Kriti Mehrotra
There’s no denying that murders are the most confounding offenses that unfortunately often transpire, but the 2011 still-unfolding case of Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria has truly broken every bound. After all, as examined on ‘The Thing About Pam,’ her husband was initially arrested, tried, convicted, and then exonerated in the matter, which thus exposed an alleged scheme of greed involving Pamela “Pam” Hupp. So now, if you wish to know more about the latter, with the necessary details of her background, crimes, supposed lies, and current standing, we’ve got you covered.
Who is Pam Hupp?
Born on October 10, 1958, as the third of four kids to Victor (a union man) and Shirley Neumann (a schoolteacher), Pamela Neumann Hupp grew up in a Catholic household in Dellwood, Missouri. She mostly did what was expected of her while still having fun, only to get married to her high school sweetheart soon after graduation and subsequently welcome a daughter into their lives. The union just lasted six years, though, following which Pam moved on to Mark Hupp, with whom she not only lived in Florida before settling down in O’Fallon, Missouri, in 2001 but also shares a son.
Back in her home state, Pam flipped houses on the side while working as an administrator for State Farm Insurance, which is where she first came across Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria. The duo became quite friendly over time, but it wasn’t until the latter’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2010 that they grew significantly closer, with Pam usually driving her to and fro for chemotherapy. That’s kind of what she did on December 27, 2011, as well, yet this time, she took Betsy home from her mother’s house (without being asked to) and became the last person to see her alive.
However, the most startling aspect here is that just four days prior, Betsy had replaced her husband, Russ, to name Pam as the sole beneficiary of her $150,000 life insurance policy. She initially claimed that it was signed over to her so that she could set up a trust for Betsy’s two daughters but later changed her story to assert that her friend wanted her to keep the money for herself. As if that wasn’t enough to raise eyebrows, less than a year after Russ was acquitted, she was apprehended for the shooting death of a mentally and physically impaired man inside her home.
Where is Pam Hupp Now?
Around noon on August 16, 2016, Pamela Hupp shot Louis Gumpenberger five times, claiming that she did so in self-defense after he’d pursued her into her home, wielding a knife to her throat. He’d allegedly been given instructions by Russ to kidnap her, drive her to the bank to get back his money, and then kill her — a tale that investigators did not believe. In fact, they thought Pam staged the incident to get away from the doubts already swirling around her, which is why she was arrested and charged with murder as well as armed criminal action a week later.
That same day, on August 23, Pam asked to use the washroom upon being booked, where she used a ballpoint pen to stab her neck and wrists in an apparent suicide attempt. Her actions were deemed a clear sign of guilt by the officials, leading to her bail being set at $2 million, with the prosecutors later clarifying that they would seek the death penalty. To avoid that, Pam maintained her innocence by entering into an Alford guilty plea before her trial could commence and was thus sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in August 2019.
With this case, the 2013 death of Shirley Neumann was reviewed once again, focusing on the possibility that Pam could’ve been responsible for her mother’s fall from the third-story balcony that took her life. That’s because Shirley, suffering from dementia and arthritis, had eight times the usual dose of a sedative in her system, yet the investigations proved inconclusive.
Then, in July 2021, upon further probes, Pam was charged with armed criminal action and first-degree murder in connection to Betsy’s homicide, the former of which was dismissed in September. Therefore, today, at the age of 63, Pam is awaiting trial while remaining incarcerated at the mixed-security, women-only Chillicothe Correctional Center in Livingston County, Missouri.
Read More: Where is Russ Faria Now?
