The Murder of Betsy Faria: Part Three

0:00 Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and

0:04 Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and

0:07 Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening. Now.

0:18 Speaker 2: True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,

0:21 Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic. A podcast that's about

0:25 Speaker 2: more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension,

0:28 Speaker 2: home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories,

0:32 Speaker 2: the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it

0:37 Speaker 2: all just so long as it's kind of Murdery. Hello everyone,

0:41 Speaker 2: and welcome. I'm so glad you're here. As I often say,

0:45 Speaker 2: time is money, and these days everything is so damn expensive.

0:49 Speaker 2: Your time is worth more than ever. And I am grateful,

0:52 Speaker 2: I am humbled. I am thankful that you choose to

0:55 Speaker 2: spend that precious time with me. I am Zevan Odelberg.

0:59 Speaker 2: And this is kind of Murdery, and I'm rare and

1:02 Speaker 2: to go. I want to jump right in to part

1:05 Speaker 2: three of Kind of Murdery's examination of the murder of

1:09 Speaker 2: Betsy Furia. That's right, I said, part three. So if

1:12 Speaker 2: you haven't heard parts one and two yet, go back

1:15 Speaker 2: and listen to them. And then rejoin us. I will

1:17 Speaker 2: save you a seat, I will even keep it warm

1:19 Speaker 2: for you. But if you're ready, and I am ready,

1:22 Speaker 2: let's get it right down to it. Part three of

1:25 Speaker 2: Kind of Murdery's examination of the murder of Betsy Faria

1:29 Speaker 2: starts now. The house in Troy stayed lit long after

1:41 Speaker 2: most of the neighborhood had gone dark again. Patrol cars

1:44 Speaker 2: still line portions of the street, though fewer than earlier

1:47 Speaker 2: in the investigation. The frantic movement from the first night

1:51 Speaker 2: had faded into something quieter and more methodical. Detectives came

1:55 Speaker 2: and went, carrying folders, sealed evidence containers, and cups of

1:58 Speaker 2: coffee that had gone cold before anyone finished them. The

2:02 Speaker 2: front lawn showed the wear of hours of foot traffic,

2:05 Speaker 2: mud pressed into the grass near the walkway, tire tracks

2:09 Speaker 2: along the curb where vehicles had pulled in and out

2:11 Speaker 2: throughout the night. Inside, the living room remained partially sealed

2:15 Speaker 2: off while investigators worked through the last sections of evidence collection.

2:19 Speaker 2: Portions of the carpet had already been removed. The couch

2:22 Speaker 2: still sat in place under the harsh light investigators had

2:25 Speaker 2: brought into the room its familiar shape now surrounded by

2:29 Speaker 2: equipment cases, extension cords, evidence markers, and plastic sheeting spread

2:33 Speaker 2: across the floor. Detectives no longer spoke about the scene

2:37 Speaker 2: like something uncertain. They moved through the house with the

2:39 Speaker 2: confidence of people who believed they were narrowing in on someone.

2:43 Speaker 2: Russ had been moved out of the house by then

2:45 Speaker 2: and brought in to continue interviews elsewhere while investigators finished

2:49 Speaker 2: processing the scene. The room where detectives questioned him felt

2:52 Speaker 2: smaller than the house had, plain walls, table bolted to

2:56 Speaker 2: the floor, fluorescent lighting that flattened everything underneath it. Hours

3:00 Speaker 2: had already passed since Betsy's body had been found, and

3:04 Speaker 2: exhaustion had started settling visibly into Russ's posture. He leaned

3:08 Speaker 2: forward more now when he spoke, elbows near the table,

3:11 Speaker 2: eyes slower to track the detectives moving in and out

3:14 Speaker 2: of the room. The questions themselves had changed, too. Earlier,

3:18 Speaker 2: detectives had asked broad questions meant to establish timelines. Now

3:22 Speaker 2: they re visited details already answered several times before. Where

3:26 Speaker 2: his hands had touched Betsy, whether he noticed anything disturbed

3:29 Speaker 2: in the house, whether he and Betsy had argued recently.

3:33 Speaker 2: Detectives compared his newest answers against handwritten notes collected overnight,

3:37 Speaker 2: occasionally stopping mid question to flip backwards through earlier pages.

