The Murder of Betsy Faria: Part Two

0:00 Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening now.

0:18 Speaker 2: True Crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the strange in the darkly comic. A podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension, home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long as it's kind of murdery.

0:40 Speaker 3: Listen. I've just started reading this book. It's called A Little Bit Bad. Like Assandra Niosh, she's known mostly for her short fiction published in The New Yorker. This book, A Little Bit Bad is published by Summit Books, and it came out yesterday, that's right, came out yesterday May fifth. So I've just started reading it and I couldn't help myself because listen, it's set in my hometown of San Diego, and it's protagonist is obsessed with true crime. So she has an affair and then years later her firstwhile lover is murdered and everything starts to get even wilder from there.

1:15 Speaker 3: Anyway, I'm loving it, but like I said, it came out yesterday and I just started it, so I haven't gotten far enough to give a real review that I can stand behind yet, but would definitely recommend so far, And by next week I should be done and can give you guys a real review. And if I like it as much as I think I will, then I'm going to try to get Cassandra on the show for an interview, which I think would be awesome. But if you're willing to trust my just started it, liking it so far review, then check out a little Bit Bad by Cassandra Naiush or wait until next week when you get the real review.

1:50 Speaker 3: And if I like it and you guys think it sounds cool, then we'll get Cassandra on the show and talk to her about the book and her inspirations and all kinds of other stuff. I'm sure she's a fascinating woman. She's certainly a great writer. Oh that's right, I am zevn Odleberg. Hello. Hello, this is kind of murdery welcome. Thank you so much for being here. As I say every week, I appreciate it deeply that you choose to spend your valuable time with me. All right, let's jump straight into the story.

2:22 Speaker 3: This is part two, that's right, I said part two. So if you haven't listened to part one yet, go back and listen to it and then come join us. I'll save you a seat. But this is part two of kind of Murdery's examination of the murder of Betsy Faria, and it starts now. The first deputies through the front door found Russ Feria standing near the edge of the living room with a phone still pressed against his ear. The dispatcher's voice could be heard faintly through the receiver while officers stepped past him and into the house.

3:04 Speaker 3: One deputy moved directly toward Betsy on the floor beside the couch, while another stopped with Russ near the injury, keeping him back with a hand lightly held against his arm. What happened, asked the deputy. Russ looked past the deputy toward the living room before answering, aye, aye, I came home and found her like that. The deputy asked if anyone else was inside the house. Russ shook his head once and said no. His breathing still came fast between answers. Blood had dried in streaks across one hand and along the front of his pants, where he'd wiped his palm earlier without thinking about it.

3:40 Speaker 3: The deputy near Betsy crouched low beside the body, taking the room in piece by piece before touching anything. The living room stayed quiet except for radios, footsteps, and the dispatcher still talking faintly through Russ's phone. Betsy lay beside the couch where Russ had found her, one arm angled awkwardly near her side. Blood spread beneath her into the carpet. The knife protruding from her neck remained untouched. A deputy leaned in close, checking for signs of life, while another officer stood back near the hallway, watching the rest of the house.

4:12 Speaker 3: Russ kept turning his head toward Betsy while the questions continued around him. What's your name, Russ forarrhea? How long were you gone tonight? A few hours? Where were you with friends? The deputy writing notes asked Russ to repeat the names of his friends slowly while he wrote them down one at a time. Russ rubbed both hands against his genes between answers, leaving darker smears where blood still hadn't dried completely near the front door. Another officer started bogging everybody entering the house.

4:43 Speaker 3: Paramedics came through the doorway carrying equipment bags, stepping carefully. Once officers pointed out the blood near the couch, one knelt beside Betsy, while the other paused just long enough to study the scene around her first, the position of the body, the knife, the amount of blood already soaked into the carpet fibers. Their voices stayed low while they worked. Russ stood near the dining area, now separated from the center of the room by two deputies. He kept looking toward the paramedics while an officer continued questioning him.

5:15 Speaker 3: When was the last time you saw your wife alive before I left to night? She was home resting after her treatment. What time did you leave? Around six? The deputy wrote steadily, without looking up much, while Russ answered. Every few seconds, Russ shifted his wad or craned his neck slightly, trying to see past the officers moving around the living room. One deputy noticed and quietly told him to stay where he was. Russ nodded and stayed planted beside the dining table. Outside, patrol cars lined the street in front of the house, red and blue lights washing across near by garages and parked cars.

