by Leslie Rule
On another occasion, Tom and Trish went to Omaha to take Dave and their grandchildren to a steakhouse for Calista’s birthday. Though not invited, Liz showed up, ordered an expensive meal and expected Dave’s parents to pay for it. They were taken aback by her rudeness but quietly paid the bill.
It was a pattern with Liz. She usually expected someone else to pick up the tab, and she rarely said thank you, as Tay learned during that impromptu visit. After they left the Kroupa house, Liz suggested they go out to dinner. Tay and her husband decided to take her to one of their favorite places, a nearby Chinese restaurant. No sooner had they ordered when Liz got up and left the table. The food came, but she didn’t return. “David and I were sitting there, wondering what we were supposed to do. Do we start eating or wait for her? I said, ‘Well, maybe I better go check on her.’”
She found Liz in the ladies’ room, cellphone pressed to her ear, in a heated exchange with Dave Kroupa. Tay could hear his angry voice coming through the phone. “Kroupa’s screaming, and she’s screaming! I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what the hell’s going on here,’ and everybody was so mad!” Tay gathered that Dave was upset at Liz for infiltrating his gang of pals and stirring up trouble with Heather. When he hung up on Liz, Tay said, “Let’s go, Liz. You can’t sit in the bathroom all night!”
Seething, Liz followed her back to the table for a tense meal. “The conversation was weird,” Tay recalls, describing lengthy, awkward silences with sudden outbursts from Liz. She had insisted they go to dinner but showed no interest in the food. When the Bravers paid the bill, she didn’t offer to chip in or leave the tip. She also failed to say thank you, irritating Tay. “I’m pretty big on manners, and she didn’t possess too many of those.”
As infuriating as the dinner was, it was what happened later that Tay would never forget. The Braver family had a full house and were short on beds. Dave and Tay Braver normally slept together in their basement bedroom, but he’d been working graveyard shifts and wasn’t tired when the ladies were ready to turn in. As he played games on his computer in a partially sectioned off corner of the basement, Tay invited Liz to share her queen-sized bed. They slid between the sheets, talked for a while, and then Tay drifted off to sleep. “At one point, I rolled over, and she was looking at me.”
Liz appeared to be in a daze as she stared, unblinking. Tay felt sure it was her intense gaze that had woken her. “It was like she was boring holes through the back of my head.” Tay felt a chill and asked, “Hey, everything okay?”
The light from Dave Braver’s computer cast an eerie glow on Liz’s face, and Tay was startled by her oddly blank expression. Suddenly, Liz blinked a couple of times, seeming to “snap out of it” and replied, “Yeah, I’m just having a hard time sleeping.”
It wasn’t quite 5 A.M., and Tay had barely slept three hours, but she got up with Liz. “We ended up coming upstairs and sat on the couch talking.” When Liz announced she wanted to go home, Tay didn’t argue and was relieved to see her walk out the front door. Liz was an odd duck and very rude, but she didn’t seem dangerous. Not then. Today, Tay looks back on the visit with a shudder, certain that Liz had a dark plan for her. “She expected I’d be there alone, but thank God my husband was there.”
It was not the last Tay heard from her. Liz called and texted Tay constantly, mostly to complain about “Crazy Cari” and the fact Dave was refusing to commit, even though, as Liz claimed, “I’m the best girlfriend in the world!” Tay also found herself a target of the stalker’s rage, and was receiving fifty to a hundred emails and texts daily, all allegedly from Cari. The “Cari” texts spewed hatred and accused Tay of being one of “Dave’s whores.”
Liz repeatedly invited Tay to come stay with her in Council Bluffs, sometimes suggesting that Tay’s teenage daughter come, too. “I think if I’d gone down there by myself that she would have tried to rub me out. Honest to God, there is not a thing anybody could say to me that would change my mind, but I think that if I had taken my daughter there, she would have killed her, too.” But that was a revelation still years away in 2014, and while she found Liz to be extremely irritating, she had no fear of her. In fact, she was angry at Heather for being rude to Liz.
