to sit in this chair and be cold-blooded? Because right now, after four years, this family’s been looking for answers.” Schneider reminded her they had her prints in Cari’s car and could place Cari’s phone at her house. He said they had proof she’d impersonated both Cari and Amy, adding that he’d read all of the messages and noticed that the writing style and grammar in the impersonations was nothing like Cari’s. “That doesn’t matter,” he said. “The physical evidence is what matters. Inside her car, we found, guess what? Besides a print, what else do you think would be in a homicide investigation?”
Agitated, Liz snapped, “I don’t know, but I’ve never been in her car. I don’t even know what car she drives.”
While Schneider continued to speak in a manner so calm it was almost soothing, Liz was talking faster and faster, her voice higher pitched as she grew more irritated. Schneider explained, “Now, when you give permission to download your phone, they can extract deleted data from those things. There is a picture of Cari’s car that you had deleted on your phone.”
“What car? I’ve never seen Cari’s car.”
“Her Ford Explorer. A picture of her car, with her plates, her Explorer, is on your phone.”
“I’ve never seen her car!” She was emphatic. “Ever!”
“You’ve been in her car. You drove her car.”
“No, I didn’t!” Liz’s voice rose in anger. “I’ve never been inside of her car. I’ve never been around her car! Ever!”
“Your fingerprints are in there.”
“No, I haven’t! I’m not lying. I’ve never been around her car. I’ve never even seen it! I had to ask a sheriff.”
“Where do you think the IP addresses come back to?”
“What IP addresses?”
“When Amy Flora sent these emails to you, these confession emails—let me just give you a head’s up. The Pott County Sheriff’s Office, has got your phone right now. They’ve done warrants on your house. They’ve seized this morning while you were at work. They’ve seized all of this data. All of this information. They’ve downloaded it. They know where these emails were created from specifically. The ones that you’ve been forwarding to him from Amy. You created all of those.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You can’t explain that.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Why would you create all of these emails?”
“I haven’t created any emails!” Her fury had escalated to rage, but Schneider continued speaking softly, as he said, “They’re coming from you.”
“No, they’re not!”
“All of these have been coming from you, over the years.”
“No, they’re not!”
“All of these have been coming from your—”
“No, they’re not.”
“Your house.”
“And I’m not going to be accused of something I didn’t do.”
“The finger’s pointing right at you.”
“Then I’m done talking, and I’m going to have my attorney, because I didn’t do anything.”
“Okay.” The interview was over.
* * *
James Martin Davis is one of Omaha’s most celebrated attorneys. Voted the city’s best criminal lawyer for nine years in a row, he was also a highly decorated Vietnam combat veteran and a former Secret Service Special Agent whose duties included riding in parades with U.S. President Richard Nixon—a job memorialized in a framed 8 x 10 photograph hanging on his office wall. After over thirty-five years of practicing law, he’s defended his share of clients, but none has been as secretive as Shanna Elizabeth Golyar. “I’ve never had a client who kept things as close to the vest as she did,” he notes. In fact, Golyar was so reticent, she revealed very little to him about her involvement in the case when he was called upon to help in her February twenty-fifth arrest. JMD, as he is affectionately known in the Gateway to the West, quickly took care of the matter with the unpaid citation, and Shanna was released from jail.
Shanna had stood firm with Detective Schneider and refused to admit anything. Maybe she thought he was bluffing and that she’d won. Maybe she thought the trouble would blow over. She’d gotten away with evil deeds for such a long time, why shouldn’t she believe she could continue to do so?
CHAPTER THIRTY
GARRET HAD CHANGED THE CODE on his burglar alarm immediately after Liz moved, and he hoped to never see her again. When she called to ask about items she’d left behind, he was wary. “I told her to contact the Sheriff’s Office to make arrangements to meet me in a public place, and I would bring her the rest of her stuff. She asked why, and I told her because I was being investigated because of her.”