This eerie and disturbing tale brings to fore the downside of online dating and hooking up with strangers without following a judgemental tone

Nonika Singh

Dating sites spell danger… more than one docu-series has shown us the perils of dating apps. However, the documentary Lover Stalker Killer is different in more ways than one. For one, the crime is not confined to mere cheating or swindling. Nor, for once is the perpetrator a man. But, of course, the real victim still is a woman. Not to say that the Nebraska man at the centre of the documentary is spared the psychological trauma or guilt over the murder he did not commit.

Documentary:

Lover Stalker Killer

Director: Sam Hobkinson

Stars: Ryan Avis, Jessica N Johnson, Chris Maher

Rating: ***

Most crime docu-series remind us how truth is stranger than fiction. A story that makes it to a Netflix documentary expectedly has to be out of the ordinary. So, is this eerie and disturbing tale of Dave Kroupa, a mechanic looking for some company. His search for a casual fling lands him, his family and, above all yet, another woman in deep trouble. The details pan out most intriguingly and chillingly. Though events which happened around 2012 have been reconstructed, Dave the real person reflects upon the horrific phase in his life during which he dates a woman, Liz Golyar. And soon another woman, Cari Farver, comes into his life. Suddenly, Cari goes missing after her request to move in with him is rebuffed.

The horror begins when she starts to stalk him electronically. Her toxic texts and emails acquire hideous proportions and she even burns down Liz’s house along with her pets. Police steps in, but can’t find Cari. The drama heightens and we are led into the mind of a twisted sociopath. Love triangles can be a messy affair. If fatal attraction knows no rationale, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned either.

As in the beginning only we are told this murder investigation is about a case without a body, you can piece together some pieces of the puzzle. Who is the real culprit here? The presence of suspect’s mother in the documentary is a giveaway. Anyway, the audiences are not kept on the edge for too long in this taut series. Soon, as two detectives decide to take on the case after it has gone cold, the cat is out of the bag.

Now the point of interest is – how do they catch the real culprit? If the internet has made it easy for people to commit crimes, digital footprints they leave behind invariably help investigators to crack the case too. Of course, it was not an easy one to decode. The digital expert had to go through hundreds of mails and messages and it took ingenuity, skill and earnestness of the investigators to pin down the culprit. But while they could reconstruct how the guilty went about murdering the innocent woman, they can’t possibly bring the dead woman back to life. And in that sobering lesson lies the crux and that is how the documentary becomes a cautionary tale. It brings to fore the downside of online dating and hooking up with strangers without for once following a judgemental tone. Though the noted director Sam Hobkinson builds nail-biting tension, there is no unnecessary sensationalism or voyeuristic details. But when truth itself is horrifying enough all one needs to do is hold a mirror to it. Hobkinson reflects the case of digital deception with clarity and acuity without over stretching the compelling material at hand.