Dateline NBC - Scorned

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

In one of his most memorable classic episodes, Keith Morrison reports on a love triangle that led to years of stalking, destruction of property, threats and, murder.   

Hello, I'm Keith Morrison. Love, infatuation, desire. It can inspire people to do wonderful things. And not-so-wonderful things. Bad behavior, sadly, is an all-too-common destination for people at the end of love. People are hurt. Then generally move on. Generally. But sometimes the end of love is as convoluted and

confusing as, well, this unforgettable tale of reality turned on its head, which made it very hard to tell who was who and what was what. In this story called Scorned. It was dark when they started searching, dark and cold. The 5th of December, 2015, just across the night-black Missouri from Omaha. Back and forth went the chopper as squad cars prowled the park, Big Lake Park, Iowa, looking for a shooter. 911, what's the address of your emergency? I've been shot in the leg. Looking for whoever shot her.

The woman who'd come out here alone to clear her mind, get that nemesis out of her head. And instead, was bleeding through a hole shot clean through her thigh. would come out here alone to clear her mind, get that nemesis out of her head, and instead was bleeding through a hole shot clean through her thigh. Is there any serious bleeding? Oh, my favorite leg is still in the blood. Oh, Jesus. Oh, she knew who did it, she said, as they patched up her wounded leg. She knew all too well how deadly that crazy woman could be.

So she gets to shoot somebody, and then she gets to kill another person, and then she gets to move in with Damien, she gets to be free, and you guys aren't arresting her. She? Who was she? That furious woman scorned. And what horrors was she capable of to eliminate her rivals, to win or punish the one man she so desperately wanted, the man who didn't want her? It began, as these things often do, on an innocent and ordinary day in Omaha, Nebraska,

three years earlier, the fall of 2012. I'm working. I'm behind the counter. I'm doing ten things. It happened in an auto repair shop to a mechanic named Dave Krupa. She walks in. I see her. We meet eyes. And just for a moment, I kind of stop. And I go, well, hello. He was working. She wanted her SUV repaired. And, you know, in the back of my mind I'm thinking, wow, she's gorgeous.

But I'm at work. I'm representing the company I work for. That's off the table. It's not a possibility. But did you detect a little sort of signal coming back your way? I thought I did. And then a few weeks later, it seemed like fate. Dave went on a dating website, and there she was.

Her profile, her picture, her name, Carrie. He started typing. I just said, hey, I know you, ha ha. And she replied, same thing. And then before long, Carrie came into his shop again. Without saying anything, there's kind of some sparks flying. We're looking at each other like we're both trying to say something. And we did, and we exchanged phone numbers.

They had dinner. The food didn't matter. And we were very, I would say, enthralled with each other. He invited Kerry back to his place, and she agreed. And that's when something else happened. Didn't seem so important. Not then. Not like it would later. Just as they walked into the apartment, the doorbell rang.

It was Dave's ex-girlfriend, Liz, here to pick up some things she'd left behind in his apartment. Awkward. But Carrie just laughed, bowed out. She said, I get it. It's not a big deal. I'm going to go home. You call me when you're done dealing with this mess. So Dave escorted Carrie to the door. And her and Liz passed each other at that moment. Yeah. There were no words spoken. Did it start then, at that moment? Later, once Liz left his apartment, Dave called Carrie.

And she invited me out to her place, which was like an hour drive outside of town. Carrie, when I got to her place, we're there 20 minutes making coffee, BSing. Uh-huh. And of course, pretty soon we're on the couch and we're getting a little closer. Now, at this point, we haven't even kissed. And she turns to me and she said, look, if we're going to have sex, that's all it is.

Period. There's nothing more to it. And asked me, are you good with that? Is that going to be a problem? And of course, my eyes lit up and I'm like, ping, I hit the Powerball. Because Dave felt exactly the same way. As a man, I want companionship. So I'm always looking for a girlfriend, but never a committed relationship. And you let them know that this is the way it's got to be.

That was the first conversation. Take it or leave it. That's how it is. But with Carrie, he didn't have to bring it up. It was all her, and we hit it off right from there. Carrie told him she was a computer programmer. Her office was close to his apartment. They met there often, made love, talked. She was extremely intelligent. She was much smarter than I am. Just in general.

She just, she had a brain on her. Different than the women you had dated before? The majority of them, yeah. Yeah, she, well, for instance, what she did for a living, programming, I consider myself a little bit of a computer nerd, but compared to her, I didn't even know what a computer was.

Dave reconsidered his no-commitment rule, a rule he'd broken before, with a woman named Amy Flora. They had two kids together, but it didn't last. After 12 years, you would think there would be some kind of a proposal or something, but like I said, he's kind of emotionless, so... He really didn't want to get married?

No. And I wanted to eventually be married, you know. I mean, every girl does. Everybody wants their fairytale wedding. Amy and Dave stayed friendly for the sake of their kids, and Amy knew about Dave's other women, heard about Carrie. You expected you would meet her at some point if it continued?

Well, if it continued, yeah, I would have liked to have met her. But Amy didn't meet Carrie. Not then. No idea what was coming. Early that November of 2012, Carrie told Dave she had a big project at work. She'd stay over at his place instead of driving home to the country every night. And so they began their work week together. And then, on Tuesday, November 13th...

I gave her a kiss on the way out the door. You know, like, hi, see you later, honey, that kind of thing. You know, it was almost like that sort of 50s TV show garbage. That doesn't sound like a guy who's got no attachments. Well, I didn't say honey, but that's the way it came across. Yeah, okay, right. But she brought that out of me. That's why I say with Terry, it was potential that long term.

It might have been different. So when you went off to work that day, you were in a pretty good mood. Oh, yeah, I was in a great mood. I had this beautiful lady who was going to be in my house when I got home. I don't know who wouldn't smile about that. Dave was at his shop by 6 30, entirely unprepared. And then by 10 o'clock, I receive a text from her that says, do you want to move in with me? Or should we need to move in together or something along those lines? But immediately I text her back. No, I'm not no, we've known each other two weeks, it's not going to happen.

As soon as I text her back, I get a text back that says, fine, I don't ever want to see you again. Go away, I'm dating somebody else, I hate you, on and on and on and on and on. Weird. Very weird. Very, what is going on here? But I was at work, it was very busy. I didn't have time for that nonsense. So in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, phew, I dodged a bullet there. Oh, but he didn't. No. Now, it was just beginning. So this is the woman from hell now.

All of a sudden. Who was this mysterious woman named Carrie? She was about to vanish in a very mysterious way. I started getting text messages saying she was going to Kansas to live totally off the wall. Where is she? I didn't know what to think at that point. Dave Krupa, the man who liked his sex life uncommitted, was confused. The woman who seemed to share his philosophy had turned on him,

was behaving like a woman who expected something from him. Like a woman scorned. Suddenly she wanted to move in. And when he refused, she responded with a non-stop staccato of angry, often misspelled texts. Carrie. Now, that name sounded like his personal horror show. So this is the woman from hell now. All of a sudden.

