
LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. (KMOX) - After 10 years of suspicion, Pam Hupp is now charged with the murder of Betsy Faria.
Hupp (photos above) is currently serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, but has long been suspected in the high-profile murder of Betsy Faria. Faria, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, was killed in 2011. She named Hupp the sole benefactor of a $150,000 life insurance policy months before she was killed.
Lincoln County Prosecutor Michael Wood announced Hupp is charged with first-degree murder of Faria. He says Hupp stabbed her to death, then tried to make it look like Faria's husband did it.
Wood also announced he's launching an investigation into potential prosecutor and police misconduct in the Faria case.
"Russel Faria was the primary suspect in Betsy's death, yet he had four alibi witnesses, no blood on him despite a gruesome murder scene, cell phone towers along with video evidence in two separate locations put him elsewhere at the time of her death," Wood says.
Wood alleges witnesses were asked to lie in Faria's murder trial. He says no one is above the law, not prosecutors or police officers.
Russ Faria was convicted of Betsy Faria's murder in 2013, but was exonerated in 2015 and during that trial, evidence came to light that pointed towards Hupp committing the murder. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department last year reached a $2 million settlement with Russ Faria for the wrongful conviction.
Hupp's case has been featured in five "Dateline" episodes between 2014 and 2019, and she was the subject of a podcast also named "The Thing About Pam."
Actress Renee Zellweger is set to play the convicted killer in a new scripted TV show in the works called "The Thing About Pam."
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