Mother of slain Missouri man says he was too trusting

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- A Missouri mother said she warned her disabled son not to be too trusting before he was gunned down in what prosecutors allege was a woman's plot to deflect attention from her in another killing.

Margaret Burch said she knew police were wrong when they told her that her 33-year-old son, Louis Gumpenberger, had broken into the house of the woman who shot him in August, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

That woman, Pamela Hupp, told police she shot Gumpenberger when he tried to abduct her. But she was arrested days later and was charged with murder in Gumpenberger's death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Hupp has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege Hupp lured Gumpenberger from outside his St. Charles home by telling him she worked for the TV news show "Dateline" and that she would pay him to help her re-enact a 911 call. She is accused of driving him to her home in O'Fallon, inviting him inside, dialing 911 and then shooting him as an operator listened.

Prosecutors contend it was part of a plot to make it appear Gumpenberger was trying to kidnap her and take $150,000 in life-insurance money she received after her friend Betsy Faria was killed in 2011. Authorities said Hupp was attempting to incriminate Faria's husband, Russell Faria, by making it appear he had sent Gumpenberger to get some of the insurance money.

Speaking publicly for the first time about her son's death, Burch told the Post-Dispatch and KTVI-TV that Gumpenberger suffered a brain injury in a 2005 drunken-driving crash he caused. She said that after the crash, her son sometimes would socialize and drink with neighbors, despite her warnings about being too trusting.

Her fears materialized when she found police waiting at her home as she returned last year from reporting him missing. The detectives said, "Louis broke into this woman's house and she shot him."

She insisted, "That's not my son. He wouldn't do that."

They showed her a note, and she said, "Louis didn't write that note," noting the penmanship was far too neat.

The detectives then played a portion of a 911 call. She heard her son's voice but couldn't really understand what he was saying. She also heard a woman say, "No, no. Don't shoot me," she recalled.

"It sounded fake, like she was rehearsing the part," Burch said. "There was no fear in her voice."

Burch said had Hupp offered Gumpenberger money, she knows he would have taken it. Gumpenberger and Burch had loans, and wanted to save up for a house.

Burch said her son felt lonely and useless: "He didn't have a job. He couldn't drive a car anymore."

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com