Yeah. Or in the course of a couple of hours. Wow. Maybe to Dave in Omaha, that's how it seemed. But an hour's drive away, there was quite a different story. Here in this tiny, sweet farming town called Macedonia, Iowa. I think there's only around 250 people that live there now. It's very, it's just home. Home to Carrie. Carrie Farver. And where she was raised by her stepfather Mark and her mother Nancy,

who would stick with Carrie through it all. But, of course, they'd always known there was something different about Carrie. She felt like she wanted to do her own thing, and sometimes that... That doesn't always go well. Always go well, yeah. Thing is, Carrie was smart, super smart. School was easy. But then, so were boys.

Guys were just drawn to her. And she liked it. Yeah, she did. Hello, Carrie. But there was something else about Carrie, said her friend Holly Drummond. Brainy, yes, but she sometimes made dubious choices. Like when she was away at college and there was this guy. One of a parade of guys.

She would constantly talk about this night where they were all dressed up and it was midnight and they were walking in the streets with a bottle of champagne. I mean, she made it sound like, she made it sound like a romantic movie. Didn't last, even when Carrie found out she was pregnant. Did it come as a surprise? Yes. Yeah. I was just, I knew what she was going to have to go through because I had been divorced with children, young children. Yeah. And it's hard.

It's not easy. She moved home, took computer courses, and she named the baby Maxwell. Everyone called him Max. She was such a good mother. But I know she had so much on her plate, too, at that time. A lot to do. She was going to school and everything else.

But she did very well. She held up very well. Except, that is, for the mood swings, the dreadful depressions. She just would go under the covers and sleep. And she'd just, you know, she'd hibernate. She'd close herself off from everything. It's hard for a mother to watch her daughter go through that. Yeah, it is.

Trying to get it out of her, you know, what can I do? And there's really nothing that I can do or say. But it got better once Carrie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Medication evened things out and Carrie and Max settled into an apparently happy and successful life. And then that inexplicable turn. Carrie had just started that high-tech job of hers in Omaha. She really liked that job. What was she doing? She was computer programming. And then, November 2012, she took on that big project. Max, who was a teenager then, he understood about her long hours and how she decided to stay in the city for a few days,

didn't ask about the man she'd be staying with. I didn't know Dave at the time. I just had heard of a Dave. That was about it. She didn't talk about him? No. Usually things like that, she didn't really talk to me about. Dave, that's all her family knew. She was in a very good place. I mean, she had been for a long time. And I didn't think too much about it. And so that weekend, Nancy picked up Max, and later, Carrie drove off to Omaha to spend the week with Dave. She didn't text me or anything that Monday. And then I started getting text messages saying that she had quit her job,

she was going to Kansas to live, and... What was it like to get that? It was totally off the wall that was about the same time Dave was getting those angry texts though Nancy had no idea about that anyway Kerry's news came as a big surprise to Nancy though to Max maybe not so much because she had something down in Kansas that she was going to be going and interviewing for after those few days at work. His mom had mentioned a possible job change. She even discussed with him staying with grandma to finish high school.

And then, early that weird week. I got a text saying, hey, I got a second interview. But she'd be back from Kansas on the weekend, she texted, for a family wedding, at which Max was an usher. But as the bride walked down the aisle, no sign of Carrie. I was just like, okay, she's just running late, she'll be at the reception, she'll be there for the party and everything. But at the party, I remember probably every five, ten minutes I was glancing back at the door, just hoping. Where is she? Yeah, just wondering where she was. I just kept saying, oh, she'll be here any minute.

Be here any minute. Midnight got around, and she wasn't there. Yeah. I didn't know what to think at that point. Unsettling doubts about Carrie's story. Was she moving, or was she missing? I could just feel it in my bones. Something wasn't right here.

I wasn't sure what was going on. It scared me tremendously. I thought, I've got to do something. Long as he could remember, Max Farver believed he knew his mom Carrie as well as anybody possibly could. We were definitely really close. I was her second opinion on most things. So when Carrie was a no-show at the wedding, Max knew something was way off. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I just knew something was wrong. I could just feel it in my bones that something wasn't right here. Nancy didn't tell her grandson about the truly disturbing text she'd received from Carrie. This one didn't say anything about a new job.

Instead, Carrie texted she broke up with her boyfriend and was thinking about checking into a mental hospital. Did that scare you? Yes, it scared me tremendously. By boyfriend, did she mean this mysterious Dave? Do you know how to reach this guy or even what his last name was? I didn't know how to start looking for. So what is that like?

It's hell. It's just frustration and just helplessness. So, before dropping off Max at the wedding, she called the county sheriff's office to file a missing persons report. They took down all the information, of course, and they couldn't... They didn't really offer too much. Well, I guess they thought, well, she's a grown woman. She can leave if she wants to leave.

Nancy told the deputies about Carrie's struggles with bipolar disorder. And here's what they told her, said Nancy. Well, she's probably off her medicine and, you know, these things happen and so that happens a lot. Nancy tried calling, but Carrie just wouldn't pick up. She did respond to texts, but sent mixed messages. I'm moving down with this Dave. I had no idea who this Dave was. It was confusing. Did she have some sort of mental breakdown? Carrie quit her job in Omaha, sent her company a text to let them know, and texted her mom that she was taking that job in Kansas and moving away

and had sold her furniture. She attached a photo of a check from the buyer. Carrie wanted Nancy to let the buyer pick it up out in Macedonia and take it away. And I said, absolutely not. I said, either you call me, you come to see me. I'm not doing anything until I hear you. And that's when the nasty text started coming. What did she say then?

That I was a bad mother. She said, I'm going to take Max, we're going to leave. Carrie texted Max, too, and let him know. You're coming with me, you have no choice. I'm the adult here, and what I say goes. Just trying to imagine what it was like to be you in the middle of that situation. It was a bit scary, because we all thought that someone might come at school to try to get me. Because the school would legally have to let me go with them.

Like if my mom showed up. Max was scared, had no idea what was going on with his mom. And he wanted to stay with his grandparents. I've heard all of these horror stories about people having these personality changes and going off the deep end. And I thought, I've got to do something about Max. I've got to keep him safe. Nancy applied for temporary guardianship of Max. That must be so weird.

Oh. Fraught. Yes. And just wondering, what am I doing to my daughter? If we were doing this, the lawyer said, now this is just temporary. Now if she comes back, you know, you can always undo this. I said, okay. Meanwhile, surely the sheriff could find her daughter, get some help.

She showed them Carrie's texts about the furniture. The phone company said they were coming from a location in Omaha. Officers went there. No Carrie. Sergeant Jim Doty and Corporal Ryan Avis of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office, who joined the investigation much later, said the next step was to find the woman who'd paid for the furniture. Her name was Shanna Gallier.

They called her, left a voicemail, which she returned that call the next day. Shanna went by her middle name, Liz, and it turned out that was the same Liz Dave Krupa once dated. She lived in Omaha with her two kids. Liz told the cops that somebody stole her checkbook, and she suspected that somebody was the woman she ran into at Dave's place. Liz gave the detectives his contact information. She's with him, and then suddenly she goes off the rails and starts doing weird stuff like this. So he must know something, right?

