Pamela Marie Hupp (born October 10, 1958) is an American murderer serving a life sentence in the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger in her O’Fallon home. Law authorities did not believe Hupp’s assertion that she shot Gumpenberger in self-defense after he pursued her into her home with a knife. Before the allegations of first-degree murder and armed criminal action could go to trial, she entered an Alford guilty plea.
Hupp’s testimony was crucial in Russ Faria’s 2013 conviction for the murder of his wife, Betsy Faria, who was stabbed to death in her Troy, Missouri, home in 2011. Russ Faria was exonerated following a successful appeal and second trial in 2015, when his defence attorney was allowed to submit the information that had been concealed from the initial trial jury, some of which implicated Hupp in the murder of Betsy Faria.
Shirley Neumann, Hupp’s mother, died in 2013 from injuries incurred when she fell from the balcony of her third-floor apartment in Fenton, Missouri. Hupp was accused of killing Neumann for financial gain, according to a tip to the police.Â
The murders of Betsy Faria and Louis Gumpenberger have received widespread media attention, including extensive reporting from local Fox affiliate station KTVI in St. Louis, five Dateline NBC show that aired from 2014 to 2019, and the first Dateline NBC true-crime podcast. The Thing About Pam, a scripted television series starring actress Renée Zellweger as Hupp, premiered on NBC in March–April 2022.
So, if you’re curious about how many people Pam killed, here’s what we know.
Must Read: How Did Pam Hupp Get Caught After Betsy Faria’s Murder?
Pam Hupp killed how Many People?
Pam Hupp is accused of being complicit in the murder of Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria, who was stabbed to death inside her own house in late December 2011. Betsy had been battling cancer for years at the time of her death. Her husband, Russell “Russ” Faria, was arrested, tried, and convicted for her murder as a result of their previous marital problems, as well as the fact that he had stated on the 911 call that he believed Betsy died by “suicide.” Russ was acquitted after evidence emerged that Pam was the last person to see Betsy alive and that her statements (as the prosecutors’ star witness) were exceedingly conflicting.
Pam not only lied about where she was at the time of her close friend’s death with phone records indicating she was in the vicinity of her home but she also insisted on being with Betsy on that fatal day. Pam was appointed the only beneficiary on a $150,000 life insurance policy held by the latter, her former State Farm co-worker, just days before the tragedy. Pam was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Betsy’s death in July 2021, and she has since pled not guilty and is currently awaiting trial.
The second case is more complicated because, while Pam is accused of orchestrating her mother’s death, there is no concrete proof linking her to it. Shirley Neumann died in late October 2013 after falling over her third-floor apartment balcony, but she had eight times the average dose of a potent sedative in her system and had just returned after spending the night at her daughter’s. Medical examiners initially ruled her death an “accident,” but after a re-investigation in November 2017, they changed the ruling to “undetermined.”
Pam is suspected of being involved in Shirley’s death since she told the workers at the senior community where she was staying not to check on her for nearly a day when she dropped her off. As if that wasn’t enough, she’d also made disturbing assertions to police investigators four months previously about her inheritance, explaining why she didn’t need to kill Betsy Faria for money.
Pam had stated freely, “I truly hate to say it.” “If I needed money, my mother is worth half a million dollars, which I will inherit when she dies.” My mother has dementia and doesn’t always recognise us. She’s been living in a condo by herself. And, yes, I realise that sounds morbid and all, but I am a life insurance agent. If I genuinely desired money, there was a better way than fighting someone physically stronger than me [Betsy]. “I’m just stating the obvious.”
Finally, Pam was a witness to Louis Gumpenberger’s homicide inside her O’Fallon house around noon on August 16, 2016. She said she shot him five times in self-defense when he tried to kidnap her with a knife, but the evidence suggested she staged the incident to implicate Russ Faria. Pam allegedly pretended to be a ‘Dateline’ producer in order to entice Louis and force him to do her bidding until it was too late. Louis had been suffering from both physical and mental impairments.
Pam entered an Alford guilty plea on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action before she could stand trial for Louis’ murder, preserving her innocence while closing the chapter for good. As a result, Pam Hupp has only been linked to these three cases, with Louis Gumpenberger being her only verified victim (as of writing). This also implies that nothing else in the NBC original or elsewhere is official.