The Wicked Story Of Pam Hupp

The woman you see in this footage is the same woman who had the whole world fooled for years. Using her charm and innocent demeanor, it was hard for many to believe that behind this smiling face was a heartless killer. If not for the persistent investigation of a journalist named Chris Hayes, whose investigation led him to ask Pam the one question no one had, "It is unlikely we would have ever known about the unspeakable acts of Pam Hupp." Pam Hupp was born in October of 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri. By most accounts she was a typical all-american mom. She married her high school sweetheart three months before her senior prom and gave birth to her first child, Sarah, during their six-year marriage. When things didn't work out with her first husband, Pam moved on and remarried, relocating to Florida with her new man. Soon after Pam gave birth to her second child, this time a son, Travis, and soon the couple, now with two children, returned to Missouri. While her children went to school and her husband worked as a carpenter, Pam maintained a steady job at a life insurance company as an administrator, and it was through that work that Pam met Betsy Faria, who would go on to become one of her closest friends. Betsy was a dedicated wife and a wonderful mother. Anyone who knew her described Betsy as fun-loving and a kind woman. She enjoyed the social aspects of her job and adored her husband Russ. Everything was seemingly perfect for Betsy until she was tragically diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 42. Sadly, as every treatment option was tried, eventually they were all exhausted, Betsy's cancer began to spread through the rest of her body. And eventually, as the disease began to overtake Betsy's liver and kidneys, it became clear the cancer would soon claim the life of this kind and loving woman. Through all of these difficult times, there was one person who was always close by Betsy's side, taking her to medical appointments, spending time together and providing support for Betsy and her husband. That person was, of course, Pam Hup. As well as providing support to Betsy, Pam was also partially responsible for the care of her own mother, Shirley Newman, who was suffering from advanced dementia and arthritis. While Shirley lived in a senior's facility, she thrived in an independent apartment with only occasional support needed. Pam would visit frequently, assisting with meals, washing and cleaning, and just to be there for her mother. At 77 years old, Shirley was a proud, retired school teacher. But her life's greatest joys came from seeing her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren thrive. She had moved into a third floor apartment of the Lakeview Park independent senior living community after her husband died, which meant she didn't have to take care of a home on her own anymore. She wanted to thoroughly enjoy her retirement and it gave her great peace to know that her family would feel confident that she was safe and well cared for. But tragically, both Betsy and Shirley and their relationships with this seemingly kind and good-natured woman, Pam, would eventually lead to their agonizing deaths. Because behind the facade of kindness, Pam Hupp concealed her true, dark nature. So who is Pamela Hupp really, and how did she get away with murder after murder for so long? The answer to the question is really quite simple. Pam was a manipulative and greedy criminal who would stop it nothing to take all that she could from her victims. Their money, their dignity, and eventually their lives, even those closest to Pam were not safe from falling victim to her insatiable appetite for money. But Pam's path of destruction doesn't stop with her mother and best friend. Lewis Grumpenberger was an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of Pam's attempt to conceal her previous crimes. But it would be the horrific murder of Lewis that would eventually lead to the unraveling of all of Pam Hupp's sadistic crimes. Lewis was a 33-year-old father of two children. He was a loving dad and a devoted son, frequently visiting his mother and spending time with his extended family. In 2005, he had been involved in a car accident which left him with permanent mental and physical disabilities. This made it difficult for him to hold a permanent job, so Lewis would often take on odd jobs for cash in order to support his family. It was on one such odd job that Lewis would cross paths with Pam Hupp. In 2011, as cancer continued to ravage her defenseless body, Betsy Faria had begun to make a number of concerning comments to her husband, Russ. She would say that she would rather be dead than lose this battle against her body. It would be less stressful for her daughters if she just died, rather than suffer a long, drawn-out illness. He was concerned about her mental health, and despite seeking help, this once fun-loving wife had begun to withdraw into herself. As Betsy's pain increased, she limited contact with others, seeing only her two daughters and her best friend Pam. After a particularly miserable Christmas, Betty was due to have another round of cancer treatment in hopes of prolonging her life just a little longer. On the 27th of December in 2011, she had finished up at the doctor and Pam, who was always by her side at the appointments, insisted on dropping her at home. Russ headed out to spend some time with friends, later that evening when he arrived home, he found Betsy on the couch with her wrists cut. He was devastated and naturally assumed that she had followed through on one of her distressing threats. At first, thinking the brutal attack to be Betsy's attempt to take her own life, Russ frantically dialed 911 in hopes that his wife might be saved, but this was unfortunately not possible. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the cause of death was not self-inflicted injuries, nor was it from her terminal illness. Rather, along with the cuts on her wrist, they found 55 stab wounds across her frail and weakened body. There was a serrated kitchen knife protruding from her neck and her wrist had been sliced to the bone. A second knife lay next to her on the couch where she was found. It was clear to paramedics that Betsy had been deceased more than an hour, and sadly, there was nothing that could be done. It was also clear to investigators that Betsy had been the victim of a homicide. The day after Betsy's death, it was her husband, Russ, who was arrested for murder, despite his proclamations that he loved Betsy and would never hurt her. Paramedics claimed that his 911 call, saying that he believed she had ended her own life, was ludicrous as there was too much blood for anyone to believe that it had come from simply cut wrists. And don't forget, the knife was still embedded in her throat, but Russ still proclaimed his innocence, claiming that he wasn't even the last one to see her. Her friend Pam had dropped her home while he had gone out of the house. When police searched the house, they found blood on a pair of Russ' slippers. They claimed his behavior when they arrived at the scene was suspicious, and so, in spite of Russ' insistence of his innocence, in their mind, there was no question. Russ was guilty, and their intuitions were corroborated by the statements of a very believable witness. Pam Hup, who strongly implicated Betsy's husband Russ as the killer. He started playing this game of putting a pillow over her face to see what it would feel like. "I don't know if she said this is what it's going to feel like when you die or whatever, and then act like he was kidding." In the course of the investigation, Pam Hup was interviewed, given she was Betsy's closest confidant. Pam told a detailed story of how Betsy shared that Russ was a violent partner, and that she had been thinking about leaving him. She even pointed police to a strange document on Betsy's laptop, which she claimed Betsy had written stating that she was worried Russ was going to kill her. Pam told police that she thought Russ had killed Betsy to stop her getting away. "He started playing this game of putting a pillow over her face to see what it would feel like. I don't know if she said this is what it's going to feel like when you die or whatever, and then act like he was kidding." What seemed suspicious to investigators, however, was the fact that just five days before her murder, Pam had assisted Betsy to alter her life insurance policy. Instead of her husband Russ being the benefactor of more than $150,000, Pam would now be set to inherit the entirety of Betsy's life insurance money. But when Pam was questioned about this, she claimed that Betsy was worried that Russ would hurt her when she tried to leave, so she wanted Pam to take care of the money for her daughters. Pam claimed that she put the money in a trust for them to have when they got older. Pam played her role as the caring and concerned friend perfectly, and the investigators bought every word. Shortly after, Russ was charged with first degree murder and armed criminal action. It wouldn't be until the trial that questions started to be asked about who else could be responsible for Betsy's murder. Evidence of Russ's whereabouts that night were described in painstaking detail. Betsy's time of death was recorded between 7.20 and 9.20pm, and it would turn out that four friends Russ had been with that night were all called and testified that he couldn't have been involved as they were together during those times. Cell phone records show that he was 20 miles away, and he had time stamped receipts from purchases he made that evening. There was just no way it could have been him. And not only this, but Russ had no blood on him when the emergency services arrived. His defense lawyers presented a "rock solid" alibi. He hadn't even been the last one to see her alive. Pam was the one who had insisted that she be the one to drop Betsy off at home that evening. But in spite of all of this exonerating evidence, the prosecution was able to convince the jury that Russ's friends must have been involved in conspiring to commit Betsy's murder, and that they must have held his phone for him while he killed her, and they had posed as him in the shops in order to falsify his whereabouts. They presented Russ as a cold-blooded killer, wanting to hurry up Betsy's death so he could get her life insurance payout, not knowing