Yeah. Definitely a person you want to talk to. And by then, the story Dave could tell the police? Scary. He was drilling me with them policeman eyes. Police have some questions for Dave. She was at your house. Yes.

You were the last one to see her. It was as if I'd already done something and he already knew it. Dave Krupa was upset. Maybe as upset as he'd ever been. Ever since he told Carrie that she couldn't move in with him, she'd been texting and emailing and saying awful things and making his life miserable. He tried calling her, but she didn't answer. And then, a little more than a week later,

the cops showed up at his auto repair shop. How did little more than a week later, the cop showed up at his auto repair shop. How did you find out they were coming? They just showed up? Oh yeah, there was no warning. The detectives took him outside for a talk. He tells me, hey, do you know Carrie? My first thought is, oh, that crazy one. Yeah, what? You know, when did you see her last? Oh, the morning of. Yeah. And okay, so where is she now? No idea. The detective didn't seem to buy that. He was drilling me with them policeman eyes, them ones that are like, ah, you know,

you feel like you're in the principal's office. Where were you at 6.30 on that morning? Yeah. Yeah, no, I totally had the feeling. I mean, she was at your house. Yes. You were the last one to see her. And that was how he approached me,

was as if I'd already done something, and he already knew it, and it's time to deal with it, you know? And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Dave tried to explain, he said. Hey, man, I don't know where she's at, but I've got nothing to do with it. It's, you know, I'm backpedaling as fast as I can. Huh. I don't know where she's at, but I've got nothing to do with it. It's, you know, I'm backpedaling as fast as I can.

I don't know where she's at, and I don't want to know where she's at at that point. I just want her to go away. Because, Dave told the detectives, Carrie would not stop messaging him. He showed them his phone and was adamant he had not seen her since the morning he left her at his place. Do you think they believed you when you said you didn't know where she was? I'm 100% they believe me. And then, the strangest thing,

Carrie started texting the detective, too. I would really appreciate if you leave Dave Krupa out of it. The detective texted Carrie back. We can't stop looking into it. We need to locate you. And the missing person entry won't be taken out

until someone talks to you in person to where we know you are okay. Did she respond to that? She said it was pointless. She didn't want to be found. Exactly. But the detective got another text. This one seemed ominous.

I want one person to go away for destroying everything for me. Who might that person be? The detective had a pretty good idea. Dave showed them texts in which Carrie blamed Liz for their breakup, even though, as he explained, he and Liz weren't even together when he met Carrie. Made sense that Carrie must have stolen Liz's checkbook all right, maybe even forged that check for five grand. The detectives called Liz right away and told her she should file a report with the Omaha PD. It was their

jurisdiction. But before she got the chance, Liz went to her garage. And there, scrawled on the wall, she found the words, Whore from Dave. Had to have been Carrie. All of it was so strange, thought the detectives. Very out of the ordinary. Yeah, like maybe she'd had a breakdown or something, a psychotic episode. That would be the only answer. To the police in Omaha, Carrie was now a suspected

stalker. But back home in Pottawatomie County, Iowa, she was still a missing person with a very worried family. Carrie's mother heard about the threatening texts, the harassment, the police reports filed against her daughter. To her, it didn't seem like Carrie at all. And it made her wonder, how serious were the police about finding her daughter? I got a little callous towards the authorities, thinking that I didn't think they were doing quite as what they should have been doing. Did you get the feeling you just wanted to get in there and storm the barricades and make something happen? Yeah. But again, I didn't know how much I could

do and I didn't know where to start. Carrie had been gone for almost two weeks. Thanksgiving, a day away. Nancy sent Carrie a message on Facebook. I've got a roast in the crock pot and we'll eat about six. We're going to Dad's for Thanksgiving and eating about noon or one. We love you, Carrie. Carrie didn't respond and didn't show up for Thanksgiving dinner. Less than a month later, Nancy's ex-husband, Carrie's father, died of cancer. Carrie didn't come to the funeral. Instead, she sent a message on Facebook. I didn't come to the funeral. Instead, she sent a message on Facebook.

I'm sorry I missed the funeral. And just a few days before that, she posted on Facebook, David Krupa proposed to me. I said yes. What in heaven's name was going on? Nancy called the detectives who called Dave, who swore no way he was engaged to Carrie. He said he hadn't even seen her, but still heard from her constantly, a hail of texts and emails that was only getting thicker. I would get 50, 60 a day. A day? Oh, yeah. All day long. At one point, it rendered my phone completely useless. It would just be dinging so much, I couldn't answer a phone or send a text.

You'd want to change your phone number, wouldn't you? I did that a couple of times. You did? And they still kept coming? They did. Occasionally, Carrie's text seemed almost normal. I know I ruined it. I tell myself, don't be crazy, this guy was nice to you, but something takes over. But mostly the emails and messages were angry rants about perceived romantic rivals, Liz Gallier

in particular. She's a whore. You shouldn't be with someone like that. I hope we can see each other soon. And then with a shudder, Dave realized Carrie did see him. She seemed to be watching his every move. It was very common for me to get messages, emails or whatever, that say, oh, I see you through your window, you're doing this. And I'd go, I am doing this. Okay, great. And I'd haul us outside, go looking for somebody,

because somebody knows what I'm doing. Even more disturbing, Carrie messaged Dave that she'd taken his extra apartment key and had been coming and going when he wasn't there. Liz got unsettling emails, too. I'm out in your garage, so what should I do to your car? I see my handiwork is still on the wall. Attached to the email, a photo to prove Carrie was there. Eventually, the messages got threatening. Carrie wrote Dave a note claiming she'd kidnapped Liz.

You will do exactly as I say and then I will let her go. Do it or say goodbye to her. Attached was this photo. A woman bound. Couldn't see her face, but was that Liz? I told her, BS, that's truck crap. I don't believe you. Go away. Leave me alone. Through it all, Carrie remained invisible. Even after she texted Dave, she was moving into an apartment building nearby.

Yes, a couple of buildings away. Why? Does that bother you? I'm only doing month to month till I find something else. Dave told the cops, of course. They went looking for Carrie. And the building number was correct, but the apartment number did not exist. Carrie was still nowhere to be found. But near the complex, Dave did find something that belonged to Carrie. A crucial discovery almost buried in the snow.

And the danger escalates. It was like, what in the hell? Into something deadly. It's like you're on edge as to what's going to happen next. Big snow in Omaha that winter of 2012-13. The winter Carrie Farver's texts were driving Dave Krupa crazy. Blizzards were nothing compared to them. And worse, said Dave, the skin-crawling feeling that she was stalking him, spying on him.

But always like a ghost, when he looked, she was gone. Then one day, about two months after it started, Dave was driving home from his shop. And I'm coming through the parking lot, and I noticed the truck there because it still had all the snow on it. And when I got up close, I'm like, oh, it's an Explorer. Oh, it's the right color. Hmm. So I called the sheriff and said, I'm pretty sure I found her truck. He was right. It was Carrie's SUV, still half buried in the snow. They impounded it. We had Crime Scene Tech process it. And it was really clean.