3:42 Speaker 2: At one point, a detective left the room carrying a

3:44 Speaker 2: stack of reports, while another remained seated across from Russ,

3:47 Speaker 2: silently reviewing photographs from the crime scene. Elsewhere, detectives continued

3:52 Speaker 2: speaking with people connected to Betsy and Russ, slowly widening

3:56 Speaker 2: the circle around the investigation. Family members, friends, members of

4:00 Speaker 2: Russ's game night group. The same names kept surfacing through

4:04 Speaker 2: nearly every interview, but Pam Hupp's name appeared with increasing

4:08 Speaker 2: frequency as detectives revisited Betsy's final day alive. Pam's account

4:13 Speaker 2: gave investigators structure, the chemotherapy appointment, the ride home, Betsy

4:18 Speaker 2: resting afterward, Russ leaving later that evening. Detectives kept returning

4:22 Speaker 2: to those points while comparing them against phone records and

4:25 Speaker 2: statements collected from everyone else involved. Printed copies of Pam's

4:29 Speaker 2: interviews had already been highlighted, annotated, and clipped into active

4:32 Speaker 2: case folders, moving between detectives throughout the day. One investigator

4:37 Speaker 2: reviewing the file paused that a highlighted section describing Betsy's

4:40 Speaker 2: alleged fear of russ An underlined part of the statement again,

4:43 Speaker 2: even though somebody else already had earlier. The page had

4:47 Speaker 2: started accumulating layers of pen marks from multiple investigators reviewing

4:51 Speaker 2: the same lines. As the day continued, investigators began tightening

4:55 Speaker 2: their focus around motive Conversations inside offices and interview room

5:00 Speaker 2: shifted repeatedly towards Betsy's illness, the condition of the marriage,

5:04 Speaker 2: and financial questions tied to the household. Detectives reviewed notes

5:08 Speaker 2: involving the insurance policy while comparing them against the statements

5:11 Speaker 2: Pam had given about Betsy allegedly worrying about money and

5:14 Speaker 2: expressing distrust toward russ. Stacks of paper were spread across

5:18 Speaker 2: conference tables while detectives worked through timelines one page at

5:22 Speaker 2: a time. Some investigators focused on physical evidence from the house.

5:26 Speaker 2: Others stayed buried in interviews, phone logs, and reports from

5:29 Speaker 2: the night before. The case had become large enough now

5:32 Speaker 2: that different people were handling different parts simultaneously. Still, most

5:37 Speaker 2: roads inside the investigation kept circling back to Russ. A

5:41 Speaker 2: detective reviewing evidence photographs from the living room stopped at

5:45 Speaker 2: one image showing the area beside the couch where Betsy

5:48 Speaker 2: had been found, and left it sitting on top of

5:50 Speaker 2: the pile longer than the others. By evening, the investigation

5:54 Speaker 2: had developed its own momentum, independent of the original shocks

5:57 Speaker 2: surrounding Betsy's death. Detectives moved through offices, carrying folders from

6:02 Speaker 2: one desk to another, while phones rang steadily in the background.

6:05 Speaker 2: Officers returning from interviews added fresh statements to growing stacks

6:09 Speaker 2: of reports already covering tables and filing cabinets. The details

6:13 Speaker 2: of Betsy's final day were being reconstructed repeatedly from different

6:17 Speaker 2: angles by different investigators, all working toward the same question.

6:21 Speaker 2: Russ remained central to nearly every conversation, not just because

6:25 Speaker 2: he found Betsy, not just because he lived in the house,

6:29 Speaker 2: Because the longer detective sat with the scene, the more

6:32 Speaker 2: they believed the violence inside that living room pointed towards

6:35 Speaker 2: somebody who belonged there. Already later that evening, one detective

6:39 Speaker 2: closed a folder, looked across the room toward another investigator,

6:42 Speaker 2: and quietly asked whether prosecutors had been contacted yet. The

6:47 Speaker 2: prosecutor's office had already begun receiving updates from detectives before

6:51 Speaker 2: the house in Troy was even fully cleared. Investigators carried

6:54 Speaker 2: boxes of reports, photographs, and interview summaries into briefing rooms,

6:58 Speaker 2: where the details of the case were starting to be

7:00 Speaker 2: organized into something presentable outside the investigation itself. Legal pads

7:05 Speaker 2: filled with timeline sat beside enlarged crime scene photographs spread

7:09 Speaker 2: across the conference tables under fluorescent light. One photograph from

7:13 Speaker 2: the living room stayed near the center of the table

7:15 Speaker 2: longer than others, the couch, the bloodstained carpet, the area

7:20 Speaker 2: where Betsy's body had been found. Detectives returned from interviews

7:24 Speaker 2: drifted in and out of the room while prosecutors reviewed

7:27 Speaker 2: the growing file piece by piece. The atmosphere inside those

7:31 Speaker 2: meetings felt different from the uncertainty of the first night.