that she had changed the benefactor to her best friend. The judge at Russ's trial also barred Russ's lawyers from implicating Pamela in the murder. Regardless of the evidence from Pam's phone records showing that she was in the vicinity of Betsy's house for more than 30 minutes after she allegedly dropped Betsy off, or the fact that she was the sole beneficiary of Betsy's life insurance policy. So, in November of 2013, Russ was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life plus thirty years without the possibility of parole. Pamela Hupp had gotten away with murder for the first time. But this would not be the only death in which Pam would be found in close proximity. Less than a month before Russ's conviction was handed down, Pam's mother Shirley had spent the night at her daughter's house following a hospital appointment. It was the 30th of October and when Pam dropped Shirley off at home, she let the staff know that her mother wasn't feeling up to dinner or breakfast for the next morning and that she should be left to rest. At 2.30pm on the 31st of October, a staff member found Shirley's body on the pavement beneath the balcony of her apartment. When police arrived and looked into her room, they found water running. The doors to the patio were wide open and the aluminum railing was broken. Despite a medical examiner finding levels of Ambien eight times the usual dose in Shirley's blood, her death was ruled as accidental. Once again, Pamela had been the last to see Shirley alive and was set to benefit from her death. Pamela was set to inherit $500,000 as a payout from her mother's life insurance policy. After the accidental death, finding Pamela got away with murder for the second time. It wouldn't be until years later in 2016 that Pamela's true nature and her heinous deception would be uncovered, largely thanks to Lewis Grumpenberger. Around noon on August the 16th, 2016, when 911 dispatch received a frantic call from a woman declaring there was a robbery in progress. As she repeatedly called for help, the caller identified herself as Pamela Hupp and told police there was a man in her home trying to rob her. In the background of the call, you could hear five pops as if a gun had been fired five times. The police quickly responded to the call and when they arrived at the scene, they found the deceased body of Lewis Grumpenberger crumpled in a hallway of Pamela's home. An investigation began immediately. Lewis Grumpenberger was quickly identified as the assailant. When his body was searched, police found $900 in cash along with a note tucked into his clothing which contained ominous instructions. Kidnap Hupp. Get Russ' money from Hupp at her bank and kill Hupp. Take Hupp back to the house and get rid of her. Make it look like Russ's wife. Make sure knife is sticking out of neck. All this for a reward of $10,000. Pamela went voluntarily to the station for questioning and told police the story of her supposed assault. The car came down really fast on the cross street and went around right in front of my driveway. I came out and did this right in front of my driveway and I looked out because it was so fast and startling and somebody jumped out and I was like, "Wow, I don't know what I thought. Somebody was hurt. I don't know what was going on." It was so fast. He ran out. I was halfway up to drive where I was parked and he jumped in my car. He opened up the door and jumped in my car. Let's do it. Passing through. Front or back. Oh, front. For better fun. Go ahead. He had a bunch of stuff in his hands. I don't know what he had. He had a knife also, but he had something in his other arm. He put a knife and kept going and just yelling and random stuff like, "You're going to take me to the bank and get brushes money. Take me to the bank. You're going to take me to the bank." He put a knife up to my throat there and was yelling stuff and he kept looking behind him like this. I put it in here and I was thinking how it's going to get out of there when he was looking and he kept yelling, "Come in back." Then he looked back again and I hit his arm with the knife and then shout out the car and ran inside. She claimed to have returned home and pulled into the garage when Lewis jumped out of an SUV being driven by someone else. He held a knife to her throat telling her to drive to the bank and withdraw Russ's money, referring to the money she had received as the life insurance payout from Betsy's murder. Pam claimed that she had managed to knock the knife from the assailant's hand and run into the house, pursued by her assailant. She managed to grab her gun and shoot Lewis as he came after her down the hallway. "I think I was yelling at him and I remember I think I was like, "Who are you? Get out of my car, blah blah blah." He was like, "Bitch, we're going to the bank." Then my mind just starts swirling because I'm going to the bank. This is so freaking weird. I'm like, "I'm going to the bank with you. Get out of my car." He goes, "Bitch, you're going to the bank. We're getting Russ's money." He started getting all agitated and excited and that's how I was going to get out of my car. He was yelling things. I wasn't listening because I was forming how I was going to get