5:50 Speaker 3: Neighbors had started gathering near driveways in front walks, bundled in jackets against the cold, while watching officers move in and out through the open front door. Every time the door opened, wider voices and radio traffic spilled briefly out into the neighborhood before the sounds softened again. Inside, investigators started photographing the living room before anything was moved. One crouched near the floor, taking wide shots of the couch, carpet, and blood spread around Betsy's body. Another stood farther back, photographing the room from corner angles before moving closer for tighter shots.

6:25 Speaker 3: Flash after flash lit the walls white for an instant. Russ watched part of that from the kitchen entrance while another deputy continued asking questions, Did you touch the knife? No? What did you touch her shoulder? I checked her neck. The deputy asked him to describe exactly where he had put his hands. By then, the house had divided into separate pockets of activity happening at once. Patrol officers controlled the front injury while paramedics stayed near Betsy and investigators worked the living room floor around them.

6:56 Speaker 3: Detectives had started arriving too, walking into the house more slow slowly than the first responders had, stopping near the body to study the scene before speaking much at all. One detective finally sat across from Russ at the dining table and started again from the beginning. What time did you get home? Russ answered? What did you do when you walked in? I called for her, then I found her. The detective watched Russ carefully while he spoke, occasionally glancing down at his notes. When you found her, what did you do first?

7:24 Speaker 3: I touched her shoulder. I thought maybe, I thought maybe she was still alive. Behind them, another camera flash lit the living room again, while evidence markers began appearing near the couch and across the bloodstained carpet around Betsy's body. The detectives kept Russ at the dining table while the scene team worked through the house room by room. Questions were repeated in slightly different ways each time a new investigator sat down across from Russ. Where had he parked when he arrived home, Which room had he entered first, Whether any doors had been locked when he came inside?

7:56 Speaker 3: Russ answered each question while rubbing his hands together or wiping them again against his genes without seeming to notice he was doing it. One detective asked him to walk through the evening from the beginning. Russ said Betsy had been home after chemotherapy, resting while he left to meet his friends. He described leaving for the weekly gathering, then returning home later that night and calling out for her after he came inside. What made you go into the living room, asked the detective. Well, I couldn't get her to answer me.

8:25 Speaker 3: The detective wrote that down immediately. In the living room, investigator's photographed everything before collecting it. One technician worked slowly around the bloodstained carpet, placing numbered markers beside visible evidence, while another took close up photographs from different angles near the couch. The knife still protruding from Betsy's neck remained untouched while they documented the position of the body and the surrounding room. An investigator near the hallway photographed a pair of slippers with blood on them before placing markers nearby.

8:57 Speaker 3: Another technician crouched load of photograph stains leading across part of the carpet near the living room area. Every movement inside the room stayed deliberate. Officers stepped carefully around evidence markers and avoided the blood spread beneath Betsy. From the dining area, Russ could still see pieces of the activity through gaps between investigators moving around the house. Detectives began reaching out to the friends Russ had said he had been with that evening. Names from the game night group had already been written down during the first interviews.

9:30 Speaker 3: Inside the house, officers worked phones near the kitchen while another detective continued talking to Russ across the table. What time did you leave your friend's house? Uh, I don't know exactly. Did anybody leave with you? No? The detective asked him again about finding Betsy. When you saw her, What did you think happened? Russ looked down at his hands before answering, Ah, I don't know. I just saw the knife and all the blood. One investig gator entered briefly from the living room and quietly handed the detective another sheet of notes before stepping back out toward the crime scene area.

10:07 Speaker 3: Outside, the neighborhood remained awake long past when the street usually went dark. Patrol car lights continued flashing across lawns and garage doors, while officers moved between the house and their vehicles carrying equipment, bags, cameras, and evidence containers. Neighbors stayed gathered in small groups near the curbs, speaking quietly while watching the activity around the Faria home. Inside, the temperature of the house had shifted, with the front door constantly opening and closing. Cold air moved through the injury way every time another officer came inside.

