The Caller

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Criminal (Vox Media Podcast Network)
Episode: The Caller
Date: June 19, 2026
Host: Phoebe Judge
Guests: Russ Faria, Brett Murphy, Tammy Vaughn (911 Dispatcher)

---

Overview

This episode of Criminal explores the use—and misuse—of "911 call analysis," a controversial technique deployed in criminal investigations to determine whether a caller reporting a crime may be the perpetrator. Through the real case of Russ Faria, whose wife Betsy was murdered, and the investigative reporting of journalist Brett Murphy, the episode scrutinizes both the flawed science behind such analysis and its human consequences.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Story of Russ and Betsy Faria

• Meeting and Marriage:
  • Russ met Betsy in 1995; they married in 2000. Betsy was known for her positive personality and worked as a DJ ("Party Starters").
• Betsy's Illness:
  • In 2010, Betsy was diagnosed with cancer. After grueling treatments, it appeared to be gone, but by late 2011, it returned, terminally.
• The Night of the Murder (Dec 27, 2011):
  • Betsy stayed at her mother’s to be close to chemo.
  • Russ had a typical night with friends, stopped at Arby’s, and returned home to find Betsy dead ([05:21]).
  • Russ described: “I came around the corner and that's when I saw her on the floor.” ([05:21])
  • Russ called 911, initially believing Betsy had killed herself due to her history with depression ([05:38]).

Police Response and Prosecution

• Initial Investigation:
  • Russ was quickly treated as a suspect, taken to the station, and given a polygraph ([06:29]).
  • He was told he failed the test and was accused of killing Betsy for life insurance money after being removed as beneficiary four days before her death ([07:11]).
• Trial and Conviction:
  • The prosecutor, Leah Cheney, argued that Russ had staged the scene ([07:32]).
  • The 911 call was played in court; a supervisor testified that Russ sounded like he was acting ([08:41]).
  • Despite this, an officer and later the actual 911 dispatcher, Tammy Vaughn, felt his emotions were genuine ([25:44], [25:51]: "You can't fake that. You can't fake that emotion. In my personal opinion, you can't.")
  • Russ was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

911 Call Analysis: The "Science" and Its Spread

• Origins and Methodology:
  • The technique appeared in a 2008 FBI bulletin. Co-created by agent Susan Adams and deputy police chief Tracy Harpster ([14:07]), it proposed that certain words, phrasing, or lack thereof could signify guilt or innocence ([14:33]).
• Indicators of Guilt:
  • Examples included focus on blood over the victim’s state, "rambling," being too polite, or making self-referential statements ([18:14]-[18:35]).
• Popularity and Expansion:
  • Police/prosecutors quickly adopted the approach, though it was based on a non-validated, exploratory study ([17:28]).

Case Examples and Harms

• Kathy Carpenter Case:

  • Arrested after a 911 call analyzing her language (39 "guilty indicators"). She was wrongly jailed for three months before the real perpetrator confessed ([21:58]-[23:04]).
  • Kathy’s life was permanently disrupted: job loss, PTSD, and public stigma.

• Riley Spitler Case:

  • As a teenager, he called 911 after accidentally shooting his brother, but call analysis labeled his statements as guilt-indicating ([38:09]-[39:48]).
  • Ultimately, his conviction for murder was overturned for junk science; he was released after being resentenced for manslaughter ([40:59]).

Russ Faria’s Exoneration and the Role of Call Analysis

• Second Trial Evidence:
  • New evidence pointed suspicion at Betsy's friend, Pam Hupp (who was ultimately charged years later with Betsy’s murder) ([25:06], [28:00]).
  • The judge in Russ’s retrial disallowed the 911 call analysis testimony as evidence ([26:46]).
  • Russ was found not guilty: “I was completely free. Found not guilty on all counts and completely exonerated.” ([26:55])

The Debate Over 911 Call Analysis

• Skepticism from Experts and Journalists:

  • Brett Murphy, a reporter who investigated these techniques, shared:
    • “Trying to divine one way or another was like reading tea leaves.” ([29:56])
    • "There's just not enough known about how people speak during a moment of trauma or shock." ([39:48])
  • The original FBI behavioral scientist involved said attempts to replicate the findings have failed, undermining the field's credibility ([34:59]).

• Persistence in Courtrooms:

  • Despite doubts and failed validation, call analysis continues to be used in trials.
  • Loopholes in legal standards (e.g., Daubert and Frye standards) and lack of scientific oversight facilitate its admission ([36:21]-[37:51]).
  • Possible chilling effect: victims may fear calling 911 if their words may be used as evidence against them ([30:56]).