7:34 Speaker 2: Nobody sounded panic anymore. They sounded focused, tired, but focused.

7:39 Speaker 2: One investigator stood near the edge of the room holding

7:42 Speaker 2: a styrophoam cup of coffee that had gone cold hours earlier,

7:46 Speaker 2: while another walked prosecutors through Russ's timeline again. From the beginning,

7:51 Speaker 2: Russ remained under repeated questioning while investigators continued tightening the

7:55 Speaker 2: sequence surrounding Betsy's final hours. Detectives revisited the same details

8:00 Speaker 2: from slightly different angles, each time, checking whether his answers

8:03 Speaker 2: stayed consistent after hours of interviews in exhaustion, the room

8:07 Speaker 2: itself had barely changed since earlier that day, same table,

8:11 Speaker 2: same fluorescent lights overhead, same stack of notes and photographs.

8:15 Speaker 2: Shifting positions in front of detectives. As interviews continued, Russ

8:19 Speaker 2: looked drained, his voice flatter than before, pauses between answers

8:24 Speaker 2: growing longer each hour he remained there. A detective split

8:28 Speaker 2: a photograph across the table showing part of the living room.

8:31 Speaker 2: Tell me where you were standing. Russ studied the image

8:34 Speaker 2: a second before pointing near the edge of the couch area.

8:37 Speaker 2: Another detective wrote down the answer while comparing it against

8:40 Speaker 2: earlier notes from overnight interviews. Every movement Russ described now

8:44 Speaker 2: was being mapped against the physical scene investigators believed they

8:48 Speaker 2: understood increasingly well. Outside the interview room, detectives crossed hallways

8:53 Speaker 2: carrying folders thick with reports gathered during the first forty

8:56 Speaker 2: eight hours of the investigation. Pam Hupp's statements continue need

9:00 Speaker 2: expanding their influence over the case. Detectives revisited them repeatedly

9:04 Speaker 2: while preparing summaries for prosecutors, and organizing the broader narrative

9:08 Speaker 2: they believed explained Betsy's death. Pam's descriptions of Betsy fearing Russ,

9:13 Speaker 2: worrying about money, and discussing the condition of the marriage

9:16 Speaker 2: had begun threading themselves through almost every working version of

9:19 Speaker 2: the case that investigators discussed internally. One detective reviewing the

9:24 Speaker 2: file paused at the insurance policy notes again while another

9:27 Speaker 2: investigator leaned over the table beside him, reading portions of

9:31 Speaker 2: the same report upside down. The numbers tied to the

9:34 Speaker 2: policy had been circled several times already in dark ink. Nearby,

9:38 Speaker 2: another investigator compared Pam's timeline against phone records and the

9:42 Speaker 2: text message that Betsy sent about Pam bringing her home

9:45 Speaker 2: after treatment. That message had become one of the anchor's

9:48 Speaker 2: investigators kept returning to while reconstructing the final hours before

9:52 Speaker 2: Betsy's death. The pages spread across the table showed fingerprints

9:56 Speaker 2: from repeated handling, highlighted sections, and written arrows connecting notes

10:01 Speaker 2: across different reports. The case was beginning to organize itself

10:05 Speaker 2: around a single theory. Outside the investigation rooms, word about

10:09 Speaker 2: the case had already started spreading through Troy and surrounding communities.

10:13 Speaker 2: News crews appeared near the neighborhood. Reporters began contacting family members,

10:18 Speaker 2: neighbors and friends connected to Betsy and Russ. Patrol officers

10:22 Speaker 2: assigned to scene security watched cameras gathering near the street

10:26 Speaker 2: while detectives continued working behind closed doors Elsewhere. Inside those rooms,

10:31 Speaker 2: investigators kept returning to the same central contradiction sitting at

10:35 Speaker 2: the heart of the case. Russ claimed he came home

10:38 Speaker 2: and found Betsy dead. Detectives increasingly believed that the scene

10:43 Speaker 2: suggested something else. Crime scene photographs circulated from hand to

10:47 Speaker 2: hand across desks, while investigators debated details quietly amongst themselves,

10:52 Speaker 2: blood evidence positioning inside the room, the violence involved in

10:56 Speaker 2: the attack itself, the length of time detectives believed the

10:59 Speaker 2: assault must have taken. One investigator reviewing photographs finally set

11:03 Speaker 2: them down and leaned back in his chair without saying anything.