10:41 Speaker 3: A detective finally asked Russ if he needed water. Russ nodded once, and a deputy brought him a bottle from the kitchen. He twisted the cap off slowly, hands still stained dark along the fingers and knuckles. Across the room, another camera flash lit the hallway white for a split second. As the interviews continued, detectives started narrowing the timeline surrounding Betsy's last known hours alive. They asked Russ again about the chemotherapy appointment, about Pam Hump driving Betsy home afterward, and about the text Betsy had sent earlier that evening, saying Pam had brought her home to bed.

11:17 Speaker 3: Russ answered each question while detectives compared his statements against notes already collected from the house and phone records beginning to come in. Did you speak to Pam tonight? No? When was the last time you saw her? Earlier before I left? The detective kept writing while another investigator moved through the dining room, carrying sealed evidence bags out through the front door from deeper in the house. The sound of cameras clicking and officers speaking quietly to each other continued without stopping.

11:49 Speaker 3: By the early hours of the morning, the house had taken on the rhythm crime scenes often due after the first rush settles down, Fewer people talking at once, more quiet movement, investigators crossing the same rooms repeatedly checking details they had already looked at once before. Evidence bags lined part of the dining area table, while photographs continued in the living room around Betsy's body. Russ remained seated near by while detectives kept working through the timeline again from the beginning.

12:20 Speaker 3: What time did Pam leave the house? I don't know exactly what was Betsy wearing when you left? Russ paused before answering, eyes drifting toward the living room again. I I don't remember. The detective watched him for a second before writing something down. One investigator focused on documenting blood evidence throughout the living room area. Another photograph spots near the hallway and portions of the floor surrounding the couch from different angles, before kneeling lower for close up shots.

12:52 Speaker 3: The pair of slippers investigators had marked earlier remained near the edge of the room while technicians continued photographing them before A detective stepped carefully through the scene and stopped near the couch, studying the room without speaking for several seconds. His eyes moved from the blood stains to the knife, and then toward the surrounding furniture behind him. Another investigator quietly said, there's a lot here. The detective nodded once, without looking away from the scene. Across the room, the sound of a camera shutter clicked again and again.

13:25 Speaker 3: Russ's friends had begun speaking with investigators by then, confirming that Russ had been with them earlier in the evening. During the regular game night gathering, detectives moved between conversations inside the house and phone calls with witnesses outside it, building timelines on legal pads and notepads scattered across the dining table. One detective returned to Russ with another series of questions when you found her, did anything in the room look disturbed? I wasn't looking at the room.

13:55 Speaker 3: I was looking at her. Did you move anything besides touching her? No. The detective asked him to describe exactly where he had knelt beside Betsy. Rust leaned slightly forward in the chair while explaining, one hand unconsciously rubbing at the dried blood still visible near his wrist. Elsewhere in the house, investigators began collecting items that had already been photographed and documented evidence. Technicians moved slowly, changing gloves repeatedly while sealing objects into bags and labeling them before carrying them out through the front door.

14:28 Speaker 3: The knife remained in place while the rest of the room continued to be processed around it. Near the kitchen, one investigator quietly discussed the timeline involving Pam Hupp driving Betsy home after chemotherapy. Another detective reviewed notes involving Betsy's text message sent earlier that evening. Betsy texted Pam Hup wants to bring me home to bed? She offered and I accepted. The detective re read the line once more while comparing time stamps written beside it in his notes. Behind him. Another officer carried additional evidence bags towards the entryway.

15:03 Speaker 3: As the night continued, detectives kept returning to the same basic questions surrounding the final hours before Betsy's death. Who had seen her last, who had spoken to her, who had been inside the house? Russ answered each round of questions, while the activity around him never fully stopped. Officers moving through doorways, radios crackling softly, investigators stepping carefully around the taped off living room. One detective finally closed his notebook for a moment and looked directly at Russ.

15:33 Speaker 3: We're going to keep working through everything tonight. Russ nodded once from the living room. Another burst of camera flashes briefly lit the hallway while investigators continued documenting the scene around Betsy's body. By morning, detectives had started pulling together the first full timeline of Betsy's last day alive. Notes covered tables inside the house and continued into patrol cars parked outside. Times were written down, crossed, then rewritten as investigators compared statements against phone records and witness interviews.

16:05 Speaker 3: The chemotherapy appointment sat near the center of everything because it established where Betsy had been earlier that day and who had been with her. Pam Hupp's name appeared repeatedly in the notes. Detectives confirmed that Pam had driven Betsy home after treatment. They also had the text message Betsy sent Russ that evening, Pam Hup wants to bring me home to bed. She offered and I accepted. One detective circled the time stamp beside the message, while another copied it into a separate report.