• Notable Quote from 911 Dispatcher Tammy Vaughn:

  • "It's a redirection. It's a technique that communicators use to try to redirect, calm them down, ask them the question. And then whenever they have to focus back on the victim or the patient, then they do what's called a refreq." ([26:02])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Russ Faria on shock:

  • "I think I was in one state or another of mental shock for quite a while. And so I was just kind of on automatic mode, trying to follow instructions and help until somebody actually physically showed up." ([06:13])

• Journalist Brett Murphy on the science:

  • “I just don't see that this, the work we did, rises to the level of success by the scientific community. There's no definitive answer as to whether this is useful.” ([34:59])

• Brett Murphy on his investigation:

  • “Trying to divine one way or another was like reading tea leaves.” ([29:56])

• Phoebe Judge on fear of suspicion:

  • “If I were to call 911, I think the last thing on my mind would be that someone potentially was going to listen to that call and look at me as a suspect, depending on what words I chose to use.” ([30:42])

---

Important Timestamps

• [01:19]-[03:56]: Russ and Betsy’s background, Betsy’s illness
• [05:21]-[06:13]: Russ discovering Betsy, calling 911, and police arrival
• [07:03]-[08:41]: Police accusation, life insurance theory, trial begins
• [14:07]-[17:46]: Origins and spread of 911 call analysis technique
• [21:34]-[23:04]: Kathy Carpenter wrongful arrest due to call analysis
• [25:06]-[26:46]: Russ’s retrial, shift in testimony regarding 911 call
• [29:56]-[30:56]: Brett and Phoebe discuss the subjectivity and risk of call analysis
• [34:59]: Expert admits research has not been validated by scientific community
• [39:48]-[40:59]: Riley Spitler case and dangers of “reading trauma” from calls

---

The Takeaway

The Caller is a cautionary examination of how unproven forensic techniques can shape—and warp—criminal investigations and prosecutions, often at tremendous human cost. It demonstrates, through real stories, the dangers of treating emotional expression or verbal patterns as proof of guilt in high-stress, traumatic 911 calls. The episode closes with a reminder that while 911 calls are important evidence, their interpretation requires deep caution, compassion, and—crucially—scientific rigor.

Transcript

[Phoebe Judge]

Support for Criminal comes from Fetch Pet Insurance Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US Gets hit with a vet bill over a thousand dollars. Fetch Pet Insurance can help. FETCH is a complete pet insurance for dogs and cats. You get paid back up to 90% of vet bills. You can use Fetch for any vet in the US and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet.com save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com Save support for criminal comes from Grow Therapy maybe you're dealing with anxiety, burnout or financial stress. Whatever challenges you're facing, Grow Therapy is here to help grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average $21 with insurance and some pay as little as zero depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com criminal today to get started. That's growtherapy.com criminal availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. This episode contains recordings of 911 calls and references to suicide. Please use discretion. How did you and Betsy meet?

[Russ Faria]

How did we meet? Well, we actually met at a local gas station where she was working and I was a regular customer there and we just started making friends, I guess, and eventually went out on a date.

[Phoebe Judge]

What did you like about her?

[Russ Faria]

Well, her bubbly personality and she was just so outgoing and friendly with everyone she ever met. We would always chat and, you know, kind of flirt around and whatnot.

[Phoebe Judge]

Russ Faria met Betsy Meyer in 1995. On top of working at the gas station, Betsy ran a business, DJing parties. She called it Party Starters. Russ helped her out. He was good with computers. In 2000, Russ and Betsy got married.

[Russ Faria]

She was just always a positive person, even when she felt bad. So other than when we were alone in private, most people wouldn't know, you know, if she was feeling bad or sad at all.

[Phoebe Judge]

When did you find out about her cancer?

[Russ Faria]

That was in 2010, early 2010. We didn't know how bad it was or any of the prognosis as far as what needed to be done and how it was going to be treated. She had to have a full mastectomy and chemo and radiation treatment, and that was quite intensive.

[Phoebe Judge]

After about a year of going in for treatments once a week, sometimes twice, Betsy and Russ planned to go on a cruise. It looked like Betsy's cancer was gone and they were calling it a celebration of life. They bought the tickets for November of 2011, but in October they got news.

[Russ Faria]

That's when we found out that the cancer had returned and it was actually in her liver and the doctor kind of told us at that time that she had about, if we were lucky, maybe three years.

[Phoebe Judge]

They decided to go on the cruise anyway. How was she doing on the cruise and right after?

[Russ Faria]

Oh, she was doing quite well actually. She got to do one of her dreams, which was swim with the dolphins. And when we came home, you know, we were looking forward to Christmas.

