heading to her place, where their night continued. What followed was a whirlwind of passion as Dave and Cari’s relationship intensified over the next few weeks. Cari began spending more time at Dave’s apartment, citing the convenience for her demanding work project. She was beginning a weeklong project at work that would require her to work late hours. She arranged for her teenage son to stay with her mother and stepfather during that week, and Dave agreed she could spend the week with him at his apartment. Her office was close to his place, and staying there eliminated the hassle of commuting. Yet, what seemed like a practical arrangement soon took on an eerie undertone. The romance, though fiery, felt strangely accelerated almost too perfect. And as the days unfolded, the shadow of something darker began to creep into their lives, unnoticed at first but destined to shatter their worlds. 


On November 13, 2012, 37-year-old Cari Farver disappeared without a trace, leaving her family in a state of growing dread and confusion. Dave Kroupa, the man she had been casually dating for weeks, recalls that morning as entirely ordinary. They woke up, got ready for work, exchanged a kiss, and made plans to see each other later that evening. But a few hours after leaving his apartment, Dave received an unexpected text from Cari that would mark the beginning of a sinister and unsettling ordeal. In the message, Cari suddenly proposed moving in with Dave—an idea neither of them had ever expressed interest in, as both had agreed to keep things casual. When Dave politely declined, her texts quickly turned angry, then hostile. She bombarded him with increasingly aggressive messages, culminating in one that read, "Fine. I hate you. I'm dating someone else. I don't want to see you anymore. Go away." Simultaneously, Cari sent cryptic messages to her mother, Nancy Raney, and her teenage son, Max, claiming she had taken a new job in Kansas and would soon make arrangements to pick Max up. Nancy, alarmed by the abrupt and out-of-character nature of these messages, repeatedly tried to call her daughter, but Cari didn’t answer. Two days later, as the messages from Cari grew stranger, Nancy’s worry deepened. Meanwhile, Dave began receiving a flood of increasingly menacing texts and emails from Cari. At first, he shrugged them off, thinking, I dodged a bullet with this one. But it didn’t stop there. Soon, the texts came from dozens of phone numbers and email accounts. Friends and family of Cari also began receiving similar messages, each one erratic and unsettling, although they were all skeptical about it, they couldn’t prove they were illegitimate. So, it was only when Cari failed to show up on her brother’s wedding day, on November 16, that her mother reported her missing. Even with that, nothing happened, Despite her pleas, the police dismissed the case, noting Cari’s history of bipolar disorder and reasoning that she was an adult capable of making her own decisions. As the days turned into weeks, the messages became more bizarre and nasty in nature, even stalker-ish. Dave received threats like, "I hate you so much that I want to drive a knife into your heart," and chilling taunts such as, "How’s that coffee taste?" sent while he was sitting at a diner. The messages didn’t just target Dave; they extended to anyone close to him, every female customer he interacted with at work. The police felt like this case seemed like we were seeing the "initial phases of stalking. His ex-girlfriend Amy Flora, the mother of his children, began receiving threatening messages, which left her so terrified that she forbid their children from visiting Dave’s home. The situation escalated when Liz Golyar, the other woman Dave had been seeing, reported that her car had been keyed, and “Whore” was spray-painted on her garage wall. Liz showed up at Dave’s place visibly shaken, claiming Cari had to be behind it. Soon after, Dave began receiving photos of the vandalism in real time, with texts from Cari boasting about her actions and vowing to do worse. Cari was "clearly jealous of Liz, he thought that must be what sparked all of this. Things took an even darker turn in January 2013. Dave spotted a familiar car in a parking lot near his home. Recognizing it as Cari’s Ford Explorer, he photographed the license plate and alerted the police. When they searched the vehicle, they found only a single fingerprint—and it wasn’t Cari’s. 


Meanwhile, the messages from Cari continued relentlessly, often including photos inside Liz’s home, adding an unnerving layer of surveillance to the harassment. As the harassment grew more intense, Dave and Liz rekindled their relationship out of a sense of mutual protection, but this only seemed to provoke Cari further. Their phones would blow up with messages while they were together, some containing threats to harm Liz and others issuing cryptic warnings about Dave’s actions. Dave’s high school friend, Heather Twedt, also became a target. One night in January 2014, while Dave was at her house, someone threw a brick through her window.

Despite the mounting evidence that something was terribly wrong, Cari’s continued digital presence made it impossible to convince authorities that foul play was involved. Her family remained haunted by her absence, especially as she missed major milestones like her son’s birthday, holidays, and, most heartbreakingly, her father’s funeral. Nancy, heartbroken and desperate, knew her daughter would never willingly stay away from her family, especially her beloved son. Yet the messages persisted, driving an ever-deepening wedge of fear and chaos into the lives of everyone involved. The line between reality and manipulation blurred, leaving Dave and those around him trapped in a web of obsession, malice, and an unseen menace that seemed to thrive on their unraveling lives. At one point, liz called dave at work and said one of her windows was smashed in, her walls were vandalized and her clothing was "stabbed and slashed with a knife, like murder-style." Detectives had probable cause to arrest Cari in a stalking case, but couldn't find her. Dave started thinking The paranoia is your life. You're thinking about the 'what-ifs' all the time. It was hard to know sometimes what was real and what I was imagining." he began drinking to take the edge off during the stalking, he was on the road to having a mental breakdown.

