he walked in the door and he broke down crying. he kept saying how bad it hurt because he lost his betsy. he was a broken man. >> she was the life of the party till her husband found her dead. he's bound to be a suspect and some said he had a motive. >> he makes comments about how much money he'll have after she's gone. >> cops found blood on his slippers and said he failed a polygraph. >> the fact of the matter is you stabbed betsy. >> the thing was, this husband had an alibi thanks to the buddies he met every tuesday for game night. >> we knew that he could not have committed this crime.

>> impossible. >> it's impossible. i man cannot be in two places at the same time. >> some said police ignored another potential suspect. >> one of the concerns that i have is you're one of the last i'm people to see betsy. >> they decided to believe that. >> an innocent man railroaded by investigators. >> in the 25 years i've been prague law i've never seen anything like it. >> or a killer protected by his tuesday night buddies. i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with the house on sumac drive. >> on the 27th of december, 2011, in a small town not far from st. louis, missouri, a frigid night sank heavy and still around the house on sumac drive. but the woman inside no longer felt the cold, she would never feel anything now. it was 9:40 p.m.

the call to 911. >> what is the location of your emergency? >> eh. >> i need you to take a couple deep breaths. >> i just got home from a friend's house and my wife -- my wife -- >> the man on the phone was hysterical. >> what is your name? >> her name is betsy. >> betsy? >> yes. >> betsy fathria and the crying you hear is russell. >> russell, do you think she's beyond help right now? >> she's dead. >> okay. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. >> betsy was dead and gone at 42 and, yes, early death for betsy as you will hear was not a

surprise, that had been preordained. no it was how it happened. how it happened. why it happened. those were the mysteries burrowed down the rabbit hole as you shall see. but first you need to know about betsy faria. she was one of four girls in her family, mary rogers and judy swainny were older sisters. >> betsy was the most outgoing and most social. >> gregarious. >> gregarious is a great word for her. she was an individual. you couldn't tell her no. she did what she wanted to do and she started deejaying at the age of i think she was 18, maybe even younger than that. >> wow. >> and she could start up a party. >> she was in her element when she was out there. she could get anybody on the dance floor. whether they wanted to for not. >> yes. betsy was a single mother of two daughters, lea and mariah when she met russ and he seemed just

about perfect for her, funny, outgoing, had a big heart says russ' heart mary anderson. >> he was a happy person, he was a jokester. you never seen him without him laughing. >> and said russ, she was the perfect woman for him. >> she encouraged me to go back to school and get my degree which led to a better job and more money, things like that which i probably wouldn't have done had she not come along. >> when russ met betsy her daughters were very young, mariah still a tiny girl. >> we really created a big bond, you know and lea, you know, bonded with me, as well. >> betsy and russ got married in january 2000 and like many couples they had good times and then less good times. for more than a year they actually lived apart. >> we argued a lot, you know and it's always darkest before the dawn they say. >> then betsy told him she'd found a church that meant a lot to her, maybe he'd like to come. >> the first week we went there, they were starting a series on

marriage. it was kind of like omen. >> and that is when their marriage got better again. >> you know, we kind of refell in love with one another. >> but life will have its way with a person. like it or not. betsy found out she had breast cancer. >> christmas of 2009 she told us that she thought she had it and it was diagnosed in january 2010. that's when she had her mastectomy. >> we went through a lot of crying, a lot of heartache, you know, and just a lot of hard times. we kept our faith and kept praying? >> she handled it with such grace. she just amazed the millions of people that she knows. she was involved in tennis. she just continue playing tennis. you'd never know she was going through chemo. >> and maybe that helped her beat it. in the winter of 2011, betsy's doctor told her the cancer was

in remission. so she and ru schlt schlss deci celebrate and organized a caribbean cruise and invited their friends and family to come along. >> she thinks i'm free and clear and then this bomb gets dropped on her. >> the cancer was back. it had spread to her liver. >> it was inoperable. it was too far in her liver that they couldn't take it out. >> she had with luck three to five years, perhaps less. so what did russ and betsy do? they went on a cruise anyway, took their whole gang with them. betsy got to swim with the dolphins, a dream she had had for years. >> just seeing how happy she was made me happy. >> she told everybody that this was a second honeymoon for them. she said it was the best thing that happened. they had the best sex that they could ever have while they were on this cruise. >> but then a few weeks later, betsy was dead. but it certainly wasn't the

