Lincoln County prosecutors filed first degree murder charges against 41 year old Russ Faria Monday, in the stabbing death of his wife two days after Christmas. He was arrested hours after his wife`s body was discovered, but let go because of a lack of evidence. Now the sheriff says they`ve found the evidence they needed.
Fox 2 cameras were rolling on Wednesday December 28 as Faria walked out of the Lincoln County Sheriff`s Department. He refused any comment. He is now back in custody on a $1 million bond.
The key piece of evidence turned up inside the Faria home Tuesday, which is he same day Betsy Faria was buried.
"The timing just happened to be that we were able to obtain another search warrant on the residence; just happened to be on the same day as the funeral," said Lincoln County Sheriff Mike Krigbaum. "We want to make sure that we arrest the right person and we have enough evidence to keep him in jail, and we believe that we do at this time."
Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Leah Askey says the weapon used to murder Betsy Faria was a kitchen knife. She was a 42 year old mother of two in the midst of a tough battle with cancer.
"I know she'd seen doctors the week of her death," said Askey. "But I don't have any reason to believe any of that was pertinent to this investigation."
Russ Faria told investigators he was running errands the night of December 27th. He claimed when he returned to their home in the 100 block of Sumac near Troy he discovered his wife`s body. He called 911 around 9:40 pm. But Askey says the more detectives investigated, the more the timeline began to unravel. And they now believe the murder was pre-meditated.
"The suspect has been charged with first degree murder, so we have reason to believe there was some anticipation of the incident," she said.
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