The Dateline episode ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ is about the 2011 brutal murder of Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria who was stabbed to death 55 times. After two trials and spending three and a half years in prison, Betsy’s husband Russell Faria was cleared of the murder charge. He sued Lincoln County (St. Louis, MO) and the prosecuting attorney for their handling of Betsy’s murder. And Betsy’s daughters sued their mother’s friend Pamela Hupp who convinced Betsy to change her life insurance policy right before her death, making Pam the beneficiary of the $150,000 policy. A judge ruled that Betsy could keep the money and ordered the daughters had to pay Hupp’s legal fees.
In August 2016, Hupp was arrested on murder charges — but not related to Betsy Faria’s death. Hupp is accused of killing a brain-damaged man named Louis Gumpenberger. According to the police, Hupp lured Gumpenberger to her home by pretending to be a Dateline NBC producer looking to re-enact a 911 call. She shot Gumpenberger several times (as a 911 operator listened) and then told police the man held a knife to her neck and demanded “Russ’ money.” After Hupp was arrested, while in a police bathroom, Hupp stabbed herself several times in the wrist and neck with a pen. Her bail was set at $2 million cash. Dateline NBC airs Fridays at 9pm.
