True Crime Brewery

On December 27, 2011, in a small town outside of St. Louis, Missouri, Russ Faria called 911.  His wife, Betsy, was lying in a pool of blood, dead, with a kitchen knife protruding from her neck. The house was in disarray, with shopping bags and Christmas decorations scattered on the floor.

Russ had been at game night with some friends that evening.  When he returned home to the horrific, heartbreaking scene, Russ said, his first thought was that Betsy had taken her own life.  Considering Betsy’s history of depression and her prolonged battle with cancer, it was the only thing that made any sense to him.  But then, first responders found over 50 stab wounds in Betsy’s body.  A search of the house turned up a pair of Russ’s slippers in the bedroom closet, stained with Betsy’s blood. This was a homicide.  And Russ Faria was the prime suspect.

Join us at the quiet end for Pam’s Path to Prison. As it turns out, Betsy Faria’s murder was just the beginning in a chain of bizarre events involving Betsy’s friend, Pam Hupp.  Pam would tell police all about the troubles in Betsy and Russ’s marriage.  In fact, things had gotten so bad between them, Pam said, that Betsy had changed her life insurance policy’s beneficiary from Russ to Pam.  But, over time, Pam changed and embellished her story with detectives, raising questions about her credibility and the depths of her conniving and malicious nature. Was Pam really Betsy’s best friend, or was she a stone-cold killer who put her own greed above all else?

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Betsy & Russ Faria

Sources

A Case of Instantaneous Rigor?, International Journal of Legal Medicine, 127(5): 971-974

Cadaveric Spasm, Forensic Science, Medicine, & Pathology 9(2): 249-250

Dateline NBC episodes: The House on Sumac Drive (2014), Game Night (2015), Return to Game Night (2016), Stranger Than Fiction (2016), The Thing About Pam (2019)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Archives, 2012-2021

The Thing About Pam Podcast, Dateline

The Unimaginable, Infamous Case of Pam Hupp: A tangle of lies, greed, sex, and death—and a surprise arrest, Jeanette Cooperman, St. Louis Magazine, 1/19/2017

Christine Paolilla was an outsider at Clear Lake High School.  Looking different and lacking self-confidence, she was brutally teased and bullied. Christine was awkward, near-sighted, and she had alopecia, requiring her to wear thick glasses and wigs.

But then, Christine was befriended by two pretty, popular girls: Rachael Koloroutis and Tiffany Rowell.  They helped Christine improve her appearance and she seemed like a new person with a new lease on life.  In 2003, she was voted “Miss Irresistible” by her classmates.

But on July 18, 2003, Christine’s helpful new friends, Rachael and Tiffany, were gunned down, along with two young men, at Tiffany’s house.  At first, it appeared to be a drug-related mass murder, but law detectives saw indications of a crime fueled by intense hatred and jealousy.

Join us at the quiet end for A Malignant Envy. These murders went unsolved for years before any arrests were made.  By then, Christine was in a dysfunctional relationship with a heroin addict she’d met in rehab.  When she learned that the police were closing in on her and her high-school boyfriend as the killers, she went into hiding. An anonymous tip would lead to her apprehension, but was this high school girl really responsible for the massacre of four people, including her two best friends?

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Sources

Best Friend’s Betrayal, Deadly Women, Investigation Discovery, 2/16/2017

Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (14th Dist.), Christine Marie PAOLILLA v. The State of Texas, May 26,2011

legal-forms.laws.com, Ex Parte Christine Marie Paolilla v.–Appeal from 351st

Miss Irresistible Accused of Killing Friends, ABC News.com, 9/24/2009

Never See Them Again by M. William Phelps

Beth Lochtefeld was smart and hardworking.  By the time she reached her 40s, she had good friends, she had travelled the world, and she was professionally successful.  All that was missing was a partner with whom to share her life.

Enter Tom Toolan III.  At age 37, Manhattanite Tom was well-educated, handsome, and appeared successful in his own right. But he had secrets. His life was spiraling out of control and he would try to pull Beth into that spiral with him.

By the time Beth broke up with Tom Toolan, it was too late for her to escape him unscathed.  He went into an alcohol-enhanced rage and held her against her will in his apartment overnight before she was able to escape while he slept.

Join us at the quiet end for No Safe Harbor. Beth fled to Nantucket and stayed at her brother’s house on the island, hiding from Tom Toolan.  Once she felt like the coast was clear, she took refuge in her own Nantucket rental.  But once she entered, she would never be seen alive again.

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Beth Lochtefeld 2003

Sources

boston.cbslocal.com, 2011

Cape Cod Times Archives, 2004-2021

New York Times Archives 2004-2000

Safe Harbor: A Murder on Nantucket by Brian McDonald

Robert and Benjamin Moore were best friends and brothers who spent most of their time together.  They were smart and good-looking and both were naturally funny.  In fact, it was rare to see either of them without a smile on his face.  Like most boys their age, they liked to tease their little sister, play video games, and ride their bikes.