From the moment Liz had entered their lives, relationships had been strained all the way around. Heather was frustrated with both Dave Kroupa and Tay for failing to see what was so obvious to her. They pooh-poohed her warnings that Liz was dangerous. No one bought Heather’s theory that Liz had murdered Cari and was pretending to be her.
Though Liz bombarded Tay with texts, she got annoyed when Tay texted Dave—particularly on Wednesdays. “Wednesday Girl became Every-day-girl for a while,” Tay wryly notes. Often, when Tay texted Dave a quick hello, she would immediately get a text from Liz with a pointed message: “I’m having alone time with Dave.” That was Tay’s cue to back off. Dave reported back to Tay that one of her “hellos” had prompted Liz to pick a fight with him. Tay remembers, “Nobody knew when it was safe to call. We ended up calling him at work because that was safer.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LIZ NEVER GAVE UP trying to get closer to Dave, and he continued to meet women. Connie was one of the ladies he met online, and though they hadn’t talked on the phone, they texted quite a bit, and he was eager to meet her in person. She described herself as a slender blonde and said she liked to have fun. They arranged to meet in a restaurant in Omaha, and he showed up a 7 P.M., but there was no sign of his date. He waited and waited, but Connie didn’t show up. Finally, he texted to ask if she’d be there soon. She replied, Ha! Ha! Got you!
The lady he’d been texting with wasn’t Connie after all. There was no Connie! His stalker had created a fake identity to cat-phish him. He changed his number. He was more careful after that, and screened the ladies through multiple online chats before trusting them with his phone number. The next time he made a date with a stranger, they had a more extensive online friendship before he shared his information. He was looking forward to meeting Rita, and they set up a date at a coffeeshop, but she stood him up. He texted her and received a prompt reply: Fuck you! His stalker had gotten him again! Dave was cat-phished no less than six times, despite all his precautions. It was a frustrating waste of time.
Where did Liz get the energy to play her nonstop games? That’s almost as baffling as her unbelievable cruelty. She played another mean trick on Cari’s family in March 2014. It was Saint Patrick’s Day, hours before sunup, when Deputy Karl Rhyster was dispatched to the former home of Cari Farver in Macedonia, Iowa.
Sixteen months had passed since Cari left the home she shared with Max, but it was the only address dispatchers could find for her after they were alerted to a possible suicide threat, posted by “Cari” on the social networking site, MeetMe.
Deputy Rhyster recalls, “There was a vehicle in the driveway, so I contacted dispatch with the plate number, and they advised me that it was registered to a Marina Estes.” The Raneys’ tenant was jolted awake by a rap on her door. It was barely 5 A.M., too early for someone to drop by for anything other than an emergency. Marina was startled to see a uniformed officer on her stoop. She opened the door, shivering as the cold, early morning air rushed in.
“I recognized her as a person I know,” says Rhyster. “And I advised her of why I was there and talked to her about the incident.”
Marina shook her head. She knew the Raneys’ daughter was missing, and she hadn’t seen her. Rhyster apologized for waking her and headed to his next destination, a four-minute drive away. He roused the Raneys and informed them of the suicide threat. Nancy and Mark verified that their daughter was still missing. The news both bewildered and shocked them. Did this mean Cari was still alive? If so, was she really threatening suicide? Had rescuers been sent to the wrong address as Cari lay dying? Or was this a cruel prank?
It had been thirteen months to the day since the Siena House hoax. The stalker often picked on Cari’s family on holidays, and was at it again on Sunday, May 11
, Mother’s Day—another hard day for Nancy. She grieved for Cari every day, but this holiday rubbed salt in the wound. It was difficult for Maxwell to face this day without his mother, and difficult for Nancy to face it without her daughter. Watching her grandson suffer made the day all the harder for Nancy. The Mother’s Day greeting came via text from an unfamiliar number:
Happy Mother [sic] Day, Mom.
Maxwell, too, got a message. Though both he and Nancy were wary because of the many letdowns, it was particularly hurtful to receive a phony message on what should have been a day of celebration.
“How is Max?” the texter asked Nancy.
“Call me, and I’ll gladly tell you about him,” she replied. “This is not talking. I need to hear your voice.” As usual, no call came.
