Dateline NBC - The Thing About Pam

Episode Date: October 1, 2019

The unbelievable story of how the murder of one woman, Betsy Faria, set off a chain of events leaving one man dead, another man implicated and a diabolical scheme exposed. Keith Morrison unravels the latest chapter, including why Betsy’s friend, Pam Hupp, impersonated a real-life Dateline producer. Listen in conjunction with the hit 6-episode behind-the-scenes podcast of the same name. Originally aired on NBC on September 27, 2019.

I'm Lester Holt. Welcome to the 28th season of Dateline. Tonight, a new chapter in our most twisted mystery ever. At the heart of it, a woman as cagey as they come. He was pounding on the door, and once it flew open, that's when I shot him. And I just kept shooting him. How would you describe Pam Hopp? Bold. Bold as they get. She started screaming that he was a murderer.

She thinks she is clever. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't realize how dangerous she is. You look over your shoulder 24-7. Lady in a black SUV, kicking people up, claiming to be with Dateline. It just, my gut told me something's not right with this lady. Three people died suspiciously, and she's been the last person with them. It's Pam.

Anything can happen. I think she knew that she's been the last person with them. It's Pam. Anything can happen. I think she knew that she's going to be primetime again, and everybody's going to be paying attention to Pam Huff. Here's Keith Morrison with The Thing About Pam. Where does it live, evil? Where is it born? Does it spring like a horror movie from some dark and frightening place? Or does it live quietly in fine society people,

in their respectable homes, on their wide green lawns, as they live their decent lives, tend carefully manicured friendships? This story is about the evil that smiles and helps and sympathizes, that worms its hidden way into unsuspecting minds. And kills. This is about such a woman as we had never seen. And though we followed her

for years, we had no idea. Until now. The story we can finally tell. Tonight. Until now, the story we can finally tell tonight. It was December 27th, 2011. A quiet little suburban town near St. Louis called Troy, Missouri. It was evening, 7.30 or so.

A winter chill was settling on the rooftops, frosting the lawns. Outside the little house, under the streetlight, was a post-Christmas silence. Then, the sound of a door closing, female footsteps retreating, a car pulling away into the dark. And silence again. Then, two hours later. 911, what is the location of your emergency? Okay, I need you to take a couple deep breaths so I can see what's going on. I just got home from a friend's house.

And my wife killed herself. The man you hear on the phone, so apparently distraught, so beside himself, is Russ Faria, telling the dispatcher he had arrived home to find his wife Betsy lying on the living room floor, a knife still embedded firmly in her neck. Oh, my God. Russell, do you think that she's beyond help right now? I don't know. I think he's dead. Okay.

Oh, my God. It looked, he said, like she'd killed herself. What did she do, do you know? The police arrived, had a look around, and took a still hysterical man to the sheriff's office for questioning. No, no, no, no. Take a deep breath for me, Russ. They got him settled down and asked him, why did he say it was suicide? Did she want to hurt herself?

I don't know if she just wanted to scare me or what, but she said she was going to kill herself. What was going on that day? That's when Russ told them. Betsy was dying. Stage 4 cancer. That afternoon, he said she'd gone to chemo and later to her mom's place while he worked all afternoon at his home office. And after?

So I got cigarettes and dog food, and then I went over to my friend Mike's house. Mike's house, where he went for his regular Tuesday game night with friends. Said he called Betsy on the way. I asked her if she needed a ride on my way home. And she said no, that her friend was going to bring her home. And I said, okay, well, I'll see you at home later, and I love you. Then at 9, he left Mike's, picked up a couple of sandwiches at Arby's,

drove home, opened the door just before 9.40, and there she was. It was early next morning when Betsy's mother, Janet Meyer, got the awful news. Four sergeants marched right in. One of them looked right at me and said, Betsy's dead. That's the way it was announced to you? That's the way it was told to me. Something like that.

Betsy, her exuberant daughter, her life in the party. Magnetic personality. She drew people like flies and just energized everybody. All very true, said her sisters. Betsy was unique. She started DJing at the age of, I think she was 18, maybe even younger than that. Wow. And she could start up a party.

She takes you outside of your comfort zone. You will not have a bad time if you would hang out with her. And her 12-year marriage to Russ? Cops wrote down Betsy's mother's response. They had a great relationship. And it was to Betsy's mother the two of them went when they learned that Betsy's cancer, once in remission, had come roaring back and was stage four.

Russ's cousin, Mary Anderson. When they were standing in the kitchen and Betsy was rubbing his arm, he had to walk out to the carport because he couldn't talk about it. She was comforting him. She was comforting him because he couldn't face it. But Betsy was determined to enjoy life while she could, insisted they go ahead with plans for a cruise with family and friends. He wanted Betsy to do anything and everything that Betsy's ever wanted to do. He wanted her to have those experiences.

So when on that cruise, for example? That cruise. That's when they went to swim with the dolphins. But now, in the sheriff's office, Russ was saying Betsy had tried suicide before a couple of times. So when he saw the knife, he assumed she succeeded. That's when the detectives told him that Betsy could not have killed herself. It was impossible.

You have a wound. Stabbed over 25 times. Oh, my. No. 25 times. They're still counting. In fact, the pathologist counted more than 50 stab wounds. Oh, my God.

A burglar doesn't do that, Russ. A stranger doesn't do that. Somebody who loves that person does that. Somebody who goes in a blind rage does that. Somebody like him. The fact of the matter is, you said that. No, I did not.

I wasn't even there. Russ, you were there. No, I found her like that when I came home. But Russ didn't know. How could he? That while investigators were grilling him, they were also talking to someone

else. He's very degrading to her. And he makes comments about how much money he'll have after she's gone. It was a woman, a friend. He's got life insurance on her at work. She's got life insurance. You know, I'll be able to pay off the house, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just insensitive stuff, which would upset her, and she was tired of it. This was the woman who had driven Betsy home that early evening, as the frost was gathering on the grass.

And yes, she said she could tell them all kinds of things about Russ and Betsy Faria. Hey, can you state your last name, please? H-U-P-P. And your first name? Pam. Pam. Pam Hupp. That's a name you need to remember.

Pam Hupp was about to take a lead role in what would become an epic case. When we come back... He'd start playing this game of putting a pillow over her face. This is what it's going to feel like when you die, and then act like he was kidding. And later, another 911 call from Pam herself. Hey, hello, there's someone breaking in my house. Help!

It didn't sound right. It didn't smell right. It didn't taste right. A crazy plot about to unfold, starring someone impersonating us. She's like, well, I'm from Dateline. I said, okay. She's like, the TV show? I said, I've heard of it. I'm not stupid. A pall of post-Christmas grief settled over Betsy Faria's friends and family. Oh, they knew. Her mother knew she was going to die in a year or two or three of cancer.

But murder? The way she died, that was absolutely horrible and hard to visualize. And the police seemed to know who did it. They leaned hard on Russ. I did not stab my wife. I did not do it. Was Russ capable of such a thing? That first day, detectives asked Betsy's mother, and she said things had been, quote,

great in the marriage. And Russ had been, quote, great in the marriage, and Russ had been a thoughtful, devoted son-in-law. Russ had been very good to me all these years, so that's another reason this was also hard to take. It's like losing two people. You were close to him. I was close to him. Like he was a son, in a way.