They did a thorough investigation. Yeah, they dusted it for prints, and they found a fingerprint inside and recovered that. The fingerprint was found on a mint container in the cup holder of the SUV. They ran the print through the national database. No hits. But if Carrie wasn't using her SUV, at least certainly not daily, her presence was as unavoidable as ever. What were the

texts and emails, graffiti, threatening photos sent to both Dave Krupa and Liz Gallier? County detectives made sure to do a phone dump from both of their devices to preserve the evidence and perhaps figure out where Carrie was. There was even a link to a fake obituary for Liz. Go see what I made for the whore. I will kill her. They already made her obituary, so it's done. Then, minutes later,

I'm trying to hire someone to get rid of that whore Liz for us. You told me before you wanted her gone. Do we want to pay just for the whore or her two kids, too? I hope to see you soon, your beautiful Carrie. Trying to enlist you in her scheme to kill Liz and her kids. Yeah. to enlist you in her scheme to kill Liz and her kids. Yeah, that was a very interesting read the first time I read that. It was like, oh my, what in the hell? Carrie didn't seem to realize that her ongoing harassment was actually pushing Dave and Liz

back together. You compared notes on the harassment? Oh, we'd spend hours talking about it, showing each other texts and emails back together. You compared notes on the harassment you were getting? Oh, we'd spend hours talking about it. Showing each other texts and emails we got. Kind of comforting each other. Because who else would understand, right? Exactly. Nobody else did understand.

And now Dave and Liz were regulars of the Omaha PD, filing one complaint after another against Carrie. Like the time they reported that Carrie had broken Dave's apartment window. And that's when Detective Chris LeGros stepped in to investigate. He says, yeah, it's her. She's done this to me before. Identifies a photo of her. Shows me, you know, some text messages that she had made a text referencing the fact that she broke out his window.

LeGros could see the attacks were escalating from angry texts to theft and then vandalism and threats of physical harm. He obtained an arrest warrant for Carrie Farver. Not that he had much hope of finding her. He knew Carrie was a computer expert, probably using software to disguise the phones and computers her messages came from. I thought, well, maybe this must be some kind of avenue she's utilizing, because just nothing's there. We can't find her. Weeks passed, and each time Dave and Liz were hit with an even more outrageous barrage, the girl would look again and again not find Carrie. And yet, it all seemed to be leading

somewhere bad. Were Dave and Liz afraid? Oh, yes. It's not so much you're terrified of the individual, but it's like you're on edge as to what's going to happen next. And sure enough, what happened next was terrifying. Early Saturday morning, August 17th, Liz called Dave frantic. My house burned down. Oh, my God, it's that crazy person cherry-stocking me again. Wow. Liz had been in the middle of moving out. She and her kids were already sleeping at their new place,

but she went back to the old place that Saturday morning to pick up more of their things. And instead, she had to call the Omaha Fire Department. They responded right away, and later, so did Detective LeGrow. The inside of the house was pretty charred and burned, and the smoke damage was sufficient, yes. Really could have ended up burning down the house, but just didn't quite get to that point. But it was deadly enough. Liz had two dogs, one cat, and a pet snake. All were still in the house. All of them were found dead. Neighbors across the street said they saw a woman in a car parked outside Liz's house a few weeks before the fire. Detective Legros showed them a photo of Carrie. The neighbors said they couldn't be sure, but she had the same

general appearance. But an email to Dave made no secret of who did it. I am not lying. I set that nasty whore's house on fire. I hope the whore and her kids die in it. And later, Carrie to Liz, hope you and your kids burn to death. Once you get into situations like arson or threats to an individual's life or to those around them, their children, their ex-boyfriend, certainly you're going to take that much more serious. Suddenly, the case against Carrie looked very serious indeed. But still, like smoke from the fire, she vanished. What I did was try and find some way of seeing if somebody saw her.

And again, came up with nothing. Over and over again, nothing. By this time, said Dave, he was afraid she'd try to attack his kids, too. What did she say when she threatened your kids, for example? Oh, something along the lines of slit your children's throats. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty hard to read. You took a toll, said Dave.

For a while there, I was drinking heavily, which is not me. There's never been a time in my life where I was a real drinker, and I was drinking until the bar closed and going to work at 6 o'clock in the morning. Wow. And you bought a gun. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Why? For my safety, my children's safety, for just protection in general, because I didn't know. So Dave and Liz kept watch in the city, wary, fearful. While out in Macedonia, Carrie's family was coping with a whole different set of emotions,

emptiness, grief, and a terrible, gnawing uncertainty. Nancy had sent several pleading messages. Come home. Carrie, you're my daughter, and I'll always love you no matter what. We just need to see you, hear your voice, know where you are. I love you so much. You're my little girl. Come home. For a parent, for a mother, I don't know, how do you characterize this episode in your life? How do you talk about those feelings and make sense of them? There was no making sense of it. Total loss.

What happened to Carrie Farmer? And why? News like a lightning bolt for a family in anguish. Someone claimed to have seen Carrie. My heart was just racing like crazy. Could it be? After all this time? I knew she wouldn't just vanish. Where was Terry Farver? Everyone wanted to know, especially her family.

What was it like at Christmas time without her? That was hard. That was hard. Christmas was once magic for Max here in Macedonia, a celebration of his amazing bond with his mother, of little things, like their family's gift-opening traditions. At our house, instead of everyone just kind of going at once, we go by age and do rounds at Christmas.

And just going from me to Grandma just seemed wrong. Well, it was wrong. And you kind of had to bottle it up, didn't you? Kind of. He didn't show his emotion too much to me, because he knew that I was... You were worried. I was really worried.

But I found out from his girlfriend's mother that he would go over to her house after school and stuff to his girlfriend's house. And her mother told me that he did a lot of crying at their house. And that bothered me, of course. There had been a sudden bit of hope after that first Christmas without Carrie in April 2013. The phone rang. On the line was a man. Saying that Carrie was at this homeless shelter in Omaha and that we were to go pick her up. What was happening in here? Oh, just flutters. I mean, my heart was just racing like crazy. The shelter was about an hour away. Nancy, who had neither seen her daughter nor heard her voice for months, was too wrought

up to drive, so she asked her brother to take her. Oh, I was so tense, and it was just, you know, trying to catch your breath and just... Did you rehearse what you'd say, what you saw? Oh, where have you been? Yeah, and I, you know, I don't care where you've been. You're home. An investigator met Nancy at the shelter. He had a photo of Carrie with him.

The investigator went into the shelter and showed the picture and wanted to know if there had been anybody there like her, and they said, she hasn't been here. What's that like? Well, then, you know, then your hopes are dashed again.

You just think, where can she be? There's a feeling that comes with realizing you're on a wild goose chase. Yes. I went home and I thought, I can't be? There's a feeling that comes with realizing you're on a wild goose chase. Yes. I went home and I thought, I can't live with this anymore. This is just too much. Again, Nancy messaged Carrie. Carrie, we were at Sienna House.

Where are you? No response. But then, a Facebook post weeks later. I am a grown woman, and if I feel like leaving home, I have the right. I asked my son, Max, to come with me, but you didn't want to. So when I'm ready to come back home, I will. I love you all very much, but I need time still to sort things out. Then there were posts like this one.