11:06 Speaker 2: For several seconds, nobody in the room seemed interested any

11:10 Speaker 2: more in the possibility of suicide. By later that evening,

11:14 Speaker 2: conversations between detectives and prosecutors had shifted toward what steps

11:18 Speaker 2: would come next. If the investigation continued moving in the

11:21 Speaker 2: direction they believed it was heading. Investigators organized timelines on

11:25 Speaker 2: whiteboards while prosecutors reviewed witness statements and early forensic summaries

11:30 Speaker 2: spread across long conference tables. The physical evidence from the

11:34 Speaker 2: house remained central to almost every discussion, the blood stains,

11:38 Speaker 2: the knife, Russ's clothing, the positioning inside the living room.

11:43 Speaker 2: At the end of the room, a detective walked another

11:45 Speaker 2: prosecutor through the sequence of events that detectives believed occurred

11:48 Speaker 2: inside the house, while someone else updated notes involving Russ's

11:52 Speaker 2: movements before and after game night. Across the table, one

11:56 Speaker 2: investigator quietly re read portions of Pam Hub's statements again,

12:00 Speaker 2: while another organized crime scene photographs into separate stacks for review.

12:05 Speaker 2: To the people working it, the case no longer felt

12:08 Speaker 2: like a question waiting to be solved. It felt like

12:11 Speaker 2: something they were preparing to prove. Russ started noticing the

12:15 Speaker 2: shift before anybody set it directly to him. It showed

12:18 Speaker 2: up in smaller ways, first, detectives leaving him alone longer

12:22 Speaker 2: between conversations, while conversations continued quietly outside the room. Officers

12:28 Speaker 2: who had been conversational earlier becoming shorter with him doors

12:32 Speaker 2: staying partially open so somebody could watch him from the hallway,

12:35 Speaker 2: while investigators moved back and forth carrying reports and photographs

12:40 Speaker 2: past the room where he sat. The questions had changed too,

12:43 Speaker 2: less confusion, less searching, more confirmation. Detectives no longer sounded

12:49 Speaker 2: like people asking him to help them understand what happened

12:52 Speaker 2: inside the house. They sounded like people testing details against

12:56 Speaker 2: conclusions they were already starting to settle on. Privately, Russ

13:00 Speaker 2: sat under the fluorescent lights with his forearms resting against

13:03 Speaker 2: the table, while a detective re read portions of his

13:06 Speaker 2: earlier statement allowed from a notebook. Every so often, the

13:10 Speaker 2: detective stopped and asked Russ to clarify a detail involving

13:13 Speaker 2: timing or movement inside the living room. After he found

13:16 Speaker 2: Betsy outside the room, Another detective passed by, carrying enlarged

13:21 Speaker 2: crime scene photographs toward an office farther down the hall.

13:25 Speaker 2: The investigation had also started reaching outward into people closest

13:29 Speaker 2: to Russ and Betsy. Detectives revisited family members and friends

13:33 Speaker 2: they had already interviewed once before, this time pressing harder

13:37 Speaker 2: on the condition of the marriage arguments inside the house

13:40 Speaker 2: and whether anyone had seen signs of escalating tension before

13:44 Speaker 2: Betsy's death. That change in tone unsettled some people immediately.

13:49 Speaker 2: The first interviews felt like police trying to understand a tragedy.

13:53 Speaker 2: The newer interviews felt more accusatory, even when Russ himself

13:57 Speaker 2: wasn't present. Friends from Russ's game night group noticed to

14:00 Speaker 2: two detectives began narrowing in on precise arrival and departure

14:04 Speaker 2: times instead of broader descriptions of the evening itself. Investigators

14:08 Speaker 2: compared small details from one interview against another, looking for inconsistencies.

14:13 Speaker 2: Who remembered Russ leaving the room? Who checked the clock?