cancer that killed her. >> how did betsy die? the answer to that wasn't clear at all. her husband who called 911 had one idea. >> she killed herself. >> but investigators had another. >> it's not typical for someone that's going to commit suicide to do it by the way that she done it. and that's what concerns me. we really wanted to take a relaxing trip to florida. you know? just to unwind. but we can only afford one trip this year, and his high school reunion is coming up in seattle. everyone's going. then we heard about hotwire... and realized we could actually afford to take both trips. [woman] see, when really nice hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them. so we got our 4-star hotels for half price. i should have been voted "most likely to travel." ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e ♪ hotwire.com save big on car rentals too, from $11.95 a day.

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wife -- >> partway through russ faria's hysterical call to 911 that night in december 2011 were four little words that were going to become very important indeed. >> my wife killed herself. >> my wife killed herself. >> okay, russell, i need you to calm down, honey. i teed you to calm down. take a couple of deep breaths, we're going to get somebody on the way there, okay. >> russ said he came home to find his wife betsy dead on the living room floor and it looked like suicide, he told the operator. >> what did she do, do you know? >> she sliced her arms. >> now, much later, russ told us something clicked when he saw her lying there. >> well, she had talked about it years before and actually tried it once or twice. >> and when you came in? >> i saw slashes on her arms and that was the first thing that just registered in my mind.

>> early the next morning, betsy's mother, janet myers got a knock on the door. officers standing there on her doorstep. >> one of them just looked right at me and said, betsy's dead. and i said, well, how could she be dead? she was just here last night. >> officers also went to betsy's sister julie's house. >> they said it was a possible suicide. you know, i looked at her and kind of give her this look like, i don't think that sounds right. >> the thing is by the time police offered that suicide suggestion to betsy's family, they already knew the death of betsy faria was no suicide, not even possible. first responders could tell right away. and the medical examiner's office found betsy's body had been pierced many, many times including wounds most likely inflicted after she was already dead. harding surprising police might be casting around for suspects or russ the husband, the man who

supposedly discovered the body had some explaining to do. but that night at the sheriff's department getting him to focus was not an easy thing. >> oh, god! >> i think you're the only one that can help us with this right now. >> i don't know what to do. >> but investigators had a job to do, find betsy's killer, and they thought it might be russ who was incredibly emotional. was he acting? was this florid grief actually real? whatever it was, russ seemed to be sticking with the suicide story. >> what do you think happened to betsy? >> it was like she killed herself. >> narrator: but did he really not know about all those other stab wounds? and something else, betsy's body was cold and stiff when those first responders arrived, rigor

mortis had already set in, the blood was drying. based on that it appeared that betsy had been dead for some time when russ called 911. so detectives zeroed in on betsy and russ's movements. >> tell me about your night. >> russ said betsy had a chemo appointment that afternoon. planned to go to her mom's house afterwards and then russ would drive her home. at least that was the arrangement, but when he called betsy some time after 5:00 p.m. -- >> i asked her if she needed a ride, i'm on my way home, she said, no, her friend was going to bring her home. she said she had something to talk to me about, and i said is it good or bad? she said it's good, no worries. and i said, o., well, i'll see you at home later and i love you and that was the last time i talked to her. >> after that, said russ, he ran some errands and then at 6:00 as he almost always did on tuesday evenings, he arrived at a friend's house where they had what he called game nights. >> we go over there on tuesday

nights and we usually play games. but that particular night, my friend had gotten a couple of movies and so we decided to watch movies instead. >> he left at 9:00, he said, stopped for a couple of sandwiches at a local orby's drive-through and then drove back to his house in troy, which would have put him there at a 9:45 p.m. he said he walked through the unlocked front door all unsuspecting and then -- >> i was taking my jacket off and calling for betsy, and the next thing i seen her there on the floor. >> will you ever forget what that was like coming into the house and seeing that? >> i see it every time i close my eyes. i fell down there by her and look and i saw cuts on her arm and i saw a knife in her neck. >> that's all russ said he saw. so it looked like she had done it herself deliberately. >> you're calling it a suicide, do you have any idea who may have harmed betsy? >> no, everybody loved betsy.

