Cari had filmed before she disappeared. Nancy recalls how she gently broke the news, and all of Joy’s excitement drained away. “She put her head down on the table and cried.”
Cari Farver’s absence tore holes in the serenity of many people. Over six years after her best friend vanished, Amber Jones’s eyes are still bright with pain when she talks about her. She met Cari in October 2009. Amber’s boyfriend had invited her to attend the wedding of his friend, Phillip Wades, who was marrying Cari. From the instant Cari and Amber first smiled at each other, the connection was undeniable. It was as if they’d been friends forever.
For their first outing, Amber and her fiancé had gone on a double-date with Cari and Phillip, but Amber was apprehensive. After overcoming an addiction, she was clean and sober and avoided situations where others imbibed. Cari was sensitive to Amber’s discomfort and quietly reassured her that she would abstain, too. From then on, whenever the group went out together, the ladies remained sober while the guys drank.
Amber and Cari always had so much fun together that they didn’t need cocktails to unwind. They shared a sense of humor and laughed so much that sometimes people turned to stare. While they abstained from alcohol, they found something else that was bad for them to indulge in. Amber was lactose intolerant, and Cari was allergic to gluten. “Whenever we went out to eat, we always ordered a brownie with ice cream and split it.” The guys looked at them like they were nuts. Didn’t they realize they were going to be sick later? Of course, they did! And that’s what made their choice so decadent. That’s what made it so delicious and so funny. They giggled as the guys stared at them like they’d lost their minds.
The bond between the two women had been instant, powerful and rare. Amber marveled about the fact that they were so close that they often knew what each other were thinking. She loved that she could tell Cari anything, and her friend would never judge her. They could also count on each other, and it meant a lot to Amber when Cari helped her plan her wedding. As close as they were, sometimes life took them in opposite directions. They hadn’t seen each other for months when they got together for lunch the first week of November 2012. There was a lot to catch up on. Amber was very pregnant with her first child, and Cari was thrilled for her.
Cari had some exciting news of her own. She’d been seeing someone for the last week, and it was going very well. She told Amber about her first encounter with the handsome mechanic when she’d brought her Explorer into Hyatt Tire, and an undeniable energy had ignited between them. Cari said she’d been instantly taken with Dave Kroupa, and though the attraction had seemed mutual, he hadn’t asked her out. Cari told her friend that she’d sought Dave out, signing up on the Plenty of Fish dating site because she’d hoped to connect with him. In the end, Cari had gone back to Hyatt Tire, and they’d arranged for their first date at Applebee’s. Amber was glad to see her friend so happy.
They ended the lunch with Cari promising to throw Amber a baby shower, and they set a tentative date. But Amber had been hurt and confused when Cari failed to follow through with the party plans and ignored her phone calls. It would be weeks before she learned that Cari was not being inconsiderate, she was missing.
Amber’s first months with her new baby should have been the most joyful of her life, but instead she was sick with worry. Around the time of the Siena/Francis House hoax, Amber got a text from an unfamiliar number. Her hopes soared when the texter claimed to be Cari. But the messages were troubling. “Cari” asked for help but was vague about her situation. Amber kept her phone near, ready to hop in her car and drive to her friend the moment she was given an address. But the story kept changing. Amber’s phone was flooded with texts, some that filled her with absolute horror. “Cari” said she was being held captive, locked in a room, unable to escape.
How are you able to have a phone? Amber texted.
The explanation made sense. The phone was prepaid, and the captor didn’t know she had it. She claimed the guy had been torturing