Liz is the hoe that took my boyfriend away from me. Now I've met a really nice guy. Nancy had to wonder. Maybe it was self-delusion. But these messages just didn't sound like Carrie. Because my daughter was so meticulous about grammar and spelling and the way it sounded. And this stuff was like what? Oh, it was just garbage. It was just...

Sort of chaotic. Yes, it was chaotic. And it just, the language that was used and everything else, Gary wouldn't have used any kind of language. Unless she had become a different sort of person. Right, yeah. So I, you know, and that, too, I'm thinking, is this the case? Had her daughter had a total breakdown? Or what if Carrie's disappearance was not what it seemed to be? What if Carrie was kidnapped?

What if someone stole her identity? She asked the police about that. What did they say? And they said, yeah, well, we'll check it out. You know, that kind of thing. Nothing came of it. But after Carrie's father died, Nancy's ex-husband,

she had this weird dream. He came to me very vividly in the dream and said, um, he said, don't worry, Nancy. She's with me. And that sounds silly. But that's when I knew.

But, um... Because I knew she wouldn't just vanish. But of course Nancy didn't know for sure. And every time something would pop up online or we'd get a text or something, there was this hope that maybe she's still out there. Max was looking for answers his own way. About a month after Nancy went to the shelter in Omaha, Max sent his mom a message on Facebook. Hi, that was it. And then the next day, Carrie

responded. Hey, little man, how are you? Max messaged back. I have three questions. Things only she would know. Yeah, things only she would know. Max asked, one, what is my middle name? Two, what was our first boxer's name? The dog. Three, who was my best friend as a little kid? And what was her response? Nothing. I never got a response to that one.

Which meant what? Was that his not-in-her-right-mind mom? Or could his grandma be right? That someone had kidnapped Carrie? No way of knowing, really. And the messages kept coming. Like this one for Carrie's mom. I'm not hurt, Mom. I miss everyone, too.

I just had a breakdown and I think I'm getting over it. I should have come to my senses sooner and realized the guy wasn't worth it. And then the following year, for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. How has Max been? Nancy, frustrated, replied, Call me and I'll gladly tell you about him. This is not talking.

I need to hear your voice. Carrie never called. For Nancy and Max, the ang your voice. Carrie never called. For Nancy and Max, the anguish of missing Carrie never stopped. And meanwhile, all Dave Krupa wanted was to escape her. In February 2015, Dave moved from Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the river. His kids lived there with Amy Flora, and he wanted to spend more time with them. And he hoped Carrie wouldn't find him there.

He bought another gun just in case. And after about three years of relentless harassment, things finally seemed to be quieting down for Liz and Dave. There weren't as many messages from Carrie. She seemed to be fading away. And as that happened, Liz and Dave saw each other less and less, too. There was just one rather scary thing.

That gun Dave bought for protection, the one he'd kept hidden high in a closet, disappeared. And you're the only guy in that apartment. Right. I'm the only one living there. Now my mind's racing. There's no forced entry. The doors are all shut and locked. The windows are shut. What did you think? I didn't know what the hell to think.

Dave's stolen gun. Could Carrie be behind it? She's still active and sending text messages, sending pictures. Or maybe it wasn't Carrie at all. Soon police will be investigating a whole new suspect. In Pottawatomie County, Iowa, where Carrie Farver lived before she became a mysterious and dangerous digital persona, her disappearance was more office chatter than active case. And that's when Detective Sergeant Jim Doty and Corporal Ryan Avis got hooked on it. We'd heard some stuff, you know, just water cooler talk, I guess, about the case. And it was something that... This strange, crazy woman. Yeah, I guess, about the case. And it was something that... About this strange, crazy woman.

Yeah, it piqued her interest. And so we requested to take a look at it. That was April 2015, more than two years after Carrie's reign of terror began. The file was huge by then. A bizarre digital house of mirrors. And so Dodie and Avis decided to sort things out, beginning with a very simple question police had never really considered before, though

her family certainly had. Was Carrie Farber really the vengeful woman she seemed to be? Or did she even exist? I thought the smart idea was not to have tunnel vision on any direction. So Ryan worked it as if Carrie's still alive. And he was going to work it until he came to a dead end. I was going to work it like she was not alive. Because there's things that would lead us to maybe both conclusions. You know, she's still active and sending text messages, sending pictures. She certainly seemed alive.

So maybe she's alive, but she's also missed so many significant events and hadn't physically been seen by anybody. And we started from scratch. Started reading. Reviewing all the old material. Reading all the reports, looking through those phone downloads, listening to any interviews that had been recorded, just diving in. Of course, they spoke to Dave Krupa.

No doubt in his mind, Cary was alive and crazy. He was transparent. He gave us access to his whole email account. 11,000 emails that he had saved over the years. Could be more. Wow. But that wasn't all they had. Right there in the file was a wholesale dump of material from Liz Gallier's cell phone.

So they were learning a lot about both Dave and Liz. They'd been immersed in all that for months, but hadn't interviewed Liz yet. When, in the office one day, pure coincidence. I was in the hallway talking with a county attorney, and another investigator was walking down the hall with Liz to his office. Wow. And to me, it was like I saw a famous person, because I knew everything about her, and she was there to file a harassment report.

But this was odd. Her complaint wasn't against Carrie. It was someone else. Amy Flora? That's the mother of Dave's children. Wait, Amy? Not Carrie? First, Detective Avis did a kind of psychic double-take. Then he asked if he could be the one to interview Liz.

Who's your ex-boyfriend? Dave Kupa. Dave Kupa? D-R-O-U-P-A. That's your ex? And he has kids with Amy Flora. Liz told Detective Avis that her on-again, off-again relationship with Dave was off again.

But ever since their most recent split, Dave's ex, Amy, had been stalking her on Facebook. And she was very worried, because... Not even two days after he broke up, his apartment was broken into and his gun was stolen. So I told the police officer I was kind of worried that, since she had the key to his apartment... And that, said Liz, is when she suddenly realized that she and Dave had been played for fools. For three years, she'd believed Carrie was the woman behind all the threatening messages, the harassing graffiti, the deadly fire that killed her pets.

But suddenly it was like a light went on, said Liz. It wasn't Carrie at all. That scary, awful online villainess, the woman responsible for all the trouble, had to be Amy Flora, Dave's ex, the mother of his children. Diabolical. But think about it, Sid Liz. Amy was the one who so desperately wanted Dave. She had the motive.

But Carrie? Not really. Like I said, they only dated for two weeks, and I don't understand why a person would still be stalking him almost three years later. Carrie and Dave dated for two weeks? Mm-hmm. And she... Supposedly is the one stalking for three years. Oh.

I would find it more reasonable to believe that his kid's mom and his mom did. Headspinning. Detective Avis made some notes. I would find it more reasonable to believe that his kid's mom is the one who did it. Head spinning. Detective Avis made some notes, told Liz he'd do what he could to help her out. And no surprise, the very next evening, December 5th, Liz felt like she needed some time alone to think. She drove out to Big Lake Park, took a walk along the trail there, sat down on the bench. Quiet. Alone. In the gathering cold and dark. And that's when it happened.

