Mother

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Something About Cari

Episode 5: Mother
Host: Keith Morrison (NBC News / Dateline)
Release Date: December 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this riveting installment, Keith Morrison delves into the haunting aftermath of Cari Farver’s disappearance from Iowa in 2012. As single mom Cari vanishes just weeks into a new romance, her loved ones and the police confront a tangled web of deception: menacing texts, stalking, arson—and eventually, murder. This episode traces the persistent and convoluted investigation, culminating in a trial without a body, and spotlights the shocking revelations that ensnare those closest to the case.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Initial Theories and Stagnation

• Community Assumptions:
  After Cari’s disappearance, many—including police—attribute her vanishing to mental illness (bipolar disorder). Her mother, Nancy, feels isolated and unsupported.

  • “In the small community where she's from, they all kind of believe that, too. And Nancy never could stand up and argue.” – Detective Ryan Avis (01:58)

• First Break in Years:
  Detective Jim Doty reopens the case, revealing to Nancy he doesn’t believe Cari left voluntarily. This spurs a renewed, in-depth investigation.

  • “Well, I want you to know that I don't think she left on her own. And I tell you, my attitude just changed.” – Liz Gollier, relaying Nancy’s reaction (02:21)

2. The Web of Deception and the Prime Suspect

• Liz Collaborates—But Becomes the Focus:
  Liz Gollier (who had been dating Dave Krupa, as had Cari) eagerly tries to help police by forwarding emails she claims are incriminating—emails allegedly from Amy Flora (Dave’s ex). Police, knowing Amy's innocence, essentially play along to draw Liz out.

  • “She made anything, real threatening statements or inferred that she ever did anything to Carrie. Because that's like gold to me.” – Detective Jim Doty, briefing Liz (03:47)
  • Liz soon produces graphic ‘confessions’ received via email, filled with details only the perpetrator would know.
    • “I shot you, Liz, to make sure Dave stayed away from you… I stabbed her three to four times in the chest and stomach area. I then took her out and burned her.” – Email read by voice actor (05:24)

• Police Scent the Truth:
  Detectives know Liz forged the emails. As she attempts to pin the crime on Amy, Liz allows police into her email account, which becomes a trove of self-incriminating material.

3. Breakthroughs in Physical Evidence

• Finding Carrie’s Evidence:
  By tracking down and forensically examining Cari’s long-sold Ford Explorer, detectives discover a large stain—later confirmed as Carrie’s blood—under the passenger seat.

  • “We high fived, but we didn't really know what to do next for sure.” – Detective Ryan Avis (09:22)

• Escalating Danger—Moving on Liz:
  Monitored via a vehicle tracker, Liz appears to be stalking Amy Flora as a potential new target. Detectives coordinate with Omaha PD to arrest her on an unrelated warrant, hoping to find more evidence before violence escalates.

4. Arrest and Aftermath

• Tense Interviews and Denials:
  Liz maintains her innocence during interrogation but is confronted about her fingerprints in Carrie’s car and explicit knowledge of the crime. She asks for a lawyer and is released on bond while prosecutors build the case.

• Bringing the Case Forward:
  Months pass, with Carrie’s family in anguished limbo. On December 22, 2016, Liz Goliar is arrested and charged with 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.” – Detective Jim Doty (12:30)

• Dave Krupa’s Relief:

  • “It 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.” – Dave Krupa (13:01)

5. Trial Challenges: A ‘No-Body’ Case

• Circumstantial Evidence:
  Prosecutors Brenda Beadle and James Masteller, aided by detectives, prepare for a complex trial—even without a body. The pressure escalates as Liz demands a speedy trial (within 90 days).

• Digital Forensics—Crucial Discovery:
  A key piece emerges when Dave Krupa, reminded repeatedly by investigators, hands over a forgotten tablet from his storage unit. Tech guru Tony Kava recovers thousands of deleted photos from its memory card—including selfies by Liz and, chillingly, a photo of a foot with a tattoo: the Chinese symbol for ‘mother.’ This detail matches a tattoo Carrie had for her son.

