2011 Missouri murder involving disabled man to get new look

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The 2011 murder of a mentally disabled man in Missouri is getting new scrutiny.

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Andy Binder on Friday confirmed an investigation by the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis. It is the latest development in a string of events that have seen Betsy Faria’s husband convicted in the killing, but later exonerated; and her friend, Pamela Hupp, sent to prison for life for killing a man in another county in 2016.

Authorities believed Faria’s murder was intended to divert attention from an unsolved homicide several years earlier.

Faria was stabbed 55 times in February 2011, soon after Hupp became beneficiary of Faria’s $150,000 life insurance policy.

Russ Faria was charged and initially convicted. The conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at retrial in 2015. He blamed Hupp, who denies killing Betsy Faria.