14:16 Speaker 2: Who remembered what movie had been playing at certain points

14:19 Speaker 2: in the night. Legal pads and timelines spread wider across

14:23 Speaker 2: desks while detectives worked through the sequence minute by minute

14:26 Speaker 2: instead of hour by hour. Pam Hupp remained cooperative with

14:30 Speaker 2: investigators throughout that period, speaking with detectives repeatedly while the

14:34 Speaker 2: case tightened around Russ. By then, investigators had started viewing

14:38 Speaker 2: her less like a peripheral witness and more like somebody

14:42 Speaker 2: who gave them emotional context for the marriage itself. Her

14:45 Speaker 2: descriptions of Betsy's fears and frustrations continued appearing throughout reports

14:50 Speaker 2: and prosecutor briefings as detectives shaped the broader story they

14:53 Speaker 2: believed explained the killing. One prosecutor reviewing interview summaries paused

14:58 Speaker 2: over a highlighted set from Pam's statements and re read

15:02 Speaker 2: it before setting the file aside. The growing stack connected

15:05 Speaker 2: to Russ across the room, detectives continued organizing evidence photographs

15:10 Speaker 2: from the living room into presentation boards and folders intended

15:14 Speaker 2: for formal review. The image of the couch and bloodstained

15:17 Speaker 2: carpet appeared repeatedly throughout those materials, becoming almost symbolic inside

15:22 Speaker 2: the investigation itself. The room detectives believed told the clearest

15:26 Speaker 2: version of what had happened. The more investigators looked at

15:30 Speaker 2: that room, the less ambiguity they believed remained inside the case.

15:35 Speaker 2: Outside law enforcement, the social gravities surrounding the case had

15:39 Speaker 2: started changing around Russ in quieter ways. Reporters remained active

15:43 Speaker 2: around the investigation, and people connected to the case began

15:47 Speaker 2: hearing fragments of police suspicion through the conversations, news coverage,

15:51 Speaker 2: and repeated follow up contact from detectives. Some people stayed

15:55 Speaker 2: firmly supportive of Russ, Others became less certain after hearing

15:59 Speaker 2: more about the violence inside the house and the direction

16:02 Speaker 2: investigators appeared to be moving. The brutality of Betsy's death

16:07 Speaker 2: weighed heavily over nearly every discussion connected to the case.

16:11 Speaker 2: Detectives spoke about the number of stab wounds and low

16:13 Speaker 2: voices during meetings with prosecutors and investigators. Crime scene photographs

16:18 Speaker 2: remained spread across briefing tables for hours at a time,

16:22 Speaker 2: while people studied the details silently before speaking. One detective

16:26 Speaker 2: reviewing the file finally leaned back in his chair and

16:29 Speaker 2: rubbed both hands across his face before quietly saying the

16:33 Speaker 2: scene inside the house felt personal to him. Nobody in

16:37 Speaker 2: the room challenged that observation. By the end of the week,

16:41 Speaker 2: prosecutors and detectives had begun discussing the investigation less like

16:45 Speaker 2: an open question and more like a case moving toward

16:49 Speaker 2: a charging decision. The conversations inside briefing rooms shifted toward preparation,

16:55 Speaker 2: organizing reports, tightening timelines, identifying weaknesses that defayans attorneys might

17:01 Speaker 2: challenge later. Detectives continued filling gaps where they could, but

17:05 Speaker 2: the overall direction of the investigation no longer appeared to

17:08 Speaker 2: be drifting. Russ felt that shift too. The pauses and

17:12 Speaker 2: interviews lasted longer now because detectives increasingly spent those breaks

17:17 Speaker 2: meeting privately with prosecutors elsewhere, instead of returning immediately with

17:21 Speaker 2: new questions. Officers escorting Russ from room to room no

17:25 Speaker 2: longer made small talk. The atmosphere surrounding him had cooled

17:29 Speaker 2: into something procedural and distant. Late one evening, Russ sat

17:33 Speaker 2: alone at the interview table while voices carried faintly from

17:36 Speaker 2: an office farther down the hallway. He couldn't make out

17:39 Speaker 2: most of the conversation, only fragments drifting through partially closed

17:44 Speaker 2: doors enough for probable cause, jury's gonna see timeline works.

17:50 Speaker 2: The voices faded again as somebody closed the office door.

17:53 Speaker 2: The arrest discussion started quietly, almost cautiously at first. Detectives

17:59 Speaker 2: and prosecutors get gathered in small rooms with stacks of

18:01 Speaker 2: reports spread across tables, revisiting the same evidence they had

18:05 Speaker 2: been reviewing for days, while debating what still needed to

18:08 Speaker 2: be tightened before charges could move forward. The atmosphere inside

18:13 Speaker 2: those meetings felt different from the earlier investigative scramble, less speculation,

18:18 Speaker 2: more organization. Detectives spoke in shorter sentences, now moving through

18:23 Speaker 2: witness statements and photographs with the familiarity of people who

18:26 Speaker 2: had already spent long hours living inside the same material.