* * *
Spring of 2014 was eventful for some of the people in Liz’s life. In April, Garret suffered chest pains late one night. He called his mother, who rushed over to take him to the hospital. He was hospitalized for several days for the “cardiac event,” while doctors ran tests. When Liz didn’t visit, it angered his friends and family. She had asked if he wanted her to come, and he’d replied it was up to her. He wasn’t surprised when she didn’t show up. If she possessed a nurturing side, he had never seen it.
Liz had zero empathy for living creatures, human or animal. Animal lovers will be relieved to read that the next trio of pets she adopted were brought to Garret’s home, and as of this writing, they are alive and well, and he’s vowed to always take care of them. Freedom, a German Shepherd mix, is black with a fluff of white on his chest and loves to ride in Garret’s truck. When Liz had lived at his place, he’d had to remind her to feed her pets, clean the cat box, and take the dogs outside. He’d noticed that most of the time she seemed annoyed by the animals and coldly shooed them away when they approached her.
She could not be counted on to take care of the animals or him if he ever got sick, but luckily, Garret was healthy. The chest pains had apparently been caused by a flu virus he’d been fighting. The health scare was the wake-up call he needed. Determined to get in shape, he began exercising and making healthier diet choices. He soon began to lose weight.
On May 1, Amy gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Mason. Though Amy’s relationship with Mason’s father would not last, she was thrilled to welcome her son. Calista and Trey, too, were excited about having a little brother.
In the autumn of 2014, Liz went to work at a distribution warehouse in Omaha. It’s been said that she had no female friends, but that’s not entirely true. Liz made a friend at her new job. Cherokee Montoya, a statuesque woman with high cheekbones and long, black hair, liked her immediately. No one knows why Liz switched between names, but she introduced herself as Shanna. To Cherokee, Shanna appeared to be a dedicated mom, working hard to make ends meet. Cherokee could relate to that, for she, too, had once been a struggling mom on her own. Widowed in her early twenties, she had been through some hard times. She was no longer single, thanks to a sneaky but loving scheme concocted by her younger sister, Celeste.
Worried her sister was lonely, Celeste had posted Cherokee’s profile on an online dating site. “She would ask me questions,” Cherokee remembers, “And I’d be like, ‘What’s this for?’ and she’d be like, ‘Just answer it.’ So, I’d give her all my answers, and she’d just type them in.’” Celeste had found Tim Verbeek and noted how much he had in common with Cherokee. Both were attractive single parents in their mid-twenties.
Posing as Cherokee, Celeste messaged Tim, and he responded. “I went on to the dating site as a joke,” he admits, explaining that one of his female friends, Marta, had ended up on the site after her family, too, had secretly posted her profile. After Marta discovered what they’d done, she’d decided to give online dating a chance. But she was encountering “pervy” guys and asked Tim to help her screen them. He signed up so that he could view the profiles of Marta’s potential dates, but he wasn’t expecting to meet anyone himself and reveals, “I’m not even sure if my profile was a hundred percent accurate.”
Women immediately began to message him, but they weren’t his type. They were elderly, “pervy,” or lived in other countries. “The first lady that messaged me was seventy or eighty years old and from Spain.” When Tim saw Cherokee’s profile, he thought, “Oh, a normal person!”
In the beginning, Celeste posed as her sister but finally admitted to Cherokee what she had done. Tim seemed like a nice guy, so Cherokee took over. After six weeks of texting, they went on a date. It was the spring of 2011, and just like in the romantic comedy, Yours, Mine and Ours, they fell in love, got married, combined their brood and had another baby together. With Cherokee’s five, and Tim’s six, they are now the proud parents of a dozen!
While Cherokee insists that she’d never cheat on her husband, she is openly bisexual and admits that she and Shanna were very attracted to each other. Tim is not threatened by this. “We would tease each other,” he chimes in. “She’d be like, ‘I’m stealing your wife, and I’d say, ‘No, you’re not! We’re going to have to fight over this one.’”
One year, “She was my Valentine’s date,” Cherokee recalls. “She took me out to dinner at the Village Inn on Dodge Street, close to downtown.” While Shanna told her that she, too, had had relationships with females, that news comes as a surprise to others who know Shanna well. Possibly, she was mirroring Cherokee’s behavior to win her trust—a common ploy of manipulators. Not only do they pretend to share the values of their targets, they sometimes mirror their body language, sitting or standing in the same position to create a subconscious alliance.