16:35 Speaker 3: Investigators also focused heavily on Russ's movements that evening. Detectives spoke again with the group of friends Russ said he had been with during the game night, comparing each account against the others to see whether the timelines matched. The interviews happened separately, different conversations, different officers, The same basic questions repeated over and over. What time did Russ arrive? What time did he leave? Did he leave at any point during the night. The friends described the gathering as routine, the same kind of night they'd held many times before, games, movies, food spread out on tables while people moved in and out of conversations.

17:15 Speaker 3: Over the course of the evening. Detectives wrote down each detail, carefully checking times against phone activity already being pulled into reports. Back at the house, investigators continued processing the living room around Betsy's body. Crime scene technicians worked methodically through the physical evidence. Blood stains across the carpet were photographed repeatedly before measurements were taken. The slippers marked earlier in the investigation remained part of the evidence being documented.

17:42 Speaker 3: Inside the living room, detectives moved slowly around the scene while technicians pointed out specific areas they wanted preserved in photographs before collection. One investigator crouched near the couch, reviewing images on the back of a digital camera, while another dictated observations quietly into a recorder. Knife still in place, blood saturation extending outward from the victim evidence marker's positioned near footwear nearby. Another technician carefully sealed collected items into evidence bags, while an officer logged each piece before it left the house.

18:16 Speaker 3: The living room lights stayed on the entire time. Detectives began interviewing Pam Hup in greater detail about her time with Betsy that day. Pam described driving Betsy home after chemotherapy and leaving afterward. She also repeated statements she already had made about Betsy's marriage, telling investigators Betsy had expressed fear of Russ and described him as verbally abusive. Detectives documented those statements carefully because they directly affected how the investigation was beginning to take shape.

18:47 Speaker 3: One investigator compared Pam's timeline against the text message Betsy had sent earlier that evening, while another reviewed notes from Russ's interview conducted overnight. Pam's account placed Betsy alive after returning home from treatment and before Russ left for game night. A detective underline part of that timeline in his notebook. As the investigation expanded beyond the house itself, officers started collecting additional records tied to Betsy and Russ's daily lives, phone records, financial information, contact lists.

19:19 Speaker 3: Detectives built timelines across legal pads and whiteboards while comparing witness statements against time stamps from calls and messages. Inside those conversations, the same names kept surfacing Russ, Pam, Betsy's friends, the game night group. One detective re visited Russ's statements from the night before and paused at the line where Russ described finding Betsy beside the couch. Another investigator nearby reviewed photographs from the scene while listening. In the living room, technicians were still working around the bloodstained carpet, while detectives continued building the first working theory of what happened inside the house.

20:00 Speaker 3: The detective assigned to Russ's interview had stopped writing for a while and started watching instead. Russ sat at the dining table under the kitchen light, with a bottle of water in front of him, cap off barely touched. Every so often, he rubbed his palms against his jeanes, again smearing what remained of the dried blood across the fabric near his knees. The house had gone quieter by then. Most of the patrol officers who had crowded the rooms earlier were outside or working elsewhere, leaving only the low murmur of investigators and the occasional burst of radio traffic drifting in from the front doorway.

20:36 Speaker 3: A detective flipped back a few pages in his note book. You said Betsy was resting when you left, Russ nodded once. What exactly do you mean by resting? She was tired from chemo, She was laying down. Did she say anything before you left? Russ looked down toward the table before answering, no, nothing unusual. The detective the silence, sit there for a few seconds before asking his next question. In the living room, investigators were still working around the body. One technician crouched beside the couch photographing small areas of carpet, while another stretched a measuring tape across portions of the floor near the blood stains.

21:17 Speaker 3: The camera flashes came slower, now spaced farther apart than before, each burst briefly whitening the walls and ceiling before the room settled back into a steady lamplight. The detective stood near the edge of the room, holding a stack of photographs already printed from earlier shots. He compared the images against the room in front of him, eyes moving between the blood stains, the couch cushions, the knife still protruding upward from Betsy's neck. Another investigator stepped carefully around an evidence marker and stopped beside him.