  • “It was like finding the Rosetta Stone. The key they didn't know they'd been looking for all along.” – Keith Morrison (25:51)
  • “This, I think, was about as close as we got to having a smoking gun in this case.” – Tony Kava (26:08)

6. Trial and Testimony

• Opening Statement (29:02):

  • “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...” – Prosecutor Brenda Beadle (29:02)

• Key Evidence Presented:

  • Carrie’s blood found in her car.
  • Liz's fingerprint on a mint container in the vehicle.
  • Digital patterns tracing thousands of messages to Liz.
  • Purchases made on Carrie’s card after her death traced to Liz, including a shower curtain found in Liz’s apartment.
  • Photos of Carrie’s tattooed foot—taken post-mortem.

• Timeline Established:
  Evidence and digital forensics reconstructed that Carrie was alive the morning of Nov 13, 2012, at Dave’s, but her accounts and identity were used shortly thereafter by Liz to convincingly mimic Carrie for years to come. All to draw suspicion away from herself and to torment Dave and others.

• Motive—Jealousy:

  • “It was really all about Dave Krupa. She did it because she wanted this man.” – Brenda Beadle (33:15)

• Emotional Impact:

  • “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.” – Nancy, Cari’s mother (32:51)
  • “...but the Tarantino movie always makes sense at the end...” – Dave Krupa (33:44)

• Defense Counterpoint:
  Liz’s high-profile defense attorney, James Martin Davis, argues the case is mere fiction without a body. He challenges the logic of a ‘no-body’ murder prosecution.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Finding Carrie's Evidence:

  • “There were dark lines in the picture… Those lines were veins on what looked like someone's foot. Someone's deceased foot.” – Detective Ryan Avis (25:23)
  • “Sure enough, Carrie has that same tattoo on her left foot... Identical.” – Detective Ryan Avis (25:41)

• On Breaking the Case:

  • “One look at that picture was all it took. Here was the key to the murder case against Liz Goliar.” – Keith Morrison (25:51)

• On the Length and Complexity:

  • “I say, do you have an hour? Because I think this is one of those cases that if you just have a piece of the story, it's not enough.” – Prosecutor Brenda Beadle (18:20)
  • “The first time I was briefed on this case, my first impression was this is the story for a made-for-TV movie.” - James Masteller (18:53)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:33 — Opening narration: Cari’s disappearance and initial theories
• 02:21 — Detectives re-engage Nancy, shifting investigation focus
• 03:47–05:54 — Liz forwards fake email ‘confessions’; detectives detail email ruse
• 09:00 — Discovery of blood in Carrie’s Explorer
• 10:26–11:09 — Liz's interrogation and denial
• 12:30 — Liz arrested for murder; detectives inform Nancy
• 13:01 — Dave Krupa describes first moments of relief
• 20:07–23:18 — Rush to trial; forensic breakthrough with Dave’s old tablet
• 25:08–26:08 — Discovery of the crucial tattoo photo
• 29:02–33:38 — Trial: evidence, digital breadcrumbs, motive, and courtroom emotions

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Episode Tone and Style

True-to-form for Dateline and Keith Morrison, this episode blends methodical investigation with empathy, painting the procedural and emotional landscape in detail. The language is vivid, often dramatic, underlining the tragic consequences and the relentless tenacity of both loved ones and investigators.

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Conclusion

This episode lays bare the tortuously orchestrated and tragic disappearance of Cari Farver, exposing an almost surreal cycle of obsession, digital manipulation, and heartbreak. The “Rosetta Stone” discovery of the tattoo photo brings clarity, but the episode ends on a sobering note: With no body, the challenge of securing a conviction looms—a chilling reminder of the gaps that justice must sometimes leap.

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End of Summary

Transcript

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[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

After Carrie Farver drove away from Little Macedonia, Iowa in November of 2012 and never returned, cops and neighbors alike seemed all too willing to believe that her bipolar disorder was to blame. She'd had some sort of break with reality. And of course they sympathized with Carrie's son Max and her mother, Nancy. But what could anyone do? Detective Ryan Avis.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

In the small community where she's from, they all kind of believe that, too. And Nancy never could stand up and argue.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Nancy felt lonely indeed. Until one day three years later, Avis's partner, Detective Jim Doughty, knocked on her door.