Mm-hmm. But early on, investigators were also talking to Betsy's friend, Pam Hopp, the woman who drove her home night of the murder. Do you describe your friendship as best friends? Betsy had a lot of best friends. Zillions of best friends.

But yes, I saw her almost every day, every other day. Pam said she'd known Betsy for a decade. They'd worked in insurance together. Both Pam Hupp and Betsy Faria worked for me. Worked for then-insurance agent Mike Boschert. Both women had been married twice and had two children each. Betsy was vivacious, full of energy, full of life, and just a really neat lady.

What about Pam Hubb? She was a right arm for my agency for a while. She was a fun, friendly, level-headed, intelligent person. And you trusted her? She was a good confidant. Which is just the way Pam was now impressing those detectives. As she told them, she knew the inside story of Betsy's marriage. And Russ was not a good

person. He's verbally mean to her. He is pompous. He's a know-it-all. He smokes in the house, even though she's been sick and doesn't care. Sort of disrespectful? Oh, he's very disrespectful. She gets her feelings hurt a lot, and she just doesn't care to be around him.

Got so bad, said Pam, that Betsy was secretly planning to divorce him. Just a week or so before her death, Betsy and another friend had gone to Branson, Missouri, supposedly for fun, but, said Pam, they were actually plotting their escape. They had talked about moving down to Branson together and leaving their husbands. So last weekend, she wanted to go to Branson and talk about it and make a plan. That's certainly not how Russ described his marriage, though it had hardly been perfect, he admitted. We have a really good relationship.

No history of any kind of domestic violence between you or her. We argued quite a bit quite a few years ago, about five years ago, six years ago, we were separated because we couldn't get along. But there was no violence or anything involved. Who to believe, Russ or Pam? They tried a little test. Without telling Russ what Pam was saying, they asked him about her. She's a little test. Without telling Russ what Pam was saying, they asked him about her. She's a good person. She's very friendly. You don't think she'd have anything bad to say about you?

No. The detectives pushed him. After all, if he was innocent, who else could have done it? Pam was the last person to have seen Betsy alive. The only person that would have been there would have been Pam. But I don't think Pam would do that. But she sure would, and did, tell stories on Russ. He'd start playing this game of putting a pillow over her face to see what it would feel like. I don't know if she said this is what it's gonna feel like when you die or whatever and then act like he was kidding. She's

very upset. The detectives confronted Russ about that. He never put a pillow over her face. No. You know this is what it would feel like to die. No. Why would her friends tell the police that she had done that and that she was scared of me? She has no reason to be scaredaring me. She's never been scaring me. But once police looked at the crime scene, Pam Hopp's version of things seemed much more likely. They found Russ's slippers in his bedroom closet, stained with Betsy's blood. And her blood on the light switch in the bedroom

must have been Russ with his bloody hands who put it there. The fact of the matter is, it's a sloppy crime scene. There's blood on your clothes, in your residence, in your bedroom. I didn't even go to my bedroom. There's no one else that has any kind of motive, monetary or

crime of passion. I can't tell you what I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They questioned Russ on and off for 48 hours. And then, their case not quite complete, they let him go. Did you kill your wife? No comment. Excuse me.

No comment. The media was waiting. The story was all over town. That Russ was the prime and only suspect. I'd like to say get out of my face. And boy, this case has really been taking a lot of turns today. By the time they buried Betsy, Pam was spreading her opinions everywhere

about Russ and Betsy and the murder. Russ's cousin Mary heard and was alarmed. So these red flags went off in my head. Well, wait a minute. She's talking to the media. The only person talking to the media. The only person talking to the media. And she's accusing Russ.

And she's giving these details. She comes into the funeral home pointing the finger at him. By the day after the funeral, Betsy's friends and family appeared to have taken a hard turn against Russ. They were remembering things a little more like Pam did. Many people would describe him as a pig. There was this anger in him that he could hide and he could put on a front. Could he? By Pam's reckoning, Betsy was afraid that last night. Afraid of what Russ might do. More than 50 stab wounds. Some rage indeed. Or a good facsimile. Coming up,

questions about Pam herself. Like, on the night of Betsy's murder, why did Pam drive her home? This was approximately 30 minutes out of Miss Hupp's way. I don't know why she offered to do it, because Betsy already had a ride home from Russ. When Dateline continues.

Her story is a powerful thing. And the thing about Pam was she understood that. Like the story she told the police that cast Russ Faria as a mean and greedy husband just waiting for his wife Betsy to die of her cancer so he could get her life insurance. In fact, Pam told the detectives that Betsy was afraid Russ would waste it all on selfish spending.

And since she trusted Pam... She said, I'm going to make you the beneficiary if you could, when my daughters are older, give them some money. I said, okay, well, how much is it for? $150,000. So Betsy made Pam the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy.

Was that what set off Russ's homicidal rage? The detective asked him in a roundabout way. Has she gotten any policies recently or done any changes on any policies recently? Not that I know of. Was he lying? Because clearly something ugly happened in the house that night. And you lost control. And I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what it was. Because clearly something ugly happened in the house that night.

Like perhaps finding out about that insurance switch. Anyway, they decided the important thing was he did it. And eight days after Betsy's death, they charged Russ with first-degree murder. Russ's cousin Mary found him an attorney, Joel Schwartz, one of the top criminal defense attorneys in St. Louis. Schwartz certainly knew the power of stories, and that the story making the rounds was bad for Russ Faria. But Russ didn't seem like a bad guy to attorney Schwartz,

and certainly not a killer. How well did you get to know Russ? I know Russ, I would consider, very well. And my sense of Russ is Russ is a good person. Rough around the edges, but ultimately a good person. What do you mean rough around the edges? He's not going to be the most tactful person in the room. He's not going to be the most gracious person in the room.

But those aren't really the things that matter. What matters is what's inside. And when you get inside of Russ, he's a good person. So he dug into the story of Russ and Betsy and found not the story Pam told at all. Like the story Pam told the detectives that Betsy wanted Pam to get her life insurance and Betsy made the arrangements? She had me meet her at the library here in Winghaven. She was there already. She filled out the form, signed it. We went up to the girl at the counter, showed our IDs and she witnessed it.

So Schwartz found that girl at the counter and she said it wasn't like that at all. She said Pam was in charge. Pam did the talking while Betsy stood back. That made it sound like it was Pam's idea. And remember how Pam told the police that Betsy and another friend went to Branson to secretly plan their respective divorces? Schwartz found that friend too, Linda Hartman, and she said, nope, not at all. They had no plan to leave their husbands. It was just the opposite. We went to the strip shopping and she was on, we were in the jelly bean store. She told me how they were Russ's favourite candy and they so Russ was on the phone

and he was picking the ones that he liked and when she got back home they were going to eat those jelly beans together. But something was bothering Betsy that weekend, said Linda. She told me that she had to meet Pam. She didn't tell me what the meeting was about but she kept on telling me that she didn to meet Pam. She didn't tell me what the meeting was about, but she kept on telling me

that she didn't want to go to that meeting. And the one thing that girl at the library counter said she heard from Betsy was that she was divorcing her husband. Which, given what she just told Linda, didn't make sense. Unless... I think there was some form of

pressure put on her. Betsy was not a person who would just do something like this without pressure, from what I'm told, and not tell her mother and not tell her sisters. Four days after the insurance change, Pam drove Betsy home, and Betsy was murdered. So now Schwartz made a timeline. What else happened that last day? Betsy had chemotherapy scheduled that particular day. She received a text from Pam Hupp. Pam wanted to join her at chemo.

