Before Liz Golyar Ended up in Prison for Murder, Her Baby Died Under Mysterious Circumstances

Liz Golyar is the terrifying subject of Netflix's Lover, Stalker, Killer documentary that is best described as Fatal Attraction in the digital age. It all started when she and a recently divorced man connected in 2012 via the dating website Plenty of Fish. Dan Kroupa was new to the Omaha area and was excited about being a single man out on the town. When he and single mom Golyar started talking, it seemed like the perfect setup for a man not looking to be tied down.

Initially Golyar was a great time, until one night she was grabbing a few things from Kroupa's — and she ran into him with another woman by the name of Cari Farver. Despite his being transparent about not wanting anything serious, Golyar took this pretty hard and went to a very dark place that somehow began with murder.

It appears as if erratic behavior is a pattern in Golyar's life as her firstborn child died under mysterious circumstances years before she met Kroupa. Here's what we know.

According to The U.S. Sun, on Jan. 29, 1999, 5-month-old Cody Golyar was taken to the hospital when it was discovered he wasn't breathing. Golyar was dating Glenn Herr, who wasn't the baby's father, and it was his mother who found the unresponsive infant. He died a few hours later. At the time, Golyar and Herr were 21 years old, and it didn't take long for police to focus on the two of them as their only suspects.

An autopsy "revealed the young boy had suffered a brain hemorrhage caused by violent shaking that likely lasted in excess of 20 seconds," reported the outlet. This is more commonly known as shaken baby syndrome, and per the Mayo Clinic, it "destroys a child's brain cells and prevents his or her brain from getting enough oxygen. This form of child abuse can cause permanent brain damage or death."

Herr was questioned by police and admitted that he occasionally threw the baby in the air and caught him, because it made him laugh. At the time of his interrogation, Herr was suffering from sleep deprivation and beyond that, had "learning difficulties from a brain injury he suffered as a child," per the outlet Soon, Herr was admitting that he might have shaken the baby, but his family believed it was a false confession that resulted from constant badgering by law enforcement.

After his confession, Herr was charged with second-degree murder. Herr's attorney, Dan Buscher, attempted to implicate Golyar in the baby's death. Per the Sun, "During his trial, it was alleged that Golyar called Herr at work the night before Cody's death crying, telling him, 'I dropped the baby! Get home!'" Buscher pointed out that just because society has trouble understanding how a mother could kill her own child, that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

It should be noted that when Golyar was asked to testify about letters Herr apparently sent her from jail, she was wearing a disguise due to "outstanding warrants for her arrest in an unrelated car theft case," the outlet reported. In these letters, Herr reportedly asked Golyar to lie for him in court. The only people allowed in the courtroom at the time was the jury. A handwriting expert was not brought in to confirm it was Herr who wrote the letters. In fact, Golyar was the only person asked to "certify whether the handwriting on the letters matched Herr's."

Herr was found guilty and sentenced to nearly nine years in prison. Cody's father, Raymond Strahan, spoke exclusively to The U.S. Sun about his son's death. He mentioned a parenting magazine found by his son's bed. An article about shaken baby syndrome had been earmarked. Strahan believes Golyar wanted to get rid of their son so she and Herr could be alone. When asked about it on the stand, Golyar said Herr's mother gave it to him.