Why Betsy Faria’s family is okay with Pam Hupp trial delays
ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – Mariah Day was just 17 years old when her mother, Betsy Faria, was murdered. She’s 30 today.
“Every time someone brings it up or we hear from the detectives, it’s kind of like a pause—like a shock in your body again,” she said.
Her mother was stabbed to death in her Lincoln County home in December 2011. Day says prosecutors, at the time, led her to believe her stepfather, Russ Faria, was the killer. Deep inside, she says she always felt otherwise.
“I would stay up late at night and just kind of think, ‘Oh, my mom’s killer is still out there,’” she said.
Russ Faria was wrongfully imprisoned for three and a half years for the murder. He was exonerated after a second trial.
Mariah added, “With the first trial, we learned that justice isn’t always there.”
Now that Pam Hupp is charged with her mom’s murder and locked up, Day says waiting for a trial date is nothing.
It’s a belief echoed by Russ Faria.
“(Prosecutors today) want to do everything right. I know what sometimes can happen when things go wrong, so to do this right, I think it’s worth the wait,” Faria said.
Catholic group buys Boeing’s sprawling former leadership campus
Pam Hupp is not going anywhere. She’s serving a life prison sentence in another case—the 2016 murder of a man with disabilities. In the 2016 murder, St. Charles County prosecutors believe she committed to deflect attention from Betsy Faria’s murder.
Now that Hupp is charged with Betsy’s murder, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, which could add further delays. But Faria says he’s okay with it.
He explained, “There are certain monsters in this world that need to be destroyed, people that are evil. You can name people like Charles Manson or John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dahmer and you can throw Pam right into that mix.”
We’ve seen many reasons for delays in Pam Hupp’s latest case since she was charged in 2021. Pam Hupp’s defense attorney died of a heart attack in 2022. Then, in 2023, the prosecutor was concerned about changing the venue to three and a half hours from here. He refiled the case so that impacted families and witnesses wouldn’t have to travel so far.
Monday’s hearing had a little movement, with Hupp’s attorney saying they’ll skip a preliminary hearing and have the case assigned to circuit court for trial. Prosecutors are hoping for that trial to begin in the summer of 2025.
“We just want my mom to get the justice she deserves and that she deserved from day one,” Day said.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
