A Tangled Web

by Leslie Rule

  She had interacted with the defendant online when Liz was impersonating Cari, and Holly had demanded that she tell her how they met. It was a test. “Few people knew we’d met at Claire’s,” she explains. Holly knew the messenger was definitely an impostor when she responded, “I’m not going to play games.” Holly felt a chill as she sat in the courtroom and realized she was breathing the same air as the twisted woman who had ended her dear friend’s life.

  The Golyar trial was huge news in Omaha, a case so bizarre it had caught the attention of media from around the world. Reporters from local news outlets vied for space with NBC’s Dateline crew, who set their cameras up in the vacant jury box.

  * * *

  Nancy had vowed to be there for every moment, no matter how painful.

  But Nancy was a witness, and except in rare cases, witnesses are barred from the courtoom until after they’ve testified. Nancy spent the first day of the trial sitting on the hard wooden bench in the corridor.

  She’d known before she arrived that day that she wouldn’t be allowed in but felt she owed it to her daughter to be nearby. The prosecution scheduled her testimony for as early as possible, so she wouldn’t miss much. It wouldn’t be easy to listen to some of the witnesses, and Nancy was grateful to Brenda Beadle for her sensitivity. “Brenda was very good at warning me when something bad was coming up.”

  JMD’s assistant, Cheyann Parr, sat between him and Shanna at the defense table. In her twenties and a mother of a toddler, Cheyann was extremely pretty and appeared much younger than she was. When the photograph of the trio at the defense table appeared in the newspaper, Cheyann heard through the grapevine that some who’d seen it assumed she was the defendant and had commented that she looked too sweet and innocent to be a killer. Either the caption had misidentified her, or people hadn’t noticed the frumpy woman beside her. Shanna wore street clothes, appearing the first day of trial in a red shirt, black skirt, black jacket, and white tennis shoes. Her frizzy hair was partially pulled away from her pale face. Glasses completed her schoolmarm look.

  Both Garret and Dave would later comment that Liz had gotten fat. The weight gain was likely due to lack of activity and too many calories consumed. Jailexchange.com, a website providing comprehensive information on detention facilities, reports that the Douglas County Jail meals fed to inmates total 2,500 calories daily, far more than the recommended caloric intake for a woman of Liz’s height. If she cleaned her plate, she could easily have put on twenty-five to thirty pounds in the nearly five months she’d been incarcerated. Liz had once delighted in denigrating “fat asses,” and now, she received the cold kiss of karma as she grew into what she despised.

  Judges typically warn spectators to behave, especially in cases that attract so many curiosity seekers, and before the trial began, Judge Burns advised the gallery, “You cannot just get up and go when the case is proceeding or we’re in trial. You’re here until we get a break, then you can leave and come back before we start again. But if you don’t get back in time, you will not be allowed back in the courtroom. I expect everybody to sit quietly and listen, no reactions. And if you do have reactions, it may require me to remove people from the courtroom . . .”

  It was not the first time the prosecution and defense had faced off in an Omaha courtroom to argue a peculiar case involving a love triangle. In 2010, 19-year-old Ryan Carson killed his father, Brian Carson, when he learned he’d slept with his girlfriend. Investigators suspected that Ryan’s mother, Teresa Carson, conspired with him to murder Brian, Teresa’s ex-husband.

  Teresa was JMD’s client, and he’d made a valiant effort to defend her. He insisted she’d been a battered wife—a victim with no knowledge of Ryan’s plan. But Beadle had statements from witnesses who’d overheard Teresa, prior to the murder, discussing a life-insurance payout for Brian’s death.

  Teresa was convicted and sentenced to 18 to 20 years for helping to cover up the homicide.

  While JMD lost that case, his winning streaks have broken records. Juries, especially, are charmed by the sense of humor and abundant charisma of the seasoned attorney with the shock of thick, white hair. But JMD’s magnetic personality could do little to distract jurors from his client’s unbelievably cruel deeds. She was not on trial for tormenting Cari’s mother, killing her pets, or cheating on her boyfriends—despicable acts that JMD knew would infuriate ordinary people if her fate was left in their hands. While judges are trained to separate emotion from the law, a jury of her peers “would have jumped out of the jury box and strangled her,” he states. He had wisely advised her to choose a bench trial.