The deafening bark of a gun and the pain tearing through her thigh. I've been shot in the leg. Somebody in the park. What, armed and dangerous? Yes. A shooter on the loose? And the prime suspect? All I heard was open up police. They had two officers with guns drawn. Pointing at you? Yes. Is the assailant still there by? I don't think so. They took off running.

Do you know if it was male or female? It was female. It was dark when the Council Bluffs PD roared out to Big Lake Park and found a wounded and bleeding Liz Galliard, packed her off to the hospital. Well, the chopper trained down a searchlight and ground-based cops scoured the paths and bushes. So somebody in the park, on foot, and what, armed and dangerous?

Yes. While other cops searched for the shooter, Detective Matthew Kuhlman checked on Liz at the hospital. You could tell that she was in pain. Yeah, I imagine. Obvious wound to her leg. But Liz was lucky. The bullet went clean through her leg,

missed bones and arteries. It could have been much worse. She told the detective what happened. She says she came out here to clear her mind and she walked out to a bench and sat down. And then a female, who she believed to be Amy Flora, came up behind her, stuck a gun to her back,

told her to get on the ground, and then shot her in the leg, and then ran off. A few minutes later, a city police task force surrounded Amy's apartment. I kind of seen somebody leaning against my building, and I said, who's there? And all I heard was, open up, please. So I opened the door and they had two officers with guns drawn. Pointing at you?

Yes. Yeah. What did they say to you? They had said that I was accused of shooting Liz. They searched her home and later sat her down in an interview room and hooked her up to a polygraph machine. Asked her questions like this one, among others. Did you go to Big Lakes Park that day?

Um, no. Amy also denied that she shot Liz again and again. But she failed the polygraph. Still, something didn't add up. When that local detective arrived at Amy's place right after the shooting, he felt the hood of her car, ice cold, hadn't been driven for a while. And the neighbor said Amy was home all afternoon. So, was Amy so nervous she blew the polygraph? Or was something else going on? Detective Avis went to see Liz at the hospital, his recorder rolling. Seemed like the friendly cop.

Or the dumb one. I'll be whatever she wanted as long as she kept telling us information. Wait, what? Avis was playing dumb, he said, to pump Liz for information because he and his partner had a strong suspicion about who really shot her. A truly shocking idea. Something beyond devious. She shot herself is what I thought. Liz shot herself?

That sounded crazy. Or maybe a certain kind of crazy. Remember, to help catch Carrie Farver, Liz had given the police her cell phone. And here's what detectives Doty and Avis found on that phone. A photo of Carrie Farber's SUV, which didn't make any sense at all, because... We looked at the date that was taken. It was taken on Christmas Eve of 2012. Wasn't that when her car was actually missing? Yeah, it hadn't been recovered till January of 2013. Mm-hmm.

So we thought, that's weird that the police couldn't find it, Dave didn't know where it was, but somehow Liz was able to take a picture of it. But that wasn't all. Remember that threatening photo Carrie emailed to Dave of a woman bound and duct-taped? That photo was linked back to Liz. Which made them wonder,

was it possible those wild and scary electronic messages all sent in Carrie's name were really sent by Liz? Tricky even for a computer whiz to nail that bit of jello to the wall. It's beyond our expertise, and that's what... Well, I was going to say, how well do you know computers and social media and all of that nonsense? We know how to pick up a phone and call Tony Cava and tell him that he's got a lot of information to look at.

Tony Cava? Who's he? Your cave! By day, I do IT work, and I've done that for about 15 years, and then by night, I fight crime. You sound like a superhero. Anthony Cava's day job was IT supervisor for Pottawatomie County. But at night, for a dollar a year, he's a reserve sheriff's deputy.

I mean, how much stuff did you have to go through? It was terabytes worth of information, maybe about three dozen email accounts, a dozen Facebook accounts, and a number of different apps. And in his tiny office, Kava sat hour after hour, late into the night, deciphering enormous amounts of digital data. It might take her five minutes to create a fake email account. It might take me 15 hours to prove that it's actually her. Among those many accounts was a YouTube account with this video.

The title of the video is Husband's Cheating Place. And that video showed the apartment of Dave Krupa. But the IP address where that video was uploaded was where Liz lived. So again, it was another arrow pointing at Liz. Painstakingly, arrow by arrow, Anthony Cava compiled the evidence. His conclusion? Every one of those threatening emails and texts and Facebook posts and YouTube videos linked right back to Liz Gallier. Meanwhile, detectives Doty and Avis busied themselves with good old-fashioned earthbound

evidence. Remember that one unidentified fingerprint found in a mint container and Carrie's otherwise spotless SUV? And we asked our crime scene tech, hey, can you compare that fingerprint to the known Prince of Liz? See what you come up with. It was a match. This lady who should have had very little interaction with Carrie should had no reason to ever be in her vehicle. Only met her in passing one time but now her fingerprint is in her car. Liz and Carrie's SUV. Liz impersonating Carrie online. There was no logical explanation for it unless... We think Liz may have been involved with making Carrie disappear. A case about to dive right through the looking glass. And on the other side, hard to believe.

Why else would you disguise yourself as Carrie if you weren't responsible for it? What had really happened to Carrie? Police hatch a bold new plan to finally get to the bottom of it. I'm Investigator Dodie. I work here for the Sheriff's Office. By the time these two county detectives started looking into the strange case of Kerry Farver and all those jealousy-fueled texts and emails and threats and arson, Kerry's son Max was getting ready for high school graduation. He hadn't seen his mom in three years. But, always the optimist,

he decided to try one more time to reach her on Facebook. I was, at that point, it was just a last-ditch effort, just hoping something would happen. If this is really you, please come back. I want you to be at my graduation. When she didn't respond, how did that feel? I wasn't really surprised because, like I said, I knew it wasn't her. Max and Nancy had suspected for months that all those digital rants were not actually from Carrie.

And they didn't know it yet, but detectives Jim Doty and Ryan Avis agreed with them. The detectives already had proof Liz was impersonating Carrie online. But they also suspected something much darker. Remember, another part of their investigation involved this basic question. Was Carrie Farber alive or dead? Her father died, and she didn't go to the funeral. Missed her son's birthday, all these things. I mean, it didn't take Ryan very long at all to come to a dead end

where he couldn't find anything to show that she was alive. Suddenly, Carrie Farver looked not like a villain, but like the real victim. And the woman who claimed she was the victim, Liz Gallier, looked like the prime suspect in Carrie's disappearance. Because why else would you disguise yourself as Carrie if you weren't responsible for it? Why would you be in Carrie's vehicle if you weren't responsible for it? All of that is so counterintuitive and so bizarre that, you know, you wouldn't be expected to believe such a thing. No. It was stunning, really. Liz apparently

impersonating Carrie for years, sending thousands of texts and emails in her name. But now they had a bigger question and a much bigger problem. I guess part of the worry was if even if we could prove that it's Liz sending all this stuff out as Carrie, well that doesn't prove murder. Murder? Yes. Sergeant Doty and Corporal Avis believed that Liz killed Carrie out of jealousy. Impersonated Carrie in order to win Dave back, then tried to frame his ex-partner Amy for everything, even going so far as to set her own house on fire, kill the family pets, and shoot herself in the leg. Pretty wild stuff, but could they prove it? We did need something more, so we still weren't quite sure how to get to that point. And then, Liz herself, by accusing Amy of shooting her,

gave them their big idea. And that's when we introduced Jim to Liz. I'm Investigator Dodie. I work here for the Sheriff's Office. A little over a week after the shooting in the park, Liz arrived at the Sheriff's Station wearing her work uniform. I told you I was looking into a missing person's case briefly on the phone. He told her there was a break

in the case. There have been some remains that have been located. Okay. It was a ruse, of course. We're waiting on the lab results to make a positive ID, but the initial indication is that these remains are Kerry. Okay.

