Once the credit card link was proved to be non-existent, Plan "B" was circulated throughout the media. The note left at the scene of the Ashland, Va. shooting (presumably by the shooter) complained that agents answering the hotlines did not believe calls made by the writer of the note that included references to a crime in Montgomery (according to the Task Force). It also included a reference to a call to an unnamed priest in Ashland. Although the note listed telephone numbers the writer had called, none was given for the priest.

The message the anonymous caller gave the priest (Monsignor William V.Sullivan) was that the crime to which he was referring was in Montgomery, Alabama, not Montgomery County, Maryland. The New York Times published a story claiming the priest then forwarded the information to the Task Force which started the chain of events that resulted in matching Malvo's fingerprints.

However the bishop of the Richmond Catholic Diocese (Walter F. Sullivan) said father Sullivan did not call the Task Force thinking it was a crank call. The following morning an FBI agent showed up and, according to Monsignor Sullivan, he said they suspected one of his parishioners was involved in the sniper attacks. The agent said they had traced a telephone call to the rectory! It was at this point that Father Sullivan told the agent about the call he had received and the reference to Montgomery, Alabama. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch this all occurred on Sunday, October 22nd.