21:47 Speaker 3: What are you seeing? The detective lowered one of the photographs, slightly a lot of blood for a suicide. Neither man spoke for a few seconds while they kept looking at the room. Back at the dining table. Another detective had joined the interview. He carried a fresh notebook and a styrofoam cup of coffee that smelled burnt the second he set it down. He didn't sit immediately. Instead, he stood beside the table, looking over the earlier notes, while Russ waded across from him. You and your wife having problems, Russ exhiled through his nose, before answering, everybody has problems, and that's not what I asked.

22:23 Speaker 3: Russ shifted in the chair, glancing once toward the living room before looking back. We argued sometimes, how bad? Normal bad. The detective finally sat down, then flipping open the notebook slowly, while the other detective watched Russ overfolded arms. Outside, another set of headlights swept briefly across the kitchen window before fading away again. From deeper in the house came the sound of another evidence bag being sealed shut. Pam Hupp's earlier statements were already circulating among detectives inside the house.

22:55 Speaker 3: Printed notes from her interview sat clipped to a legal pad near the kitchen counter, while one another investigator re read portions allowed quietly to another. Betsy, afraid of Russ, Russ verbally abusive, Betsy worried about money. The investigator reading paused occasionally to underline lines with the cap of his pen, while the other detective listened across the room. Russ kept answering questions. When was the last time you? And Betsy argued, I don't know this week? Probably what about? Russ rubbed one hand against his forehead and stared at the table a second before answering, I don't remember, the detective wrote, anyway.

23:34 Speaker 3: Near the hallway entrance, an evidence technician walked past carrying several sealed bags, while another investigator photographed the slippers again. The longer the night went, the more the investigation settled around the assumption that the answers were already somewhere inside the house. Detectives moved slower, now, less urgency in their footsteps, more time spent standing still and studying details before speaking. Investigator remained near the couch almost continually, occasionally kneeling to examine something near the floor before standing again and quietly discussing it with the others near by at the dining table.

24:11 Speaker 3: The questioning narrowed further. Did Betsy ever threaten suicide? No? Did she seem depressed to night she was sick tired. The detective watched Russ carefully after each answer, waiting to see whether anything changed in his face, before moving on to the next question. In the living room, the knife still remained where investigators had first found it, surrounded now by evidence markers, camera equipment, and the dark stains spreading through the carpet beneath Betsy's body. Near dawn, the house had settled into that strange, exhausted quiet that crime scenes sometimes reach after everyone has been awake too long.

24:51 Speaker 3: Coffee cups sat half finished on counters and inn tables, jackets hung over chair backs. Detectives moved more slowly through the room now, not because the work had stopped, but because they were looking harder at smaller things. A camera flash still went off now and then from the living room, but long stretches passed in between, with only the sound of low voices and shoes crossing the floor carefully. At the dining table, one detective flipped through a stack of notes while another reviewed photographs spread out beside him.

25:22 Speaker 3: Russ remained in the same chair he'd been sitting in for hours. Shoulders slumped now, voice rougher Each time he answered another question, the detective tapped one of the photographs lightly with his pen. Walk me through exactly what you touched? Again. Russ leaned forward slightly in the chair, elbows near his knees, eyes fixed on the table while he answered, I touched her shoulder first with which hand my right? Then what I checked her neck? The detective kept writing steadily while another investigator nearby compared Russ's answers against earlier notes taken closer to me midnight.

26:00 Speaker 3: Every so often, one of them stopped to ask for clarification about where Russ had been standing or how close he'd gotten to the body before kneeling beside her. Across the room, investigators continued working around the living room floor. The blood had darkened further as it dried into the carpet fibers beneath Betsy. One technician crouched near the couch studying the edge of the stain, while another photographed sections of the room, now cleared of earlier equipment. The knife still remained in place while they documented the final details around the body.

26:34 Speaker 3: Pam Hupp's statements kept resurfacing throughout the night's conversations between detectives. Printed interview summaries had been copied, highlighted, and passed from one investigator to another. As the hours wore on. One detective stood near the kitchen counter, re reading portions quietly under his breath, while another leaned beside him, listening. She said Betsy was afraid of him. She also said Betsy talked about money. The second detective took the papers and scanned them himself while looking toward the dining room, where Russ still sat answering questions.

