employer had received a resignation text. While Phyllips expected to wrap up the case quickly, he was thorough, and he continued to study the clues Nancy Raney had shared with them. He scrutinized the image of the $5,000 check that had been sent to her phone. “It appeared to be a starter check,” Deputy Phyllips explains, adding that no name or address was printed on the check itself, though the signature was legible.
The signee was Shanna Golyar. Deputy Phyllips had no idea who she was. At this point, he was still unaware that she’d been dating the same man as the missing woman or that Shanna had reported to Omaha police that checks had been stolen from her garage. When the deputy searched records, he found an address for a Shanna Elizabeth Golyar in Omaha. It was in the vicinity of the cellphone pings, though Cari’s phone had pinged north of West Center Street while Shanna lived south of West Center Street.
Ambrose and Phyllips went to Shanna’s listed address, a split-level rental with a big shade tree in the tiny front yard. As a single mother with a low income, she qualified for the government’s Section 8 program and paid a reduced rent. Built in 1966, the house had a floor plan that was popular that decade and nearly identical to the layout of the other homes in the long row on the quiet street. They knocked, but no one came to the door. The deputy left a message, and Shanna called him the following day. “I explained to her that we were conducting a follow-up on a missing person report and told her we were looking for Cari Farver.” He soon learned that Shanna and Cari were two corners of a love triangle. They both dated David Kroupa, and Phyllips figured he must be the guy Cari had been planning to stay with when she’d last spoken to her mother.
Liz told him that Cari blamed her for her breakup up with Dave and had been harassing her. As for the $5,000 check, allegedly signed by Shanna, she had a reasonable explanation for that. A checkbook had been stolen from her garage. There was vandalism, too, she added. The intruder had painted “Whore from Dave” on her garage wall. The break-in had left her rattled, Liz told Deputy Phyllips as she gave him Dave’s contact info. Dave lived and worked about three miles north of Liz’s place. When the investigators stopped by to see him at Hyatt Tire the next day, Dave mentioned that he, too, had been receiving intrusive texts.
The behavior described by Liz and Dave sounded like the actions of a stalker. If Cari was stalking the pair, that would explain why her phone had pinged near Liz’s neighborhood. Had the missing woman been lurking near her rival’s home, waiting for a chance to pounce? It was possible, of course, that Cari was no longer in possession of her phone, but it seemed unlikely that someone would go to the trouble of impersonating her. If someone had stolen her phone, why in the world would the thief then spend days pestering Dave and Liz, pretending all the while to be Cari? Police figured that only someone with a personal vendetta would go to that extreme. Detectives came to the logical conclusion that Cari was jealous and behaving like the proverbial woman scorned.
Dave was surprised to hear that she had been reported missing, and he promised to phone Phyllips if she showed up. Dave was disturbed by the avalanche of messages filled with crazy rantings and wished he could confront her. But his tormentor was in hiding, and he never so much as glimpsed her.
Shortly after he left the tire store, Deputy Phyllips finally got a text message from Cari’s number: I don’t care about this missing person report, but I would really appreciate it if you leave Dave Kroupa out of it. I will be leaving the state. My mother overreacted. I have been to my house a few times.
The deputy texted a warning: If you get stopped even in another state, you will still be held until this matter is settled. He was referring to the fact that Cari’s missing person file was in the NCIC database and wouldn’t be removed until investigators could speak to her to verify she was okay.
“Cari” responded: Dave texted me and said you had the sheriff at his work. Please stop talking to people. I have nothing to say to anyone.