Deadly Mirage - Dateline Presents: Something About Cari

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Hey, Dateline fans! As a bonus, we’re giving you a special preview clip of our new podcast series, Something About Cari. Keith Morrison takes us to America’s heartland, where single mom Cari Farver disappears just weeks into a new romance. What follows is a series of strange and terrifying events, including taunting texts and threatening emails to Cari's boyfriend and his ex that escalate to stalking, arson and murder. But nothing could prepare friends, family, and investigators for the mind-bending twist that would come next… If you like what you hear, just search Something About Cari to listen to the first two episodes now, completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers get early access to new episodes and can listen to all Dateline podcasts ad-free. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, I'm Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC. Here's a special preview of our new podcast, Something About Carrie. The lights of the city skyline seemed to wink as they picked up the ripples on the river. And the muted hum of city sounds drifted across the Missouri to the Iowa side, as if those winking lights knew something, as if that hum was gossip. A jet plane descended to Epi Airfield. broke the spell, because, of course, cities don't really know, secrets, or when something is about to happen, though something certainly was any minute now.

It was unusually mild for Midwest evening so late in autumn. Snow was sparse and threadbare in the park on the Iowa side of the Missouri River. It was the first week of December in the year of Our Lord 2015, just past 6.30 p.m. Quite dark now. And then...

No question what that was. It was followed by this. I'd want out of the severe emergency. Oh, yeah. I've been shot late. It was a woman in pain, obviously.

She told the 911 operator she had come to the park alone in her car. I'm in the park, ma'am. I'm in one of the parking on the west side. I have a little went to a Yoda and I'm playing like to it. Okay. Is the estate still nearby? I don't think so it's probably burning. Okay, okay, okay, okay, we're getting help started, okay, ma'am.

The woman said the bullet had gone clean through her thigh, in one side and out the other. But through and through is what first responders call that kind of wound, so a quick response would be crucial. Is there any serious bleeding? Oh, my, my teacher waiting to kill some blood? Oh, Jesus. And the shooter, or shooters?

Long gone, said the woman. Do you know who did it? No. An attacker roaming free with a gun in a city park? Well, that gets some immediate attention. So the dispatcher quickly called in squad cars from the Council Bluffs Iowa Police Department. Hold on. I hope it's radio traffic. Okay, you're not going to hear me for a second. Oh, Jesus.

An agency assist came from across the river. The helicopter from the Omaha PD was in the air with its spotlight scouring a city park. parked the size of 150 football fields for any sign of a suspect. Back and forth it flew, looking for whoever had fired the shot, looking, essentially, for a drop of water in a pitch black pond. How many people were there? Oh, I don't know. I only were born.

About whom the victim offered at least one clue. You know if it was male or female? It was female. The shooter was a woman. The fact that flew in the face of all those statistics that law enforcement collects about gun violence. Cards are responding to a big leg area. They don't need nothing information. Officers arrived.

This is a recording from their dash cam. Where'd you go? Who is it? Who is it? I don't know. Asking their questions as the victim was bundled into an ambulance. Did she run down the trail? And why fire at this victim?

an unassuming mother of two who'd made her living as the owner of a business that cleaned houses. She had just gone to get five minutes' peace in a quiet place and got a bullet in the leg. She would live, by the way, but the shooter?

Okay, we need to know which way she went. Yes, and well, we imagine them looking for a woman with a gun in the dark in that giant park by the river across from the hum of the city with its sparkling towers. A mystery is opaque, as the Night Black River began finally to reveal itself

in all its confounding weirdness. Had you ever encountered a thing quite that elaborate before? No, nothing like this. This is a unique case, to say the least. Here was harassment, stalking, assault, arson, and, of course, murder. All I heard was open up police. What was that like?

Traumatizing, I was freaked out. And of all the smart investigators who worked on the case couldn't connect the dots, well, perhaps it was understandable. Detective 101 rarely covers this sort of diabolical scheming. But whatever the reason, it went on and on and on, for years. You're on edge as to what's going to happen next.

Until that night by the river. They thought I was a couple of dogs, They only didn't know one, I think. This night. I don't know. Finally, it began to make some sort of sense. The best part of it was being able to tell her we've arrested somebody for the murder of your daughter. That was what made work in this whole case worth it.

I'm Keith Morrison. Thank you for listening. Search for Something About Carrie to listen to the full episode now, completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts. access to new episodes and can listen to all Dateline podcasts ad-free.