[Phoebe Judge]

They spent Christmas with Russ family and Betsy's father. Betsy stayed at her mother's apartment outside St. Louis. The next night it was closer to the cancer center and she had an appointment for chemo on Tuesday, December 27th.

[Russ Faria]

So I was at home by myself and got up and started work. Like any normal day, I worked from home on the computer and we texted back and forth throughout the day because I had a standing appointment with some friends of mine and we like to get together and play games on Tuesday nights. And I was trying to ascertain whether or not she needed a ride home afterwards. And at some point or another she let me know that her friend Pam was going to bring her home, which struck me as kind of odd, but said, okay, well, if she wants to bring you home, I guess that's fine and I'll see you there when I get done with my friends.

[Phoebe Judge]

What is your usual Tuesday night with your friends? What do you. What do you do?

[Russ Faria]

Well, we used to play some role playing games similar to D and D. However, those type of games, if you have a group of say four or five people that play, everybody has to be present. And that particular night we had one friend that had to work and so we sat around and watched a couple movies. Actually, the second movie was kind of boring and so everybody decided to split.

[Phoebe Judge]

Russ and Betsy had talked on the phone around 5pm Ross got to his friend's house around 6 and left around 9. On the way home, he remembers he was hungry and stopped at Arby's. He says when he got to the house, he called Betsy's name but didn't hear anything.

[Russ Faria]

I came around the corner and that's when I saw her on the floor.

[Phoebe Judge]

What? Tell me what you saw.

[Russ Faria]

Well, I saw her laying in a pool of blood initially and when I went down to the floor I realized that there was a knife in her neck.

[Phoebe Judge]

Ross called 911 and told the dispatcher, My wife killed herself. She's on the floor.

[Russ Faria]

I jumped to conclusions because she had gone through depression before and actually was on medication for depression and whatnot.

[Phoebe Judge]

The 911 dispatcher told Russ someone would be on the way and started asking questions.

[Russ Faria]

She wanted to know what kind of medications she had and was directing me to try and find those and read the labels off to her so she could get a list of those things.

[Phoebe Judge]

What were you thinking about? I mean, do you remember?

[Russ Faria]

I think I was in one state or another of mental shock for quite a while. And so I was just kind of on automatic mode, trying to follow instructions and help until somebody actually physically showed up.

[Phoebe Judge]

It took police about 10 minutes to arrive.

[Russ Faria]

They took me outside, and I guess they were performing their initial investigation inside. And eventually they came out and asked me if I could come down to the station, which. Which I did. And then they started questioning me about all the events of the day, who she was with, who brought her home, if she had any enemies or. I guess it lasted overnight, the questioning. And sometime the next day, they decided and asked me if I could go take a lie detector test.

[Phoebe Judge]

After the test, an officer told him that he'd failed it. What were they saying exactly, that you had done to Betsy?

[Russ Faria]

They said that I stabbed her over 50 times.

[Phoebe Judge]

And did they say why you had done that?

[Russ Faria]

They said that evidently I had found a change of beneficiary on some insurance, and so I had gotten angry and emotional and killed her for the money.

[Phoebe Judge]

Four days before she died, Betsy had removed Russ as the beneficiary, her life insurance policy. On January 4, Russ was charged with first degree murder. He was put in jail, and his trial began almost two years later. In November 2013, the Prosecutor, Leah Cheney, argued that Russ had killed Betsy. Soon after, he got home, then showered, then called 911. Leah Cheney played the recording of Russ's call for the jury. It was the first time he'd heard it. What was it like hearing it played back?

[Russ Faria]

It was quite emotional. Brought back all the feelings and everything that I was going through at the time.

[Phoebe Judge]

Leah Cheney called the 911 supervisor to testify. And what did the 911 supervisor say in their testimony?

[Russ Faria]

She tried to say that it sounded like I was acting it out.

[Phoebe Judge]

She hadn't answered Russ's call, but she listened to the recording. She said that Russ seemed hysterical until he was answering a question, quote, and then it would go back to hysteria again.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Lincoln County 911. What is the location of your emergency? Okay, ma'. Am. Hello? Hello? Yes. I need you to take a couple deep breaths so I can see what's going on. What is the address where you need this to come? 1:30 CMAC. Okay, what is the telephone number you're calling from again? Okay, who am I speaking with?

