Hayes." She went on to say she blamed Hayes' reporting for attracting threatening people. Hupp claimed that Gumpenberger, armed with a knife, had jumped out of a car (driven by another person) into her driveway, accosted her while she sat in her SUV in her garage, and demanded she drive to a bank to retrieve "Russ' money". Hupp claimed that she had knocked the knife out of Gumpenberger's hand with a "karate chop" and then fled into her house, shooting Gumpenberger in self-defense with a Ruger LCR she kept on her nightstand after he pursued her. The St. Charles County prosecuting attorney and the O'Fallon chief of police theorized that Hupp had lured Gumpenberger to her home by presenting herself as "Cathy", a producer for the television program Dateline NBC, and offering to pay him to reenact a 9-1-1 call, then shot him in order to implicate Russ in an attempt on her life (and "take heat off her"), planting the knife, the note, and the money on Gumpenberger's body. Gumpenberger was believed to have been selected at random. Several pieces of evidence were identified: Cellphone records showed that Hupp had been in Gumpenberger's neighborhood "right at the supposed attacker’s front door" less than one hour before the shooting, casting doubt on her claim that she had never met him before. On August 10, 2016, a police report had been filed with the St. Charles County police stating that a woman matching Hupp's description had approached O'Fallon resident Carol Alford (also known as Carol McAfee) posing as a Dateline NBC producer and offering her $1,000 () to reenact a 9-1-1 call; security camera footage showed that the woman in question had been driving Hupp's car. A second witness, Brent Charlton, informed police that Hupp had approached him with a similar proposition. Police investigators found nine one-hundred-dollar bills in Gumpenberger's pocket; a tenth found on Hupp's dresser had a sequential serial number to four of the nine bills. Investigators also suggested that the knife had been purchased at the Dollar Tree in O'Fallon alongside several other items found in Hupp's house. The paper on which the note found on Gumpenberger's body had been written was also thought to have been bought by Hupp. The knife found in Hupp's car was found wedged between the passenger seat and the central console. Knives in Hupp's kitchen were similarly stored wedged between the stove