On November 13, 2012, Cari Lea Farver left Dave Kroupa's home in Omaha, Nebraska, to head to work. She never arrived. The 37-year-old computer programmer and single mother had been casually dating Kroupa for just two weeks after meeting him at his auto repair shop. When her mother, Nancy Raney, reported her missing three days later—after Cari failed to appear at a family wedding—a routine missing persons case would evolve into one of the most bizarre criminal investigations in modern memory.

For three years after Cari's disappearance, Dave Kroupa received an onslaught of digital harassment. Between 15,000 and 25,000 messages arrived on his phones and email accounts—thousands arriving in a single week. The messages were brutal and obsessive: "I see you. You're sitting in your chair." Death threats. A fake obituary for another woman. Photos of a bound victim. All appeared to come from Cari Farver.

Police initially believed Cari was alive and stalking her ex-lover. But the messages never stopped, even when Kroupa changed his phone number and email addresses. The harassment was relentless, coordinated, and impossibly frequent.

Then came the fire.

In August 2013, Liz Golyar's home in Omaha burned to the ground. Four pets—two dogs, a cat, and a snake—died in the blaze. Golyar, who had an on-and-off relationship with Kroupa before Cari entered the picture, blamed the fire on her dead rival. Emails claiming responsibility arrived shortly after, allegedly from Cari.

It wasn't until around 2015 that investigators turned their attention to digital forensics. The analysis proved revelatory: none of the messages harassing Kroupa had originated from Cari Farver's devices. Instead, they traced back to Liz Golyar, who had created between 20 and 30 fake email addresses using variations of Cari's name. She had installed scheduling apps on her phone—allowing her to compose messages in advance and send them automatically, even while she was with Kroupa, creating an alibi for each outburst.