[Liz Gollier]

I was a little bit standoffish because.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Been down that road before.

[Liz Gollier]

Yeah, yeah. Finally he said to me, well, I want you to know that I don't think she left on her own. And I tell you, my attitude just changed.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

It was the very thing Nancy had suspected from the start. They saw what you had seen all along, right?

[Liz Gollier]

So then the investigation really got going.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

An investigation as unusual as and convoluted as the suspected crime. I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Something About Carrie, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 5 Mother Back in the city, Liz Gollier was now eagerly playing a new role Trying to help detectives prove that Amy Flora, Dave Krupa's ex and also Liz's rival for Dave's time and props, affection. Amy was the one who'd shot Liz and killed Carrie. Of course, all the while, detectives knew that Amy was innocent, but they let Liz think they believed otherwise. While interviewing Liz, they even dropped hints of what to listen for from Amy so they could arrest her. Broad hints, as you can hear, in.

[Detective Jim Doty]

This exchange, 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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And what do you know? Wonder of wonders. Within days, Liz began forwarding detectives emails from Amy. She said emails that were far more explicit than anything they'd seen before. We had a voice actor read them.

[Liz Gollier]

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 Carrie to get rid of you, Liz. But it didn't work too well.

[Detective Jim Doty]

When they first started coming in, they were pretty vague.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

So Detective Doty called in Liz again and told her she was on the right track and offered further guidance.

[Liz Gollier]

So you guys want me to try.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And email her back and that's.

[Detective Jim Doty]

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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Liz was on board, said she would do her best.

[Liz Gollier]

Carrie's family. Some enclosure would be nice, probably.

[Detective Jim Doty]

Yeah, that.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

That true.

[Detective Jim Doty]

Get her family some closure.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

So Liz left and before long reported that she had sent an email. Ask Amy to confirm that she really shot Liz, to describe the kind of gun she used, and to reveal whether she ever met Carrie Farver. And Liz lied. Amy responded.

[Liz Gollier]

The gun was Dave's that I used. Don't worry. You didn't get it as bad as crazy Carrie.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And then Liz showed detectives this email, supposedly from Amy.

[Liz Gollier]

So when I met Crazy Cary, 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. I then took her out and burned her. I stuffed her body in a garbage bag with crap.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Of course, the investigators knew full well that Amy did not write that email, did not send that email, and did not kill Carrie. But the content of the email, that was just the sort of detail that only the actual killer would know. A couple of days later, Dave Krupo called Detective Avis and said he'd heard something disturbing From Liz. Police recorded the conversation. She told me that the sheriff had found remains, like somebody's dead and that. And that they thought it was this Terry. And that supposedly they had all this evidence against amy, you know, that she's complicit or knows something or whatever. Dave was quite understandably shaken up. The detective couldn't tell Dave much, but he did drop a big hint.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

I'd be damn near moved in with Amy if I were you.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Since Liz did come and tell you this, I would avoid her like the plague right now.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Dave took that advice, moved in with his ex partner, Amy, so they could protect each other and their kids. But that outraged Liz, and she called the detectives to tell them she was upset because they had not arrested amy.

[Liz Gollier]

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 damien. She gets to be free, and you guys are arresting her.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

At which detective dodie told Liz he still needed more evidence to arrest amy. So liz made a bold move. She agreed to give the cops access to her email account. And over the next month, the emails came pouring in. Allegedly, of course, from amy.

[Liz Gollier]

I got a hold of Carrie, and we drove 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. Then she begged to talk to her family before she died.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

All of this fairly jumped off the page. What else could it be but a confession? Even though Liz was trying to pin the confession on Amy. But the phrase what else could it be? Is generally not enough to win a murder conviction or persuade the d. A. To bring charges.

[Detective Jim Doty]

We had to find evidence that would match what she's telling us to confirm that what she's telling us is true.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

The detectives decided they needed to give another going over to Kerry's Ford explorer. But turned out Nancy had long ago sold it. So they tracked it down in a whole other county. Not so easy to do. And what they found, that vehicle had been used and used and used. Hard to imagine any evidence would be left in there still. They got the key and they took a look.

