*Hint; she basically admits guilt in the death of her own mother
ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Police said Wednesday that they would triple-check their investigation of the death of Shirley Neumann now that the fall victim’s daughter is charged in one murder and under a cloud of suspicion in another.
St. Louis County police already twice decided that Neumann’s tumble through a balcony railing at her retirement apartment in 2013 was an accident.
A department spokesman confirmed Wednesday that detectives never questioned the daughter, Pamela Hupp, about the fall because the circumstances did not suggest foul play. It appears Hupp was the last person to have seen her mother alive.
Sgt. Shawn McGuire said this did not represent a “re-opening” of the investigation. “Detectives are reviewing the case in light of recent events,” he said, adding, “There is no plan on talking to (Hupp). We are looking at all of the evidence and reports to make sure we do our due diligence just to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
He had said on Aug. 25 — two days after Hupp was charged with shooting a stranger in cold blood to try to frame someone else in an earlier murder case — that police would not revisit Neumann’s death.
Hupp also was the last person known to have seen Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria alive before Faria was found stabbed to death in her home near Troy, Mo., in 2011. The killing was days after Faria made Hupp, a friend, beneficiary on $150,000 worth of life insurance.
Lincoln County authorities obtained a murder conviction against Faria’s husband, Russell Faria, despite testimony from four alibi witnesses and physical evidence that seemed to favor his claim that he had merely come home and found her dead. That verdict was overturned and he was acquitted in a retrial last year.
Russell Faria’s attorneys have sought to portray Hupp as the more likely suspect. Hupp has repeatedly denied killing Betsy Faria.
In a videotaped interview before Russell Faria’s first trial, Hupp told a detective she didn’t really need her friend’s insurance payout. She said, in part, “And if I really — I hate to say it — wanted money, my mom’s worth half a million that I get when she dies.” She said her mother suffered from dementia and often didn’t recognize relatives.
She added, “If I really wanted money, there was an easier way than trying to combat somebody that’s physically stronger than me,” apparently meaning Betsy Faria. “I’m just saying.”
On Aug. 23, Hupp, 57, was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly luring a physically and mentally impaired stranger, Louis Gumpenberger, 33, to her home in O’Fallon, Mo., on a promise of being paid for helping re-enact a 911 call for a TV show. Police said Hupp shot him dead while on the phone with a 911 operator, reporting that her life was being threatened by an intruder.
Police said it was really Hupp’s attempt to incriminate Russell Faria by making it appear he had sent Gumpenberger to obtain some of the life insurance Hupp had collected. Officials said an earlier attempt by Hupp to enlist another stranger for the role had failed.
Hupp stabbed herself in the neck with a pen after her arrest. She was treated and booked into jail, where she is held in lieu of $2 million bail.
Anonymous tip
Neumann, 77, was found dead on Oct. 31, 2013, by a worker at the Lakeview Park Independent Senior Living Community, near Fenton. The worker was checking on why the resident had missed lunch. Hupp reportedly had dropped off Neumann at her apartment the afternoon before.
Police regarded the death as an accident, but they took a second look after receiving an anonymous tip in November 2013 claiming Hupp had been “kind of looked at for a murder involving life insurance.”
Police returned to Neumann’s apartment to see how much force the balcony railing could withstand before breaking, the medical examiner’s report says. Neumann fell through part of the barrier under a top rail that remained intact. There were no known witnesses, officials said.
Neumann had arthritis and memory problems, her son told police, and recently had been taken to a hospital after Lakeview staff found her incoherent on her bed. A housekeeper told investigators that Neumann could be unsteady if she took a pill for back pain.
The initial investigation apparently was closed after Hupp’s brother, Michael Neumann, said he did not have any concern about foul play. His civil suit against the center and others associated with the railing is pending.
Bradley Hansmann, a lawyer representing Frosty’s Decks and Rails Inc., one of the defendants, declined comment Wednesday on whether the Faria case connection would enter into the civil case.
But he did say, “From our perspective, we were always surprised … that (police) never even interviewed Pam Hupp … and I continue to be surprised about that.”
Courtesy STL Today
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