  JMD did not have a monopoly on charm. Both Brenda Beadle and Jim Masteller were likeable and attractive people. Masteller was more reserved than Beadle, and his well-trimmed beard and moustache gave him a distinguished air. Brenda, with high cheekbones a model would envy, was a striking blonde and looked smart in a black blazer and skirt as she began her opening statement. “This is a bizarre and twisted case of a fatal attraction. It’s about an obsessive woman that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, and in this case, what she wanted was a man, and it wasn’t just any man, it was Dave Kroupa.”

  That was Liz’s motive, plainly stated by Beadle in her opening line. The prosecution was not required to prove motive in order to convict Liz of murder, but it always made a case stronger when they did. They also didn’t have to know or prove exactly how Cari had died, though the blood found in the car and the references to stabbings in the impostor emails indicated the weapon was a knife. That knife was never found, and while it would have been helpful to have the weapon, it was not a prerequisite for a conviction. Witnesses were waiting to testify about Liz’s maniacal infatuation with Dave and about the things that absolutely had to be proven, such as premeditation and venue.

  Beadle promised they would spend the next days “delving into the warped and diabolical actions and behaviors of the defendant. We will attempt to unravel the web of deceit the defendant has spun.” She introduced the cast of characters and outlined the sequence of events that culminated with Cari Farver’s disappearance. She touched on evidence they would present—including the blood found in Cari’s car, the fingerprint on the mint container, and the fact that Liz had referenced a tattoo of Cari’s she could not have legitimately known about. She described Liz’s efforts to make it appear Cari was alive, and her endless harassment of innocent people. The story was so complex, it took over an hour to lay out the basics. Brenda Beadle did an excellent job, simplifying a long and complicated story.

  JMD was equally prepared. He wasted no time conceding that Liz would not win any citizen-of-the year awards but stressed that didn’t mean she’d committed murder. “Judge,” he began. “We’ve just heard an hour-and-a-half opening that can be probably titled, ‘Death by supposition and homicide by innuendo.’” The questions prosecutors could not definitively answer were endless, and JMD painstakingly listed them. “Was there a death? Where is the body of Cari Farver? What’s the cause of death? Was it a homicide? Where did the homicide take place? What’s the venue for these charges?”

  If Cari was no longer alive, that didn’t mean his client had killed her, and JMD reminded the court that it was the State’s responsibility to prove it was Liz’s fault. “But even if there was a death, they have to prove that death was caused by an unlawful violent or negligent act. What does that mean? An unlawful violent act: That my client killed her either intentionally or during the commission of some other unlawful act. And they have to prove that those acts took place in Nebraska.”

  Liz probably felt hopeful when she heard how confident he sounded, but it was hard to guess what she was thinking. Her reactions were minimal throughout the trial, but Cheyann remembers that on breaks Liz would often ask, “How do you think it’s going?” Cheyann tried not to discourage her, even when she felt things weren’t going so well for the defendant. While she was not exactly a fan of Liz’s, she made a point to be professional in her interactions wi
th her. Cheyann knew her boss did everything in his power to defend his clients, and as his assistant, she did what she could to help him.

  She remembers that Liz had few people left who had faith in her. While the State had thirty-two witnesses, the defense had none. Liz’s new boyfriend, Joshua Stemmer, believed fervently in her innocence, and if it would have done her any good, he would have taken the stand to testify, but there was nothing he could say to help her. Back in 2012 when Cari vanished, Joshua had been just a teen and hadn’t even met Liz yet. Now, at 22, he was devoted to her. He’d dutifully shopped for her trial clothing and delivered outfits and shoes to JMD’s office. He visited her often in jail and accepted her collect calls. Inmates’ personal calls are recorded, and when investigators listened to the conversations between Liz and Joshua, they noted that she was definitely the boss in the relationship, often speaking harshly to the young man as she gave him orders.

