way, through the living room to the bathroom. Either way, it was to avoid me. She would be short with me or barely even look at, talk to, or notice me, unless she wanted something, and then the sweetness really came out.”
The situation was confusing because she claimed she wasn’t seeing anyone else. And while Liz and Garret did not sleep together—not literally—they continued with their sexual relationship, though it was somewhat infrequent and still not particularly passionate. With kids around, not many opportunities for intimacy presented themselves. It was clear that Liz’s kids weren’t aware that Garret was her boyfriend. He’d learned not to show affection when they were watching because she’d instantly tense, pull away and glare at him.
He never considered marriage because she’d said from the start she wasn’t interested. But she pouted when Gabe got engaged, and she was angry that Garret hadn’t proposed to her. She pointed out to him that they’d been together longer than Gabe and his fiancée. “She was upset by this, and I literally laughed,” says Garret. The fact that Garret’s friend had fallen in love shouldn’t have been an issue for Liz. Yet, it seemed to draw her attention to the fact Garret had failed to make the ultimate commitment to her. Garret remembers thinking, “Was she serious? Why would I get engaged to someone who had made it clear she had no intentions of getting married anytime soon?”
Garret didn’t want to marry Liz. He cared about her, but he wasn’t in love with her, and he didn’t completely trust her. But it would have been nice if his girlfriend wasn’t so uptight about showing him affection.
When Liz and Garret were alone in the house, and she was in the mood for sex, she would let him know in an unusual way. She wore a revealing outfit, such as a skimpy nightgown, and joined him as he watched TV in the living room. “She’d pretend to fall asleep,” Garret recalls. As she played possum, she would twist around until her clothing became “accidentally” rearranged to strategically reveal parts of her body. It was an obvious invitation, but for a reason Garret could not quite fathom, she didn’t want it to appear she was making the overture.
While he sometimes made the move that he knew she was waiting for, and they would end up tangled together in intimacy, other times he ignored her and went to bed by himself, leaving Liz feigning sleep with her private parts exposed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DAVID KROUPA. GARRET SLOAN. NANCY RANEY.
Though their lives were irrevocably connected by a web of seemingly tenuous strands, none of them realized how tightly they were bound in the same intricate trap. They were vaguely aware of the others’ existence but still so unfamiliar that if they had passed on the street, it would be as strangers.
The predator sat smug, smack in the middle of the web that only she could see. She amused herself, spinning lies, entangling her victims as she fed on their confusion and distress. She was so like a spider with her invisible snare, but for the fact a spider’s intention is not cruelty. A spider is driven by instinct to survive.
Shanna Elizabeth Golyar was deliberately cruel.
In the thick of the summer of 2013, she plotted new ways to deceive, to harm, and destroy. Her victims were numerous, but in this evil spate of deceptions, she favored David, Garret, and Nancy. Three innocent people, their destinies intertwined, endeavored to struggle free of the trap without realizing exactly what it was that held them. Sometimes one of her victims wiggled free, and she had to work extra hard to trap them again. Dave seemed to be slipping away from her that summer. He’d once again become fed up with her jealous nagging and dumped her. While no one can guess exactly what was going on inside Liz’s head, the plan she concocted and was about to implement indicates her desperation was immense.
She would do anything to get Dave back. Anything. She would kill for him. That is not just idle talk but the raw and hateful truth. She had killed for Dave before, and her plan had worked out exactly as she’d hoped—for a while. But every time she almost had the guy where she wanted him, a fat-assed whore would waddle in and ruin everything. She warned them again and again, but they never learned.
Yes, she had killed for Dave once and was about to kill again. No one