Woman Killed Love Rival and Stole Her Identity Online

A Nebraska woman convicted of killing a woman who was dating the same man — and then posing as the victim on social media to cover her tracks — was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday, PEOPLE confirms.

On Tuesday, a Nebraska judge sentenced Shanna Golyar, 42, of Omaha, to life in prison without parole for the November 2012 murder of Cari Farver, 37.

In a bizarre case that took years to unravel, authorities believe Golyar fatally stabbed Farver in November 2012 after she left the apartment of a man Golyar was dating at the same time, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

After the murder, Golyar assumed Farver’s identity by using her phone to send fake emails and texts to the dead woman’s family and friends in an attempt to make it appear that her former love rival was still alive, court records show.

Golyar also created a fake Facebook account posing as Farver and posted messages trying to convince the dead woman’s loved ones that she had left her life in Nebraska behind. “I’m not missing,” read one post on May 18, 2013. “I just don’t want to come home right now.”

When sentencing Golyar, Douglas County District Judge Timothy Burns said, “What some people are capable of has always astounded and mystified this court,” the Omaha World-Herald reports.

For years, he said, Golyar spun a “twisted plot of lies, deceit, and impersonations through digital messaging.”

Farver, whose body has never been found, “did not voluntarily disappear and drop off the face of the earth,” Burns said. “Very sadly, she was murdered.”

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In May, Golyar was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree arson.

On Tuesday, the judge also sentenced Golyar to a separate sentence of 18 to 20 years for the arson charge for setting her own home on fire in August 2013 in an attempt to frame Farver, to make it seem like she was still alive, prosecutors had charged.

Golyar’s public defender had asked the court to allow the arson sentence to run at the same time as the life sentence, but the judge said no, according to the World-Herald.

The 237 days she has already spent in jail will count toward her sentence, local TV station WOWT reports.

While Farver’s family hugged each other in the courtroom after the sentencing, her mother says she is still upset that her daughter’s remains have never been found.

“We’d still like to know exactly what happened and where my daughter ended up so we could take care of her,” Raney told the World-Herald.