Cherokee describes Shanna as an excellent housekeeper, so organized it was almost compulsive. She apparently didn’t see Shanna’s filthy basement quarters. Garret kept the upstairs neat, and of course, supported Shanna and her kids. Cherokee is sincere as she explains, “Shanna was always looking to take care of the kids, always wanting to have enough money, so the kids got everything they wanted. At the same time, she was paying all of the bills. Working multiple jobs. Trying to keep up with everything.” But that was not Shanna’s life. That was Cherokee’s life. Cherokee was the selfless, hardworking mother who kept a tidy house and was sexually attracted to women.
The persona Shanna had created for her new friend’s benefit was nothing more than a reflection. But Cherokee didn’t realize that, and she was glad to have a new buddy who seemed to share her viewpoints. As far as Cherokee knew, Garret was a platonic roommate, and Shanna’s heart thudded only for David Kroupa. Shanna chattered about him constantly and complained about his “cheating.” Remembering her friend’s intense jealousy, Cherokee says, “I figured some girls are more jealous than others, just like some guys are more jealous.” When Shanna confessed she’d been going by Dave’s apartment to see if he had other women there, Cherokee advised her, “Give up on him if you’ve had enough. It’s not going to change.” She remembers how Shanna sometimes worked herself into a tizzy. “I’m not good enough for Dave!” Shanna would sob, tears wiggling down her face. “Nobody loves me! Nobody stays with me!”
Cherokee’s voice rings with sympathy as she attempts to explain her friend’s distress. “She just wanted that one person to be with her and stay with her.”
When Shanna came up with a plan to make Dave commit, Cherokee was skeptical. Shanna thought that if Dave could just sow his wild oats, he could get it out of his system once and for all. What if they had a threesome? Would Cherokee join them in bed? Shanna was so excited about the idea that Cherokee pretended to go along with it. “I never would have done it without my husband’s permission,” she emphasizes, glancing at Tim who has been listening intently.
When asked if he would have granted that permission, the answer is a resounding, “No!” He didn’t mind the jokes about Shanna stealing his wife, he didn’t mind their cozy Valentine’s dinner, and he didn’t mind the kisses on the cheeks. But that was as far as it could go. Cherokee insists that she was only humori
ng her friend. The idea of the threesome had gotten Shanna’s mind off her heartbreak, but Cherokee doubted Shanna would go through with it. She was too possessive to sit calmly by as Dave had sex with another woman.
But Shanna did broach the topic with Dave. He was mildly interested. “I’ve never had a threesome,” he admits, adding it is not on his “bucket list.” The idea didn’t disgust him, but he was wary of his jealous girlfriend’s plan. “I told her I’d have to meet Cherokee first.”
Liz arranged a double date, and they met in a restaurant. While neither Dave nor Cherokee expected anything would come of Liz’s kinky proposal, Tim was completely oblivious. He had no idea that anyone was contemplating a threesome and wasn’t told the purpose of the get-together. He didn’t have a particularly good time at that dinner and found he had little in common with Dave. He, too, had heard Shanna vent about how badly the guy treated her, and he felt kind of sorry for her as he watched them together. “He didn’t pay any attention to her. I don’t think he was emotionally there. He was like, ‘Whatever.’ It was like he’d rather be somewhere else. I don’t think he was emotionally invested in Shanna.”
Cherokee openly admits she’s had threesomes in the past and can testify to the fact that Shanna’s proposal was completely out of the norm. Shanna had planned to direct Dave’s every move, throughout the entire sex act. He would not be allowed to kiss, caress or touch Cherokee anywhere until Shanna granted permission. “I didn’t think Dave would go for that.” In the end, Shanna fibbed to both Dave and Cherokee, telling each of them that the other had backed out. Neither had believed it was ever going to happen, and they were relieved that the topic could finally be dropped. Dave had been a little surprised to discover that Liz was very angry after the dinner. She was absolutely indignant when she told him, “Cherokee was secretly taking photos of you at the table!”