she was a positive soul. she always brought smiles to people. she made me smile all the time. she made me so proud. >> it's not typical for someone that's going to commit suicide to do it by the way that she done it. and that's what concerns us. >> so it did. it also made russ the prime suspect. >> coming up, russ and betsy's relationship, they had recently enjoyed that romantic cruise, but a friend of betsy's tells police things between them weren't that sunny. >> he started playing this game of putting a pillow over her face, this is what it's going to feel like when you die and act

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not long after russ faria found his wife dead, the police took him in for a long night of questions and a polygraph test the following afternoon, though, said russ, when he saw the machine -- >> honestly, i don't even know

if that thing was on or not. >> but after it, they told him he failed it miserably, so he must have done it. they said, time for him to confess. >> the fact of the matter is you stabbed betsy. >> no, i did not. i wasn't even there. >> russ, you were there. >> no, i found her like that when i came home. >> it seemed obvious said the investigators either russ killed betsy in a sudden blind rage or he was a cold-blooded killer who planned the crime. which was it? they demanded to know. >> i did not do this. >> narrator: russ denied it again and again, dozens of times, but investigators didn't buy it. and much of the reason for that is they were hearing from this woman, pamela hupp. she was the woman who drove betsy home that evening. pam met betsy years earlier when they both worked in the

insurance industry, and she had a lot of things to say about russ including what sounded like a big, fat motive. money. >> he makes comments about how much money he'll have after she's gone because she's got, this is what she said -- i don't know for sure, because i have never seen the financia, he's got life insurance on her at work, she's got life insurance. >> pam hupp told investigators that she had been with betsy the day she died and that betsy told her about a proposal she was going to make to russ that the two of them move into her relative's house while they rented out their home in troy. they'd save money that way and be closer to friends for her chemo treatment. but pam claims betsy was concerned about how russ would react to that idea. >> and she goes, okay, i'm telling you right now, he's going to get very angry. she said he's tired of moving, he is staying in his house and that's it. >> so she already approached him with the idea? >> she was going to approach him when he came home.

>> could that have set russ off? investigators asked him about that. >> she never mentioned that to me. >> well, that was the news she wanted to share with you when you got home. >> i never got a chance to hear it. the first time i heard about it was when you told me. >> investigators didn't believe it especially when they heard the bombshell pam laid on her. a disturbing game russ played with betsy. >> he would start playing this game of putting a pillow over her face to see what it would feel like, i don't know if she said, this is what it's going to feel like when you die or whatever and then act like he was kidding. she was very upset. >> did she sound scared? >> oh, yeah. >> so they took that accusation to russ too. >> how many times did we practice putting a pillow over her face and suffocating her and telling her this would what it would feel like to die? how many times -- >> i never did that. >> why would her friends tell the police that you had done

that and that she was scared. >> she had no reason to be scared of me. she's never been scared of me. >> but it wasn't just the pam hupp story that made him a key suspect. though betsy was killed in her living room, investigators found her blood on a light switch in the bedroom and on a pair of russ' slippers stashed in a bedroom closet. >> the fact of the matter is it's a sloppy crime scene, there's blood on your clothes in your residence, in your bedroom. >> i didn't even go to my bedroom. >> and they confronted russ with the horrifying fact that betsy had been stabbed over and over again, many, many times. >> you absolutely -- >> stabbed over 25 times. >> oh, my god, no. >> over 25 times. they're still counting. >> oh, my god. >> a burglar doesn't do that, russ. a stranger doesn't do that. somebody who loves that person does that. somebody who goes into a blind rage does that. >> there was only one option, said the investigators.

russ was going to have to come clean and confess. >> there's no one else that has any kind of motive, monetary or crime of passion. >> i can't tell you what i don't know. i don't know. and i says, i can't confess to something i didn't do and i can't give you details for something that i wasn't present for. >> there was never a focus on anybody else. >> it was the day after the murder that russ' cousin mary heard that betsy was dead and that russ was being questioned. and that didn't make sense to her. she had seen betsy and russ just a few days earlier. everything seemed fine then. >> betsy was laughing and happy. she was even saving him a spot on the couch. she's like here, babe, can you sit next to me. >> russ would not, could not have killed betsy. by the time investigators released russ 48 hours after he was first brought in for questioning, the story was all over the local media. >> and, boy, this case has