When Robert and Ben disappeared on the morning of August 30, 1993, their mother Roberta had left the house to care for her elderly father who lived nearby.  The boys’ father, John Moore, was home with their three children.  When John called Roberta to tell her that the two boys were missing, she rushed home.  From that day forward, her life was a daily struggle with the deep visceral pain of loss and confusion.

Join us at the quiet end for Close to Home: The Disappearance of Robert and Benjamin Moore.  John Moore’s behavior that day and his recollections of what happened should have been a cause for concern and suspicion by investigators, but they somehow accepted implausible conclusions.  Today we’ll analyze the religious obsessions and small-town politics that led to a botched investigation.  In doing so, we’ll search for reasons why two innocent brothers were taken from their mother and their young, promising lives were ended so close to home.

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Sources

Brothers Silenced by Kathryn Jewel

Racine County The Journal Times archives

When Joanne Witt was brutally murdered in her own home, she had been working as a civil engineer, supporting her daughter on her own.  Being a single mother to a rebellious young teen is not easy, but Joanne was devoted, hardworking, and loving.  After all, her daughter Tylar was the center of her world.

Join us at the quiet end for Tylar Witt’s Diary. Tylar, at age fourteen, was angry and out of control.  When she entered into a sexual relationship with an older man, Joanne tried everything she could think of to stop it and help her daughter make better decisions.  But Tylar’s relationship with nineteen-year-old Steven Colver was like a runaway train. No amount of parental love or discipline could derail it.  Focused on saving her daughter, it was Joanne who paid the ultimate price for love.

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Sources

48 hours, A Fatal Attraction, S25, E13

ABC 20/20 Interview with Tylar Witt, Sept. 16, 2011

Sacramento Bee Archives

Star-Crossed Killers by Robert Scott

Tahoe Daily Tribune Archives

Doug Benton was a welder living in Colbert, Georgia.  Considered a friendly and helpful neighbor, he was known for raising and selling exotic birds from his house, lifting weights, and riding a Harley. When Doug met police deputy Tracy Fortson, the two had an instant attraction. They began to spend most of their time together.

But Doug disappeared on June 4, 2000. Tracy cooperated with the police. She was the last person known to have seen him. She admitted to having an argument with Doug that day and said that they had broken up.

Join us at the quiet end for A Concrete Grave: The Murder of Doug Benton. When Doug’s body was found, his manner of death and the disposal of his body did not appear to be the work of an ex-girlfriend. The relationship between Doug and Tracy was volatile, but Doug also had a bit of a past.  When the investigation began, evidence began to pile up, pointing to Tracy as Doug’s killer. But Tracy had information to share about her position at the police force and a possible plot to frame her.

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Sources

Athensonline.com archives

FORTSON v. The STATE, Supreme Court of Georgia, March 27, 2007

Reasonable Doubt, A Body, a Trough, and 800 Pounds of Concrete, S3, E7, April 2020

Targeted: A Deputy, Her Love Affairs, A brutal Murder by M. William Phelps

A small town cop known as “GI Joe” is gunned down in a swamp in the summer of 2015 and quickly becomes a martyr in the national media. But when a dogged investigator and his team set out to get justice, they uncover unsettling secrets about Joe, the local police department, and the village of Fox Lake. From Wondery, the makers of The Shrink Next Door and Dr. Death comes the third season of Over My Dead Body: Fox Lake. Hosted by Matt Baglio.

Listen Now!

Robin and Margaret Bain and three of their children were killed on June 20, 1994, in their New Zealand home. This was familicide; a mass murder where one member of the family killed the others. Ever since the oldest son David returned home from his paper delivery route and called the police that morning, there has been debate over who was responsible.

David Bain was 22-years-old, a music student and aspiring opera singer living with his family. When he got home early that morning, he found all five of his family members dead: his father Robin, his mother Margaret, his two sisters Arawa and Laniet, and his brother Stephen.  At first glance, it appeared that the father, Robin, was responsible, and that this was a murder-suicide.  But that would change.

Join us at the quiet end for The Only One Who Deserved to Stay: David Bain. Familicide is rare. But when it happens, the father is nearly always responsible. Research has shown that these “family annihilators” are either angry or in a state of prolonged despair.  Robin Bain, a troubled man with untreated depression, fit the profile. But the lives and relationships of the Bain family were complicated and maladjusted. David Bain had plenty of his own issues; and evidence, including his own behavior, pointed to David as the killer.

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The Bain Family

Sources

Black Hands by Martin Van Beynen

Black Hands, The Podcast, by Martin Van Beynen, July 2017

The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, David Cullen Bain v. The Queen, May, 2007

The Mask of Sanity by Joseph Karem