18:31 Speaker 2: One prosecutor stood near a whiteboard covered in timelines while

18:34 Speaker 2: flipping through photographs from the living room, the couch, the

18:38 Speaker 2: bloodstained carpet, the knife. Russ's statements from the night of

18:42 Speaker 2: the murder sat in organized interview summaries beside photographs from

18:46 Speaker 2: the scene. Detectives cross referenced those statements repeatedly, while prosecutors

18:51 Speaker 2: marked sections of reports with yellow tabs and handwritten notes.

18:55 Speaker 2: The conversation inside the room had shifted away from what

18:58 Speaker 2: had happened, becas now was on whether they could prove it.

19:03 Speaker 2: At the same time, detectives continued revisiting the people closest

19:07 Speaker 2: to Betsy and Russ, filling in details around the edges

19:10 Speaker 2: of the case while preparing for the possibility of formal charges.

19:14 Speaker 2: Friends and family members found themselves answering familiar questions again,

19:18 Speaker 2: though the tone had changed noticeably from the early days

19:22 Speaker 2: of the investigation, Investigators pressed harder now on specifics involving arguments, finances,

19:28 Speaker 2: and the condition of the marriage. Interviews that once felt

19:31 Speaker 2: conversational began sounding more structured and deliver it. Detectives interrupted

19:36 Speaker 2: more often when timelines drifted or descriptions stayed too vague.

19:40 Speaker 2: Members of Russ's Game Night group continued emphasizing the same

19:43 Speaker 2: thing they had from the beginning, Russ had been there

19:47 Speaker 2: with them. Detectives reviewed those accounts repeatedly while comparing them

19:51 Speaker 2: against phone records and the evolving timelines surrounding Betsy's death.

19:55 Speaker 2: Notes from the interviews spread across tables alongside maps, call logs,

19:59 Speaker 2: and enlarge crime scene photographs. One investigator studying the Game

20:03 Speaker 2: Night timeline circled a narrow portion of the evening in

20:06 Speaker 2: red pen before sliding the paperwork toward another detective beside him.

20:11 Speaker 2: Pam Hupp's involvement in the investigation deepened further as prosecutors

20:16 Speaker 2: prepared the developing case theory. By then, detectives viewed her

20:19 Speaker 2: not only as one of the last people to see

20:21 Speaker 2: Betsy alive, but also as somebody who gave emotional framing

20:25 Speaker 2: to the marriage. Investigators believed jurors would eventually hear about

20:29 Speaker 2: her statements about Betsy Fearing Russ appeared repeatedly throughout briefing materials,

20:34 Speaker 2: so did the discussions involving money, the insurance policy, the

20:38 Speaker 2: alleged tension inside the marriage. Prosecutors reviewed those portions carefully

20:43 Speaker 2: while organizing witness lists and potential lines of testimony. One

20:47 Speaker 2: prosecutor sat for several minutes rereading highlighted sections from Pam's interviews,

20:52 Speaker 2: while another investigator nearby organized crime scene photographs into separate

20:57 Speaker 2: folders labeled for evidence review. The pages connected to Pam

21:01 Speaker 2: showed the heaviest wear inside the growing case file corners,

21:05 Speaker 2: bent notes layered over earlier notes, highlighted passages, almost bleeding

21:10 Speaker 2: through the paper from repeated handling. Across the office, Detectives

21:14 Speaker 2: continued quietly discussing timelines near the whiteboard. Russ, meanwhile, remained

21:19 Speaker 2: caught in the strange limbo that exists before charges arrived,

21:23 Speaker 2: but after suspicion hardens. Detectives continued interviewing him periodically while

21:28 Speaker 2: withholding more and more of what they believed internally about

21:31 Speaker 2: the case. The atmosphere surrounding those interviews had become colder

21:36 Speaker 2: over time, Less rapport less casual conversation between questions. Russ

21:41 Speaker 2: noticed it in small details, Detectives entering the room already

21:45 Speaker 2: carrying prepared notes instead of blank legal pads, longer pauses

21:49 Speaker 2: before answering his questions, Investigators exchanging looks with each other

21:54 Speaker 2: after certain responses before moving on without explanation. One afternoon,

21:59 Speaker 2: Russ sat waiting alone at an interview table for nearly

22:02 Speaker 2: twenty minutes while detectives met elsewhere in the building. The