really been taking a lot of turns today. >> that was hard. i mean, they showed my picture on the news -- >> they said you were the main suspect? >> yeah, that's what it appeared. and while i was watching it, my family came in and turned it off. they said you don't need to watch that. >> some people began rethinking the man. maybe those jokes and pranks of his were really rather immature and crude and boorish. these church friends, sean dra and mcclanahan had spent a lot of time with betsy and russ. >> many people would describe him as a pig, the things he would say, not respectful. he would do it to everybody, but he was doing it to his wife too. >> oh, you know, you wouldn't understand. it doesn't matter. you're not smart enough. you don't say that in a group of other people to your spouse. of this though she shade she was very close to russ, also remembered a few things that now stuck out like a sore thumb. >> he told a friend of mine's husband that if he got in a fight with somebody, he would fight to kill.

>> and betsy's sisters, they weren't aware russ ever they said, physically hurt betsy, but when they thought about it, there was rage in that man. >> i think he had a lot of built up anger. >> there was the time, said mary that russ chased one of the daughter's boyfriends with a baseball bat. >> who chases after a boyfriend with a baseball bat? >> yeah. did you see that happen? >> no. >> who told you about that? >> the girls. i think they were very scared about it. >> so when officers told the family about all those stab wounds -- >> when they said that, i didn't have any doubt in my mind, i never thought it could be anybody else but russ when they told me that. >> that's what the investigators were thinking too. but there were plenty of people in town who thought the idea that russ faria killed his wife was utter hogwash. and they said they could prove it. >> coming up, what sounds like a slam dunk alibi from russ' game

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in the days after betsy faria died, her husband russ was without a doubt suspect number one. but when police accused him and of murder -- >> all the evidence points to you. >> and betsy's family painted russ as an angry man, other people in russ' world didn't believe it. >> they were very happy, and they were planning a trip to florida and it was going to be in march. and he was like, if that's what you want to do, you plan it, we'll make it happen.

>> after betsy's death, cousin mary saw russ' grief up close. >> he was heartbroken and he kept saying how bad it hurt because he lost his betsy. that was the most heart wrenching thing to see. >> they had a wake for betsy and russ -- >> he broke down just talking to her all by himself. just him at the casket and he fell to the ground. he was a broken man. >> it was hard, it was really hard, but it was really nice to see how many people that she touched and that came. >> and as for that story pam hupp was telling about russ putting a pillow over betsy's face saying that's what death feels like? could russ have done such a thing? >> no, now, would russ put a cover over her head and fart and say something like that, that he would do. >> because he was a jokester. >> but would he put a pillow over her face and do that? absolutely not.

>> one of betsy's best friend was linda hartman. she said russ was the last person she had's suspect killed betsy especially how upset he was about her terminal cancer. >> the way that he had spoken about losing betsy, you know how much he loved her and how he didn't know whether he was going to live without her. he was taking it really badly. >> but, said linda, the police didn't seem to want to hear any of that. >> they kept on asking me, do you think it could have been russ? >> but, of course, most of what you heard was just opinion. russ' defender had something much strong never their corner, an alibi. remember that game night russ said he attended between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. the night betsy was murdered. this is michael corbin, the host of game night. a few of his friends have been coming by tuesday nights for years. >> essentially it's a way we can all get together, be sociable and not spend any money. >> that particular tuesday night, mike said, russ and the others watched movies together

and everyone left at 9:00 p.m. as usual. then early the next day, mike and his girlfriend angie got a surprise. >> we were up having our morning coffee, got a knock on the door, which is instantly odd, about 6:00 or maybe a little bit before. the police more or less invited themselves in and started asking us a whole lot of questions about what happened last night? was russell here last night? was he drinking anything? was he acting strangely? there was a little bit of marijuana nafis smoked but i don't even know whose it was. it was a really boring night, quite honestly. >> the thing is the police didn't tell them anything beyond the fact that something happened to betsy, said mike. they just asked a lot of questions about their game night the night before. then three days later there was another early morning knock at the door. >> they took angie in one car, me in another vehicle with two investigators and they questioned us separately, or interrogated us, i'll put it that way. >> the two others at mike's house that night were also picked up and questioned