  Detectives Doty and Avis were familiar with the Stemmer family. As far as they knew, Josh had never been in trouble, but some of his relatives had a reputation for drinking too much, and it was not uncommon for neighbors to call police to complain about rowdy behavior. The family lived in a small Pott County town on the Nishnabotna River, about thirty miles from Council Bluffs, and both Doty and Avis had been dispatched to Stemmer’s home on more than one occasion. Joshua’s father, Henry, had a record for offenses that included assault and drunk driving and had spent time in jail, but he and his wife were nevertheless alarmed to discover their son was involved with an accused murderess nearly twice his age.

  Liz had fooled Josh, just as she had fooled many of the State’s witnesses. Spectators noticed that some of the professionals Liz had duped seemed uncomfortable during their testimony. Tricked by a killer, they were embarrassed, and at least one of these men sweated profusely, face flushed as he answered questions that made it clear a deadly woman had pulled the wool over his eyes. More than one cop had ignored Nancy Raney’s concerns and now realized they’d made a mistake.

  One by one, witnesses took the stand, and the shocking scenario took shape. Witnesses included firefighters, arson investigators, crime scene investigators, detectives, and Cari’s coworkers. Detectives Jim Doty, Ryan Avis, and Dave Schneider gave detailed testimony about the investigation, answering questions about everything from the shower curtain purchase to the download of Liz’s phone. As a professional and an integral part of the case, Avis was allowed to remain in the courtroom for the entire trial, despite the fact he was a witness.

  Both Cari’s mother and son testified about their last days with her, their anguish when she vanished, and the years of torture they endured as the killer taunted them. Nearly everyone listening cried or wanted to cry. But Liz sat, quietly listening, without a flicker of emotion registering on her pale face.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  FOR EVERY BIT OF EVIDENCE the State presented, Shanna’s attorney had an argument. Cari Farver had not been seen since the November morning in 2012 when Dave left her in his apartment to go to work. No one had heard her voice in over four years. Multiple witnesses verified this, including Cari’s friends and family and her coworkers at West Corp. JMD had no witnesses to contradict them, so he focused on the fact no remains had been found and referred to it often. He dismissed the blood in the SUV, stressing that there wasn’t enough to indicate exsanguination—the immense bloodshed that results in death. He mentioned the lack of blood spatter evidence and the fact that only two things were known about the blood. “Number one, it was Cari Farver’s blood, and it was on the passenger side seat in her car. That’s all we know. We don’t know when it was shed, how it was shed, or if anybody else was involved in it being shed.”

  While blood can be tested to determine whether or not it’s the result of menstruation, JMD knew that had not been done in this case, and he suggested the stain was a result of Cari’s monthly cycle. Beadle nipped that in the bud when Nancy took the stand, first determining that the car had not been in Cari’s possession before August 2012. “It wouldn’t have been menstrual blood,” Nancy testified. “She had a hysterectomy in March of 2012.”

  As for the fact Shanna knew about the yin-yang tattoo, something she revealed while concocting the Amy confessions, JMD scoffed at the notion his client couldn’t have learned about that tattoo from somewhere other than an encounter with Cari. Perhaps David Kroupa had mentioned it to her, he ventured. A prosecution witness expressed serious doubt about that. Why would Dave mention the tattoo on the missing woman’s thigh to his very jealous girlfriend?

  JMD also shrugged off the fingerprint evidence. So what if Liz’s print was found on the mint container? “There is no indication that my client is the one that put the mint container in the car.” The mints happened to be a brand Cari favored, and the same brand and flavor had been found in a drawer at her house, documented by Deputy Phyllips’s camera when he’d searched her home in April 2013. Investigators believed that the mints had been in Cari’s vehicle and that Liz had thoroughly cleaned the car after her vicious crime. She’d likely picked up the container to scrub the console, and then set it back down when she was done, not realizing she’d left a perfect, crisp fingerprint for detectives to find.

