Murder Charges Refiled in Betsy Faria Death

Charges have been refiled against the woman at the center of an NBC true crime miniseries The Thing About Pam moments after they were dropped.

On Friday, Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood announced that he refiled murder charges against convicted-killer Pam Hupp, 65 — who is accused of fatally stabbing her friend Betsy Faria more than 50 times in 2011.

“The purpose of refiing the charges is to seek a venue that is closer to Lincoln County" — the site of Faria's death — "which will allow for more efficient delivery of justice,” the prosecutor's press release reads.

The release also states that prosecutors expect the trial to last a month and are requesting that it takes place closer to where the crime occurred to allow a “more efficient and less burdensome delivery of justice.” According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Hupp’s trial is set for summer 2025. 

On Dec. 27, 2011, Betsy's husband Russ Faria arrived at the home in Troy, Mo., he shared with Betsy to find her covered in stab wounds. He frantically called 911 and reported what he believed was a possible suicide due to Betsy’s ongoing cancer battle. He waited for help to arrive and told police how he found his wife after a night out with friends — but he had no idea that his wife’s friend and coworker, Hupp, was pointing the finger directly at him. 

"She maybe thought I was an easy mark," Russ alleged to PEOPLE in 2022.

Hupp reportedly was the last person to see Betsy alive after offering to drop her off at home after a doctor’s appointment, and four days before Betsy was killed, she allegedly named Hupp the sole recipient of a $150,000 life insurance policy. 

Despite that information, prosecutors still believed Russ was the guilty party, alleging he faked an elaborate alibi on the night of his wife's murder. He was wrongfully convicted of Betsy’s brutal murder and served more than three years behind bars before he was found not guilty during a retrial in November 2015.

But less than a year after his release, Hupp and Russ were back on the radar of police when Hupp called 911 in August of 2016 to report an attempted assault and home invasion. When authorities arrived at Hupp’s O'Fallon, Mo., home, they discovered Louis Gumpenberger's lifeless body on her floor with fatal gunshot wounds. She told police that the 33-year-old tried to attack her and demanded “Russ’ money," and that she shot him in self defense. However, police quickly discovered that the story was a scheme concocted by Hupp in an attempt to frame Russ for Betsy’s now-unsolved murder. 

Prosecutors claimed that Hupp picked Gumpenberger up at random with the plan to make him look like a hitman hired by Russ, PEOPLE previously reported. But she was unaware he had physical and mental impairments after suffering a brain injury during a 2005 car crash, which would have made it impossible for him to arrive at Hupp’s house on his own. 

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In Gumpenberger’s pockets, police found $900 in cash and a note referencing “Russ’ money,” but authorities discovered that Hupp wrote the note. Authorities also connected the money to a $100 bill in Hupp's dresser, PEOPLE previously reported.

Hupp’s cellphone also pinged in Gumpenberger’s neighborhood 45 minutes before she placed the 911 call, St. Louis Magazine reported. 

Hupp was subsequently charged with Gumpenberger’s murder and eventually took an Alford plea in 2019, which means she acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her but did not admit guilt. She avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. 

In July 2021 — nearly 10 years after Betsy was killed — Hupp was charged with her murder. Prosecutors also announced they would seek the death penalty, PEOPLE previously reported. Hupp pleaded not guilty.

Another twist in the case came when authorities decided to review the 2013 death of Hupp's mother, 77-year-old Shirley Neumann. Hupp was the last to see her mother before she fell to her death from her third-floor balcony at her assisted living community, PEOPLE previously reported. In 2017, Neumann's manner of death was changed from "accidental" to "undetermined," but Hupp has not been charged in connection with the case.

In 2017, while speaking to PEOPLE, Betsy’s family remembered her while hoping that her murder would one day be solved. 

“She was very positive,” Betsy’s sister, Julie Swaney said of her sister. “Everyone felt like she was their best friend when they were around her. She always wanted to hear about you, what’s going on in your life. She didn’t want to talk about herself. She tried to make other people the focus.”

Swaney later added: “I have faith that one day we will have all the answers.”

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