On August 23, the St. Charles County prosecuting attorney and the OFallon chief of police announced their theory of the case. They believed Hupp had lured the man to her house by saying she was a Dateline producer and offering to pay him to reenact a 911 scenario for the show. Then shed shot him in cold blood. Why? To throw suspicion on Russell Faria for a prior murder in which she was the only other logical suspect.
Why then? The heat of scrutiny. Dateline had already aired three episodes on the case (and plans to do at least fivemore coverage than its given any case except O.J. Simpson and JonBenét Ramsey). The U.S. Attorneys Office had begun gathering information for its review. In mid-July Russ had filed a civil suit against the Lincoln County prosecutor and the three detectives who investigated his wifes death, alleging that they fabricated evidence, ignored exonerating evidence, and failed to investigate the other obvious suspect...
The day after the shooting, Mark Hupp carried a white garbage bag out to the SUV. Its contents included Shirley Neumanns will, Betsy Farias death certificate, transcripts of Hupps police interviews and Russ first trial, T-shirts and flip-flops, a 1099 tax form showing Betsy Faria as the recipient, and yellow sticky notes with bank account details for several relatives...
Public relations consultant Richard Callow was retained by Hupps attorney, Nicholas Williams, and conveyed our questions to Hupp; at press time, thered been no response. The St. Louis County Police were still conducting their third review of the death of Pams mother but had not reopened the case. The U.S. Attorneys Office was still reviewing Betsy Farias case. No one had been charged with Betsys murder.
Chris Kunza Mennemeyer, the judge in Russ first trial, has had four cases reversed by the appeals court and is suspended without pay. And Betsys daughters are appealing the civil court judges decision, last February, to allow Pam to keep the insurance money.