  JMD emphasized that his client’s prints were not found on the car itself. Not “on the dash, on the steering wheel, on the windows, or on the doors.” He was not impressed by a print on a small, easy to carry tin that Liz might have handled in Dave’s apartment before he picked it up and left it in Cari’s car. JMD stressed that significance should be placed on “the absence of all the other fingerprints that would have been there, should have been there, could have been there if my client was in there and committed a homicide there.”

  That argument would have been much stronger if the car had not been wiped clean. Nobody’s fingerprints had been found on the vehicle itself, not even Cari’s.

  Other evidence presented by the State included the photo from the January 2013 kidnapping hoax. Dave had not been certain that the bound woman in the trunk was Liz because her face was turned away in the image sent to him. But Liz had taken several photos before she selected that one and was recognizable in the rejected images Kava had recovered. When investigators found those practice photos, they realized Liz had placed duct tape over her own mouth, crawled into the trunk of a car, looped rope around her wrists, and posed as a damsel in distress. She’d apparently set the camera’s timer to give herself time to pose.

  JMD didn’t dispute it was a bizarre game. But it didn’t prove his client was guilty of murder, and he stressed that Liz was not on trial for stalking or for the burglary of Cari’s home. The State could choose to charge her with burglary later, he noted, emphasizing that it had nothing to do with the murder charge. He was adamant that the so-called confessions Liz had written to frame Amy were nothing more than fantasies, He also brought up the size difference between Liz and Cari. Liz was 5’3” and 110 pounds, while Cari had been 5’7” and 145 pounds. How could Liz have overpowered the larger woman? And how could such a petite lady dispose of a body all by herself? It was actually not that difficult to imagine, but JMD was casting shadows of doubt wherever he could. No one could say he did not give his best effort. He was on his toes, quick to object to hearsay testimony and the occasional leading question by the State.

  Liz could have made her attorney’s job easier and spared herself grief if she hadn’t lied to him about insignificant things. It was clear that she had misled her own attorney on the third morning of the trial, shortly after Garret took the stand. Brenda Beadle asked about his relationship with the defendant, and he explained they’d met in September 2010, been together for five years, and that he’d believed the relationship was exclusive. Beadle questioned him about his awareness of the alleged harassment of Liz. Had she told him about the vandalism in the garage? Did he know Liz had made a police report about that? Did Liz tell him that a stalker had photographed her daughter through her window? Had she mentioned threatening email
s?

  The answer to each question was “No.” Liz had told him nothing about being terrorized. The prosecutor asked about texts exchanged with someone claiming to be Cari. “After you get a text from this Cari, do you then go back and tell the defendant, who is your girlfriend at the time, about these texts from Cari?”

  “I’d mentioned it to her, yeah.”

  “What did she say to you?”

  “Essentially she corroborated what Cari was telling me—that they were friends.”

  “And Liz told you that?”

  “Yes.”

  When it was JMD’s turn to question Garret, he was at an awkward disadvantage. Liz had told him that their romance was a figment of Garret’s imagination. “Good afternoon, Mr. Sloan. Now you indicated that you thought Shanna was your girlfriend. True?”

  “Yes.”

  “But during the entire time she lived with you, you had sex with her, what, maybe three times?”

  “During the entire time?”

  “The time she lived at your house.”

  “No, it was more than three times.”

  “Not many, though, right?”

  “It wasn’t often, no.”

  “Once in your apartment and then maybe once or twice a year while she lived with you?”

  “No, it was more than that.”

  “You can’t tell us any specific numbers?”

  “No, I didn’t keep a tally of it.”

  “Well, before she moved in, you said she never stayed over at your house or apartment, right?”

  JMD had planned his strategy based on Shanna’s lie that Garret had only imagined their romance. If indeed Garret had been delusional, he could have discredited him and everything he said. Why Shanna didn’t want her attorney to know she’d had an ongoing sexual relationship with Garret was anybody’s guess.