Judge Timothy Burns sentences Shanna Golyar to life in prison plus 18-20 years for the 2012 murder and disappearance of Cari Farver.
Farver was last seen at her then-boyfriend's apartment in Omaha near 120th and W. Dodge Rd.
Judge Burns found her guilty of 1st degree murder and arson in May in Douglas County District Court.
Golyar stabbed Farver to death, but her body has never been found. She then assumed her identity by trying to apply for her job at West Corp., sent text messages to Farver's family pretending to be the missing woman, and harassed her boyfriend. Golyar previously dated the man Farver was seeing.
More than 12,000 text messages and emails were sent by Golyar pretending to be Farver. They harassed the boyfriend to believe that Farver was stalking he and Golyar. The harassment went on for years.
Farver's family says they're happy Golyar won't be able to hurt anyone else.
"She's got a life sentence now but she also gave everybody else that loved Cari a life sentence, she took Cari's life, she gave my grandson a life sentence of not having his mother there, and all of the people that loved her we have to live with the nightmare that we have lived with for so long," said Nancy Raney, Farver's mother.
The defense argued that there was no body and not enough physical evidence to convict Golyar, but the judge felt the digital and circumstantial evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Cari had been murdered.
In a letter written to the judge, Golyar asked the judge to find it in his heart to give her a 30 year sentence so she could be out in 15 years.