[Detective Jim Doty]

Took out the passenger seat, Pulled off the fabric of that. And there's a dark red stain right on that seat. Large stain.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And when that stain was sent in for testing, DNA confirmed it was human blood. Carrie's blood. That's huge.

[Detective Jim Doty]

It was.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

We high fived, but we didn't really know what to do next for sure.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Except they knew they had to move Quickly, because they'd put a tracker on Liz's vehicle and discovered she'd been scouting a new target.

[Detective Jim Doty]

We would see her circle Amy's apartment multiple times a day.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

So because Doty and Avis believed that Carrie Farber had been murdered in Omaha, where Liz lived at the time, they asked for help from the Omaha Police Department. And they got lucky. Omaha found an active warrant for Liz, a traffic citation misdemeanor. Still, it was enough to pull Liz over in her car and arrest her and bring her into the station and sit her down for an interview. You figure Hanko so for their questions were not about the ticket. They were about Carrie. Liz stuck to her story that she, not Carrie, was the victim of this tragic tale. What do you think happened to Carrie Farmer?

[Liz Gollier]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if what Amy's saying is true. I don't know. I'm always scared that something gonna happen to me, and then my kids aren't gonna have anybody.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

The Omaha detective dialed up the pressure. How? He asked. How did Liz's fingerprint get onto that mint tin that had been found in Carrie's car? To which Liz replied, we don't know.

[Liz Gollier]

But I've never been in her car. I don't even know what car she drives.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Liz denied a everything. The fingers pointed right at you.

[Liz Gollier]

I'm done talking, and I'm going to have my attorney because I didn't do anything.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

No confession now. And within hours, Liz bonded out. Detectives took what evidence they had to the DA that and their firm belief that Liz Goliar killed Carrie Farver. The DA Asked for time. This was no straightforward case. Months passed, and during that time, Kerry's son Max remained completely unaware of any of those developments. Months before, he'd made a last effort, sending a message, begging his mom to show up for his high school graduation. Now the ceremony came and went without answers and without his mom.

[Dave Krupa]

That was the real kind of stake in the heart.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Yeah. Goes well. God knows, if there was any occasion she was going to attend, it certainly would have been your graduation. Yeah. The summer of 2016 came and went. Another winter set in. And then on December 22, 2016, more than four years after Carrie Farber vanished, the county attorney finally finished reviewing all the evidence and decided there was enough evidence to arrest Liz Goliar and charge her with murder.

[Detective Jim Doty]

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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

That was a big day for her.

[Detective Jim Doty]

That was what made working this whole case worth it.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

What did it feel like driving out there to see them?

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Couldn't drive fast enough.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

The news came as an unbelievable surprise for Dave Krupa, too.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

I was blown away, absolutely blown away. It was hard to swallow. I didn't know what to think.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

But with the surprise came relief.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

I just sat in a break room for, I don't know, a long time trying to wrap my head around it. It 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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Liz Golia sat in jail while the prosecutors prepared for a trial that they knew would not be easy. Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle. Nobody. Cases are tough, right?

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

Yeah. And circumstantial. It was very circumstantial.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Circumstantial cases can be among the most convincing to a jury. But not always. Not always. And then, as the trial date was bearing down, Dave Krupa made a trip to his storage unit and he was sorting things and he found something and he knew right away somebody had to see this.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

That's been sitting in my storage unit in a box for a year and a half.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Boy.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

Icing on the cage. Was there never.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Icing on the cake.

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

Yeah.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Buttercream, right?

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

Right. Well, that became the cage, and the rest was icing.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

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[Detective Ryan Avis]

Okay.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

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[Liz Gollier]

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[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

If you have trouble breathing or swallowing.

[Liz Gollier]

Swelling of the face, lips, tongue, throat or arms.

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[Liz Gollier]

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[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

Like your sister who refuses to accept that she does not have a face for bangs. Get her a lovely hat and with Amazon last minute deals, you'll save big.

[Liz Gollier]

Maybe grab her some barrettes too if.