22:05 Speaker 2: room stayed silent except for fluorescent lights humming overhead and

22:10 Speaker 2: muffled movement carrying faintly through the hallway outside. When detectives

22:14 Speaker 2: finally returned, one of them carried a thicker folder than

22:17 Speaker 2: before and set it down at the table without opening

22:20 Speaker 2: it immediately. Russ watched the folder longer than he watched

22:24 Speaker 2: the detective outside the investigation itself, the case continued, building

22:28 Speaker 2: public attention around Betsy's death. News coverage increasingly focused on

22:33 Speaker 2: the brutality of the crime scene and the growing police

22:36 Speaker 2: suspicions surrounding Russ. Detectives monitored portions of that coverage while

22:40 Speaker 2: preparing for what they believed would eventually become a very

22:43 Speaker 2: public prosecution. Inside briefing rooms, investigators rehearsed portions of the

22:49 Speaker 2: timeline allowed, while prosecutors challenged gaps and weak points in

22:53 Speaker 2: the developing case. Crime scene photographs remained spread across conference

22:57 Speaker 2: tables almost continuously. Detectives reatur turned repeatedly to the same

23:01 Speaker 2: central argument, The violence inside the living room suggested somebody

23:06 Speaker 2: close to Betsy. Late one evening, a prosecutor closed a

23:10 Speaker 2: folder and looked across the room toward the detectives gathered

23:13 Speaker 2: near the evidence boards. If we're doing this, he said, quietly,

23:17 Speaker 2: we need to move. Nobody in the room argued with him.

23:20 Speaker 2: Russ started hearing pieces of the investigation second hand before

23:24 Speaker 2: detectives ever told him directly. How serious things had become.

23:27 Speaker 2: Friends called less often, Conversations that did happen felt strained

23:32 Speaker 2: in ways that they hadn't a week earlier. Some people

23:35 Speaker 2: still sounded firmly convinced the police were wrong. Others sounded careful, now,

23:39 Speaker 2: choosing words more slowly, avoiding direct statements altogether. That change

23:44 Speaker 2: followed him everywhere. The case had spread far beyond the

23:47 Speaker 2: house in Troy. By then, reporters repeated details from the

23:51 Speaker 2: scene across local broadcasts. Betsy's photograph appeared constantly beside descriptions

23:56 Speaker 2: of the violent attack. Inside the living room, Russ's name

24:00 Speaker 2: started appearing alongside hers more frequently, too, especially whenever coverage

24:04 Speaker 2: shifted toward the investigation itself instead of Betsy's death. Alone.

24:09 Speaker 2: Inside restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores, people recognized him

24:13 Speaker 2: before they spoke to him. Sometimes they didn't speak at all,

24:17 Speaker 2: They just watched. One evening, Russ sat with a friend

24:21 Speaker 2: who had been at Game Night the evening Betsy died,

24:24 Speaker 2: while the television above the bar replayed another report about

24:27 Speaker 2: the investigation. Neither man looked at the screen much while

24:31 Speaker 2: it played. The pressure building around Russ started affecting the

24:34 Speaker 2: people closest to him too. Friends from Game Night continued

24:38 Speaker 2: standing by the timeline they had given investigators, but detectives

24:42 Speaker 2: kept revisiting them anyway, pressing harder each time for smaller details,

24:46 Speaker 2: exact arrival times, breaks in conversation, who had looked at clocks,

24:50 Speaker 2: who remembered Russ leaving. The repeated interviews wore people down.

24:55 Speaker 2: One friend later sat at a kitchen table, flipping through

24:57 Speaker 2: notes he had written after another long conversation with investigators,

25:02 Speaker 2: Frustrated by how often detectives circled back over the same

25:06 Speaker 2: stretch of the evening. Another described the feeling that the

25:08 Speaker 2: investigators already believed Russ was guilty and were now searching

25:12 Speaker 2: for details to reinforce that conclusion rather than challenge it. Still,

25:17 Speaker 2: the pressure worked differently on different people. Some friends grew

25:20 Speaker 2: louder in defending Russ, others became quiet Altogether. The uncertainty

25:26 Speaker 2: surrounding the investigation started pulling at relationships that had once

25:30 Speaker 2: felt uncomplicated before Betsy's death, turned every conversation into something heavier.