[Russ Faria]

My name is Russell Faria.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Russell, what's going on there? I just got home from a friend's house and my wife killed her son. Okay, Russell, I need you to calm down, honey, okay? I need you to calm down. Take a couple deep breaths. We're gonna get somebody on the way there, okay? Russell, how long were you gone today? Just got back, but she was at her mom's and her friend was bringing

[Russ Faria]

her home, so I don't know what

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

time she got home. Has she been depressed lately? She is, but she does have cancer. Russell, do you think that she's beyond help right now? Okay, Russell, I have a couple officers that are out there right now. Can you do me a favor and open your front door? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, good luck to you, honey. I'm gonna go ahead and hang up and we're gonna try to call your mom, okay? Bye. Bye.

[Phoebe Judge]

One of the first officers to get to Russ and Betsy's house said it seemed like Russ was panicking, having difficulty talking and breathing. But when the officer tried to distract him, talking about where they grew up in the same neighborhood, Russ spoke normally and sometimes laughed. Police noted that when they left Russ alone, his emotions seemed, quote, over the top. The trial lasted four days and Russ Faria was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. We'll be right back to listen without Ads Join Criminal plus. Support for Criminal comes from Quints with the warm weather already here, now is a good time to upgrade your wardrobe. And if you're looking for high quality, long lasting pieces that you can wear every summer, you might want to consider Quince. Quince has beautiful everyday pieces like 100% European linen pants, dresses and tops with style starting at $32. Their denim is soft and easy to wear and their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights. I've tried their crewneck tee in organic cotton and it was soft and comfortable. I think it'll be great for summer and I like knowing that it's made from organic materials. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com criminal for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-E.com criminal for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com criminal. Support for Criminal comes from Netsuite. AI is changing how business gets done and Netsuite wants to help you keep up. You may already know NetSuite. The AI powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR and CRM together, and it's trusted by over 43,000 customers. NetSuite next uses AI to identify relevant insights and bring them to you throughout your day and to help you solve problems and handle routine work. And anytime you have a question about anything, all you have to do is ask whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions. It's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI for the first time ever. You can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures. Go to netsuiteai.com criminal Built for every industry, ready for every boardroom, NetSuite AI

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

criminal

[Phoebe Judge]

In June of 2008, the FBI published volume 77, issue number six of their monthly Bulletin.

[Brett Murphy]

It's sort of this newsletter that's sent directly to police departments. I think it has something like a readership of 200,000.

[Phoebe Judge]

Journalist Brett Murphy the Bulletin featured an article with the title 911 homicide calls and Statement Analysis Is the Caller the Killer? The article said that 911 calls to report a death contain uncontaminated clues and that specific features of a call can help identify whether a caller is innocent or guilty.

[Brett Murphy]

Certain turns of phrase, different omissions, verbal cues became indicators of guilt, guilty indicators. If someone calls 911 and they say one of these things or they don't say one of these things, then it means that it's more likely that they are guilty of the crime that they are calling to report.

[Phoebe Judge]

Today. Brett is a reporter for ProPublica, but in 2021 he was working for USA Today on a series of stories about whistleblowers and in police departments.

[Brett Murphy]

I was on the road somewhere outside Shreveport, Louisiana and I met with a woman who was telling me all about this really upsetting case.

[Phoebe Judge]

The woman's mother had died. Police said it looked like suicide, but the woman believed it was a murder by her stepfather.

[Brett Murphy]

And she kept mentioning this new thing called 911 call analysis and saying her stepfather had called police and he had failed. This analysis that was called a COP scale.

[Phoebe Judge]

The 911 COP scale, an abbreviation for considering offender probability in statements, appeared on page 27 of the FBI bulletin. It was the title of a one page worksheet with a list of checkboxes organized in two columns labeled innocent Callers and Guilty Callers. The article was written by an FBI agent named Susan Adams and an Ohio deputy police Chief, a man named Tracy Harpster. Susan and Tracy met in 2004 at the FBI Academy in Virginia. Tracy was there for a 10 week training and Susan was there to lecture. She had written a dissertation a few years earlier on, on studying, quote, linguistic and structural features of written statements to predict whether someone was telling the truth. Soon after the training, Traci Harpster started a master's program in criminal justice. He asked Susan Adams to help with his thesis.

[Brett Murphy]

They collected these 911 calls that included 50 people who were later convicted of some sort of crime and and 50 people who were not together.

[Phoebe Judge]

They analyzed the hundred calls, looking for patterns. In the summary of their findings in the FBI bulletin, they wrote that guilty callers tended to give, quote, rambling information. Another indicator was insulting or blaming the victim or asking for help for themselves and not the person who died. Did police and prosecutors immediately seem interested in this research?