Meanwhile, said Detective Doty, he was hoping Liz could help establish a timeline, like when was the last time Liz saw Carrie? Well, that was easy, said Liz. One brief encounter when Liz went unannounced to Dave's apartment back in 2012. I didn't know he was dating anybody else at the time. So she came out and I was going in. And she made a smart comment to me.

What did she say to you? Called me a bitch. Okay. And it wasn't a big deal. I didn't really care at the time. I just wanted to get my stuff and then I left and went home. Okay. That's the only time you've ever seen her in person?

Okay. She told Detective Doty that it was Dave who blamed Carrie for all those harassing messages over the years, but just as she had told Detective Ava, she now thought perhaps Amy was really the one behind it all. She was with him for 12 years, and she still goes in and out of his life all the time. Yeah.

So you think she could have been a person that did some of that stuff to you? I'm just saying, as another person who would be possessive of Dave, it would be her. So, I mean, I wouldn't put it past her. Detective Doty pretended to agree. I'm thinking if she was bold enough to go

and then shoot you, okay, she could easily be bold enough to have done something to Carrie. Of course, he said, he'd need to prove it. If we had messages from her saying, hey, I did this or I did that, you know, I could easily start building that case. Right. We want to build a case against Amy. We want to get Amy thrown in prison,

which we were hoping was music to her ears. And apparently, it was. Liz agreed to help with the investigation, and she limped away. And she became a little deputy for you. Yeah. No telling what Liz might come up with next. We had to find evidence that would match what she's telling us.

The chilling clue that might finally unlock this mystery. There's a dark red stain right on that seat. That's huge. It was. When Carrie Farber never returned to Little Macedonia, Iowa back in 2012, cops and neighbors alike seemed all too willing to believe she simply lost her mind, left her son with her mom, and split. In the small community where she's from, they all kind of believe that too, and Nancy never could stand up and argue.

Nancy felt lonely indeed, until one day, Detective Doty knocked on her door. I was a little bit standoffish because... Been down that road before. Right, yeah. Finally, he said to me, he said, well, I want you to know that I don't think she left on her own. And I tell you, my attitude just changed.

The very thing she'd suspected. They saw what you had seen all along. Right. Yeah. So then they, then the investigation really got going. An investigation as unusual and convoluted as the apparent crime

in which an eager Liz Gallier would try to help prove that her rival, Amy, killed Carrie. Of course, all the while the detectives knew Amy was innocent, but they let Liz think they believed otherwise. If she made anything, real threatening statements, or inferred that she ever did anything to Carrie, because that's like gold to me if we had something like that. And what do you know?

Within days, Liz began forwarding them emails from Amy, she said. Although the misspellings looked awfully familiar. I shot you, Liz, to make sure Dave stayed away from you. I made a couple of those fake emails and numbers you and Dave thought were carried to get rid of you, Liz. Didn't work too well. When they first started coming in, they were pretty vague. So Detective Doty spoke to Liz again. They needed more, he told her.

So you guys want me to try and email her back? I'm leaving that in your court, Liz. I mean, if that's something you would feel okay doing, that'd be really helpful for us. Liz said she'd try. Carry family some closure would be nice, probably. Yeah, that's true. Get her family some closure. So Liz said she sent this email to Amy. So if you really shot me, then what kind of gun was it? So did you ever get to meet up with

Dave's ex, Carrie? According to Liz, Amy responded, the gun was Dave's that I used. Don't worry, you didn't get it as bad as Crazy Carrie. Then she wrote this. So when I met Crazy Carrie, she would not stop talking about Dave and him being her husband. She tried to attack me, but I attacked her with a knife. I stabbed her three to four times in the chest and stomach area

and then took her out and burned her. I stuffed her body in a garbage bag with crap. Sort of to tell a killer would know. To see that it was working, though, must have been enormously exciting. It felt good. A couple of days later, Dave Krupa called Detective Avis to say he'd just had a disturbing conversation with Liz. She told me that the sheriff's had found remains, like somebody's dead, and that they thought it was this cherry, and that supposedly they had all this evidence against Amy, you know,

that she's complicit or knows something or whatever, I don't know. Dave was understandably shaken up. Avis couldn't tell him much, but he did drop a big hint. I'd be damn near moved in with Amy if I were you. Okay. Since Liz did come and tell you this, I would avoid her like the plague right now. Okay. Dave took his advice, moved in with Amy so they could protect each other and their kids.

But that outraged Liz. She called the police to say so. Looks like the only person that benefited was her. So she gets to shoot somebody and then she gets to kill another person and then she gets to move in with Dave and she gets to be free and you guys are arresting her. Detective Odie told her he still needed more evidence. So Liz gave them access to her email account. And over the next month, emails came pouring in. Allegedly from Amy, of course. I got hold of Carrie and we drive in her car.

I reached over and stabbed her in the stomach. When I killed Carrie, you know she begged me to call Dave at work. And then she begged me to talk to her family before she died. I remember when I killed Carrie that she had a yin-yang sign on left thigh. All that read like a detailed confession. But... We had to find evidence that would match what she's telling us to confirm that what she's telling us is true.

They needed to look at Carrie's car again, but the car had long since been sold to somebody else. But they found it, much used, in a whole other county. Took out the passenger seat, pulled off the fabric of that, and there was a dark red stain right on that seat, large stain. They tested it. Human blood.

And DNA confirmed it was Carrie's blood. That's huge. It was. We high-fived. But we didn't really know what to do next, for sure. But they were sure they had to move fast because it appeared Liz was scouting a new target. We would see her circle Amy's apartment multiple times a day.

Because Doty and Avis believed Carrie was murdered in Omaha, they asked the city police for help, and the Omaha PD picked up Liz on an unrelated misdemeanor warrant. But in the interview, their questions were about Carrie. Liz stuck to her story that she was the victim in this tragic tale. What do you think happened to Carrie Farber? I don't know. I don't know if what Amy's saying is true.

I don't know. I don't know if what Amy's saying is true. I don't know. I'm more scared that something's going to happen to me, and that my kids aren't going to have anybody. The Omaha detective added some pressure. Why, he asked, was her fingerprint in Carrie's car? I don't know, but I've never been in her car. I don't even know what car she drives. She denied everything. The finger's pointing right at you. I'm done talking, and I'm

going to have my attorney, because I didn't do anything. By the end of the night, she bonded out, and the county attorney wanted more time to review the evidence. What was it like when you were waiting for that? Was it frustrating? It was. Months went by.