separately. they all said the very same thing, russ arrived around 6:00, they watched movies. >> and we were all within eight feet of each other the whole night. >> did he act the same as usual? >> you know, he dozed off at one point. i know that looked over and he was sitting in my leather chair over on to the right but, again, i didn't think anything weird of this. i doze off occasionally during movie, as well. >> it was simply the unsupported story of some friends. a surveillance camera showed russ stopped for gas just after 9:15 p.m. more videos and receipts when he stopped by cigarettes, dog food a couple of iced teas on the way to game night before 6:00 p.m. russ' cell phone pinged in those area too and all evening from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. near mike's house. and the receipt for his trip to the ashby's drive-through was p

timestamped 9:09 p.m. the drive back to russ' house with that stop at arby's would put him at home just before he called 911. >> once we knew the timeline, we knew that he could not have committed this crime. >> impossible? >> impossible, a man cannot be in two places at the same time. >> i know how your wife died. >> but detectives were not persuaded. not at all. after all, they had pam hupp's story, and what they said was russ' failed polygraph and her blood on his slippers. and it wasn't long after betsy was killed that russell faria was arrested for the murder of his wife. >> coming up, some say investigators may have blown it because it's betsy's friend pam, not russ, who's the beneficiary of betsy's $150,000 life insurance policy. >> she got the money? >> she got the money. >> when "dateline" continues. [ female announcer ] crest presents:

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de>>who's got twond rhooves and just got ae. claim status update from geico? this guy, that's who. sfx: bing. and i just got a...oh no, that's mom. sorry. claim status updates. just a tap away on the geico app. >> the case against russell faria went to trial in november 2013, almost two years after betsy's murder. >> i don't know what to do. >> prosecutors opened their case with that frantic 911 call the night that she died. >> do you think that she's beyond help right now? >> she's dead. >> the state said it sounded suspiciously hysterical like an act.

betsy's mother said it sounded to her like howls of guilt. >> the 911 call was really goofy. >> goofy? >> yeah. oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my god. it was like, what did i do? what did i do? >> he loved her, didn't he? >> uh-huh, that's what causes these crimes of passion. >> if that wasn't suspicious enough, said the state, it was also russ' clearly bogus suggestion that betsy killed herself, an obvious lie, they argued. after all, as they pointed out, the medical examiner discovered she had actually been stabbed more than 50 times. members of betsy's family including her daughters testified that russ had a temper. the friend who drove betsy home that night, pam hupp, told the jury what she told police, essentially that russ was a bad guy. the physical evidence said the state also proved that russ committed the murder.

that is betsy's blood on his slippers and her blood on the bedroom light switch, even though she was killed in the living room. what's more, said the prosecutor, russ' semen was found in betsy, showing he had sex with her before killing her. as the prosecutor put it to the jurors, he violates her one more time. and as for russ' alibi, the prosecutor said it only made his movements that evening more suspicious, looked like he went out of his way to appear in front of cameras at multiple gas stations when he could have bought everything at one place. and his alibi to witnesses sounded suspiciously rehearsed, said the state. betsy's mother didn't think much of them when when they testified. >> they all were saying the exact same thing in the exact same monotones, da, da, da, da. it was unbelievable. >> and that was in essence, the state's case against russ faria. to which defense attorney joel schwartz said, are you kidding?

>> in my opinion, the man got charged with murder and then it sort of snowballed from there. >> the one thing he said, the surveillance tapes, the receipts, the cell tower ping, the friends' testimony created an ally as airtight as any he had ever seen. what stuck out to him was that there were also some very serious questions, like for example questions about pam hupp, who had bad-mouthed russ to the police and the jury. pam, said schwartz, had to be one of of the last people to see betsy alive. between 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., when it was within the window that betsy was thought to have died. inconsistencies stood out. to him, anyway. example, betsy's mom said pam told her, she didn't go into betsy's house when she dropped her off that evening but -- >> she told the police a

completely different story. she said she went inside for 10 to 15 minutes. >> another one? pam said when she left the house betsy was sitting on the couch. but in another interview which was videotaped, she said something different. >> she may have still been on the couch, but today it makes sense that she walked me to the door. >> and then there were the phone records beginning at 7:21, betsy did not answer phone calls including three from a doctor which just a short time earlier she had promised to answer. so was she dead by then? six minutes later. >> at 7:27, there's a call from pam hupp's cell phone to betsy's cell phone. >> that one also went unanswered. but here's what pam told police about that 7:27 p.m. call. >> initially she stated i called to let her know i was home safe. >> home? not possible said schwartz. pam lived a half hour's drive away. but where actually was she based on the cell tower triangulation?

