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Harassing messages from person claiming to be missing woman kept coming for years, man testifies at murder trial
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David Kroupa and Shanna Golyar dated off and on before breaking up for good in November 2015.
For roughly four years, David Kroupa was harassed daily by a steady barrage of texts and emails, seemingly from a woman he had dated for just two weeks.
Some threatened him or the people he knew. Others would claim that the woman was outside his apartment or workplace, with photos to prove it.
The intimidation affected him physically. He gained 30 pounds and drank every night.
It affected him at work. One day someone called the business phone at his Jensen Tire store every minute, but said nothing. No one could work, and his boss was aggravated.
It affected him emotionally. The mother of his two young children and the other women he started to date were also scared. He would circle his home or work, looking for any trace of the alleged harasser, Cari Farver.
“It made it very difficult to be social,” said Kroupa, 40, in a calm and unwavering voice during his daylong testimony. “I couldn’t even use my phone, it’d be beeping all day long.”
Kroupa unwittingly had found himself at the center of an obsession. But it wasn’t Farver who had become obsessed. It was another woman he had dated, authorities allege, Shanna Golyar.
At Golyar’s trial Monday, Kroupa read aloud a tiny percentage of the roughly 12,000 emails he purportedly received from Farver since he last saw her on Nov. 13, 2012. Authorities say Golyar concocted them.
Golyar, 41, is accused in Farver’s slaying — prosecutors argue that she posed online as Farver for years to cover up any suspicion that she killed her. Golyar faces first-degree murder and second-degree arson charges. Douglas County District Judge Timothy Burns will determine her fate.
The nearly 80 emails that Kroupa read out loud vacillated from obsessive and controlling (“I would follow you to the ends of the world. Dave is mine.”) to stalker behavior, expletive-ridden threats and graphic images. One email asked Kroupa how to find a hit man to kill Golyar and had a photo attached of an unknown bloodied dead woman.
Many emails contained details of Kroupa’s whereabouts and photos of his apartment or vehicle or Golyar’s residence, kids and car. Some subject lines included “Watching,” and “See, I am really here.”
They were sent mostly at night and early morning, from dozens of email accounts with variations of Farver’s first, middle and last names or Kroupa’s surname.
He also received thousands of texts, from more than 25 phone numbers. Kroupa saved the numbers to his phone contacts as Cari 1 through Cari 18, and even assigned one number the name “Crazy Cari.”
One of the strangest emails to Kroupa was sent in January 2013 and included a photo of a bound and gagged woman in a trunk of a vehicle.
“You will dump (Golyar), and you will start seeing me again that (sic) it no arguments about it,” the email stated. “If you don’t agree she will stay in my trunk and since no one knows my car you won’t find her.”
Prosecutors have said they will present evidence that Golyar took the photos of herself in the trunk — in various positions to make sure her face was hidden just enough to be mysterious.
The emails also claimed that Farver was pregnant with Kroupa’s baby and that the two were married. He reported most messages to the police, but the enormous amount left him frustrated.
“I just quit bothering,” he said.
Golyar’s attorney, James Martin Davis, objected multiple times to the digital communications being entered as evidence, saying they don’t acknowledge the supposed killing.
“It has nothing to do with the elements of the crime. We’ve got hundreds of exhibits already that don’t address the issue of (the alleged slaying),” Davis said Monday afternoon, objecting to thick transcripts of some text messages after Kroupa already read the emails. “At what point does it become cumulative and redundant?”
Judge Burns overruled the objections and allowed the items as evidence.
Kroupa continued to date Golyar off and on, while also seeing other women casually.
He also didn’t stop looking for Farver, who he believed was behind the vandalism, threats and messages. But he was unsuccessful in finding her — he hasn’t spoken to her or seen her since that November day.
“If I had, this would have been over a long time ago,” he said.
Kroupa and Golyar broke up for good in November 2015, and the messages nearly came to a halt.
He has received zero messages via text or email claiming to be Farver since Golyar was arrested in December.
On cross-examination, Davis asked Kroupa whether Golyar ever said the word “whore,” which is used thousands of times in emails.
“Negative,” Kroupa responded, which was his common answer for no.
Kroupa also said Golyar never threatened Farver, never appeared to be a “maniacal stalker” and never confessed any crimes to him.
“Up until very recently, I presumed that it was (Farver) causing all of these problems,” he said.
But he couldn’t ever catch Farver in the act. He did, however, find Golyar lurking near his apartment one cold spring night in 2013, he testified.
Kroupa was returning from drinking at a bar and saw Golyar between his apartment building and parked cars.
“I heard some rustling and saw (Golyar) crawling ... on the ground,” he testified.
He called for her to come over, but she didn’t answer. As soon as he entered his apartment, his phone got a stream of texts — she had been at a nearby bar drinking with friends, she was very drunk and didn’t know what she was doing.
“It was very strange,” Kroupa said.
Douglas County Chief Deputy Attorney Brenda Beadle hammered the point in redirect examination.
“You never caught (Farver) doing that kind of thing, did you?” Beadle asked.