27:08 Speaker 3: Near By, another investigator reviewed the text message Betsy had sent earlier that evening about Pam bringing her home to bed after treatment. The time stamp beside the message had been circled several times in dark ink. From outside, came the muffled sound of another patrol car door shutting. Inside the living room, investigators had finally begun preparing for the removal of Betsy's body. Before anything changed, more photographs were taken from multiple angles around the couch and surrounding floor.

27:37 Speaker 3: One detective stood with folded arms near the hallway entrance, watching silently while technicians documented the knife, the blood patterns, and the position of Betsy's body. One final time before movement disturbed the scene. The room looked crowded with evidence markers. By then, a technician near the couch spoke quietly to another investigator, careful around the right side. The second investigator adjusted his footing, immediately stepping around the edge of the blood stain while carrying additional evidence bags toward the dining area.

28:09 Speaker 3: Camera flashes reflected briefly across the living room windows each time another photograph was taken at the table. Russ looked up when the flashes went off, then lowered his eyes again. The detectives questioning Russ had narrowed almost completely on to timing. By then, they revisited the sequence repeatedly. Chemotherapy, appointment, Pam driving Betsy home, Russ leaving for game night, Russ returning to the house. The same names and times moved in circles across pages of notes spread over the dining table.

28:42 Speaker 3: One detective pointed at the notebook in front of him. You're sure nobody else had a key to the house, Russ answered, quietly, not that I know of. The detective wrote that down, then immediately followed with another question. When you came into night, was anything missing? No? Anything out of plate? Russ paused longer, this time staring toward the living room before answering, I I wasn't looking at the room. I saw Betsy. From the other side of the house. Came the sound of investigators beginning the careful process of moving evidence out toward waiting vehicles, as daylight slowly started appearing through the windows near the kitchen.

29:20 Speaker 3: By morning, detectives had moved beyond the first wave of emergency response and into the slower work of deciding what kind of case they believed they were Standing inside, the house looked different in daylight. The flashing patrol lights that had washed across the walls overnight were gone, now replaced by gray morning light coming through the windows and falling across the same rooms. Investigators had spent hours walking through evidence. Tapes still crossed portions of the living room, while technicians carried equipment in and out through the front door.

29:52 Speaker 3: One detective stood near the kitchen counter flipping through photographs taken over night, while another reviewed interview notes beside him. The pages were already crowded with names, times, arrows, underlined phrases. Russ sat at the dining table again while detectives resumed questioning him. After only a short break when you left for game night? Was Betsy already in bed? No resting on the couch? I think so, the detective wrote something down immediately. The living room had become the center of nearly everything investigator's discussed.

30:26 Speaker 3: Detectives drifted back toward it repeatedly, even while talking elsewhere in the house, Standing near the couch and quietly comparing observations with each other, one investigator crouched beside the carpet studying photographs, while another looked directly at the room itself, comparing the images against the physical scene in front of him. The knife had finally been removed by then and logged into evidence, but the outline of the scene remained unchanged around the couch. Dark blood stains still spread through the carpet fibers beneath where Betsy's body had been.

30:57 Speaker 3: A detective near the hallway spoke quietly to another investigator, you think in homicide. The second detective didn't answer immediately. He kept looking at the room a few seconds longer before speaking, I'm thinking this doesn't look right. Neither detective raised his voice above conversation level. Investigators continued tightening the timeline surrounding Russ's evening with his friends. Detectives re interviewed members of the game night group separately, comparing details about arrival times, movies watched, food ordered, and when Russ had finally left for home.

31:30 Speaker 3: Legal pads filled with overlapping timelines sat spread across the dining room table while officers checked phone records against the statements being collected. One detective, reading through the notes, paused near a line and tapped it with his pen. He says Russ was there basically the whole night. Another investigator looked over his shoulder, what about gaps? Nothing obvious yet. The detective circled one of the listed times while another officer nearby worked through outgoing calls connected to the group from earlier that evening.

32:01 Speaker 3: The smell of stale coffee and damp winter air lingered through the house while investigators moved slowly between conversations. Near the front door, an evidence technician carried another sealed container out toward a waiting vehicle. Pam Hupp remained central to the timeline investigators were building. Detectives reviewed her statements repeatedly because she was one of the last known people to see Betsy alive. Her account placed her driving Betsy home after chemotherapy, helping her get settled, and leaving before Russ departed for game night.