And she texted back, I don't need a ride. My mother's friend, her name was Bobby, is in town, and she's going to take me. We need to spend some one-on-one time together. So in other words, stay away. In other words, don't come. One-on-one time to me means you're interrupting if you come. Nevertheless, Ms. Hupp chose to join them at chemotherapy.

After chemotherapy, Bobby took Betsy to dinner and then back to Betsy's mother's house. And that's where Pam picked her up to give her the unasked-for ride home. Now, this was approximately 30 minutes out of Miss Hupp's way. I don't know why she offered to do it, because Betsy already had a ride home from us. They left Betsy's mother's house around 6.30 in the evening. They would have arrived at Betsy's place shortly after 7, after which cell phones helped tell the story of Betsy's time of death.

At 7.04, there's a call from Pam's phone to Pam's husband. And in that call, Betsy gets on the phone. Very much alive. But 17 minutes later? At 7.21, there's a call from Betsy's daughter, unanswered to Betsy. At 7.26, there's an unanswered call to Betsy. At 7.27, there's a call from Pam Hupp's cell phone to Betsy. At 7.26, there's an unanswered call to Betsy. At 7.27, there's a call from Pam Hupp's

cell phone to Betsy's cell phone. Also unanswered. That call, Pam told the detectives, was to let Betsy know she was home safe. Except, said Schwartz, that wasn't possible. If you called your husband at 7.04 and the next call is at 7.27, it's impossible for you to have been home at that time. It's at least a half an hour's drive. It's at least a half an hour's drive, and she said she went inside for 10 to 15 minutes. So she then said, well, I was almost home. Where actually was she, based on the Saltara triangulation?

At the very most, about three miles from the house. At the very least, she was still at the house. Betsy's house, that is. At the very time Schwartz calculated, Betsy was being stabbed to death. A very different story indeed. Coming up, Russ's game night buddies produce what sounds like a slam dunk alibi. Once we heard the timeline, we knew that he could not have committed this crime. Impossible. It's impossible.

A man cannot be in two places at the same time. Jury trials are, in a way, like theater. Everybody playing a part, based on strict rules of evidence, of course, and careful preparation. No different when Russ Faria went on trial for murder almost two years after Betsy's death. His attorney, Joel Schwartz, prepared to turn the tables and essentially put Pam on trial as a greedy woman who killed Betsy for her insurance. Well, the lead detective prepared Pam to counter that. They're going to suggest that you may have had something to do with the planning or the conspiracy to commit that murder because of your financial windfall. The detective reminded Pam she'd agreed to use the money to look after Betsy's two daughters. However, you now have this money and have not turned any of this money over to the family or the kids.

That's correct. That's a huge problem because by your own volition, Betsy has told you that she wants you to hold on to this money to make sure that the family, the girls are taken care of, yet they haven't seen a dime of that money. So the detective gave Pam a little push. What are the possibilities of you getting that trust set up for the girls before the trial? 100%. And a few days before the trial, she did indeed put two-thirds of the money into a trust fund for the girls. But it made no difference,

at least to the jury, because the judge ruled that defense attorney Schwartz could not ask Pam anything about the insurance or point at her as the likely killer. After all, said the judge, Pam wasn't on trial. And I couldn't get into any of that. I've never seen anything like it. But of course, the jury did see pictures of the multiple stab wounds. Evidence said the prosecutor, Leah Askey, of Russ's rage. She showed them Russ's slippers. The slippers police found in his bedroom closet, stained in Betsy's blood, and her blood smudged on the bedroom light switch. And most devious, said the prosecutor, was Russ's alibi.

His fake alibi. She argued Russ actually killed Betsy during the time he said he was at his weekly game night. A claim that was both impossible and an outrage, said Schwartz. She proved nothing. Everything she did is merely a guess and conjecture. In my opinion, an innocent man got charged with murder, and then it sort of snowballed from there. The thing was that Schwartz Russ had one of the best alibis he'd ever seen. All four of Russ's game night friends testified that they were with Russ, miles and miles from his house, night of the murder. They watched movies,

6 p.m. to 9 p.m., at this man's house, Michael Corbin. We were all within eight feet of each other the whole night. Did he act the same as usual, and you said? You know, I looked over at him, and he was dozed off for a second. But again, I didn't think anything weird of this. And then Russ left at 9, stopped at Arby's, got home just before 9.40, saw his wife on the floor, and called 911. Once we heard the timeline, we knew that he could not have committed this crime.

Impossible. It's impossible. A man cannot be in two places at the same time. Attorney Schwartz pointed out, too, that rigor mortis had begun before the first responders arrived, meaning Betsy had been dead for a couple of hours by then. Probably died just after 7, about the time Pam dropped Betsy had been dead for a couple of hours by then. Probably died just after seven, about the time Pam dropped Betsy off at home and before the 721 call she didn't answer. But all those stab wounds, many inflicted after Betsy was already dead,

looked suspiciously deliberate, said Schwartz, methodical, as if somebody killed her and then afterwards went about the business of making it look as if somebody had been slashing her. Not as if. Somebody did that. There's no other explanation for the lack of blood, and there's no other explanation for the deep cut on her wrist that's post-mortem. But how to explain Betsy's blood on Russ's slippers in his closet? Easy, said Schwartz.

There was no imprint of a shoe in the blood, nor was there any footprint anywhere on the tile floor leading back to where the slippers were found. So how would the blood get on the shoes? Somebody attempted to stage this. Dipped it in the blood? Dipped it in the blood and hid those back in the closet. Schwartz was quite sure, in fact, that Pam planned it all, that she conned Betsy into signing that insurance transfer,

then killed her for the money and promptly set about framing Russ. Even though, said Cousin Mary, there was nothing showing he did it, but there was ruled Schwartz couldn't bring up virtually any of that in front of the jury. Still, based on Russ's alibi alone, Schwartz was confident there'd be an acquittal. Except, that's not what happened. The verdict was guilty. I can't imagine how this jury deliberated and convicted him. The worst part of it was looking at Russ's face. He was in shock.

He couldn't believe it. And I haven't lost sleep in a long time over something in this in this business. And I lost sleep for a long time. Coming up, Pam said she'd keep Betsy's life insurance payout for her daughters. Did she? She funded the trust so that during the trial, it would look like she had given all this money to the kids. After the trial, she took it all back again. That's correct. Wow.

When Dateline continues. Joe Schwartz was an unhappy man. A client he was sure was innocent was in prison for life. But the person he thought was the real killer, Pam Hopp, walked free. And there didn't seem to be much he could do about it. It was what I would consider a travesty of justice. Russ was in prison when we met him, February 2014. I just want to declare, you know, again, my innocence.

