The Truth About Pam Hupp: Murders, Convictions, and Charges

Pam Hupp is a Missouri woman serving life in prison without parole for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, and she is awaiting trial for the 2011 stabbing death of her friend Betsy Faria — the case that first put her name in the news after her testimony helped convict Faria’s innocent husband. A third death in her orbit, that of her own mother in 2013, was reclassified from accidental to undetermined but has produced no charges. Hupp is incarcerated in Chillicothe, Missouri, and her bench trial on the Faria murder charge is scheduled for January 2028.¹

The Betsy Faria Stabbing

Betsy Faria was 42, battling cancer, and spent December 27, 2011, at a chemotherapy appointment. Her husband Russ had planned to pick her up, but Betsy texted that her friend Pam Hupp would drive her home instead. When Russ arrived at their Troy, Missouri, home that evening, he found Betsy dead from more than 55 stab wounds. Hupp was the last known person to see her alive.²³

Four days before the killing, on December 23, 2011, Betsy had changed the beneficiary of her $150,000 State Farm life insurance policy from Russ to Hupp. The change was executed at a public library branch in St. Charles County. Investigators would later identify that policy change as a potential motive.⁴

The Wrongful Conviction of Russ Faria

Russ told police he had been at a weekly game night with friends. That alibi did not slow the investigation. Lincoln County prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder, and at his 2013 trial, Hupp’s testimony contributed to a jury conviction. He was sentenced to life.⁵

Defense attorney Joel Schwartz took the appeal and uncovered more than 100 crime scene photographs that had never been turned over to the defense. The photographs contradicted the prosecution’s theory that Russ had cleaned up blood evidence. The Missouri Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, citing the exclusion of evidence pointing to alternative suspects.⁶

At a November 2015 bench retrial before Judge Steven Ohmer, Schwartz presented the full picture: Hupp’s contradictory statements, her beneficiary status on the life insurance policy, her failure to pass the money to Betsy’s daughters as she had claimed she would, and her undisclosed personal history with Betsy. Neither side called Hupp as a witness. On November 6, 2015, Judge Ohmer acquitted Russ Faria of all charges. He had spent more than three years in prison.⁶

The Murder of Louis Gumpenberger

Less than a year later, on August 16, 2016, Hupp shot and killed 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger inside her O’Fallon, Missouri, home. Her 911 call described a stranger who had jumped into her SUV, held a knife to her throat, and demanded she drive him to a bank for “Russ’s money.” She said she fled inside, grabbed a revolver, and shot him in self-defense.⁷

Investigators dismantled the story. They concluded Hupp had lured Gumpenberger, who had physical and mental disabilities, to her home to stage a fake intruder scenario designed to frame Russ Faria and divert attention from the reopened Betsy Faria investigation. Six days before the shooting, a woman matching Hupp’s description had approached someone else in an SUV, posed as a Dateline producer, and offered $1,000 to help record a scripted segment about 911 calls. The woman backed out when no credentials were produced, and home surveillance footage captured the license plates of Hupp’s vehicle.⁸

Hupp was arrested seven days after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder. In June 2019 she entered an Alford plea, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict without admitting guilt. The plea took the death penalty off the table. On August 12, 2019, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.⁹

The 2021 Charge for Betsy Faria’s Murder

Lincoln County voters elected Mike Wood as prosecuting attorney in 2018. He had campaigned on reopening the Betsy Faria case, and he later called the original investigation the “poorest example of investigative work” he had ever seen.¹⁰

In July 2021, Wood charged Hupp with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in Betsy’s death. Hupp pleaded not guilty. The death penalty was taken off the table, and Hupp chose a bench trial. Wood has said a judge-decided case is easier to try without the risk of prejudicing a jury pool saturated by the publicity. The trial is set for January 2028.⁸¹

Corruption Fallout and Perjury Charges

Wood’s investigation extended to the law enforcement officers and prosecutors who built the case against Russ Faria. His office alleged that former deputies had ordered the destruction of evidence after Faria’s acquittal and discovered a formal destruction order signed during the tenures of former Sheriff John Cottle and former Prosecutor Leah Askey. Recorded police interviews with Hupp went missing around the same time. Wood moved the remaining evidence to a different jurisdiction, and the interviews were eventually recovered.¹¹

