An investigator who played a key role in the wrongful conviction of Russ Faria for the 2011 murder of his wife is now facing felony charges for lying under oath, the Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Michael Merkel, the former law enforcement official who testified in Faria’s original 2013 trial, has been charged with two counts of perjury stemming from allegedly false statements he made during that proceeding. Faria was convicted of murder but exonerated in a 2015 retrial after spending three years in prison.
The charges relate to Merkel’s testimony about forensic evidence from the Faria crime scene. Prosecutors now allege Merkel lied to the court about the results of “Bluestar” testing—a chemical method used to detect blood traces not visible to the naked eye.
In the original trial, Merkel told jurors that photographs taken during Bluestar testing showed “absolutely nothing” due to a camera malfunction. However, new forensic analysis has since revealed that seven of those photos clearly captured blue chemiluminescence—indicative of a potential blood presence—in multiple areas of the Faria home.
“None of these visibly reactive areas were marked, seized, or tested by investigators,” according to the probable cause statement filed by prosecutors.
Instead, investigators removed nine floor tiles from areas where they later claimed blood had been cleaned up. None of those tiles showed any Bluestar reaction or tested positive for blood, while the areas that did react were ignored entirely.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John Krehmeyer described Merkel’s actions as a serious betrayal of public trust:
“When that ceases to exist, the faith and trust in our judicial system is completely eroded. The defendant’s conduct represents such an egregious breach of that trust that the State believes the aforementioned bond request is appropriate.”
Prosecutors have requested a $250,000 cash-only bond for Merkel. Court records do not yet list an attorney representing him.
The case has regained national attention due to its tangled legal history. After Russ Faria’s exoneration, attention shifted to Betsy Faria’s friend, Pam Hupp, who was charged with first-degree murder in Betsy’s death in 2021. Hupp is already serving a life sentence for the 2016 killing of Louis Gumpenberger—a crime prosecutors say was part of an elaborate scheme to frame Faria and derail renewed interest in the original case.
Hupp’s trial for Betsy’s murder is set to begin in August 2026 in St. Charles County.