On Aug. 17, 2013, Liz called Dave in a panic. For months, the two had bonded over the threatening messages they were both receiving from Cari, but now things had seemingly escalated. Liz said her house had been set ablaze her kids weren't home at the time, but her pets—two dogs, a cat and a snake were killed. Dave soon received a text from Cari’s number that read, “I am not lying I set that nasty whore’s house on fire. I hope the whore and her kids die in it.” Detectives suspected Cari was behind the arson. After the fire, Liz moved and didn't tell Dave where, which he said he understood because it was to protect herself from Cari. He told friends he had lost my partner, the one person who understood what he was going through, He felt like the only thing he could do was pack up and move. He changed phones and got a new job. He wanted to rebuild his life away from Cari, but in the back of his mind, he knew that she was still out there. Dave decided that he needed to protect his family and purchased a gun for safety. After a few months Dave eventually made a profile on a new dating site, He matched with a new girl and planned a date, he went to the restaurant and wait for her to show, and waited and waited. But to his despair she messaged him saying it was cari. He felt that it was only a matter of time before someone gets hurt for real, Meanwhile, Nancy was receiving cryptic messages from social media accounts belonging to her daughter telling her mom not to look for her. 

In mid-November 2015, Dave and Liz’s volatile relationship hit yet another breaking point when Dave decided to pursue a serious relationship with another woman. The decision devastated Liz, though she kept her true feelings hidden, presenting a composed front. Beneath the surface, however, she was seething with resentment. By December 4, Liz had found a way to channel her anger. She went to the police, claiming that she had been receiving harassing messages not from Cari Farver this time, but from Amy Flora, Dave’s ex and the mother of his children. After years of blaming Cari for the relentless torment, Liz now shifted the blame to Amy, alleging she had been behind it all along. What made Liz’s claims more disturbing was her mention of Dave’s missing gun. Days earlier, Dave had discovered the gun was gone from the locked box in his closet, a fact he found unsettling but couldn’t connect to anything yet. Liz told officers she believed Amy had stolen the weapon and even described it in detail during her harassment complaint to detectives Avis and Doty. This revelation piqued the officers’ interest not because they believed Liz’s story, but because of their suspicions of Liz’s involvement within Cari’s case. Liz allowed police to download her phone to share the harassing messages she claimed Amy had sent. In truth, the officers were searching for evidence linking Liz to years of stalking Dave and, potentially, to Cari’s murder. Liz painted herself as a victim desperate for justice, but detectives were beginning to see cracks in her carefully constructed façade.

The situation took a sinister turn the very next day. Early on Saturday morning, Liz sent the investigating officer screenshots of more threatening messages, supposedly from Amy. By evening, the drama escalated to a shocking new level. At 6:40 p.m., officers were dispatched to a remote wilderness park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. There, they found Liz sitting on the ground near the driver’s side of a parked car, clutching her leg. She had been shot in the left thigh and claimed Amy had ambushed her. Liz’s story, however, was riddled with inconsistencies. She provided vague and contradictory accounts, alternating between descriptions of a struggle and claims that Amy had approached her without warning.


 Despite Liz’s insistence that Amy was the assailant, her version of events failed to add up. Police acted on Liz’s accusations, going straight to Amy’s home later that night. Amy, who had been home with her 2-year-old son, was stunned to find police at her door with guns drawn. The officers inspected her car and found it cold to the touch, a clear indication it hadn’t been driven recently. Amy adamantly denied any involvement in the shooting, and her demeanor only deepened suspicions about Liz’s account.

The turning point came when detectives examined Liz’s phone more closely. The so-called harassing messages she had claimed were from Amy had actually been sent from Liz’s own devices. Patterns of manipulation and deceit began to emerge, tying Liz not only to the fabricated harassment but potentially to Cari Farver’s disappearance and death. What initially seemed like a tangled web of harassment and retaliation now pointed directly at Liz. The shooting, meant to frame Amy as a violent aggressor, began to look like a calculated move to maintain Liz’s narrative of victimhood. Detectives were no longer questioning who was tormenting Liz—they were questioning just how far Liz was willing to go to protect her secrets and what other dark truths might still be hidden in her trail of lies.

In the spring of 2015, the case of Cari Farver took a new direction. It had been two and a half years since anyone in Cari’s family had seen her, and her unexplained absence continued to haunt them. Investigator Ryan Avis and Sergeant Jim Doty, intrigued by the strange circumstances surrounding her disappearance, volunteered to take on the case. From the outset, Avis and Doty were struck by the peculiarities. When they visited Cari’s home, they found it eerily preserved, still full of her clothes and belongings. Her bank records revealed two transactions the day before she vanished in November 2012, but there had been no activity since. For an adult to leave behind all their possessions, abandon their finances, and sever every connection without a trace was far from normal. It just didn’t add up. The investigators reached a chilling conclusion: they couldn’t prove that Cari was alive. With no credible evidence to suggest otherwise, they pivoted the case from a missing person to a death investigation.


 "And that brings us to the end of another unsettling tale. As always, thank you for listening to Murder By Nature. If you’ve enjoyed tonight’s episode, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re listening from—and be sure to return this Thursday for part 2 of the love triangle.

Until then, I’m Jazmin Ramirez, reminding you to stay vigilant. Stay safe, and remember… don’t get murdered, and for the love of all things dark, don’t become the murderer. You’ve been warned, you beautiful, haunted souls.



People on this episode

Head Shot

Jazmin Hernandez

Host