Max, who hadn't heard about any of that recent investigation, graduated from high school without his mom. That was a real kind of stake in the heart. But, It goes. Well, God knows if there was any occasion she was going to attend, it certainly would have been your graduation. Yeah.

Summer came and went. Another winter set in. And then, December 22, 2016, four years after Carrie Farber vanished, after reviewing all the evidence, the county attorney finally felt there was enough. Liz Gallier was arrested for murder. The best part of it was being able to go to Nancy and tell her, we've arrested somebody for the murder of your daughter.

That was a big day for her. That was what made working this whole case worth it. It felt like driving out there to see them. Couldn't drive fast enough. It was big news for Dave, too. That was the first time I could go outside and take a breath of fresh air and say, I don't have to look over my shoulder today. Liz sat in jail while the prosecutors prepared for a trial.

They knew would not be easy. Well, yeah, nobody cases are tough, right? Yeah, and circumstantial. It was very circumstantial. But then, as the trial date was bearing down, a teeny tiny memory card yielded an amazing discovery. Which was basically just BS luck you ever got that, right? Last minute? I don't think it's luck. I think it was divine intervention. A signature tattoo.

The ultimate computer clue. It turns up on a picture of a dead body. Yeah. Holy cow. Would Carrie Farver get justice at last? It was nerve-wracking. We've had our fair share of homicides and bizarre cases, but this certainly, in all my experience, tops the charts for most bizarre.

Not just bizarre, challenging. Even for seasoned prosecutors Brenda Beadle and James Masteller. Your typical murder case, you know exactly when the murder happened, you know exactly where it happened. When you don't have a body, you don't really have a good date, time, or location. This is a bizarre and twisted case of a fatal attraction. Nevertheless, on May 10, 2017, they put Liz Gallier on trial for the murder of Carrie Farber. It's about an obsessive woman

that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Liz waived her right to a jury trial. A judge would hear the evidence. The prosecutors laid it out methodically. Carrie's blood in the car, Liz's fingerprint on the mint container in the car, the emails that read like confessions, the vast trove of digital forensics.

They even tracked down a purchase on Carrie's bank card made after she vanished, a Walmart receipt. One of the items was a shower curtain. And that shower curtain looked familiar to us because in one of her, that phone dump that we did in 2013 of Liz's phone, there's a picture of that shower curtain. And they found the shower curtain itself at Liz's apartment. There was also a photo of Carrie's driver's license with a large knife next to it that was emailed to Dave. He thought it was a threat from Carrie. In fact, it was sent from an email account created by Liz.

All these pieces together made a big difference. All of it put together, said the prosecutors, told the story of how Liz Gallier murdered Carrie Farmer. They told the judge it happened the morning of November 13, 2012, after Dave Krupa left for work. Carrie was on her laptop. We know by examination of Carrie Farber's known Facebook that she logged into her Facebook at 6.39 a.m. that morning. About two minutes later, she logged off. She was supposed to leave for work, but never made it. She was intercepted. Something happened. That something was the defendant.

Hard to know exactly what Liz did to Carrie Buzz. And didn't take her too long, because at 9.54am Carrie Farber's cell phone is being used to access Facebook. And at that moment, it appeared Carrie unfriended Dave. The fact that they had the temerity to actually be Facebook friends, this is one

of the very first acts the defendant takes to actually eliminate that Facebook friendship. And from then on, in cyberspace, Liz became Carrie. All for the purpose, for the reason of convincing people, her friends, her family, relatives, everyone, that she was still alive. Nancy went to court every day for the trial, heard the details for the very first time. When I heard all of this,

what this person was doing in her name, it just made me so angry. Because Carrie, she didn't deserve that at all. So, strong case? The prosecutors hoped so, though no body cases are tough to prove. But was it luck, divine intervention? Before the trial began, Detective Avis and Tech Guru Tony Kava went back to Dave Krupa again and asked if he had anything that might help them.

And that's when it hit him. He'd put a tablet into storage and forgotten all about it. So he fished it out, and Kava examined it. Tony removed the external SD card, the memory, and had been deleted and reformatted. Blank. Or so it seemed until Kava took a closer look. Pay dirt. There were, I want to say, thousands of pictures that he was able to locate.

Thousands of photos that Liz thought she had deleted. One of the pictures we found, it was a Chinese symbol that we were able to determine meant mother. And there were dark lines in the picture. Dark lines? They looked more closely. Those lines were veins on what looked like someone's foot, someone's deceased foot. Avis called Carrie's mom, Nancy. Nancy was able to email a few pictures, and sure enough, Carrie has that same tattoo on her left foot.

Wow. Identical. And remember the yin-yang tattoo mentioned in one of those possibly confessional emails? Lo and behold, it turns up on a picture. Yeah. Of a dead body. Yeah. Of a dead body. Yeah. Holy cow.

That was Carrie's tomb. The tattoo parlor kept a record. My first thought when I saw those photographs was that this defendant had taken a trophy or trophies of the person she had killed. The motive, a very old one. Jealousy. It was really all about Dave Krupa. She did it because she wanted this man.

Jealousy makes people do strange things, but that's just... Why so much? Why? I think it snowballed. I think once she did it, she couldn't stop. She had to make Carrie look like she was still alive

to keep the heat off of her. And it just went on and on and on for years. Dave Krupa heard it all and finally understood. I mean, it makes sense now at the end, you know, but the Tarantino movie always makes sense at the end. You know, it doesn't make any sense getting there. And Liz's defense attorney, James Martin Davis, agreed. It was like a movie. A fictional one. I know they've got all this bizarre behavior,

and they've got all this circumstantial evidence, but it doesn't show my client on that day in this jurisdiction took a knife and stabbed Carrie Farber to death. Without that, no murder case. You may have camcorders and you may have smart cards and you may have phones, but you don't have a body and you don't have a cause of death from a medical examiner. What we have is their belief, their speculation, their notion that this is what happens. But that can't convict. And then the judge retired to think about it and returned to an anxious courtroom.

Max, inside the courtroom, waited for the words. It was nerve-wracking. And then finally, an answer. The court finds and adjudges the defendant guilty. Guilty of first-degree murder for killing Carrie Farber and second-degree arson for setting fire to her own house and killing her pets. She was sentenced to life in prison. Just a few rows behind Liz, Carrie's mother Nancy finally heard the longed-for words from the judge.

Saying that Carrie did not vanish off the face of the earth and she just didn't vanish into thin air. It was just total relief to me. And I just started crying. You can't grieve,

really, until you know and now they did. It'll never go away, but at least we can deal with it now. Have to deal with it. So important, said Nancy, to finally set the record straight about a loving mother and a good woman who never abandoned anyone. And I think it would have been important to Carrie, too, because she would have wanted people to say,

this was not me. Max is in college now, studying computer science. Yeah, she was the one that really got me to understand computers. I'll never type as well as she could. But she's definitely a big influence there. And inspired your love of them. Mm-hmm.

She definitely did. But so I have her to thank for what I'm going down now. I think she'd be pretty proud of you. I hope so.