[Brett Murphy]

Oh yeah, people really loved it. It was originally just what researchers call an exploratory analysis, meaning there's a lot more research needed to see if it's valid and sound and should be applied in real world situations. But this kind of just took off right from that exploratory analysis.

[Phoebe Judge]

After the bulletin came out, a sheriff sergeant in Colorado asked Tracy and Susan to help with a case she was working on. She sent a recording of a woman calling 911 saying her husband had died. They replied with a report they'd found one indicator of innocence and 12 indicators of guilt.

[Brett Murphy]

Things like saying the word blood instead of saying bleeding.

[Phoebe Judge]

They wrote, quote, callers who chose to comment on the presence of blood at the scene rather than on the condition of the victim were more likely to be guilty. The focus appears to be on the bloody scene rather than on her bleeding husband. They also wrote that the woman had, quote, no sense of urgency and was

[Brett Murphy]

too patient, saying things like I'm sorry and thank you. That's what they would call being inappropriately polite. If you interrupt yourself, if your answers are too short, too long, saying somebody you know, that means there's a lack of commitment. Harpster and Adams said that witnesses to a crime should be able to report their observations clearly.

[Phoebe Judge]

They wrote that the woman, quote, hesitated to commit to her narrative. They noted that she said, God, who would do this? Which they found to be, quote, a curious and unexpected question. Investigators kept asking Tracy Harpster for help and he started teaching classes.

[Brett Murphy]

He kept listening to more calls and he wrote a book about it and hit the road. Training police departments, prosecutors, coroners, 911 dispatchers on this system that he developed.

[Phoebe Judge]

In 2014, police in Aspen, Colorado, were investigating the death of a woman named Nancy Pfister. Nancy's friend, Kathy Carpenter, had called 91 1. She said she hadn't heard from Nancy for a few days and she'd gone looking for her. She told the dispatcher she found Nancy dead in her closet.

[Brett Murphy]

And the local police asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to help find who did it. And then there was an agent at CBI who was one of Harpster's students. He stepped in to help analyze the phone call.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. 91 1. What is the address of the emergency? What is the address of the emergency? Is that a house, Business or apartment? It's a house. It's the anti fisted house. Ma', am, tell me exactly what happened. Okay. My. My friend had. I found my friend in the closet. Ma', am, tell me exactly what happened. My friend came back from Australia and she had some people living there and she really pissed them off. And she made threats to them about owing money. And I don't know, but I couldn't find her. She didn't call. And these people said, the dog has been in the house and she hasn't been around. So I went up there to get the dog and I was looking for her and her. I need you to tell me exactly what happened. I can't have. My friend is in her closet. In her closet? Yes. Okay, stay on the line with me. We're gonna send help that way.

[Phoebe Judge]

A Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent wrote a report analyzing Kathy Carpenter's call.

[Brett Murphy]

He noted that Carpenter had said, help me. She repeatedly interrupted herself. She didn't immediately answer. When the dispatcher asked for the address, she provided extraneous information about Feister's dog.

[Phoebe Judge]

While the phone was ringing, Kathy repeated, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Which the agent found suspicious. Writing, quote, the caller gives repetitive phrases even before the dispatcher answers the call. He wrote, the caller's very first statement is to request help for herself. And that, quote, the caller repeated, her friend was dead and full of blood. He also wrote, quote, innocent callers typically minimize the injury and rarely comment about the amount of blood unless the victim is currently bleeding. In total, the agent found 39 guilty indicators and zero indicators of innocence. Eight days after he sent the report, police arrested Kathy Carpenter. She was in jail for three months before someone else confessed to the murder. It was one of Nancy's tenants, the ones Kathy talked about when she called 911.

[Brett Murphy]

This totally upended her life. She told me she lost her job, lost her home, her car was repoed. Diagnosed with ptsd, had to move in with her mother. Across the state people still called her a murderer and she was just trying to live the rest of her life in solitude.

[Phoebe Judge]

We'll be right back. Support for Criminal comes from Shopify before starting a business, lots of people experience self doubt. At some point every business owner has thought what if I fail? Or what if no one listens to what I have to say or cares about what I sell? Shopify is here to help you take that leap of faith. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Allbirds and Magic Spoon to brands just getting started. Their design studio lets you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. They offer a host of helpful AI tools plus built in marketing tools. And if you ever get stuck, their award winning 24. 7 customer support has your back. It's time to turn those what ifs into a thriving business with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com criminal go to shopify.com criminal that's shopify.com criminal

[Russ Faria]

when I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it could be a long process to take care of it. Like a landscaper's first day trimming a hedge maze. I have definitely already been here. Now was it left, right or right left? Well, maybe I'll cut a path out and find my way back later. But it wasn't like that. I filed a claim in under two minutes on the Geico app and they handled it from there. It was taken care of almost as quickly as it happened. It feels good to get help quick. It feels good to Geico.