A federal court reviewing Russ Faria’s civil suit found that the original investigators had omitted significant exculpatory evidence pointing to Hupp — including her inconsistent statements, the beneficiary change, and her proximity to the crime scene. The court observed that “nearly every piece of evidence that led investigators to suspect Faria could equally support suspicion of Hupp.”¹² Askey, who lost reelection to Wood in 2018, has defended her handling of the case and attributed criticism to gender bias and defense attorneys with “some kind of score to settle.”¹³

On June 3, 2025, the investigation produced its first criminal charges against law enforcement. Former Lincoln County Sheriff’s Captain Michael Merkel was charged with two felony counts of perjury, one for each of Russ Faria’s trials. Prosecutors alleged Merkel had testified falsely about crime scene photographs taken during a Bluestar luminescence test for blood. At the 2013 trial, Merkel told the jury the photographs showed “absolutely nothing” and that the camera had malfunctioned. In reality, the camera captured 132 digital images with complete metadata, and at least seven photographs showed blue chemiluminescence indicating potential blood in areas investigators never sampled.¹⁴ Wood described the broader case as “an orchestrated and well-organized effort among all of law enforcement to manipulate and secrete evidence.”⁵

Merkel pleaded not guilty at a June 10, 2025, arraignment. His bond was set at $50,000, cash only, with a GPS ankle monitor ordered. His attorney, Joel Eisenstein, called the charges a “political stunt.” Merkel also faces 2022 charges for allegedly stalking and harassing the detective who led the internal misconduct investigation, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Wood has signaled that additional charges against other members of law enforcement are expected.¹⁵⁵

The Death of Hupp’s Mother

In 2013, Hupp’s 77-year-old mother, Shirley Neumann, was found dead on the ground below her balcony at a senior living facility in Fenton, Missouri. A broken railing suggested she had fallen through. Two police investigations led the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s Office to rule the death accidental. In November 2017, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mary Case changed the manner of death from “accidental” to “undetermined,” finding that the evidence was no longer “clear and compelling enough to indicate that it was an accident.” Hupp was the last known person to see her mother alive. No charges have been filed.¹⁶

Civil Judgments and the Insurance Money

Russ Faria sued the Lincoln County officers and prosecutors involved in his wife’s investigation, alleging they fabricated evidence, ignored exculpatory findings, and failed to investigate Hupp. The case settled for more than $2 million. The officers did not admit wrongdoing.¹⁷

Betsy Faria’s daughters, Leah and Mariah Day, tried to recover the $150,000 life insurance payout, arguing Hupp had promised to hold it in trust for them. Hupp set up a $100,000 trust in 2013, then withdrew funds and revoked it in 2014. She testified she had commingled the proceeds with her own finances and spent the money, including buying a house at auction. In 2017, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled against the daughters, finding that the language Betsy used — “if you could” give the money to her daughters — was precatory, meaning it expressed a wish rather than a binding obligation. The money legally belonged to Hupp.⁴

Hupp also owes $3 million to Margaret Burch, Louis Gumpenberger’s mother, following a civil judgment. As of mid-2026, she had paid just over $783 of that debt. Hupp has filed a court motion against the Missouri Department of Corrections over the garnishment of her prison wages, asserting that the state is taking 100 percent of her earnings instead of the 25 percent she contends is required.¹⁸

1
Fox 2 Now. Death Penalty Taken Off the Table in Pam Hupp’s Case
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NBC. The Thing About Pam: Who Was Betsy Faria
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People. Pam Hupp Charge Refiled in Betsy Faria Stabbing Death
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Findlaw. Faria v. Hupp, Missouri Court of Appeals
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NBC News. Felony Charges for Deputy in Betsy Faria Murder Case
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National Registry of Exonerations. Russell Faria
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St. Louis Magazine. Pam Hupp
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CBS News. Pamela Hupp Murder Case Refiled in Missouri
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St. Louis Magazine. Pam Hupp Life Sentence
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KSDK. Police, Prosecutors Face Criminal Investigation in Betsy Faria Murder
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Fox 2 Now. Evidence Almost Destroyed in Betsy Faria Murder Investigation
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Casemine. Faria v. McCarrick et al.
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Newsweek. Where Are Leah Askey and Joel Schwartz Now
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KSDK. Missouri Investigator Accused of Lying in Russ Faria Case
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Fox 2 Now. Ex-Captain Walks Same Path to Jail as Exonerated Russ Faria Once Did
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NBC News. Manner of Death Changed for Pamela Hupp’s Mother Shirley Neumann
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KSDK. Russ Faria Settlement in Lawsuit Against Police
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Fox 2 Now. Convicted Killer Pam Hupp Fights to Keep Prison Wages From Victim’s Mother