out of my car. He was yammering, crap. Couldn't really understand him at that point. My thought was to get the knife away and get the heck out of the car. That's all I was thinking about at that point. What he was saying, "I don't know." As I ran into the garage, he ran after me. I heard the car door shut and he was yammering stuff again about killing me. Again, my focus was to get in the house. I know I had my phone in my pocket. I was trying to dial 911. I think I did it three times before it went through on my cell phone. Then I was inside and he was trying to get the door. I was trying to hold the door. I couldn't get it blocked then. I was trying to get 911 on the phone and he was saying stuff. The door flew open. He got in. It flew open and I ran into the bedroom. He was yelling stuff. As I was going into the bedroom, it's not again about killing my wife. Him and Stevie. Me and Stevie, you're going to kill your wife. I don't know who that is. I don't know if Stevie or Stevie or Stevie. I don't know what it is. was talking about. He was so then so uh it was really hard. It's like his sentences weren't formed by them and so none of it made any sense but he did keep saying get in the car. I ran in the bedroom. I tried to, you know, I shut that door. I was trying to get it locked when the latch got put on with the door and I got my gun turned around. Got my gun. Nightstand right there and he was pounding on the door and once it flew open, that's when I shot him and I just kept shooting him. Can he just kept standing there? Did any rounds go, are they going to be both holes in the door into the bedroom or do you think that the door was fully open? I was in the bedroom. I understand that but he said the door flew open so I didn't know. Yeah I didn't start shooting until that door flew open and he was standing right there ready to approach into the bedroom and I had to start shooting him walking towards him. I wanted to share a hit him because everybody kept saying that's a little gun and blah blah blah and I got ready to close. After all the stories Pamela had spun over the last years, this was the one which would lead to her undoing. Something about it just didn't ring true and finally after all these years and after three horrific murders Pamela Hupp's story began to unravel. Though Betsy's husband Russ had been convicted and put away for Betsy's murder, he never stopped trying to prove his innocence and to find justice for his beloved wife. After years of appeals and hearings, the evidence against Pamela implicating her in Betsy's murder was set to be brought before a judge and in the months before her mother's death Pamela had been questioned again and she knew that a case against her was building in that case as well. So given how comfortable Pam was with murder as a way to solve her problems she decided to implicate Russ in a further crime believing it would take the spotlight off of her. So Pam said about manufacturing yet another murder. She lured Lewis Grumpenberger to her home, posing as a presenter from the television program Dateline NBC. She convinced this innocent man that he was there to help her reenact a 911 call for a segment on that show and once he was in the perfect position Pam shot him and planted the evidence on his body in an attempt to make it appear as if Lewis was a hired hitman hired by Russ from prison to retrieve his money. To the investigators who heard Pam's story, it all seemed rather far-fetched. Starting with a member of the public having filed a complaint just five days before Lewis was shot, the woman said that she had been approached by a person who had asked her to be a part of the Dateline show reenactment. The description the woman gave of the supposed TV presenter matched Pam's appearance perfectly. That woman had declined the offer to help reenact the 911 call but had been so disturbed by the encounter she contacted police. After soliciting this woman to be her next victim and being refused, Pam would next approach Lewis Grumpenberger who would, unfortunately, accept the fake proposal. Police obtained cell phone records showing Pamela was in Lewis's neighborhood about an hour before the shooting despite Pam's claim that she had never met Lewis before he had entered the house. And the $900 of notes found on Lewis's body were sequential bills found in Pamela's home. The knife in Lewis's hand was found to have been purchased at a dollar store by Pam and the paper, the supposed instructions were written on, matched a pad of paper which was found in Pam's home. And all of this evidence was corroborated by the fact that due to Lewis's previous car accident and subsequent mental and physical disabilities, it was unlikely that he would have had the physical ability to even carry out the act that Pam was alleging. On the 23rd of August 2016, Pamela was finally arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Her time had come. Pamela would not be getting away with murder this time. She knows she's on camera, so she's subtle. Watch this. Huff grabs the water bottle to hide the pen. Then slides both back slowly, casually. She takes the pen behind her to hide it in her pants. Then her neck again. It appears she's looking for