32:35 Speaker 3: Investigators compared her timeline against phone records, text messages, and Russ's own statements from the night before. One detective re read Betsy's text message aloud while another checked the time stamp beside it. Pam hup wants to bring me home to bed, she offered, and I accepted. The detective holding the phone records, underline the time with a pen and puts Pam there after treatment and before four Russ leaves near by. Another investigator reviewed Pam's statements about Betsy being afraid of Russ, while quietly adding notes into the margin of the report.

33:10 Speaker 3: The more detectives worked the scene, the more their attention stayed fixed on the possibility that the answers were already inside the house somewhere. Investigators revisited the slippers with blood on them. They reviewed photographs of the bloodstains around the couch. They compared Russ's movements inside the house against the positions documented by crime scene technicians overnight. One detective sat across from Russ again later that morning while flipping through the growing stack of reports.

33:39 Speaker 3: You understand why we keep asking the same questions, Russ nodded tiredly, Yeah, I understand. The detective leaned back slightly in the chair. Right now, we're trying to figure out exactly what happened in this room. Behind him, another investigator carried a fresh stack of printed crimes i'me. Scene photographs into the kitchen, while daylight continued spreading through the house, where detectives had now spent the entire night working around Betsy's death. As the morning wore on, investigators started narrowing their attention toward details they believed supported a violent confrontation inside the house.

34:18 Speaker 3: Detectives moved slowly through the living room, again, stopping near the couch, then stepping back to study the room from wider angles before returning to the same spots. One investigator held a stack of scene photographs, while another pointed towards sections of blood stained carpet near the edge of the living room. Look at the spread here. The second detective crouched lower, studying the stain pattern, before answering quietly, doesn't stay contained from the dining area. Russ watched investigators move around the room, while another detective continued writing notes beside him.

34:53 Speaker 3: The repeated interviews with Russ had started producing pages of overlapping statements. By then, detectives compared earlier answers against newer ones line by line, occasionally circling details or writing short notes in the margins besides specific times. One investigator flipped through several pages before stopping near the middle of the stack. You said earlier that you called for Betsy twice before seeing her, Russ, not at once. I think so, You think so? Or you did? Russ rubbed his forehead before answering I did.

35:29 Speaker 3: The detective wrote something down while another investigator across the room reviewed photographs from the scene. At the same time, every answer Russ gave now was being matched against earlier notes, time stamps, and physical evidence collected inside the house. The questioning stayed calm, but the pauses between questions had grown longer. Detectives also continued re visiting Pam Hupp's statements throughout the day. Printed summaries from her interviews remained spread across portions of the dining table, beside photographs, records, and handwritten timelines.

36:02 Speaker 3: One investigator re read sections describing Betsy's fear of Russ, while another reviewed notes tied to the insurance policy discussions Pam claimed Betsy had mentioned during her treatment appointments. A detective near the kitchen quietly said, she's giving us motive. Another investigator looked back toward Russ before answering, or she thinks she is. The first detective didn't respond right away. He continued scanning the pages in front of him, while the second detective picked up Betsy's text message again and re read the line about Pam bringing her home after treatment.

36:37 Speaker 3: Outside, daylight had fully replaced the flashing patrol lights from earlier in the night. Inside the living room, investigators had started removing larger pieces of evidence from the scene. Technicians carried sealed containers through the house one at a time, while detectives documented where each item had originally been found before it left the room. The couch remained in place, surrounded by evidence markers and sections of blood stained carpet that investigators continued photographing before collection.

37:07 Speaker 3: One technician knelt near the floor, trimming sections of carpet around specific stains, while another carefully labeled bags at a folding table set up near the hallway. The room smelled sharply of cleaning chemicals, latex gloves, stale air, and dried blood. A detective standing near the couch glanced toward another investigator and said, quietly, this wasn't quick. The other detective kept his eyes on the floor while answering no. Camera shutters continued clicking through the room while technicians worked.

37:39 Speaker 3: By later that afternoon, the investigation had begun shifting from simple scene processing into theory. Building Detectives gathered around dining tables, counters, and the hood of patrol cars outside, comparing notes from interviews, evidence collection timelines, and phone records. Russ's account remained central to nearly every conversation because he had discovered the body lived in the house and had been gone during the estimated window. Investigators were trying to define. One detective reviewing notes finally closed the folder in front of him and looked toward another investigator nearby.

