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The murder of Betsy Faria and the WRONGFUL conviction of her husband
Danelle Hallan's 55-minute breakdown, the fullest single telling on file.
Watch on YouTubeWhat happened
Elizabeth "Betsy" Faria was found killed in her Troy, Missouri, home on December 27, 2011. She had returned from a chemotherapy appointment earlier that day. The investigation initially focused on her husband, Russ Faria.
Four days before the killing, Betsy had changed the beneficiary of a $150,000 life-insurance policy from Russ to her friend Pam Hupp. That event is relevant background to later prosecution theories, but it is not the onset of the killing and is not treated as proof of motive.
Russ Faria was charged in January 2012, convicted in 2013, and sentenced to life plus 30 years. His conviction was later set aside, and a judge acquitted him at a 2015 retrial after hearing evidence that had been excluded from the first trial. No conviction against him remains.
Hupp was separately convicted through an Alford plea in the 2016 killing of Louis Gumpenberger and is serving life without parole in that case. That separate conviction does not establish guilt in Betsy Faria's death.
In July 2021, Lincoln County prosecutors charged Hupp with first-degree murder in Betsy's death. The charge was dropped and refiled in October 2023 as part of a venue change. Hupp has not been convicted in this case. In April 2026, she waived a jury trial after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, and reporting placed the bench trial on January 31, 2028.
The prosecution remains pending. Hupp is identified as charged and not guilty, Russ Faria is identified through the vacated conviction and acquittal, and the state's theory is attributed rather than stated as fact.