You know, I'm innocent of this. I can't imagine ever being mad enough to do anything like that to anybody, let alone my wife, whom I love. But none of Schwartz's arguments or Russ's denials persuaded Betsy's family, especially her mother, who once thought of Russ as a son. If somebody were to come to you with evidence, strong evidence, that it wasn't Russ, but it was some other person, is that something that you could accept? I would still feel it's Russ, 100%.

Then, a few months later, Joel Schwartz heard a bit of news. Pam was caught up in another legal case. Betsy's daughters had filed a lawsuit against her, demanding that insurance money. Weird. Hadn't Pam put the money into a trust for them just before Russ's trial? Here's Pam's civil trial deposition. Why did you put the money into this trust account? Because I felt I was pressured to fill that account with that money from the prosecuting side and from her family. But what do you know?

Right after Russ's trial, she defunded the trust and took the money back for herself. She funded the trust so that during the trial, it would look like she had given all this money to the kids. That's exactly correct. After the trial, she took it all back again. That's correct. Wow. What'd you think when you heard that? I never doubted that that was her motive in the first place. So nothing surprised me. However, that in and of itself is something that the Court of Appeals needed to hear about. That is the fact that Pam hoodwinked everybody. This, said Schwartz, was by legal definition important new evidence which the jury never got to hear. So it was a long shot, but he filed a special motion asking for a hearing.

And against all odds, it was granted. Then, just before that hearing, the Lincoln County Prosecutor, Leah Askey, met with Pam. So what are our chances of making the judge believe us? By this time, Pam and the prosecutor sounded like old friends, having an unguarded conversation, during which they agreed that Attorney Schwartz was a sore loser, wasting everybody's time and money. Feelings hurt because they lost.

Schwartz isn't used to losing. Right, and so that's really what it's about. In my opinion, that's what it's about. So to me, it's doing a disservice to the taxpayers and citizens here in any case on a june morning in 2015 a year and a half after russ was convicted they all assembled before a different judge for the hearing and after the judge said pam's manipulation of that insurance money was indeed significant new evidence. If jurors had heard that, they might have ruled differently. He overturned Russ's conviction and ordered a new trial. It was one of the best moments of my life.

Finally, something good in my favor. It's like light streaming in suddenly from the sky or something. You finally really see the light at the end of the tunnel at that point. I was just trying to call you. Russ Faria was released on bond. Here's to Russ! You ready? Freedom forever, baby!

Woo! Russ's new trial was set for November 2015. To prepare, detectives interviewed Pam again. And Pam's story seemed to shift. Here was Pam. This was just the day after the murder, declining to directly accuse Ross. Think Ross could have done this? I don't know him well enough.

But in this new interview? When you very first learned Betsy was stabbed to death, what name went through your mind? Oh, Russ. Why? Because he's an a**hole. He was an a**hole to her. First interview on her relationship with Betsy. Do you describe your friendship as best friends? Betsy had a lot of best friends.

New interview. Same question. I knew the most intimate of intimate of family stuff from her. Intimate? Yes. In this brand new story, Pam cast herself not just as Betsy's friend, but as Betsy's lover. I replaced what a husband would be. It's honestly a relationship with two women who really aren't attracted to women.

I don't know how to explain that. It's not, I'm attracted to men. Love everything about them. Can't wait till Magic Mike XL comes out. But she's the same way. It's not like she was a lesbian or anything. It wasn't like it was such an evolution of emotional trauma for her. I don't believe it, nor did anybody else who knows Betsy. And frankly, the people we spoke to who knew Pam Hubb, nobody bought it. It just was a

an excuse for Betsy to have given her the money. That is Betsy's life insurance. And as if that wasn't quite enough, Pam offered more new stories. In her first interview, when asked about Russ... I mean, he seems nice enough. I just don't know him that well. But now, such a tale. Pushed me up against the wall, and he said, you f***ing never come over here again. He was all red-faced.

Kind of like the gritted teeth. Oh, he's like, talk about this far away from the face. Yeah, he was right there. I could feel his spit. Nasty. And he said, you two f***ing thumpers. Something to that effect. If I ever catch you together again, I'll bury you out in the backyard.

And then, on tape, the detectives tried out for Pam their theory of events immediately preceding the murder. What we believe may have happened is that Russ walked in and saw you there. Did you see Russ that night in that house? I did not see Russ in that house. So much for that theory. Or was it? Because four months later, Pam suddenly recovered a memory that when she left Betsy's house,

she saw a car just down the street. Two men inside. And you think you recognized one of those? I do. Yes. Who do you believe that person was? I believe it was Russ. Yes. Pam had brand new stories for her detective friends. But she had something else, too. Something more persuasive than her shifting memories. She had evidence. Coming up, a letter addressed to Pam found on Betsy's laptop. What did it say? I'm scared to go home. I'm scared of Russ. Russ Faria was a nervous man. I was convicted once when I didn't think I would be,

so there's always that possibility of it happening again. This time there'd be no jury. Russ elected trial by judge alone. And at least he knew, as he prepared for his second trial before that new judge, that attorney Joel Schwartz would get to point the finger at Pam as Betsy's killer. The last time, it was like he was a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. There was really no way for him to win because the judge wouldn't let him fight. This time, it was kind of the other way around. The judge was just there as a referee, and he wanted to hear every piece of evidence from both sides.

But before Schwartz could make his case, Prosecutor Leah Askey was ready with new evidence, like an officer saying that on the night of the murder, he saw water droplets in the master bathtub, implying that Russ cleaned up after killing Betsy. This officer coming up with this evidence three and a half years after the fact, and allegedly remembering something as minute of a detail as water droplets in a tub, is deeply troubling. There was never a report on this. Frankly, I don't believe it.

Schwartz was pretty sure he could swat away that claim. But then, just days before the new trial began, the prosecution found the motherlode on Betsy's laptop, a proverbial smoking gun. It was a letter, never sent, but addressed to Pam. The prosecutor called it Betsy's dying declaration. What did it say? I'm scared to go home. I'm scared of Russ. He started putting a pillow over my face saying, this is what it feels like when you die.

I want to give you the insurance money. The letter ended with, if something happens to me, would you die, I want to give you the insurance money. The letter ended with, If something happens to me, would you please show this to the police? When you got it, what did you think? I would say initial reaction was, this is troubling. Pam had mentioned this letter to detectives just after Betsy's murder. She was at tennis last week, and she said she typed me an email. Maybe if you guys can find that letter

she was going to send me. But no one had found the letter, until now. So Schwartz hired a computer expert to conduct an analysis. It turns out that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Betsy to have written this the way it came up in her computer.

Why would you say that? It was the only unauthored document out of approximately 250 documents contained within the computer. Meaning? It was likely composed on a different computer and then transferred to Betsy's laptop, time-stamped at a moment when Betsy happened to be playing tennis. So, who wrote it? Ms. Hupp knew what computer it was in, where on the computer it was, as well as when it was created. But get this. The letter was loaded onto Betsy's laptop the day before Pam became the beneficiary of Betsy's life insurance policy, five days before the murder.