>> the cell phone triangulation showed she had not gotten more at the very most three miles from the house. at the very least she was still at the house. >> but the biggest question, said schwartz, was about insurance. it seemed very odd that three days before the murder, someone, supposedly betsy made pam the beneficiary of betsy's $150,000 life insurance policy. >> and she got the money? >> she got the money. >> pam told investigators she was one of betsy's best friends and betsy wanted her to get the money to make sure her daughters got what they needed. but to make this important change, they went to a local library and had a young librarian, not a notary, or any insurance company employee witness betsy's signature on the change of beneficiary form. the whole thing seemed very fishy to schwartz. >> i believed that betsy was conned in some way, shape or form into signing this policy

without believing it would ever actually be sent to the insurance company, which is why she never told anybody, including her own mother and her own sisters, who she was very close with. >> but the lead detective told the insurance company pam was not a suspect, and so the company cut her the check. >> the husband always does it, so of course this is the guy who did it and i think that clouded their judgment and their investigation. it's the only explanation in my eyes to explain what i consider to be a horribly deficient investigation. >> plus, later that same lead detective was preparing pam to testify at russ' trial and warned her the defense would certainly bring up the issue. >> one of the concerns that i have is, again, like i said, the defense raising doubt with you just because you're one of the last people to see betsy. you get this money given to you. >> after all, said the detective, pam did benefit from betsy's death to the tune of $150,000.

>> they're going to suggest that you may have had something to do with the planning or the conspiracy to commit that murder because of your financial windfall. >> and not only that -- >> what you're originally telling investigators is that you did this to try to get the kids taken care of because she's afraid russ will go through it. however, you have this money and you haven't turned any money over to the family or the kids? >> that's correct. >> that's a huge problem. >> to make it look like less of a problem she should set up a trust for betsy's daughters and soon. >> it helps if -- >> it will. i told you that the first phone kauchl. >> then the detective prepared pam for the key questions he thought the defense would ask. >> did you have anything to do with betsy's murder? >> no, absolutely not. >> that's exactly what's going to be asked of you. >> in open court but outside the

presence of her, attorney schwartz told the judge that indeed he did plan to ask pam hupp about all those things when she took the stand. but the judge said no. he could not ask about any of that because, said the judge, there was no direct connection between pam and the murder. >> in the 25 years i've been practicing law, i have never -- a witness testifies, you can cross-examine the witness. that's a basic tenet of law, their bias, their interest, the fact that they are the last person with the victim, the fact that they just recently were given the victim's insurance under who knows what pretenses. the fact that they lied about going in the house, the fact that they lied about where they were when they called the victim after being in the house, and i couldn't get into any of that. i have never seen anything like it. >> both pam hupp and the detective declined "dateline" request for an interview. in any case, the case against russell faria wasn't over.

the allegations still to come. russ had helpers as he set about killing his wife. >> coming up, russ is stunned when the prosecution disputes his alibi. >> i have four credible people that i was with all evening and you might get one person to lie for you, you might even convince two. >> but four? what will the jury think? >> russ faria's defense attorney

precluded from presenting any evidence to the jury about pam hupp's inconsistencies and insurance wind of fall made his last best case that his client was an innocent man. russ wasn't pretending to be grieving when he made that 911 call, said joel schwartz, he was grieving. >> he sounded like a man who was grieving and his wife was dead, however he was doing his best to answer the questions when asked in order to help the 911 operator help the police solve this. >> and russ told the police he thought it was suicide because that's what it looked like when he walked into the house and found her there. >> her wrist was slit deeply and the knife was in her neck. although there was 56 wounds, those were the only two visible to the naked eye.

her shirt, her pants covered every other stab wound and those weren't visible to see. i think the person calling this ins is a suicide is not somebody who did this but who had no idea. >> this is not the result of a wild stabbing, rather they appeared to be methodically and deliberately made after betsy was dead to make it look like a crime of passion. >> there's no other explanation for the lack of blood and no other explanation for the deep cut on her wrist that's post mortem. >> and the blood evidence on russ' slipper. >> there's no imprint of a shoe in the blood, nor was there any footprint on the tile floor l d leading back to where the slippers were found. >> so how would the blood get on the shoes? >> somebody attempted to stage this. >> dipped it in the blood? >> dipped it in the blood and hid those back in the closet. >> as for the prosecution's

accusation that russ had sex with betsy before killing her -- >> without getting too graphic, there were eight sperm cell found up side her during the autopsy the next day. >> totally consistent with what russ told the police, that is intimacy two days before the murder. and besides all of that said the defense, given russ' alibi, there's simply no way he could have committed the crime. but the state wasn't quite finished with its case against russ faria. the prosecutor declined our request for an interview. in her closing argument she presented a theory of how the crime occurred. making claims for which she did not present evidence at trial. and those claims were big. the alibi, she told the jurors was all a setup for the precise intention of hiding a murder and that russ' game night friends were in deep, co-conspirators

who helped russ hatch the murder plan, waited for the right night to carry it out and michelle knight a-- an accusat n accusation -- >> we're innocent people. there is absolutely no evidence that we did anything wrong that night, there never will be because it didn't happen. >> and despite what the prosecutor argued, neither mike corbin nor any of the others have ever been charged with conspiracy nor have they been connected in any way to betsy's murder. so according to the prosecutor, how did russ do it without getting a single drop of blood on the clothes he wore all that evening and that night when he talked to detectives afterwards? here's how, said the prosecutor to the jury. first, knowing what he intended to do, russ ran errands so he would appear in front of those surveillance cameras. then drove to his friend's house and dropped off his cell phone so it would ping there all evening.

then he drove the half hour home, stripped naked, had sex with betsy, stabbed her more than 50 times, showered, put on his slippers, began to slip on the blood but caught himself and stopped, took those slippers off. then he cleaned up the house, got dressed again and one of the game night friends drove his phone back to his house picking up an orby's receipt on the way and then russ called 911 and quickly tossed his slippers into the closet. and what did russ think of all that? >> i thought she was making up some kind of cockamamy story. i had four credible people that i was with all evening. i don't know anybody that would lie for anybody when it comes to a crime like that. you know, i wouldn't. not for my best friend, not for my mom. >> the more important question of course was what the jurors would think.

they deliberated for 4 1/2 hours before arriving at a verdict. and when you heard it? >> relief. huge relief. >> guilty. guilty of first-degree murder. >> it was devastating, but i was trying my best to hold it together because my family's behind me there and i can hear them crying. >> how would people get the idea that you were, in fact, capable of this? >> i don't know. i previously had had a temper, but i never touched betsy in any way. they wanted to blame somebody and the police were telling them that it was me. >> russell faria was sentenced to life in prison. he's filing an appeal. and sits in his cell now unable to do much of anything but say -- >> i can't imagine ever being mad enough to do anything like that to anybody, let alone my wife whom i loved. i never stopped loving my wife. i'm innocent of this. i did not kill her.

>> betsy's family though was and remain convinced justice was done no matter what anybody says. if somebody were to come to you with evidence, strong evidence that it wasn't russ but it was some other person, is that something that you could accept? >> i would still feel it's russ, 100%. >> as for pam hupp, she insisted to "dateline" she had no involvement in the murder. she said she had no motive to kill betsy. her dna wasn't found at the house and she cooperated with the police. pam also said she set up a trust for betsy's daughters. the family said it did not receive any insurance money. and, meanwhile, the answer to the mystery, who killed betsy, still for some hangs in the air. resolved by a jury, and yet, does anyone really know? >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

some hidden messages, maybe some political insight on 2016 from president obama on washington's big night of the year, the correspondents' dinner. >> what a year, huh? i usually start these dinners with a few self-deprecating jokes. after my stellar 2013, what could i possibly talk about? >> we'll have some political talk and comic review this morning and a surprise guest will join our round table. grammy award winner, innovator and social activist will.i.am will be here. plus, the conversation continues about racism and sports after the controversy surrounding donald sterling, i'll speak exclusively with a former nba call star who played a big role in the punishment, sacramento mayor kevin