[Phoebe Judge]

The year after police dropped charges against Kathy Carpenter, Russ Faria was granted a new trial in Missouri. He'd been in prison for two years after a jury ruled he murdered his wife Betsy. His lawyer had presented new evidence about another potential suspect, Betsy's friend Pam Hopp, the woman who had given her a ride that day. In the new trial, Russ's lawyer called the 911 operator who answered his call to testify.

[Russ Faria]

And in her opinion, you know, I wasn't play acting at all.

[Phoebe Judge]

A TV station in St. Louis broadcast an interview with the operator, Tammy Vaughn.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

You can't fake that. You can't fake that emotion. In my personal opinion, you can't.

[Brett Murphy]

Vaughn says 911 operators are expected to get hysterical callers to answer questions.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

It's a redirection It's a technique that communicators use to try to redirect, calm them down, ask them the question. And then whenever they have to focus back on the victim or the patient, then they do what's called a refreq.

[Phoebe Judge]

The prosecutor, Leah Cheney, called the 911 supervisor from the first trial to testify again. This time the supervisor said that she'd learned to evaluate calls like Russ's from Tracy Harpster's class.

[Brett Murphy]

And she was saying all the reasons that she thought Farillo was guilty based on his word choice and demeanor during the night 911 call Brett Murphy.

[Phoebe Judge]

But the judge in the second trial wouldn't let the supervisor's testimony in his evidence. The new verdict was announced on a Friday.

[Russ Faria]

I was completely free. Found not guilty on all counts and completely exonerated.

[Phoebe Judge]

Leah Cheney didn't charge anyone else with Betsy's murder. But Russ lawyer asked the U.S. attorney's office to review the case. He wanted someone to look more closely at Pam Hopp. When Betsy removed Russ as the beneficiary on her life insurance, she had replaced him with Pam. Pam and Betsy had met as co workers at State Farm. Betsy's sister said Pam was instructed to use the life insurance to support Betsy's daughters from a previous relationship, which she had not been doing. What did you think of her?

[Russ Faria]

Well, I thought she was a little weird, but you know, there's a lot of people like that in this world and I really certainly didn't suspect her of being somebody that was malicious at all.

[Phoebe Judge]

In 2016, Pam Hupp was arrested and charged with killing a man named Louis Gumpenberger. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Then in 2021, she was charged with Betsy's murder. There hasn't been a trial yet.

[Russ Faria]

It is suspected and Pam is alleged to have done that. She will be facing trial in January of 2028 for said murder.

[Phoebe Judge]

Since Russ was released, he's opened a motorcycle shop and gotten married. He says it's strange how many people have heard his 911 call.

[Russ Faria]

It's been played on Dateline six times now and I don't know how many times on local news. And that's one of the things that people that I meet and that recognize me come up and they're, they're just very emotional about having had listened to that call.

[Phoebe Judge]

While reporter Brett Murphy was looking into 911 call analysis, he found emails Leah Cheney and Tracy Harpster had written each other. After Russ was exonerated, Harpster was looking

[Brett Murphy]

for Marketing material and a chapter in his upcoming book. And he wrote to the prosecutor saying, can you give me an endorsement? Cite this case where you used it. And he says in his email, we don't have to say it was overturned. Just hook me up and make it sing. As I was working on this story, the months I was working on this, I listened to, you know, I must have listened to dozens, if not hundreds of 911 calls.

[Phoebe Judge]

Can you tell any difference? Could you know, from someone who's ultimately guilty as opposed to someone who someone claimed was guilty?

[Brett Murphy]

No, I can't. I mean, I can't. It's. To me, it always seemed like when I first heard about it when I was in Louisiana, I thought it seemed far fetched, but I don't know. So I wanted to look into it, keep an open mind. I thought I might come away with some ability to like, predict one way or another, but I was never able. I mean, there would be people who have the flattest of affects, other people who seemed absolutely heartbroken and distraught and in shock and trying to divine one way or another was like reading tea leaves.

[Phoebe Judge]

If I were to call 911, I think the last thing on my mind would be that someone potentially was going to listen to that call and look at me as a suspect, depending on what words I chose to use.