It had to be part of her plot, said Schwartz, to frame Russ for Betsy's murder. It's likely to believe that that person deliberated coolly as to what they were going to do to Betsy, and when they would do it, knowing where Russ would be at the time. Of course, his regular Tuesday game night. Schwartz told the judge that the evidence proved Russ could not have killed Betsy. And without saying so directly,

he strongly implied Pam most likely did. And that Pam was a true con artist, that she, not Betsy, wrote that dying declaration, that she lied again and again about Russ and his relationship with Betsy, that having murdered Betsy, she launched her plan to frame Russ, and that she did it all for money,

the insurance. But would the judge see that, too? He retired to deliberate. And three hours later... We heard the judge was getting ready to come back in. I'm sure I was holding my breath, you know, and just standing as straight as I could, paying, focused in on the judge, and finally he... it seemed like an eternity. And then the judge said the magic words.

I find you not guilty, like a heavy weight lifted off my shoulders. The judge condemned the investigation as rather disturbing, said it raised more questions than answers. The prosecutor made her opinion about Russ's guilt quite clear when she declined to reopen the investigation into Betsy's murder. I really do hope that somebody picks the case back up and opens up the investigation

because there's still somebody out there that is walking around that killed my wife. Oh, but this thing with Pam wasn't over. Oh, no. Remember that lawsuit with Betsy's daughters

over the insurance? That certainly gave us a good look at Pam. Like this off-the-wall outburst when an opposing lawyer asked her a question. What was your answer? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What was your answer? Whoa, whoa, whoa. I direct the court.

I don't know what you're talking about. When the daughter's lawyers tried to pin her down about her lies... Who else might you have lied to? Anybody that would bug me and bug me and bug me and bug me. Even her own attorney had to concede that point. I'm not going to argue about her credibility. She's not a credible witness, but that's not the issue. No.

Apparently that wasn not the issue. No. Apparently that wasn't the issue. Betsy's daughters lost their lawsuit against Pam. She got to keep Betsy's $150,000 of life insurance, all of it because all the papers were in order.

No hard proof Betsy wanted the girls to get the money. Pam was all smiles as she left the courthouse and walked past our camera and said, Say hi to Kathy. Say hi to Kathy? Kathy happened to be our Dateline producer, which is something you might want to keep in mind. After all, this was January 2016.

New Year was just beginning. 911, where's your emergency? Hey, hello, there's someone breaking in my house. Help! Coming up, an alarming 911 call from Pam. Her story of an intruder with a note. The note specifically said, get Russ's money. In our startling second hour, Russ Faria's brand new nightmare.

He said, well, they think I'm involved. When Dateline continues. And now, a stunning new twist in tonight's Dateline, as someone tries to impersonate us. She's like, well, I'm from Dateline. I said, okay. She's like, the TV show? I said, I've heard of it. I'm not stupid. Earlier in our story, Russ Faria was convicted of murdering his wife, Betsy, thanks partly to what Betsy's friend, Pam Hupp, told investigators. He makes comments about how much money he'll have after she's gone.

That conviction has been overturned. But now, police are about to hear from Pam again in a 911 call. Hey, hello, there's someone blinking in my house. Help! Her bizarre story. We're going to the bank. We're getting Russ's money. Russ's money? A dark new scheme about to come to light. Here again is Keith Morrison.

You would think, wouldn't you, that our story was just about over. Russ Faria was finally a free and vindicated man, and remarkably, given all that happened, accepting. I've been just trying to assume a normal life again, really. Well, it does disrupt a life for a long period of time, I think like this. Well, it'll fix you for the rest of your life, but the way that I look at it is, you know, the best thing I can do is to not be bitter about anything. So I appreciate my time with my friends and my family and just to be out by myself. But over? Oh, no. You should know, by the way,

there are people we meet who try a little manipulation, or lie, if you will, pretty standard stuff. But what happened next here in the St. Louis suburbs? Hard to believe. It was August 16, 2016. O'Fallon, Missouri. It was midday hot. Muggy. 911, where's your emergency? Hey, hello, there's someone working in my house. Help! What's the address you're at? No! Is it you, the woman, your wife? No, I'm not getting in the car The woman on the phone was Pam Hupp. And moments later, the man you heard briefly in the background was dead.

And in short order, Pam was sitting with police, trying to explain that she had no choice. That man, whoever he was, attacked her while she sat in her own car, in her own driveway, and, obviously, he'd been brought here to kill her. A car came down really fast on the cross street and whipped around right in front of my driveway, and I looked up because it was so fast and startling, and somebody jumped out and opened up the door and jumped in my car. I think I was like, who are you? Get out of my car, blah, blah, blah. And he was like, bitch, we're going to the bank.

And I'm like, I'm not going to the bank with you. Get out of my car. And he goes, bitch, we're going to the bank. We're getting Russ's money. Russ's money? That's when the man pulled out the knife, she said, held it to her throat, kept yelling. And my thought was to get the knife away and get the heck out of the car. That's all I was thinking about at that point. Somehow, said Pam, she was able to knock the knife out of the man's hand. Then she jumped out of her car, ran into her house, the man in hot pursuit.

He was yelling stuff. None of it made any sense, but he did keep saying, get in the car. I ran in the bedroom for a moment, got my gun, nightstand right there, and he was pounding on the door. And once it flew open, that's when I shot him. And I just kept shooting him. He just kept standing there. How many times did you say you pulled the trigger? I unloaded the whole gun.

So you pulled the trigger until it stopped firing? I just kept pulling until it stopped. Clear as day, you can hear the gunshots on the 911 tape as Pam killed her intruder. As Pam told that story, the unidentified man was lying dead in her house. But who brought him, they asked. Did she see who dropped her attacker off at her driveway?

What was the most distinctive thing about the driver that you remember? Dark hair, it was kind of like a buzz cut, and dark skin. Which sounded a lot like Russ Faria. Now that would be some twist in this bizarre saga. This whole street was kind of a zoo when you got here. It was. A sizable crowd had gathered outside Pam's place by the time Lieutenant Brian Hilkey arrived. Did you know initially as you came up here who you were dealing with?

Initially, when the call came in, it was reported as a Pam Huff. Huff? Huff. F's? Yes. So originally, there was no tie-in, no aha moment until we got here and somebody clarified that it was the Pam Huff. This was well enough known that it was the Pam Huff?

Yeah. As we were going around doing our canvas talking to all these neighbors, a lot of them whispered, you know who that is, right? That's Pam Huff. What did you think? I knew at that point that it was going to be a media circus, that there was going to be a lot of scrutiny on the case, a lot of high profile people wanting to know what was going on. And I knew we had to do it right.

With Pam safely in the care of the police, Hilkey took a good look at the crime scene. What was inside when you got there? Immediately upon entering through the garage, there is a garage door that leads into the house. That's where the gentleman was that had been shot, laying right there. The man had no identification on him, but there was a note in his pocket. It said, get Hupp in car, take to bank. The note specifically said, get Russ's money. Should be $100,000 to $150,000.

Take Hupp back to house. And then dispose of her. Make it look like Russ' wife. Make sure knife is sticking out of neck. It gave instructions of where to take the money, which ended up being Russ Ferrio's mother's house. Also in the man's pocket. Nine $100 bills.

Had Pam Hupp on that steamy suburban afternoon foiled a crude homicidal plot by Russ Faria? An attempt to get back Betsy's insurance money and then kill Pam? Maybe he was the true villain behind the whole story. With live cameras trained on Pam Huff's driveway, the city waited for answers. Coming up, investigators would start at the beginning with Pam's 911 call. No, I'm not getting in the car with you. No, get away. It didn't sound right.

It didn't smell right. It didn't sound right. It didn't smell right. It didn't taste right. By late afternoon, it seemed all of St. Louis was watching. We're looking to do a complete and thorough investigation of this. This being the shooting, Pam's claim of self-defense, and her accusation that seemed to implicate Russ Faria. So maybe he was the killer all along. And soon, Russ's cousin Mary answered the phone. And there he was, asking for help.

He asked me if I could go with him to the police department. I'm like, well, why? He said, well, they think I'm involved. What? And I was like, well, what do you mean they think you're involved? Well, she's pointing the finger at me. Well, now I'm starting to panic. It was a different police force this time.

Did they ask you some pointed questions? They did. He gave handwriting samples, DNA, fingerprints. Mr. Ferreira was very cooperative. His attorney was very cooperative. In fact, I think they were anxious to speak with us. He gave us a statement. We were able to establish and confirm his alibi.

So, Russ was not behind what happened. So who was? What did happen? Hey, hello, there's someone broken in my house. Help! Lieutenant Hilkey and cyber forensics expert Larry McClain started with Pam's 911 call. Just listening to it, it didn't sound right. it didn't smell right, it didn't taste right. We listened to it over and over. It just sounded like somebody stage acting poorly. Most people don't realize that before you get picked up by dispatch, your call is being recorded. And it's complete silence. If there was a struggle, if somebody was trying to kick the door in, push the door in, threaten her,

we should have been able to hear all that. And there's no sound, no communication until the operator says, 911, what's your emergency? And then it's like, action. St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lomar had to listen too. You don't hear the panic or the tension in her voice. It sounded so scripted, not just what she said, but what the man said. Did you do what we did to your wife? No, I'm not getting in the car with you. No, get away.

But it wasn't just the 911 call. They encountered strange things at Pam's house. Remember that story Pam told about the struggle in the car where she knocked the knife out of the man's hand. We located this knife that was almost appeared to be perfectly placed between the center council and the passenger seat. What is also interesting is when you go into her residence, suspiciously the way she stored her kitchen knives were between the counter and the oven.

Blade down, handle up. In that gap, just like it was between the seat and the center console. Again. Not flung to the side, because she said she batted it out of his hand. But it wasn't laying on the floorboard, flung to the side. It was simply stored between the seat and the cushion, just like in the kitchen. And when they dusted that knife for prints? The only fingerprint that was on the knife was the man that attacked her. And it was almost like it was

touched like this. That's where we located his fingerprint. And only there? Only there. Not on the handle, only on the blade. And then they dug around and discovered it appeared Pam herself bought that knife, or one exactly like it, at this Dollar Tree store. And this was weird. Inside Pam's house, under the dead man's body, there was an extra layer of carpet on the floor. It was almost like this piece of carpet was placed there on purpose. Where was it? Right outside the bedroom, between the garage door and the bedroom door.

And it appeared that somebody might not have wanted to get blood on their actual carpet. Investigators searched past bedroom two and found some cash, including a $100 bill linked by serial numbers to some of the cash in the dead man's pocket.

As if somebody went to the bank, got a whole bunch of $100 bills, and they were all in sequence. Yes. The chances of that happening in a vacuum, if you will, are... Astronomical. Right, astronomical. But the urgent question, who was the guy Pam shot to death? With no ID on him, they sent his prints out for a database comparison.

Fingerprints come back and they announce the name. His name was Louis Gumpenberger. He was 33 years old and lived with his mother in an apartment complex 13 miles from Pam's house. My research found some information that the suspect had been in an automobile accident, had a traumatic brain injury. Based on what I was reading, this person was incapable of functioning at a level to do what was being purported that he had done. Obviously, one of the things we want to do is speak with the mother

because we needed to make death notification and get some background. And in fact, another agency was contacted by his mother, and she let them know that he was missing. She also told police more about her son. to perform a ransom kidnapping murder for hire, but he was also physically unable to do even basic things such as running. Wow, he really was incapacitated. Yes. And Louis Gumpenberger, therefore, was not a perpetrator. He was a victim.

Correct. No way Pam's story could be true. But how did these two come into contact? How did Louis wind up at Pam Hupp's house? Well, you hear that. A scheme low and cruel and so devious

it caught us completely off guard. Coming up, someone's running around impersonating us. She's like, well, I'm from Dateline. I said, okay. She's like, the TV show?

I said, I've heard of it. I'm not stupid. Who is she and what does she want when Dateline continues? murder investigations are so often achingly slow can take months years but not after the shooting at pam huff's house that was different it seemed like each and every day a new lead developed. This was going very quickly. Very quickly. And very early on... We received a call from the St. Charles County Police that they had some very important and valuable information for us. Oh yes, they certainly did. Six days before Lewis was shot, they got a call from this woman. My name is Carol Alford.

Her name was Carol Alford and her story. Just one more thing you couldn't make up. So, of course, they brought Carol in. Do you want to have a seat right there? It happened right outside her house, she said. She was with her dog and this woman pulled up in an SUV and this was bizarre. She's like, well, I'm from Dateline. I said, okay. She's like, the TV show? I said, I've heard of it. I'm not stupid. The woman also claimed to be from Chicago, said Carol.

And then later she added, the woman said her name was Kathy, just like the producer of this very story. She's like, I'd like to offer you the opportunity to record a soundbite for Dateline for $1,000 cash, no taxes, so there's no paper trail on the same. I said, really? She says, yeah. Just an aside, by the way, we don't pay for soundbites or interviews. We just don't. Carol said she knew that.

And while she is naturally a skeptical person, she told us she was also curious. So she agreed. Took the dog in the house, and as I was walking up the stairs, she says, by the way, if you help us, you can't bring your keys, your wallet, your cigarettes, or your cell phone

because the producer doesn't like clutter. Okay, strange, but she complied, got in the car, even though her spidey sense was tingling. And then the woman started driving in a direction that just didn't seem right. And that's when I was like, okay, I probably ought to get out of this car. And that's when I told her I needed to take me back to, you know, lock my door and get my shoes. So they returned. She hopped out, told the woman, sorry, count me out. And she's like, well, if I come back in an hour, will you help me? And I'm like, yeah, lady, I gotta go.

Then I called the dispatch line for the cops and I told them, like, yum, I want to check this chick out. Carol gave the police a description of the woman. All I saw was her big white teeth, her stupid smile, her short blonde hair, and her black SUV with her blue shirt on. She was short, chunky. The look on her face, she had a permanent, like, grin, smile, like it was just weird. Smirk.

Yeah. And when detectives showed Carol a photo lineup, she was confident. Okay, yeah. At first, the one before that one caught my eye because of the blue shirt. Fascinating tale in a she said, she said sort of way. Except, as you may have noticed, Carol had cameras on her house. And one of them got a good look at the woman's license plate.