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[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

It has stood like a fortress for more than a century. The hall of justice, also known as the Douglas County Courthouse, is a commanding presence at 17th and Farnham in downtown Omaha. It's also something of an art piece. All that carved granite and limestone and murals chronicling in color the history of Nebraska. And high above a dome of stained glass and steel, it stands as an enduring symbol of stability and law and order, though once early on, it watched over not stability but chaos. Back in 1919, the place was very nearly destroyed by a white mob intent on lynching a black man accused of raping a young white woman, the lynching was completed most horrifically right behind that monument to justice. Though the victim turned out to be innocent of any crime. And then, decades later, the same building hosted the city's first civil rights sit in. And ever since, thieves, con artists, killers, villains of every stripe have stood in its docks to face the various fates imposed upon them by the law. Until in 2017, the woman at the center of our story, Liz Gollier, entered a courtroom for her turn in the hall of Justice. Representing the people, Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle.

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

I mean, certainly we've had our fair share of homicides and bizarre cases, but this certainly in all my experience tops the charts for most bizarre, bizarre and complicated.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Was the case against Liz Goyer, a story that would be a challenge for anyone to tell in an understandable and efficient way, even Brenda Beetle. I mean, if you're at A cocktail party or something, and somebody says, what are you working on? I mean, what do you even tell them?

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

I say, do you have an hour? Because I think this is one of those cases that if you just have a piece of the story, it's not enough. And it's not. It doesn't encompass everything that you're trying to get across. You need to tell the whole story, and it's just compiled on, you know, all the details that come out and all the bizarre actions. It just mounts and then it culminates into enough to get us to be able to charge.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Prosecutor Beadle would have company at the prosecution table. This was her colleague at the time, James Masteller.

[Dave Krupa]

The first time I was briefed on this case, my first impression was this is the story for a made for TV movie. And when you're thinking about this and hearing about this, you're thinking, no one can believe that this actually happened. It's completely unbelievable. And so part of the challenge with our case was trying to explained to the trier of fact how this actually had happened, how this was this unbelievable set of circumstances actually had occurred and was believable.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Remember, the charge was murder, murder in the first degree. Even though Carrie Farber's body has not.

[Dave Krupa]

Been found, 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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And one more complication. Liz awaiting trial raised the stakes even higher. As was her right. She demanded a speedy trial. Detective Ryan Avis.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

She wanted to have a trial within 90 days and didn't waive that. And we then had to hit turbo mode and get everything ready, which I thought it was, but I guess there's a lot more to it after that.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Well, yes, that's a very busy time for you guys, right?

[Detective Ryan Avis]

The attorneys, more normally, if they need us to run something down, we'll do it. But what we did for this, I don't know if I'll ever do that type of work again.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Detectives Avis and his partner Jim Doty, as well as reserve deputy and tech guru Tony Kava, were essentially loaned from the sheriff's office in Iowa to Nebraska prosecutor beetle. Well, they needed a case whisperer, right. They needed somebody who knew it intimately.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Yeah. Tony and I had met with our supervisors and asked if we could just shut down what we're doing at the office and be just dedicated to this. And they, no questions asked, said, absolutely, go ahead.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

You know, I know that the prosecutors felt that that was a good circumstantial case, but there was a nobody case and those are always complicated. So that was potentially a problem, was it weighing on the two of you?

[Detective Jim Doty]

It was me.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

That was Detective Doty, who knew there was good reason to worry without some good solid piece of evidence to connect it all. Because Dodie had an encyclopedic knowledge of the case, he would sit with the prosecutors during the trial. But as they prepared, both detectives knew their search for evidence could not end. Not quite yet. And so with Liz Goliar's murder trial just weeks away, the detectives and Tony Cava circled back round to all involved, asking if any of the key players and witnesses could think of anything, no matter how minor, that might help the case against Liz. Detective Avis, Tony and I, I don't.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Know how many times we've done it over the years, just every time we see someone involved with the case. Hey, do you have any tablets, phones, computers, anything from back then, even though.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

You'Ve already looked for them?