“I did not,” he responded.
alia.conley@owh.com, 402-444-1068
Harassing messages from person claiming to be missing woman kept coming for years, man testifies at murder trial
Buy Now
David Kroupa and Shanna Golyar dated off and on before breaking up for good in November 2015.
For roughly four years, David Kroupa was harassed daily by a steady barrage of texts and emails, seemingly from a woman he had dated for just two weeks.
Some threatened him or the people he knew. Others would claim that the woman was outside his apartment or workplace, with photos to prove it.
The intimidation affected him physically. He gained 30 pounds and drank every night.
It affected him at work. One day someone called the business phone at his Jensen Tire store every minute, but said nothing. No one could work, and his boss was aggravated.
It affected him emotionally. The mother of his two young children and the other women he started to date were also scared. He would circle his home or work, looking for any trace of the alleged harasser, Cari Farver.
“It made it very difficult to be social,” said Kroupa, 40, in a calm and unwavering voice during his daylong testimony. “I couldn’t even use my phone, it’d be beeping all day long.”
Kroupa unwittingly had found himself at the center of an obsession. But it wasn’t Farver who had become obsessed. It was another woman he had dated, authorities allege, Shanna Golyar.
At Golyar’s trial Monday, Kroupa read aloud a tiny percentage of the roughly 12,000 emails he purportedly received from Farver since he last saw her on Nov. 13, 2012. Authorities say Golyar concocted them.
Golyar, 41, is accused in Farver’s slaying — prosecutors argue that she posed online as Farver for years to cover up any suspicion that she killed her. Golyar faces first-degree murder and second-degree arson charges. Douglas County District Judge Timothy Burns will determine her fate.
The nearly 80 emails that Kroupa read out loud vacillated from obsessive and controlling (“I would follow you to the ends of the world. Dave is mine.”) to stalker behavior, expletive-ridden threats and graphic images. One email asked Kroupa how to find a hit man to kill Golyar and had a photo attached of an unknown bloodied dead woman.
Many emails contained details of Kroupa’s whereabouts and photos of his apartment or vehicle or Golyar’s residence, kids and car. Some subject lines included “Watching,” and “See, I am really here.”
They were sent mostly at night and early morning, from dozens of email accounts with variations of Farver’s first, middle and last names or Kroupa’s surname.
He also received thousands of texts, from more than 25 phone numbers. Kroupa saved the numbers to his phone contacts as Cari 1 through Cari 18, and even assigned one number the name “Crazy Cari.”
One of the strangest emails to Kroupa was sent in January 2013 and included a photo of a bound and gagged woman in a trunk of a vehicle.
“You will dump (Golyar), and you will start seeing me again that (sic) it no arguments about it,” the email stated. “If you don’t agree she will stay in my trunk and since no one knows my car you won’t find her.”
Prosecutors have said they will present evidence that Golyar took the photos of herself in the trunk — in various positions to make sure her face was hidden just enough to be mysterious.
The emails also claimed that Farver was pregnant with Kroupa’s baby and that the two were married. He reported most messages to the police, but the enormous amount left him frustrated.
“I just quit bothering,” he said.
Golyar’s attorney, James Martin Davis, objected multiple times to the digital communications being entered as evidence, saying they don’t acknowledge the supposed killing.
“It has nothing to do with the elements of the crime. We’ve got hundreds of exhibits already that don’t address the issue of (the alleged slaying),” Davis said Monday afternoon, objecting to thick transcripts of some text messages after Kroupa already read the emails. “At what point does it become cumulative and redundant?”
Judge Burns overruled the objections and allowed the items as evidence.
Kroupa continued to date Golyar off and on, while also seeing other women casually.
He also didn’t stop looking for Farver, who he believed was behind the vandalism, threats and messages. But he was unsuccessful in finding her — he hasn’t spoken to her or seen her since that November day.
“If I had, this would have been over a long time ago,” he said.
Kroupa and Golyar broke up for good in November 2015, and the messages nearly came to a halt.
He has received zero messages via text or email claiming to be Farver since Golyar was arrested in December.
On cross-examination, Davis asked Kroupa whether Golyar ever said the word “whore,” which is used thousands of times in emails.
“Negative,” Kroupa responded, which was his common answer for no.
Kroupa also said Golyar never threatened Farver, never appeared to be a “maniacal stalker” and never confessed any crimes to him.
“Up until very recently, I presumed that it was (Farver) causing all of these problems,” he said.
But he couldn’t ever catch Farver in the act. He did, however, find Golyar lurking near his apartment one cold spring night in 2013, he testified.
Kroupa was returning from drinking at a bar and saw Golyar between his apartment building and parked cars.
“I heard some rustling and saw (Golyar) crawling ... on the ground,” he testified.
He called for her to come over, but she didn’t answer. As soon as he entered his apartment, his phone got a stream of texts — she had been at a nearby bar drinking with friends, she was very drunk and didn’t know what she was doing.
“It was very strange,” Kroupa said.
Douglas County Chief Deputy Attorney Brenda Beadle hammered the point in redirect examination.
“You never caught (Farver) doing that kind of thing, did you?” Beadle asked.
“I did not,” he responded.
alia.conley@owh.com, 402-444-1068