her jugular or another vein she's about to strike with the pen. That's where she's escorted to the bathroom where she stabs herself. There's an over here. About five minutes pass when you can hear officers yelling. While in custody, Pamela stole the pen from one of the investigators and proceeded to stab herself in the neck and wrists when she was in the bathroom in an attempt to end her own life. But her attempts to harm herself were unsuccessful and prosecutors were unsympathetic to what they labeled as "consciousness of guilt." In January 2017, Pam pleaded not guilty to her charges and prosecutors stated they would seek the death penalty in part due to her choice of Lewis as a victim given his particular vulnerabilities. By this point, the spotlight had landed squarely on Pamela and over the course of the investigation into Lewis's murder. Further questions started to be asked about her close connection with two previous deaths. That of her best friend Betsy and of her own mother Shirley. Prosecutors could no longer deny that her association with both Betsy Faria and Shirley Newman was suspicious. So police would reopen the investigation into both cases with their eyes now open to the possibility of Pamela's involvement. Shirley Newman's cause of death was eventually changed from accidental to undetermined. In 2018, the judge in Lewis's murder stated prosecutors could not use information about Shirley's death in the trial against Pam, but he did rule that they could use evidence relating to the death of Betsy Faria as they pled their case. Pamela's trial date was set for June of 2019, but just before it started, Pamela entered an offered plea in the murder of Lewis Grumpenberger. She wouldn't be pleading guilty, but an offered plea is an admission that the evidence against her would likely be overwhelming. This meant that Pam wouldn't go to trial in Lewis's death, and as a condition of this plea, she would not face the death penalty. Pamela told her husband from jail that she only used this option so that her children wouldn't have to witness an ugly trial. After the offered plea, the Lincoln County prosecutor announced that he would be reopening the Betsy Faria homicide investigation. By this point, Russ had already wrongly served three and a half years in jail for his wife's murder. Despite numerous appeals and admissions that there were flaws in the initial investigation, it had taken until 2015 for him to be released on bond pending a new trial. In 2021, Pamela was interviewed in connection with the murder of Betsy for the first time as a suspect. Less than four days after this interview, Pamela was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. The same charges brought against Russ nearly ten years earlier. The prosecutor stated he would seek the death penalty due to the heinousness and depravity of the crime, and Pamela's attempts to deflect blame onto Betsy's husband. While this case has not yet gone to court, they will claim that Pamela killed Betsy in an effort to defraud her out of a life insurance policy. They believe, once she found out that Betsy was dying of cancer, she befriended her with her intentions clear from the start. On that terrible day, she waited until Betsy was asleep on the couch after her treatment, which would have left her weak and tired. Then, Pam repeatedly stabbed her good friend as she slept, stopping when the knife became so embedded in her throat she had to find another to complete the attack. Pam took off one of her friend's socks and then used it to spread blood around the home, including onto Russ' slippers before placing them back on Betsy's feet. After Russ' release, a new trial ultimately exonerated him and his conviction was overturned. In 2020, Russ received a $2 million settlement in his claim against unlawful imprisonment. Russ had filed a number of lawsuits, alleging unethical behavior from the prosecutor and investigators at the time of his initial arrest, and yet no one has faced charges in that matter. This is despite testimony from witnesses claiming Russ was targeted as a suspect from the outset, and that there were inappropriate relationships between those involved in the investigation, leading to his arrest being predetermined. In May of 2022, it was announced that an inquiry would be undertaken to establish if there was any misconduct in the initial investigation. Prosecutors stated they would not be seeking to file charges against Pamela for the death of her mother Shirley. And after her imprisonment in September of 2020, Pamela's husband filed for divorce claiming that their marriage was irretrievably broken. And Betsy's murder became the subject of six separate episodes, ironically, on "Dateline NBC," the show she had impersonated working for, when committing the murder of Lewis. Until Pamela faces her final charges in Betsy's murder, she remains incarcerated at the Chilacothe Correctional Center. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for February of 2022, but was delayed indefinitely after Hupp's public defender died of a heart attack. But whenever this trial inevitably takes place, we can rest assured that Pamela Hupp will likely remain incarcerated for the remainder of her life.