38:15 Speaker 3: You think he's lying. The other detective crossed his arms before answering, I think we keep digging. Inside the house, investigators were still moving carefully through the living room, photographing the last remaining sections of the scene, while the evidence gathered during the night and morning continued leaving the house peace by peace. By late afternoon, the investigation inside the house had started settling into something more focused. Earlier in the day, the rooms had been crowded with patrol officers, paramedics, and people moving quickly from one task to another.

38:48 Speaker 3: The urgency had burned off hours ago. Now the movement inside the house looked slower and more deliberate. Detectives stood still longer before speaking. Investigators returned repeatedly to the same sections of the living room floor, crouching beside stains they had already photographed twice before. Notes had spread across the dining table in loose stacks, crime scene photographs, interview summaries, phone logs, legal pads, filled with timelines written and re written. As the day progressed, Russ remained at the dining table while investigators continued working around him.

39:23 Speaker 3: He looked exhausted by then. His shoulders sagged lower into the chair than they had earlier in the morning, and the answers he gave detectives came more slowly, now separated by longer pauses. The dried blood still visible near his hands had darkened against the skin over the course of the day, As the afternoon continued, fewer discussions inside the house revolved around whether Betsy had been killed. Most of the conversation had already moved beyond that point. Detectives were now comparing timelines, behaviors, blood evidence, and witness statements against the growing theory taking shape inside the house.

40:00 Speaker 3: The shift had happened gradually, rather than all at once. The longer investigators stayed inside the house, the more attention they paid to Russ himself. While he sat under questioning, detectives compared his movements against the physical layout of the scene repeatedly throughout the afternoon. One investigator reviewed photographs showing the blood on Russ's clothing, while another worked through the timeline surrounding the nine one one call and Russ's description of finding Betsy beside the couch.

40:29 Speaker 3: Russ occasionally looked toward the living room whenever investigators crossed through it carrying evidence or photographs. At times, he sat completely still for long stretches, hands clasped together near the edge of the table, while detectives quietly compared notes near by without including him in the conversation. The atmosphere inside the house had changed from active emergency response into something narrower and heavier. Detectives no longer moved like people searching blindly through possibilities.

40:59 Speaker 3: Their questions had become more specific, their conversation shorter. More time passed in silence while they reviewed reports and studied photographs already collected from the scene. Outside. Daylight had started fading from the neighborhood again. At the dining table, Russ sat largely alone now while detectives moved in and out of the kitchen carrying files and photographs. Conversations around him had changed tone over the course of the day. Earlier discussions had focused on understanding the scene.

41:30 Speaker 3: By evening, most of the investigators inside the house sounded like people trying to organize evidence around a conclusion they believed they had already reached. Outside. Patrol car lights flashed silently across the windows while the investigation continued building around Russ inside the house. One detective finally gathered the growing stack of reports from the dining table and carried them into the kitchen, where several investigators had been quietly comparing notes for most of the evening.

41:59 Speaker 3: The room had gone nearly silent except for pages turning, camera equipment being packed away in the low crackle of radio traffic drifting in from outside. Russ remained seated alone at the table while the detectives stood together only a few feet away. Photographs and timelines spread between cups of cold coffee, and legal pads filled edge to edge with notes. Nobody in the kitchen sounded uncertain anymore. One detective tapped a photograph from the living room with the end of his pen. Another flipped open a notebook and re read part of Pam Hupp's statement.

42:35 Speaker 3: A third investigator compared time stamps from phone records against the timeline they'd spent the last several hours rebuilding piece by piece inside the house. One of the detectives looked back toward Russ, sitting alone at the table, and quietly said, we need to lock this down before he lawyers up. Nobody in the room disagreed. Outside, the patrol lights continued flashing across the windows, while detectives inside the house began discussing the next steps and building a murder case against Russ Faria and we'll stop there.

43:07 Speaker 3: Please join me next week Wednesday, May thirteenth, for Part three of Kind of Murdery's investigation of the murder of Betsy Faria, and also an update on Cassandra NIOSH's new murder mystery set in San Diego, A little Bit Bad. I'm Zevan Oldberg and this has been kind of Murdery.

43:29 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell your friends. You can find us on social media at kinda Murdery or email at Kindomurdery at gmail dot com