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Yeah, and I know I've asked the same person the same question three times. Maybe the fourth time they'll remember something. So we went back, talked to Dave.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Dave is of course, Dave Krupa, the Omaha car mechanic whose brief relationship with Kerry was like a starting gun for all that happened. The stage theory was that Dave liked Carrie. Liz got jealous, so jealous she killed Carrie, then covered up what she did by pretending to be Carrie for three years, sending Dave and herself tens of thousands of threatening emails and texts and Facebook messages to make it appear that Carrie was dangerous and unhinged, when in reality, Carrie was dead and the only dangerous and unhinged person was in fact, Liz. So then when detectives went back to Dave Krupa asking if he had anything else to help their case, what was Dave's reply?

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

I was like, nah, not really. Nothing I can think of. And then as they're walking out the door, I'm like, ah, you know what? I do have a tablet. He used to use it for playing them stupid app games like you download on your phone and 10 minute time wasters. That's all I ever used it for. And he was like, huh, well, when did you get a chance to grab it? It was in my storage unit. You know, it was something I could have given to him two years ago if they'd have asked and I'd have thought of it. So I gave it to him the next day.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Gave it to Tony Cava, actually, the.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

Tech guru, and I took it back to the lab and I really didn't expect to find much.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Then, as he poked around in the tablet's history of time wasters, as Dave called them, he came across something he didn't expect.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

There was a memory card in the tablet. And that memory card, when you put it in the computer, it's been formatted. In 2014, somebody cleared it off. So it looks empty.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Blank. Or so it seemed until he took a closer look.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

But when you look through the unallocated space, you look at things that have been deleted that were on there. I found right away evidence that this memory card was actually used in Liz Goliar's phone back in 2012 and 2013.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And on the SD card. Deleted, but yet still visible.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

And as I dug deeper, I was able to recover thousands of photographs, including hundreds of selfies that Liz took.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Certainly getting interesting now. Tony scrolled through the photos, carefully examined every one. The selfies, not so useful, really. But then what was this?

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

Two of them showed tattoos that we had never seen before. These were not tattoos that Liz had. When I saw the first photo, I wasn't actually sure what I was looking at.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Wasn't sure because it was so unusual.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

I saw a Chinese symbol. I didn't know what it meant, and I didn't know what was going on there.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

The Chinese symbol. Well, how could Tony Kava know everything? How could he know about something that happened nearly two decades before? Something equally personal for someone. Do you remember when Carrie Farver gave birth to her son Max in 1997? She got a tattoo on the top of her foot. It was the Chinese symbol for mother. We talked to Max about it back at the beginning of our story. The tattoo was for you. Yep.

[Dave Krupa]

She reminded me of it, too.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

But when Tony Cava saw the photo of that tattoo, it wasn't just a symbol that jumped out at him.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

The coloring on it was interesting.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Kava showed the photo to detectives Doty and Avis. Avis described it.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

There were dark lines in the picture.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Dark lines. He looked more closely. Those lines were veins on what looked like someone's foot. Someone's deceased foot. Thus the odd color. Avis called Kerry's mom, Nancy.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Nancy was able to email a few pictures, and sure enough, Carrie has that same tattoo on her left foot.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Wow.

[Detective Ryan Avis]

Identical.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

It was like finding the Rosetta Stone. The key they didn't know they'd been looking for all along. One look at that picture was all it took. Here was the key to the murder case against Liz Goliar. Tony Cava.

[Tony Cava (Tech Guru)]

It was exciting because this, I think, was about as close as we got to having a smoking gun in this case.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Why in the world would Liz take a picture like that? Prosecutor James Masteller My first thought was.

[Dave Krupa]

That this defendant had taken a trophy or trophies of the person she had killed.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And now, new evidence in hand, the state of Nebraska put Goliar on trial for the murder of Carrie Farber.

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[Dave Krupa]

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[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

It was August 2017 when prosecutor Brenda Beadle stepped to the podium to make her opening statement in the murder trial of Liz Gollier.