Pam Hopp's license plate. Now they were getting somewhere. And then they heard from this guy, Brent Charlton. I was by myself that day. Just mowing the grass. When I noticed the car was stopped in front of the lot, she stopped and talked to me and told me that she was trying to do a reenactment for Dateline, that she worked for Dateline. He said the woman offered him $1,000.

He refused. He got a weird vibe from her, he said. And besides, he had to work. But it was pretty obvious Pam was using our identity to troll for a victim. She must have used the very same ruse to pick up the vulnerable Louis Gumpenberger. But to prove that was going to take more than speculation. So Detective McClain submitted an emergency search warrant to Google requesting a location history for Pam's phone,

including on the day Lewis was killed. When the search warrant material came back, I'm sitting in this lab, I'm in a dark room surrounded by screens, and I get the data and I pull it into Google Earth to plot it. And up popped dozens of tiny fins. That's where she went. I can see when she left the house,. That's where she went. I can see when she left the house, I can see everywhere she went. And as I scroll in and scroll in, I stopped.

There's a pin on his apartment complex. Wow. There's your proof. She went to see Louis Gumpenberger at his house. It was the first time we knew how they came in contact. I was astounded at what I was looking at. I played devil's advocate, reviewed the material, went back, did my conversions, did my math, looked at the time zones. There was no mistake. I knew. How long was she there?

Approximately three to five minutes. Clear evidence that Pam's phone was at Louis Gumpenberger's apartment, meaning Pam herself must have been there too. But they had to know for sure. So what we did was, everywhere that we could plot she had been, Brian sent out teams. We just flooded the entire route for any possible camera footage. And if Google said she was there and there was a camera, she was there. There was video from all over. But one particular bit told the tale. A camera on a bakery en route

from Lewis's apartment to Pam's house. And they had video. It's very grainy. It's tough to see. But there in Pam's car was Lewis Gumpenberger. At least it sure looked like it to them. He had a distinct Mizzou baseball cap, the University of Missouri baseball cap he wore all the time, and a shirt that he wore. And I believe you see him in the passenger seat going to his death.

It's eerie. He's a ghost-like figure in the passenger seat of her vehicle before he becomes an actual ghost. With all that evidence, I think it's time to take her into custody. And the prosecutor was right there in our offices, and he just went through it. We laid it out. He asked his questions and then he said, yeah, let's move. Coming up, Pam in custody, sneaking a pen off the table, touching her neck. What was she up to?

You never want anyone to die on your watch. Life, for would-be devious criminals, must be so burdensome of late, with all those smart devices we just can't seem to live without. It is very, very difficult to get away with a crime these days, especially a crime this elaborate. Yes, said the prosecutor, technology is all-knowing in a certain kind of way, and technology is what finally busted Pam Hopp. A week after Pam shot Louis Gummerberger to death, they slapped on the cuffs, put her in their car, and told her she was under arrest for murder. How was she in the car?

Cold. Calm. Cool. Yeah, yeah. And in fact, when we were explaining to her what was transpiring, that you're being arrested for murder, we have a mountain of evidence, and you're not getting away with this, her only statement to me was, I'm a little cold, could you turn down the AC?

So cold, said Prosecutor Lomar. She could carefully, deliberately stalk, lie to, and then kill Louis Gumpenberger. And then, when first interviewed, disparaged the man in further service of her story. I mean, it was like he was drunk. I mean, he was left. I literally, like, his tongue was this thick. I have to think at some point during their approximate 30-minute interaction, she had to say to herself, I got the wrong guy here. Hmm.

Maybe. And yet she went ahead with it. She did it anyway. I think she believes she's smarter than everybody. She's always the smartest person in the room. Maybe they are the smartest people in the room, but most frequently those are the ones who get caught, right? This is a pretty cool crime story for a 7th grader, maybe a 5th grader.

But to actually come up with the story and then try to execute the story. I think you're going to persuade people that it's true. You can't be very bright if that's what you do. That's what she did. She won't be happy to hear you say that. She probably won't. Pam's plan was so feather-brained that when police arrived at her house

and she told them the intruder demanded Russ's money and they asked if she knew a Russ, she said no. We know who Russ is. How do you not know who Russ is? But in fact, said the prosecutor, Pam's plot in which Lewis was the tragic collateral damage was all about Russ and the murder of his wife, Betsy. I think the whole point was to point the figure back at him to show that, hey, I'm right after all. I had nothing to do with that case. And look how bad he wants me to go down for it. Bad enough to hire somebody

to kill me. That's what it was all about. Prosecutor Lomar gave it a good think, assessed the evidence, considered the abject cruelty, and announced Pam would face the death penalties. In Missouri face the death penalty. In Missouri, the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst. We felt like just the degree of disregard for human life that she exhibited by luring a mentally disabled man to her home and shooting him in cold blood, and then making up a crazy story on top of it. We thought that is the worst of the worst. My office received a call close in time

to the incident back in August of 2016, and we were on the case almost from the very beginning. Nick Williams was one of PAM's defense attorneys. We would challenge a lot of the evidence because nothing involved with this incident specifically is on surveillance video. There were no witnesses to what took place on that driveway. We also know that she has a right to defend herself inside her own home, especially in light of any deadly force that could be used against her.

Williams made it clear that Pound's attorneys would challenge every claim the state leveled against her, including her movements. She stopped at Louis Gumpenberger's home, was there for about four minutes, went directly from Gumpenberger's home to her home where this little playlet

occurred on her driveway and in her home. However, there's no eyewitness to that car moving, who is in the car while it's moving, and therefore there are no eyewitnesses to the actual incident that takes place. But for a moment along the way, it was not clear Pam would need a defense at all.

It happened right after detectives arrested her and began their formal interview when she asked for a lawyer. I'd like him to be called now. Now, watch. The detectives left the room to make arrangements. Pam's eyes fixed on the table. She spotted a pen behind her water bottle.

Then, quickly, quietly, she reached for the bottle, pulled it with the pen, palmed the pen, tucked it into her pants, then felt for the arteries in her neck. When the detectives returned, she asked to go to the bathroom. It was a moment before they realized she was stabbing herself. You never want anyone to die on your watch, and especially knowing that there was a press conference in about 30 minutes. They really didn't want to lead into the press conference with,

oh, and by the way, Pam Hupp killed herself. Indeed. Oh, and by the way, Pam Huff killed herself. Indeed. Oh, indeed. Coming up, a final chance to come clean. She's just heard the state's evidence, and the judge turns to her and says, Ma'am, as to these charges, how do you plead? Dead silence. When Dateline continues. Pam Hupp did not manage to kill herself with the big pen she sneaked from that police interview room when she was charged with murder. It looked like she'd aimed at major blood vessels in her neck and wrists, but

she didn't hit any. Did she really want to kill herself? I don't think she did. I think she's too much of a coward for that. I think she knew that she's now going to be primetime again, and everybody's going to be paying attention to Pam Hub. We came to find out later that the injuries were mostly superficial. Instead, the incident joined a whole catalog of Pamishness, along with greed and selfishness and narcissism, manipulation, conniving, and lethal violence. Pam's trial was both highly anticipated and delayed. Delayed and delayed. And then the rumor raced around.