[Brett Murphy]

This was another concern of law enforcement and prosecutors I talked to, that there would be a chilling effect, right. People if they were worried that their word choice might implicate them, that they might not want to call 911 and don't, like, don't get me wrong, the 911 calls are crucially important to a homicide investigator. It's kind of like the first record starts the timeline. You can check what someone said versus facts that come up later. It's a critical piece of evidence for a number of reasons, but to use it in this way is deeply concerning to the people I spoke with who live and work in this world. There's a 1-911-call in Ohio. There was a couple parents wailing on the phone. They were holding their child who had died. Harpster listened to the call and he wrote back to the police officer who sent it to him. He said, call me dirty. Like the parents were dirty and he didn't like their 911 call. The mother who was on the phone in that case was never charged. Right. So there's like these cases keep appearing in my research where it was applied. The, the 91 1, call analysis was applied in some way, but it didn't work, the person was acquitted or never charged. And this never seemed to be evidence that maybe there was something wrong with the thing. But on the flip side, anytime 911 call analysis was used and that person was later charged or convicted, that was evidence that it worked.

[Phoebe Judge]

Did you ever get a chance to interview him?

[Brett Murphy]

Yeah. So I talked to him once on the phone. It was one kind of short conversation. I raised, you know, a couple questions and concerns from some folks I had been talking to at that early stage. I could not get back in touch with him.

[Phoebe Judge]

Brett says he sent him emails and texts for months. He'd asked Traci Harpster if he could sit in on one of his classes.

[Brett Murphy]

He said no, it was only for law enforcement. I asked him, I was like, why can't I sit in? But he's very protective of it. He told me that, you know, other people would use it for nefarious ends. People would start gaming their 911 calls.

[Phoebe Judge]

So he interviewed a former student of Tracy's and asked what it was like.

[Brett Murphy]

There's a projector screen up top. Is the caller the killer in bold red font, kind of looks like dripping blood. And he claims that one in three people who call 911 to report a death are actually murderers. I never found any record to support that figure.

[Phoebe Judge]

We contacted Tracy Harpster for this story, and he sent a response which includes the following quote, we are not aware of any individual who's been arrested or prosecuted for murder, sex, solely based on a 911 call. The 911 call is but one piece of evidence that should be closely examined, just like any other.

[Brett Murphy]

I think it's important to say that from what I can tell in his, what he tells students and what people have who have attended the class told me is that he really believes in this. He really thinks that he is helping these cases and bringing. Bringing murderers to justice. And it's a kind of invaluable instrument for police and prosecutors to kind of help them solve otherwise potentially unsolvable cases. So I never got the sense that he was operating in bad faith in any way or thought he was selling snake oil or anything sort of his life's work.

[Phoebe Judge]

Brett spoke with an FBI behavioral scientist who had worked with Traci and Susan on the research.

[Brett Murphy]

He told me, I just don't see that this, the work we did, rises to the level of success by the scientific community. There's no definitive answer as to whether this is useful. And everyone that I know of has kind of failed to reproduce most of his Findings which has kind of in their mind sort of invalidated the research quite a bit.

[Phoebe Judge]

Researchers at universities and the FBI have tried and failed to find evidence that the 911 cop scale method can reliably identify guilty callers. But in 2022, when Brett was investigating, some police and prosecutors still seem to be using it.

[Brett Murphy]

There's not really like a governing body that's supposed to be vetting science or purported science that's getting adopted in the courtroom and works a lot on precedent. Know if it makes its way into one case, then an attorney can cite that case, which is sort of the opposite of how science works. Science changes based on new information all the time. But conversely, the court system works on, on precedent. So what's supposed to be happening is that there's supposed to be something like a, a standard applied. It's called the, the Daubert standard or the Fry standard, in which judges are supposed to evaluate whether it stands up to scrutiny.

[Phoebe Judge]

The Daubert Standard From a 1993 Supreme Court case involving a pharmaceutical company says that judges should look at an expert's methods to determine whether to allow them to testify, not just their credentials.

[Brett Murphy]

There's all sorts of benchmarks it's supposed to hit. Has there been other studies that replicate the findings? Pretty much. Is it sound?

[Phoebe Judge]

Brett reported that in 2016, the Missouri prosecutor, Leah Cheney wrote an email to Tracy Harpster, quote, of course the sign of research is not recognized as a science in our state. She said she was finding ways to use 911 call analysis in court anyway, quote, getting creative without calling it science.

[Brett Murphy]

Often prosecutors were, they would have a detective or a dispatcher testify. Harpster himself wouldn't. And unless a defense attorney catches that this is, hey, that's not lay testimony. That actually sounds like scientific or fact testimony. I want to challenge that for a Daubert hearing or something like that. If an objection like that isn't raised, then it might slip right through and get right in front a of jury.

[Phoebe Judge]

Brett Murphy says sometimes Judges would let 911 call analysis in his evidence because a state training board had certified Tracy Harpster's class.