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

This is a bizarre and twisted case of a fatal traction. It's about an Obsessive woman that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. And she spent her days, her weeks, her months, her years tormenting many lives during this, spinning the web of deception to keep Carrie alive so she wouldn't get caught. The lengths that she went to accomplish that are really unfathomable.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

But the prosecutor did not explain it to any jury. Liz had made an unorthodox decision. She'd waived her rights to a jury trial. So it was a judge who listened carefully as Beedle piled up the evidence one piece at a time. Kerry's blood in her Ford Explorer. Liz's fingerprint on the mint container found in Cary's Ford Explorer. The thousands of emails supposedly from Carrie but traced to Liz's phone that read like confessions. The vast trove of digital forensics. The detectives had even tracked down two purchases made on it turned out Carrie's bank card. In the week after she vanished, Sergeant Doty took the stand to describe them.

[Detective Jim Doty]

We noticed two transactions that were posted on November 19, 2012. One was for a family dollar and one was at a Walmart.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And what did the Walmart receipt show?

[Detective Jim Doty]

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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

They found that shower curtain in Liz's apartment. They found a photo of Carrie's driver's license with a large knife next to it that was emailed to Dave. Dave thought it was a threat from Carrie, but the evidence showed it was sent by Liz. Yet of course, they showed the judge the pictures of what they believed to be Carrie's dead foot with the Chinese symbol tattoo that meant mother.

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

All these pieces together made a big difference.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And all in, said the prosecutors. They told the story of how Liz Goliar murdered Carrie Farber. She must have done whatever she did to Carrie. On the morning of November 13, 2012, right after Dave Krupa left for work, Carrie was at his place working on her laptop. Prosecutor must tell her.

[Dave Krupa]

We know by examination of Carrie Farber's known Facebook that she logged into her Facebook at 6:39am that morning.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Carrie was supposed to go to work that morning, but she never made it.

[Dave Krupa]

She was intercepted. Something happened. That something was the defendant.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Hard to know exactly what Liz did to Carrie, said the prosecutors. But whatever it was, it didn't take.

[Dave Krupa]

Her too long because at 9:54am, Carrie Farber's cell phone is being used to.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Access Facebook and At that very moment, records showed Carrie unfriended Dave.

[Dave Krupa]

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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

And that, said the prosecutors, is when Liz became Carrie online.

[Dave Krupa]

All for the purpose, for the reason of convincing people, her friends, her family, relatives, everyone that she was still alive.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Carrie's mom, Nancy was in court every day and she heard the details of what happened to her daughter for the very first time.

[Liz Gollier]

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.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

So strong case. The prosecutors hoped so, though no body cases are so tough to prove. The motive, said Brenda Beetle, was a very old one. Jealousy.

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

It was really all about Dave Krupa. She did it because she wanted this man.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Jealousy makes people do strange things. But that's just why so much. What, why?

[Prosecutor Brenda Beadle]

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. It just went on and on and on for years.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

From his seat in the courtroom, Dave Kruber heard it all and finally understood.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

I mean, it makes sense now at the end, you know, but the, the Tarantino movie always makes sense at the end, you know, it doesn't make any sense getting there.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

But of course it wasn't the end of the trial. Oh, no. To defend her, Liz had hired a man known as one of the best attorneys in town, James Martin Davis. And Davis agreed with Dave Krupa. It was like a Tarantino movie, he said. But remember, those movies, though perhaps based on actual events, were fiction. And so was the case against Liz Goliar. It's difficult to convict somebody of murder without a body because you can't show that there is actually a death and then you can't show that there's a cause of death. In the next episode of Something About Carrie, you don't have any firsthand knowledge that Carrie was killed or assaulted at all, right?

[Liz Gollier]

No, I didn't.

[Dave Krupa (continued, emotional reflection)]

It was really happy and really sad at the same time.

[Liz Gollier]

I looked at it and I thought, is that Liz? Because there was A photo of 22 year old Liz and she was in court at her boyfriend's trial. And right away I felt a hunch that something wasn't quite right.

[Narrator (Keith Morrison)]

Something About Carrie is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Shane Bishop and Jessica Devera Lapid are the producers Brian Drew, Marshall Hausfeld and Greg Smith are audio editors. Brittany Morris is field producer, Molly DeRosa is assistant producer, Adam Gorfin is co executive producer, Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole as senior executive producer from NBC News. Audio sound mixing by Rich Cutler.

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