his exposed throat. Was she capable of murder? He didn’t know and didn’t want to find out. Days later, “I woke up one morning, and my phone was totally done. It didn’t work. It didn’t turn on.” Had the stalker crept in and broken his phone? Or had it simply conked out on its own? The only thing he knew for sure is that it never worked again.
Dave spent Sunday afternoon, November 29, visiting his kids. When he returned, he discovered something alarming. “I went into my bedroom and opened the door to my closet, and the box my pistol resides in was hanging out over the ledge of the shelf. I grabbed the box, and there was nothing in it.” The box of ammunition was still there, but the gun had held two loaded clips. Dave reported the theft to the Council Bluffs police. His shotgun, stored next to the handgun, hadn’t been touched, and nothing else was missing.
How had the thief gotten in? There was no sign of forced entry, but there was an ongoing issue with the lock on his front door. Sometimes it didn’t work. The crazy texter who’d borrowed Dave’s phone and the gun thief could have gotten in because of the deficient lock. He suspected, of course, that they were one and the same, but he couldn’t be certain. There was no question his stalker was the mad texter, but the thief could have been a lucky burglar who happened upon a door with a faulty lock. If so, it was odd that only the gun was taken. It was as if the crook had known exactly where it was and had walked right to the closet to get it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
IN DECEMBER 2015, Detectives Avis and Doty were dying to talk to Liz. But they couldn’t risk spooking her, so they continued to investigate from afar. And then on December 4, Avis recalls, “We were given a gift.” He was stunned to see Liz, walking down the hallway of the Sheriff’s Office. He’d studied her for months, but it was the first time he’d seen her in person. “It was like seeing a famous person!”
Avis learned that Liz had come in to file a harassment report against Amy Flora. He followed Liz to the parking lot and explained he’d been appointed to assist her. He went to her home to take the report. He knew everything about her life and all of the characters in it. He was well aware of the fact she lived with Garret, but she told him that only she and her children lived there. Twice more during the interview he asked who lived there, and each time she failed to mention Garret.
Liz explained she was worried because Amy had been stalking her on Facebook. Avis played dumb, an act reminiscent of the clever 1970s TV detective, Columbo, as he asked her to repeat the names he knew so well and then deliberately stumbled over the spelling.
Liz explained that Amy was Dave Kroupa’s ex.
“Dave Cooper?”
“Kroupa,” Liz corrected, and patiently spelled it for the detective.
He was fascinated by the fact she was suddenly shifting the blame to Amy after years of accusing Cari. Liz told him, “Not even two days after we broke up, his apartment was broken into, and his gun was stolen. So, I told the police officer I was kind of worried since she has a key to his apartment.” She now realized it didn’t make sense for Cari to stalk Dave. “Like I said, they only dated for two weeks, and I don’t understand why a person would still be stalking him almost three years later.”
“Cari and Dave dated for two weeks?” Avis asked.
“Mm—hmm,” Liz answered. “I would find it much more reasonable to believe that the kids’ mom is the one that was stalking him.”
Avis was unaware of the gun theft because the Council Bluffs Police Department maintains a separate database from the Sheriff’s Office. Liz stressed that only three people other than Dave had keys to his apartment: Amy and the kids.
“What kind of gun is it?” asked Avis.
Liz told him it was a 9mm Smith & Wesson, silver and black, loaded with two magazines. She was anxious to press harassment charges against Amy. If the detective needed evidence, that was no problem. Her phone was full of threatening texts. For the second time in three years, Liz signed a consent form, allowing detectives to download her phone. She followed Avis’s instructions to remove her