[Brett Murphy]

And I would go to those state training boards and they said, well, we're not actually vetting the curriculum.

[Phoebe Judge]

In one case in 2014 in Michigan, a 16 year old named Riley Spitler had called 911 and said that he'd shot his older brother while playing with a gun.

[Brett Murphy]

The police and prosecutors said he did it on purpose. Spitler always maintained that it was an accident. And the difference of course, is, you know, manslaughter and murder.

[Phoebe Judge]

A detective on the case had taken Traci Harpster's class.

[Brett Murphy]

I saw the checklist that he filled out. The detective filled out, and I listened to the call. Spitler is. Seems to me kind of to be in shock. He's sobbing and hysterical. He told dispatchers that he shot his brother. He said it was an accident. Said twice it was an accident. This was extraneous information. By saying the shooting was accidental is an indicator of guilt, Quote, because the call should be about help, not about justifying actions. At another point, Riley says his life is over. Oh, my God, my life is over. Saying something like, my life is over shows that Riley was too focused on himself and not his brother. That's what the detective said. It was very me focused. And then finally, Riley said, I think I killed him. And this is before he starts kind of breaking down. He says, oh, my God, please, no. Multiple times in that call, Riley said he thought his brother was dead. That detective wrote that this is a guilty indicator because he was accepting his brother's death.

[Phoebe Judge]

I mean, I listened to this 911 call also, and I don't understand. I mean, it's confusing to know how you could even look for patterns in anything because Riley is. He's so upset that you can barely understand what he's saying.

[Brett Murphy]

Yeah, he was. I mean, just to put it into some perspective, Riley was having so much trouble thinking in this moment. He couldn't figure out how to open his own front door to his house from the inside. And he punched his hand through the glass door to open the door. And this is, I think, sort of at. It's at the heart of this 911 call analysis where there's just not enough known about how people speak during a moment of trauma or shock. A lot of people don't even recognize themselves. They have no memory of saying that thing that they said on a 911 call. They have no memory of doing certain things that they were doing during the 911 call. You know, you are kind of outside of yourself. And it's one thing to have a hunch about someone because you think they. And police do this all the time, right? Because you think they're. They're acting odd. But to lend the air of science and apply these indicators of guilt, that takes it to this, like, other level in which it starts becoming something really dangerous.

[Phoebe Judge]

Riley Spitler appealed his case on the basis of police, prosecutor, and judge misconduct and argued that the statement analysis used against him was, quote, unquote junk science. He won, was re sentenced for manslaughter and released from prison in 2020. He was 21. Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Roberson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark and Lena Sillison. This episode was fact checked by Katie Cederborg. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. You can find a link to Brett Murphy's reporting about 911 call analysis for ProPublica on our website. This isn't the first time We've had a ProPublica journalist on criminal to talk about their investigative reporting. Often their stories stand out to us and they just started a new podcast last month. The show is called Paper Trail. If you're a fan of Criminal, there's a good chance you'll like it. The first episode is a story about generic medications and things going wrong at the factories they come from. And they have other episodes out and coming up about health insurance denials, national security, the courts and more. You can listen to Paper Trail wherever you get your podcasts. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see [e-mail] and you can sign up for our [e-mail] Newsletter we hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program Criminal. Plus, you can listen to Criminal, this is Love and Phoebe reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and Criminal co creator Lauren Spore talking about everything from how we make our episodes to the crime stories that caught our attention that week to things we've been enjoying lately. To learn more, go to patreon.com criminal we're on Facebook at this is Criminal and Instagram and TikTok at Criminal underscore podcast. We're also on YouTube at YouTube.com criminalpodcast Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast network. Discover more great [e-mail] I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

[Brett Murphy]

We've all been there. You pop into the shop for five minutes and all of a sudden you've forgotten where you parked.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Car. Car.

[Phoebe Judge]

Unfortunately, that lost feeling is what it's

[Brett Murphy]

like trying to manage your policy with other insurers here.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Car.

[Brett Murphy]

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

[911 Dispatcher / Tammy Vaughn]

Please.

[Brett Murphy]

With Geico, you can use the app

[Phoebe Judge]

to easily manage all all your policies in one place.

[Brett Murphy]

Did this parking lot have a waterfall? I think you've wandered too far, mate.

[Russ Faria]

It feels good to find what you're looking for. It feels good.

[Phoebe Judge]

To Geico Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month, of course, if you enjoy overpaying.

[Brett Murphy]

No judgments. But that's weird.

[Phoebe Judge]

Okay, one judgment anyway, give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail].