Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Faria, Russell ‘Russ’ Faria: ‘Dateline NBC’ Probes Fantasy Game, Troy, Missouri, Murder Case Tonight
The murder of Betsy Faria, aka Elizabeth Faria, the 42-year-old mother who was killed in her home in Troy, Missouri, will be the focus of tonight’s Dateline NBC. Update: Dateline NBC will air a new episode (‘Return To The Game’) on the case of Betsy and Russ Faria. The new update will include the latest information regarding Russell Faria’s case. (See the photo below)
Tonight’s episode, entitled “Game Night,” is a repeat but with updated information. Betsy Faria’s husband, Russell ‘Russ’ Faria, was found guilty and convicted in her death, and the verdict was controversial. Prosecutors alleged that Betsy’s murder was all part of a twisted fantasy game planned by Russ and his friends. But people who know Russ don’t believe for one minute that he killed his wife. Even the jurors who convicted him hoped that Russ Faria could get a new trial since they were not able to review some of the evidence that could have changed the outcome of the verdict.
Elizabeth Betsy Faria was a mother dying of cancer when she was found dead in her home in 2011. The cancer was so bad that she had already started to make plans for her death. What no one knew was that Betsy would end up dead in a savage way — not from natural causes.
On December 27, 2011, police responded to a frantic 911 call, indicating that a woman had been found dead on the floor. When officers arrived at the Troy home located at 130 Sumac, they found a middle-aged white woman with multiple stab wounds to the body. Upon inspection, officers could see a knife embedded in the woman’s neck. The victim was identified as Betsy Faria. Russ told law enforcement officials that he found his wife dead on the floor after returning home from a game with friends. Those friends confirmed his alibi. Still, Russ Faria was their prime suspect. They interrogated him for hours and days following Betsy’s murder, but Russ’ story remained the same.
As police continued to investigate, they learned that Betsy’s friend, Pam Hupp, had taken her home that day and was perhaps the last person to see her alive. Pam Hupp was also the woman who escorted Betsy to the library so that she could make Hupp the beneficiary on a life insurance policy, instead of her daughters. Years later, Hupp told police that Betsy Faria did not want to leave the money to her girls, but instead, she wanted her (Hupp) to have the money. That statement was drastically different from the statement she made to police one day after Betsy’s murder in 2011. The Faria daughters have since tried to sue to get the money back.
Meanwhile, Russ Faria sat in prison, accused of murdering his cancer-stricken wife. Supporters of Russ Faria say that he is innocent and that someone else close to Betsy actually stabbed her 55 times. Was it Russ, or was he framed? And more importantly, will he get a new trial? Tune into Dateline NBC tonight to see how Keith Morrison sorts it all out.
Here’s the Dateline NBC tease and trailer for tonight’s episode, “Game Night.”
“In 2011, Russell Faria found his wife Betsy dead on the living room floor in their home outside of St. Louis. Investigators soon zeroed in on Russell, but was the story as simple as it seemed? A report with surprising new developments in this case.”
Update: According to Fox2Now, a jury found Russell ‘Russ’ Faria not guilty of the murder of his wife, Betsy Faria in November 2015. The prosecuting attorney disagreed with the case, and stated that she is still seeking justice for the victim’s family and she sends out her condolences to the family.
https://www.facebook.com/STLPD/posts/10153434464404885
[Photo Credit: Facebook]