25:36 Speaker 2: Pam Hupp, meanwhile, appeared increasingly comfortable speaking with investigators and

25:40 Speaker 2: discussing Betsy publicly. Detectives remained in regular contact with her

25:45 Speaker 2: as prosecutors continued shaping the case theory around Russ. Her

25:49 Speaker 2: descriptions of Betsy's fears and frustrations continued surfacing throughout interviews, reports,

25:54 Speaker 2: and conversations connected to the case. At the same time,

25:57 Speaker 2: Pam also occupied a strange emotion position around the investigation itself.

26:02 Speaker 2: She was grieving publicly, helping investigators, discussing Betsy's marriage, talking

26:08 Speaker 2: about Betsy's illness and final months, and because she had

26:11 Speaker 2: been one of the last people to see Betsy alive.

26:13 Speaker 2: Reporters and investigators kept returning to her repeatedly for information

26:17 Speaker 2: and perspective. Her voice started carrying unusual weight inside the

26:21 Speaker 2: broader public story developing around the murder. One local news

26:25 Speaker 2: segment referred to her as Betsy's close friend while showing

26:28 Speaker 2: footage connected to the investigation. Across town, detectives continued meeting

26:33 Speaker 2: privately with prosecutors while organizing the next stage of the

26:37 Speaker 2: case against Russ. Inside those meetings, the conversations had started

26:41 Speaker 2: shifting toward timing rather than theory. Detectives no longer spent

26:45 Speaker 2: much time debating whether they believed Russ killed Betsy. The

26:48 Speaker 2: focus now centered on when they would move and whether

26:51 Speaker 2: the case felt strong enough to survive the scrutiny waiting

26:54 Speaker 2: beyond the investigation itself. One prosecutor remained concerned about the

26:59 Speaker 2: game night time timeline and continued pressing detectives about it.

27:02 Speaker 2: During strategy meetings. Investigators spread maps, driving estimates, and witness

27:07 Speaker 2: statements across conference tables while debating whether the timeline still

27:11 Speaker 2: allowed enough room for the murder to occur the way

27:14 Speaker 2: they believed it had. The discussions sometimes stretched late into

27:18 Speaker 2: the evening, voices, low coffee gone cold. Crime scene photographs

27:23 Speaker 2: pushed aside temporarily while prosecutors focused instead on logistics, timing,

27:29 Speaker 2: and jury perception. One detective eventually stood near the whiteboard,

27:33 Speaker 2: staring at the timeline for several seconds before quietly saying

27:37 Speaker 2: they either trusted the totality of the evidence or they didn't.

27:41 Speaker 2: Nobody in the room challenged him. Russ felt the isolation

27:45 Speaker 2: settling around him long before any formal announcement came. Detectives

27:49 Speaker 2: had become colder, reporters had become aggressive. People who once

27:53 Speaker 2: spoke freely around him now measured their words carefully or

27:56 Speaker 2: avoided him altogether. Even ordinary errands carried tension because he

28:00 Speaker 2: could feel people recognizing him from television coverage tied to

28:03 Speaker 2: Betsy's murder. At the same time, the investigation itself continued

28:07 Speaker 2: moving steadily toward a decision. Prosecutors organized final briefing materials,

28:12 Speaker 2: detectives finalized reports, witness summaries were reviewed one last time.

28:18 Speaker 2: Late one night, after most of the building had emptied out,

28:22 Speaker 2: several detectives remained inside a conference room reviewing the final

28:26 Speaker 2: arrest paperwork spread across the table between them, nobody spoke

28:30 Speaker 2: much anymore. The room carried the exhausted silence of people

28:34 Speaker 2: who believed the case had already crossed the line from

28:37 Speaker 2: investigation into prosecution. One detective finally signed the last page

28:42 Speaker 2: and slid the paperwork across the table toward the prosecutor

28:47 Speaker 2: waiting beside him. All Right, we're going to stop there.

28:50 Speaker 2: Please join me in a week on Wednesday, May twentieth,

28:53 Speaker 2: or part four of kind of Murdery's investigation of the

28:57 Speaker 2: murder of Betsy Faria. Once again, thank you so much

29:00 Speaker 2: for being here. If you know anybody who likes a

29:03 Speaker 2: true crime podcast, friends, family, strangers, you happen to run

29:08 Speaker 2: into it at the grocery store. Hey, if you can

29:10 Speaker 2: tell them about the show, I sure would appreciate it.

29:13 Speaker 2: I am Zevan Odelberg and this has been kind of Murdery.

29:19 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell

29:21 Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at

29:24 Speaker 1: kinda Murdery or email at Kindamurdery at gmail dot com.