There'd be no trial at all. The rumor was true. Bam, once facing the death penalty, was taking a plea deal. So when you heard that there was going to be a deal in this case, what did you think? Not unrealistic. I wasn't hoping and thinking that she was going to own up deal in this case. What did you think? I'm not unrealistic. I wasn't hoping and thinking that she was going to own up to what she did to Betsy. I was at least hoping that she would own up to what she did to Mr. Kumpenberger.

Would she? Pam had agreed to take what they call an Alford plea, meaning she agreed to plead guilty because the state had enough evidence to convict her, but not because she admitted to it all. It's not kind of a half-hearted victory. It leaves a bad taste in some people's mouth, sure. I would love to have her stand up there and explain in great detail what she was doing and why she did it and how she feels about it now.

But Prosecutor Lomar had come to believe Pam Hupp would never, ever do that. And, what with the extraordinary cost of a death penalty trial and limited resources, Lomar reasoned that saving the money and putting Pam away for life anyway made sense. And so one afternoon this past June, a great crowd assembled so big they had to move to a larger courtroom. No cameras allowed. All there to watch a very different looking Pam walk in to face the judge and her sins and accept her fate. She aged a lot. She got skinny.

Her hair got real long and gray. The best description of her I could come up with was the old hag that gave Snow White the apple. She looks a bit like that now. She still had that grin on her face. She still had that arrogance about her. None of that changed. Nothing at all.

They were uncertain for that very reason. Anxious. Would Pam finally take the deal on offer? Would she admit to anything? I would say there was a mood of anticipation. Everybody knew it was coming. But there was still doubt as to whether or not this was going to actually happen. With her pride, I didn't think

she could get on that stand under oath and say she was guilty. Even the prosecutor who dropped the death penalty and made that Alford plea deal was unsure. There's a point in the hearing where she's just heard the state's evidence and the judge turns to her and says, Ma'am, as to these charges, how do you plead? Dead silence. For what seemed like ten minutes to me. I don't think it was that long. It was a few seconds. And then, finally, Pam Hupp said the word.

Guilty. Two months later, the judge gave her the mandatory sentence from murder. Life in prison without the possibility of parole. Plus, 30 years for armed criminal action. The same charges that I got charged with, I always wanted her to get the same sentence that I did. Pam had cleaned up by the time she was processed into state prison a look of, what is that, defiance on her face? As for Lincoln County and its prosecution of Russ for the murder of his wife Betsy, in 2018, the judge in Russ Faria's first trial and prosecutor Leah Askey were voted out of their jobs. The man who beat

the prosecutor 74 to 26 percent is this man, Mike Wood. This is kind of unusual for the local election of a DA. Certainly unusual, yeah. And now Mike Wood is reopening the Betsy Faria case, reinvestigating it, and following the evidence, he said, wherever it takes him. We want to seek justice. We want answers for the family. And that's my job to try to seek those. The Gumpenberger case, with Pam's apparent aim to frame Russ again, provides him with some ammunition. If you're willing to stage a killing of someone in order to attempt to deflect or cover up issues that were in a neighboring county, ought to lead you to believe that if you're willing to kill somebody here, potentially you're willing to kill somebody somewhere else. Two people murdered, but the question is were there three? Coming up

someone else connected to Pam found dead. She looked over and saw the body. Must have been quite a shock for that housekeeper. Yes.

Based on what you saw could that possibly have been an accident? No. So many questions about Pam Hupp. But one particular big disturbing question lingers even now. And it's about someone else altogether. It is Pam Hupp who was the last one with her.

We know what she's capable of. Joel Schwartz was talking about Pam's own mother, Shirley Newman. For that, we need to travel back in time to the year 2012. Here was Pam Hupp talking to the lead detective building a murder case against Russ Faria. They were talking about insurance and money and motives for murder, and Pam told the detective that Betsy's $150,000 of life insurance was too paltry to be any kind of motive for murder for her. If I really, hate to say it, wanted money, my mom's worth a half a million that I get when she dies. If I really wanted money,

there was an easier way than trying to combat somebody that's physically stronger than me, I'm just saying. My mom's worth half a million? Pam's mother, Shirley, 77, lived in a retirement complex one county over. Until Halloween 2013, almost two years after Betsy was murdered. Shirley was killed in a fall from her third floor balcony. Pam had been the very last person known to have seen Shirley alive the day before.

That's when she told the staff that her mother would not be coming down for dinner or for breakfast in the morning. They found her body the next afternoon. A couple of the bent and broken spindles from her balcony railing were lying nearby. It was sometime later when Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch heard about it. One of the staff members came into her apartment and noticed the water was running, and I think she noticed that the patio door was ajar. There were some things that were kind of knocked around, and then some of the railings had been dislodged. So then she went and looked over? And then she looked over and saw the body. That's been quite a shock for that housekeeper. Yes. The police came, took pictures.

There was an autopsy. It was ruled an accident. But three years later, in 2016, we did some poking around, and this was curious. That autopsy revealed that Shirley had about 14 times the recommended dose for a woman her age of Ambien, or its equivalent in her system. And that balcony railing seemed pretty sturdy to us. How did she crash right through it? We asked a structural engineer named Justin Hall to do a little math. Justin calculated the maximum force the 200-plus pound Shirley could have exerted on those spindles. That is, if she tripped on the threshold and fell headlong full speed across her balcony and into the spindles. The momentum force falling at that rate, at that far, it would almost multiply her weight times two.

So we're looking at about 425 pounds into the handrail, head first. Six of the spindles broke from the balcony and were bent. So Justin put together a little demo using six slightly thinner spindles. I'm just going to demonstrate how strong they are. So we decided to use concrete bags, pretty heavy. Each of those weighs what, 94 pounds? 94 pounds. Many bags of concrete later, the spindles remained unbent.

Justin figured it would take at least 2,000 pounds to bend or break them. Interesting. So, based on what you saw, those photographs and this test, could that possibly have been an accident? No. No way? No way. I mean, even if she was running full speed, no way. I guess it makes you wonder how that could have been broken so badly.

It's hard to say at this point. But it wasn't somebody's head and shoulders going through. That's what we've proven right here. Pam is denied she had anything to do with her mother's death. The estate was divided among Pam and her siblings. She received about $100,000. A year after Pam's arrest from murder, and with the continuing talk of her possible involvement

in Betsy Faria's case, the St. Louis County Medical Examiner changed Shirley's manner of death from accidental to undetermined. Though the local police still maintain there is no evidence of a crime. But around St. Louis, people do talk, and Joel Schwartz certainly understands why. At this point now, she's been around a minimum of three people who died suspiciously,

and she's been the last person with them. Russ Faria lives a quiet and modest life now, still certain that Pam killed his Betsy. The only reason I can think of is for money. And it wasn't really a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but money will motivate people to do all kinds of things, good or bad. That's why Betsy's dead? Money will motivate people to do all kinds of things, go to our bed. That's why Betsy's dead?

I believe so. Pam has denied to us and others that she had anything to do with Betsy's murder. But then, as she has said herself... Money makes people do crazy, crazy things. And the thing about Pam is, if anyone would know, it's her. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt.

For all of us at NBC News, good night.