OMAHA, Neb. — A 42-year-old Iowa woman who was convicted of killing her romantic rival has been sent to a Nebraska prison for life.
A Douglas County judge sentenced Shanna Golyar in Omaha on Tuesday. She’d been found guilty of arson and first-degree murder after a nonjury trial. Prosecutors say she killed 37-year-old Cari Farver, who was last seen in Omaha in November 2012. Her body hasn’t been found.
Police say Golyar posed as Farver online and by phone for years after Farver’s disappearance and also posed as other people confessing to having killed Farver. An officer testified that Farver had been dating Golyar’s ex-boyfriend for some weeks when she disappeared.
Golyar’s lawyer argued that prosecutors presented no evidence that a homicide occurred: no body, no murder weapon and no crime scene.