Investigator in notorious Missouri murder case faces charges

TROY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri deputy who investigated a murder case that became the subject of an NBC show starring Renee Zellweger is now accused of harassing and stalking a detective who was investigating him for potential misconduct. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Mike Merkel was charged Tuesday and accused of photographing and sending threatening messages to the detective. Merkel was among the Lincoln County detectives who initially interviewed Pamela Hupp after Hupp’s friend, Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria was stabbed to death in 2011. The investigation resulted in a murder conviction of Faria’s husband. He was later acquitted and Hupp was charged and convicted. The case was the subject of “The Thing About Pam,” which ran on NBC earlier this year.