Latest / Parsing the Truth: One Byte at a Time / The Thing About Pam Hupp & Russ Faria Part 1
Transcript
- 0:01Join former FBI Senior Forensic Examiners Becky Passmore and
- 0:05Stacey Eldridge as they dig into the world of digital forensics
- 0:08one bite at a time. Now leading their own consulting
- 0:11firms and educating the next generation of cyber sleuths,
- 0:14these bad ass babes of digital forensics bring sharp insight,
- 0:18real world case experience, and a dose of humor to the bits and
- 0:21bites that filled today's investigations.
- 0:23From deep dives into business e-mail compromise and ransomware
- 0:26attacks, Becky's specialty to cracking the complexities of
- 0:29iPhone forensics, Stacy's obsession, this podcast delivers
- 0:33insider knowledge for professionals, students, and
- 0:36true crime techies alike. If you've ever wondered what
- 0:39really happens when the digital trail is all that's left, TuneIn
- 0:42and start parsing the truth. Hello and welcome back to
- 0:54Parsing the Truth One Bite at a Time, where we cut through
- 0:56digital noise to reveal how investigations really unfold.
- 1:01I'm your host Stacey Eldridge and as always I'm joined by my
- 1:06Co host Becky Passmore. In today's episode, we're
- 1:10talking about the thing about Pam.
- 1:12Well, hello, everyone. Yeah, Stacey, tell me a little
- 1:15bit about this thing about Pam. Well, according to a Dateline
- 1:20NBC, she's a woman that's as cagey as they come.
- 1:24And this story is about the evil that smiles, that worms its way
- 1:30into unsuspecting minds and kills.
- 1:33This is about such a woman we have never seen.
- 1:37Oh my gosh, we are talking about Pam Hupp.
- 1:39She's been in the news off and on since 2011.
- 1:43Not only has she been the focus of several Dateline NBC
- 1:47episodes, my favorite, an entire Dateline NBC podcast series,
- 1:52numerous other podcasts, and even Hulu has a series featuring
- 1:57Renee Zellweger called The Thing About Pam.
- 2:00Yes. And while we're going to focus
- 2:02on the digital evidence in this case, we certainly have to get
- 2:06everyone up to speed on what the case is involved.
- 2:10And yes, I said case is plural. And at the end, we'll share some
- 2:14recent news on the case, too. But this story begins days after
- 2:19Christmas in 2011 with the brutal murder of Betsy Faria, A
- 2:24terminally ill mother in Troy, MO.
- 2:26And this is just outside of Saint Louis.
- 2:29Her husband, Russ Faria, was convicted of her murder in
- 2:34November 2013. And the man had a really good
- 2:37alibi. We're talking receipts, video
- 2:40footage and even cell phone tower data.
- 2:43Yeah. Enter Pam Hub.
- 2:46It sees seemingly devoted friend who is the last person to see
- 2:53Betsy alive and shockingly named the sole beneficiary of Betsy's
- 2:58life insurance policy just days before her death.
- 3:01So in February of 2015, the Missouri Court of Appeals
- 3:05ordered a new trial for Russ, her husband, due to the
- 3:10previously suppressed evidence implicating Pam Hupp.
- 3:13In November of 2015, Ruster's bench trial resulted in an
- 3:18acquittal after having spent nearly 3 1/2 years in jail for a
- 3:23crime he didn't commit. Now it doesn't end there.
- 3:26In August 2016, Pam shoots and kills Louis Gumpenberger in her
- 3:32home. The evidence doesn't support
- 3:35herself defense claim and in June 2019, Pam entered an Alford
- 3:40plea for this murder. She was sentenced to life in
- 3:43prison without parole in August of 2019.
- 3:47The investigation into Betsy's murder was recently reopened and
- 3:52Pam was was charged with her murder in July 2021.
- 3:57Jury selection is and jury selection is expected to begin
- 4:03next summer in July, with a trial date set for August 2026.
- 4:08Let's dig into that digital evidence.
- 4:10In this case, police seized Pam's cell phone and later
- 4:15returned it, and then the police viewed call logs on Betsy's
- 4:20daughter's Leah's cell phone from her to Betsy, showing that
- 4:25the unanswered calls were on the night of Betsy's murder.
- 4:30The police seized from the fair Farah's home 2 cell phones,
- 4:35assumingly one from Betsy and one from Russ, 4 laptops and
- 4:40computers, 3 hard drives, a thumb drive, an iPod, two MP3
- 4:45players and more than 200 CDRW and a Fujifilm camera.
- 4:52We also know cell tower records were subpoenaed for both Russ
- 4:56and Pam's phones. Records and we got some insider
- 5:00knowledge and they said it's four laptops and then they said
- 5:03computers. We were told it's probably like
- 5:05about 10 different computers and laptops and in total.
- 5:08So I mean there's a fair amount of potential digital evidence in
- 5:12this case. And basically the way we're
- 5:14going to go through this episode is we're going to be discussing
- 5:17the digital evidence in the order in which it came up in
- 5:20during the different interviews, depositions and trials.
- 5:25Now on the day of the murder, the cell phone data does show
- 5:28text between Betsy and Russ, the husband wife, discussing things
- 5:33for the house and plans for the evening.
- 5:36Russ was going to game night. Betsy had chemo and she had
- 5:40shared that Pam Hemp wanted to bring her home.
- 5:43Betsy stated and I quote, she offered and I accepted.
- 5:46Betsy also called Russ at 5:00 PM to remind him about the ride
- 5:50from Pam and that she had some good news to share when she got
- 5:54home. Seems like pretty typical
- 5:56husband and wife stuff to me. I.
- 5:59Agree, but let's keep in mind there's some keywords from Betsy
- 6:04about Pam regarding that ride home.
- 6:07She offered and I accepted. Yeah, Russ left gaming night and
- 6:12stopped at Arby's and ate in the car on the way home.
- 6:15He also called Betsy, but she didn't answer.
- 6:18He estimated he arrived home at around 9:45 PM and upon entering
- 6:24the house, he spotted Betsy dead in front of the sofa.
- 6:28It was a bloody scene. A knife was sticking out of her
- 6:31neck. Was immediately called 911.
- 6:34This 911 call would later be used against him in trial.
- 6:38And now let's go backwards to the morning of the murder, Betsy
- 6:43texted Pam. She said Bobby is going and I
- 6:47want to spend someone on one, one time with her and this is at
- 6:5110:35 AM in the morning and they're talking about Betsy's
- 6:55chemo session. And then one minute later Pam
- 6:58replied. Bummer.
- 6:59However, Pam still showed up at Betsy's chemo session and then
- 7:04at 3:46 PM, Betsy texted Russ that Pam would bring her home.
- 7:10Pam says she drove back to Betsy's mom's around 5:15 PM and
- 7:16didn't leave there with Betsy until about 6:00 PM.
- 7:20Pam called her husband when she arrived at Betsy's house and
- 7:24left a voicemail with Betsy, also leaving a holiday greeting
- 7:29because remember, this is around Christmas time.
- 7:31And then from there, Pam gives several different versions of
- 7:35what happened that night, where her actions, times and the calls
- 7:40all varied. So that's why the cell phone
- 7:43evidence becomes so important in this case.
- 7:46And that's because the cell phones will log the times of
- 7:49those calls, those text messages, and even missed calls.
- 7:53But you have to know how to read and analyze those logs.
- 7:57As you will later see, in this case, any cell phone tower or
- 8:00phone tower data can provide clues to the location of a cell
- 8:04phone. And notice I said location of
- 8:06the cell phone. You as the examiner have to do
- 8:09additional work to tie a person to the cell.
- 8:13Phone. Yeah, that's right.
- 8:14So Pam's cell phone revealed a call to her husband at 7 O 4:00
- 8:18PM, and then another call was registered at 7:27 PM to Betsy,
- 8:24which would have been the call Pam said she made when she
- 8:27arrived at home. But then her story changed to
- 8:31either being close to home or on the road.
- 8:34Pam then called Betsy's mom at 8:52 PM asking her to check on
- 8:40Betsy since she hadn't heard back.
- 8:42And so here we have three good time stamps of seven O 4 PM,
- 8:467:27 PM and 8:00, 52 PM. Pam had also shared during
- 8:51various police interviews that when she and Betsy were at the
- 8:55Tennis Club the week before, Betsy had said that she had
- 8:59wrote a message to Pam and that she had shared something really
- 9:03disturbing that Russ had said to her in that message.
- 9:07But Betsy never sent it. But it was on her computer in
- 9:11some form. And Pam was saying that Betsy
- 9:14couldn't send it because Russ of it going through her emails and
- 9:18she couldn't print it because the printer was in Russ's Home
- 9:21Office. And The funny thing is, over
- 9:24time, Pam basically shared all of the contents of that letter
- 9:28during her various interviews and mentioned several times how
- 9:32the police needed to find that. Letter So the So the police
- 9:36returned to Pam's house later on the 28th and this time asked for
- 9:41more details about where she had been when she called Betsy at
- 9:477:27 PM. This time the answer was 10 or
- 9:5115 minutes after leaving Betsy's.
- 9:54Now this is where you could see cell phone tower data to confirm
- 9:58that Pam was on the road headed towards her house.
- 10:02Yeah, so that's if you have the cell phone tower records, you
- 10:04know, take a minute and and double check that information.
- 10:07Where does it say she is at that point in time?
- 10:10And I'm mentioning this because this is going to come into play
- 10:12as her story changes over time. Now, during the 4th visit to
- 10:17Pam's house from law enforcement, and this is now
- 10:20Thursday evening, two days after the murder, the police speak
- 10:24with Mark. Pam's husband.
- 10:26Mark played them a voicemail from Pam with Betsy leaving that
- 10:30holiday greeting as well. The police failed to seize this
- 10:33phone and then Mark, the husband later deleted that voicemail
- 10:38during the same interview. They didn't ask him what time
- 10:41Pam had arrived home that evening.
- 10:44They didn't ask what she was wearing, and they didn't ask if
- 10:47Pam said anything after she finally returned home that
- 10:50night. Yeah.
- 10:50All missteps there, Russ stated, and his gaming friends
- 10:54corroborated that he was with them 25 miles away from the
- 10:59Fiera home from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Additionally, the police
- 11:05verified everything Russ said he had done to and from the game
- 11:09night, and they spotted him on a video.
- 11:11While the video camera at Arby's was broken, the bag and receipt
- 11:15were found in rest his car. Although the police felt he
- 11:19should have arrived home at 9:30 one 9 minutes before the 911
- 11:25call, now the police think that he should have arrived home even
- 11:28sooner. Again, this is where Cell Phone
- 11:31Tower Records can confirm or refute Russ's provided timeline.
- 11:37Betsy had a daughter, Leah. The police checked Leah's phone
- 11:41and confirmed she called Betsy at 7:21 PM, 7/20, 6:00 PM and
- 11:467:30 PM, and all three calls went unanswered.
- 11:51Here they're visually looking at the phone logs directly on the
- 11:54phone. So just like you would as a
- 11:56person using your own phone to see what calls you missed and
- 11:59who you called someone last, that sort of thing.
- 12:02So it's important to know what the symbols on that phone mean
- 12:06for missed versus unanswered, versus checking your voicemail,
- 12:10etcetera. And that's important because
- 12:12this was all the different types of information about those phone
- 12:15calls that was introduced during the trial.
- 12:17Exactly. So during the trial, the defense
- 12:20tried to introduce that Pam's seven O 4 and 7:27 PM calls were
- 12:27made from the same cell phone tower.
- 12:30The judge didn't let it in since it was related to suggesting
- 12:35suggesting that Pam committed the murder, which had already
- 12:38been blocked and now this would be.
- 12:42This would have been interesting if it had been admitted because
- 12:45if Pam's phone was using the same cell phone tower at 7 O
- 12:504:00 PM and 7:27 PM, it could mean that she wasn't on the road
- 12:57at 7:27 PM as she claimed. So you would need to do some
- 13:01analysis to determine what approximate reach of the tower
- 13:05was. There are people that specialize
- 13:08in this. In fact, the FBI has a team and
- 13:11that team goes through extensive training to be able to
- 13:15triangulate and place a cell phone in a certain area based on
- 13:22it's ping to the towers. So was it possible for Pam to be
- 13:2610 to 15 minutes away from the fair house and still be
- 13:31connected to the same cell tower that she used when she called
- 13:36her husband at 7 O 4:00 PM? Big question there.
- 13:40The defense did introduce that Russ's cell phone tower pings
- 13:45indicate that the earliest he could have arrived home was 9:38
- 13:51PM. Now during the trial in the
- 13:53trial, the defense is focusing hard on that 7:27 PM phone call,
- 13:58especially with the time of death being placed between 7:00
- 14:02and 7:20 PM. The defense asked Pam about her
- 14:06statements about not going into the house and then later telling
- 14:10police she went into the house and into the bedroom.
- 14:13And then Pam says she doesn't remember telling Betsy's mom she
- 14:17didn't go in. She also started backpedaling on
- 14:20saying she called Betsy at 7:27 PM to say home.
- 14:24She did agree that it would be impossible to be home by 7:27 PM
- 14:30since they live 23 miles part at least and that's based on the
- 14:34distance between the towns and she said that at later she's
- 14:39claiming that she calls from the Interstate and says I'm home,
- 14:43which means I'm on my way home and that seems crystal clear to
- 14:48me. Exactly.
- 14:49Yeah. So a member of the Major Case
- 14:52Squads Technical Operations group testified his analysis of
- 14:57the phone showed that Russ called his mother at 5:22 PM and
- 15:02then and there was a call from Betsy's mom at 8:57 PM that went
- 15:07to voicemail. When asked if Russ listened to
- 15:10that voicemail, the witness said yes.
- 15:13A call to the number listed as voicemail took place 30 seconds
- 15:17later. On cross, he later admitted that
- 15:19Betsy's mom's missed call would still be connected to the
- 15:24voicemail 30 seconds later and he wouldn't be able to retrieve
- 15:29it yet. In the end, there was no
- 15:30evidence that Russ listened to that that voicemail when it's.
- 15:33Time for the defense to make their case.
- 15:35They call Greg Chatten to the stand.
- 15:38He's a digital forensics expert with a specialty in cellular
- 15:41mapping and data forensics that requires a license that's issued
- 15:46by the Missouri Board of Professional Regulations.
- 15:50So he does something very similar to what that FBI team
- 15:54does that Becky was talking about.
- 15:56He's just not in law enforcement, but he does have
- 16:00the credentials and that certification to support that.
- 16:03He would be an expert in this in court.
- 16:05Fortunately, Greg passed away last year in 2024, so we're not
- 16:09able to speak with him about his testimony.
- 16:12However, we have his testimony and during that testimony, Greg
- 16:16explains that the data plotted on the map and he's showing it
- 16:20to the jury and he indicated that at five O 7 and five O 8
- 16:25and 5:10 PM, Russ's phone was in the sector that included his
- 16:30home. Then later at five, 11513 and
- 16:345:22 PM, it was in the same sector as the Conoco service
- 16:40station and we still have more good cell phone data that he
- 16:44talks about. At 5:50 PM the phone was in the
- 16:47area close to Lake Saint Louis and O'Fallon and at 7:50 PM it
- 16:52was in the area of the game night house.
- 16:55Finally, at 9:25 PM, it was at least 10 miles away from Russ's
- 17:00home. And then the phone finally
- 17:02arrived back in the area of the house at 9:37 PM.
- 17:07And it sounds like Greg did a lot of work based on the
- 17:10subpoena data that they received back from Russ's cellular
- 17:14provider, combining it with the coverage area for each cell
- 17:19phone tower. And he's lining it up with his
- 17:23alibi. And so, you know, we didn't go
- 17:26into his alibi, but Russ gave a lot of information.
- 17:28He said, you know, I went here, here and here on my way to game
- 17:31night. And then after game night, you
- 17:33know, I left about this time. I stopped at Arby's.
- 17:35And so they have of all of this video, the video lines up with
- 17:40Russ's alibi and then further, Greg has the cell phone tower
- 17:44data that further lines up with Russ's alibi.
- 17:48And so it's very powerful to be able to have that sort of
- 17:51information corroborated. I mean, that's the thing we want
- 17:54to do. If we can have two things match
- 17:56up from different sources, that's really supposed to be a
- 18:00slam dunk. However, the defense was not
- 18:03allowed to share any of Pam's cell phone data to the jury
- 18:08during the trial. And I say they weren't allowed
- 18:11to share it to the jury because there was some discussion,
- 18:15basically a vaudeer that went on during the trial, but the jury
- 18:19was dismissed. So they didn't get to hear it.
- 18:22But it's out an open court and that's how we know that it
- 18:25exists. Cuz even if the jury's not in
- 18:27the room, the transcriptionist is still typing.
- 18:31That's everything that's being said when you know the mics are
- 18:34on in the courtroom. That's right.
- 18:35Sadly, sidebars are not transcribed sometimes.
- 18:40I'd like to know what the heck is going on in the sidebar.
- 18:42Right, right, right. Exactly.
- 18:44You want to know what's being said over there?
- 18:47Yeah. This is great data.
- 18:48So because this is such good data, not only do they have Russ
- 18:53on the video and Arby's receipt that matches up, they have that
- 18:58cell phone tower data that's corroborating his timeline and
- 19:02the video. So later, while the prosecution
- 19:05asked Greg if he only testifies for the defense, he replied yes
- 19:10because the police and prosecutors have state labs that
- 19:13did such work for them. He also was asked why he
- 19:17wouldn't discuss his testimony with the prosecution during the
- 19:21lunch break. He said he thought she was
- 19:23getting into the defense trial strategy and that it would be
- 19:27inappropriate. I.
- 19:28Find that kind of odd myself, that the prosecutor would have
- 19:31come up to a defense witness and started asking about rules.
- 19:36Yeah, I don't know why even had in a recent trial, the
- 19:39prosecuting attorney call me, but he just called me out of out
- 19:43of the blue. It's a phone call, right?
- 19:45And it's a person saying a name and that they're a prosecutor or
- 19:48whatever. And he was like, what are you
- 19:50going to testify about? And I was like the cell phone,
- 19:54you know, I kind of answered real generically because of
- 19:56course, I'm not sure like who this is and.
- 20:00You know, I hadn't received a warning call that he was going
- 20:03to be calling or anything like that.
- 20:06And then my, you know, answers were just kind of like, oh,
- 20:08well, we've not narrowed it down yet, you know, because again, I
- 20:12wasn't sure. Like, it's just a phone call.
- 20:15I'm not sure what I can and and cannot say.
- 20:18Right. And I say against the rules, I
- 20:20think it's more ethical, moral, like, you know, that the defense
- 20:24has their strategies and their witnesses, then prosecution has
- 20:28their strategies and their witnesses.
- 20:30And trying to figure out what that is through a witness, I
- 20:33would say is, you know, more of a, a moral or ethical standpoint
- 20:39than a. Rule, right And even when you go
- 20:42out to like lunch during a trial, like you don't know who's
- 20:46around you. So you have to basically, you
- 20:49know, not say anything about anything related to the trial
- 20:53because you don't know who's listening, so.
- 20:56That's right. But anyways, later on, on the
- 20:59redirect, the defense asked Greg if his role as a defense witness
- 21:03affects the results of his analysis.
- 21:06Now here Greg gets to say what we all want to say when we're
- 21:10testifying. He says I'm a fact Finder.
- 21:13Whether I do cell mapping or forensics, The fact is the fact,
- 21:18the data is the data. He also confirmed his answers
- 21:21would not have been any different if he had been hired
- 21:24by the state. When he was asked by the
- 21:26prosecution how they would know that, he states that they should
- 21:30hire him. I love that that is such a great
- 21:33response and it is so true, right?
- 21:35I mean, that's why we, that's the name of this podcast.
- 21:38We are, we, we, we come up with the truth for you.
- 21:41So I'd love that. I'd love his response.
- 21:44The facts is the facts. The data is the data.
- 21:47He's a fact Finder. That's so great.
- 21:49So after the state's rebuttal, the defense calls Greg back to
- 21:53the stand while the jury is out. He confirms in open court, No
- 21:58jury, but open court. The Pam cell was in the same
- 22:02tower sector as Betsy's house seven O 4:00 PM, and at 7:27 PM
- 22:10she couldn't have made the 7:27 PM call from Hwy. 61 S of Troy
- 22:16or at her home in O'Fallon. Unfortunately, the judge refused
- 22:20to let the jury hear that information.
- 22:23Denied again because of the previous ruling that Pam
- 22:27couldn't be introduced as a suspect by the defense during.
- 22:30Closing arguments The State introduces a new theory that
- 22:33Russ left his phone at the game night and that the defense was
- 22:38quick to clap back during their closing argument.
- 22:40That there was nothing to prove that And that, you know, is
- 22:44going back to what we said earlier, you have to do some
- 22:47extra work to say that the person is with their phone
- 22:52because of course people could leave their phones behind.
- 22:55Sure, absolutely. The jury deliberates and asks
- 22:59for maps of cell phone locations and cell phone towers and the
- 23:03videos from the police as they drove the routes Russ said he
- 23:07traveled. The jury returned the same day
- 23:10at 4/30, 4:30 PM, five hours later, and found him guilty of
- 23:14murder in the first degree and armed criminal action.
- 23:18He was sentenced to life without parole.
- 23:20So now the work begins on the appeal, and I think this is a
- 23:24good stopping point for this episode before we continue on to
- 23:28the results of the appeal and the murder of Louis
- 23:32Gunpenberger. But let's talk about the digital
- 23:35evidence here for a while. Becky, remind us what digital
- 23:39evidence was collected. Yeah, so.
- 23:40Pam's cell phone was collected. Call logs on Leah's cell phone
- 23:45from the Fierra's house. 2 cell phones, assuming one was Betsy
- 23:50and one was Russ's. Four laptops and computers, 3
- 23:54hard drives, a thumb drive, an iPod, two MP3 players and more
- 23:59than 200 Cdr WS and a Fujifilm camera.
- 24:03Cell tower phone tower records for Russ and Pam's phones.
- 24:07Yeah. And then going back to that
- 24:09insider knowledge that we got about this case from the person
- 24:12who processed the digital evidence, you know, he said that
- 24:16the 10 computers came to his lab, but he never received
- 24:22Betsy's cell phone or Betsy's laptop when this case initially
- 24:28came into the office and before it went to trial the first time
- 24:33during Betsy's phone and her laptop never made it to his lab
- 24:37before Russ's trial the first time around.
- 24:40And then eventually we know it gets examined later on, but I
- 24:43think it was interesting that it was never initially examined.
- 24:47Right. Why it's at where it's at and
- 24:50didn't get immediately examined. We don't know why, but but like
- 24:53in any case, there's there's so much evidence and you have to
- 24:56make some calls about what do you want priorities.
- 25:00Right. Yeah, exactly.
- 25:01Yep. And I mean, if she was the
- 25:03victim, you know, maybe they thought, well, her laptop isn't
- 25:06important. We want to look at her husband's
- 25:09stuff to see if he was researching how to kill someone,
- 25:13if he was telling people he was going to kill someone.
- 25:16But they didn't introduce any evidence from any of his devices
- 25:21to introduce anything like that at all during the trial.
- 25:24It was really just, you know, his cell phone evidence, those
- 25:28call logs. And then there was the confusion
- 25:31over whether he listened to that voicemail or did not.
- 25:35And then after they thought about it matter of factly that
- 25:39because the voicemail was so long, he wouldn't have been able
- 25:42to retrieve that voicemail because it was still being left
- 25:47left. And so again, that goes back to
- 25:49being able to know know how to read your logs.
- 25:53And there's been some other stuff in the news lately, too,
- 25:56where there's been some misreading of symbols that come
- 26:01out in the digital forensics tools that have led some people
- 26:05to make some incorrect conclusions.
- 26:08And let's kind of go loop it back around to Pam.
- 26:13I mean, this is the thing about Pam, right?
- 26:16And so with her cell phone evidence, the main focus was the
- 26:20two calls from Pam cell phone to her husband and then the
- 26:25location of that 7:27 PM phone call because that was hotly
- 26:30debated by the defense. And the other interesting thing
- 26:33to me too was that during the trial, the text from Betsy to
- 26:38Pam were ruled as hearsay. Initially, I wasn't sure why,
- 26:43but it makes sense now since we found out that they didn't do
- 26:47anything with Betsy's phone in terms of known extraction and
- 26:52examining it and things of that nature.
- 26:54So I think it would have been important for those texts to get
- 26:59in because it goes towards why is Pam trying to be with Betsy,
- 27:03but Betsy's declining and she's showing up anyways?
- 27:06And why did Pam have to be there that day?
- 27:09Why did Pam have to drive Betsy home that day?
- 27:12Why was she so adamant? Exactly.
- 27:15It's all looking away from where they probably should have
- 27:20focused the target at that time but not knowing because a lot of
- 27:24times you know, the focus goes on the person that is closest to
- 27:29which is many times the spouse. So the defense got in that Betsy
- 27:34missed 3 phone calls from Leah. She promised she would answer so
- 27:39that too that got those in. But then other things were left
- 27:45out. Yeah.
- 27:45And in terms of Russ's cell phone data, you know, they only
- 27:48focus on the call with his mom before game night, then the
- 27:52missed call from Betsy's mom that went to the voicemail.
- 27:55And we've talked about that and, you know, we've alluded to this.
- 27:57That's that that tricky part with the voicemail.
- 28:00You've got to know it. Is it going to voicemail?
- 28:02Is it retrieving the voicemail? And you know, how you access
- 28:07your voicemail has certainly changed over time.
- 28:10Like remember back in the day when you would call your own
- 28:14cell phone number to get to voicemail or you could dial like
- 28:17star 86 to get to your voicemail.
- 28:19So, you know, it would be important to know, like what
- 28:23does *86 do and who are they calling?
- 28:27What does that mean? It's just them checking their
- 28:28voicemail. It's nothing to fair.
- 28:29So it's important to know what that stuff means.
- 28:32And as we've talked about before, the wheels of justice
- 28:36turn slowly. It's important to be able to go
- 28:39back in time and see, OK, what were we doing five years ago,
- 28:44seven years ago, especially when you get into appeals and
- 28:47retrials, it certainly drags on. And you know, you're talking
- 28:50like a decade later. And in this case if when Pam
- 28:54goes to trial, that's going to be 15 years after the murder
- 28:57occurred, right? So it's a long time and and
- 29:01being able to go back through digital evidence like that is
- 29:04hard. And that's what makes us
- 29:06hoarders for in so many ways, right?
- 29:09It's like I got to keep my floppy disk.
- 29:11I've got to keep my notes about Windows XP because I don't know
- 29:15what I'm ever going to have to examine that again.
- 29:18I can't get rid of anything ever.
- 29:20Right, right. I'm going back in the day like
- 29:2315 years ago to look at evidence.
- 29:25It's going to be tried 15 years after the case.
- 29:28And yeah, you got, you got to have all those tools and, you
- 29:33know, notes as well where evidence lies.
- 29:36Right. And I mean, say the the state,
- 29:38the prosecution, they had their examiners do the analysis back
- 29:42then. They have what they have.
- 29:44And so that would be like relevant and fresh in their
- 29:46minds back in like 20-11 maybe when they were doing some
- 29:49initial examinations. But now that it's going to trial
- 29:52in 2026, they're calling a new defense expert now because, and
- 29:56we have to remember the other thing that plays into this is
- 29:59Greg has passed away. So any analysis that he may have
- 30:02done during the first trial, he's no longer there to give
- 30:06that testimony. So they're going to have to
- 30:08bring in another defense expert and they're certainly battling
- 30:11that 15 year gap of time. And you're going to have to
- 30:15figure all this outgoing backwards in time.
- 30:17Exactly. That's exactly right.
- 30:19There's no mentions of anything from the laptops, computers,
- 30:23hard drives, thumb drives, iPod, MP3 players, CDRWS, or the
- 30:28camera. So no mentions yet.
- 30:30Now, the defense did get to share the maps of Russ's cell
- 30:33phone tower data. However, while the cell phone
- 30:36tower data was shared in open court, the jury never got to
- 30:40hear about how Pam's phone was still at the tower for Betsy's
- 30:44house at 7:27 PM. And again, that's because of the
- 30:48ruling not allowing the defense to point the finger at Pam for
- 30:52Betsy's murder. And we'll be talking more about
- 30:55Pam next week, yeah. So thank you to our listeners.
- 30:59If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with your
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- 31:06And until next time, stay safe, stay sharp, and as always, keep
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- 31:30money to send a new digital forensic examiner to I Asus
- 31:34training next year in Orlando. Thanks.
- 31:42Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 31:44yeah, yeah. Yeah.