Woman says St. Louis gunman raped her before Tuesday's lethal shooting spree

ST. LOUIS -- Police confirmed Thursday that a catering-service employee killed a fourth woman after ballistics tests linked bullets at the crime scene to others in a day-long killing spree.

The body of Carol Moore, 35, was found Wednesday in a St. Louis apartment owned by a friend of gunman Herbert Chalmers Jr., police said. On Thursday, police confirmed Chalmers killed her too.

Yet another woman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Chalmers raped her after putting a gun to her head. He then left her apartment, murdered an estranged girlfriend and two of his bosses before turning the gun on himself. The rape allegation appeared on the Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Each of the victims is female.

The Post-Dispatch did not identify the woman, who said she didn't report the incident sooner because she was scared. Police told The Associated Press they are investigating the woman's claims.

"I was thinking he was going to come back and kill me," the woman said.

Along with his ex-girlfriend and two female bosses, police say Chalmers killed a woman in the apartment of another former girlfriend. Police said Thursday that ballistics tests show bullets at the apartment match those from Chalmers' gun.

The woman who said she survived his visit Tuesday explained that she felt the full weight when she heard all that he did. "That's when it really dawned on me," she said. "I could have stopped them."

She said, "I didn't want to report it, but it's eating my conscience."

The woman said Chalmers, whom she had dated since 1987, entered her apartment through an open door about 9 a.m. and found her in her bedroom. He took a pillow from her bed, put it to her head, and put the gun to the pillow.

"He said they were taking all his money and that he couldn't survive," said the woman, 44. "He said he was living off $200 every two weeks and he couldn't survive." He said, "'You're one of these people. I'm going to kill all of you. You made me suffer, too."'

I told him, "'I'm not taking your money. Sylvia is taking your money,"' the woman recalled. "'Why would you want to kill me? I haven't done anything to you."'

She said she was referring to Sylvia Haynes, 53, the mother of Chalmers' four children.

A neighbor of the woman, who went to high school with Chalmers, told a reporter Thursday she saw him boarding a bus outside and waved to him. That was about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

At 10:06 a.m., Chalmers' former girlfriend said, he called her home. Her caller ID still had the time of the call and the name from the phone that made it: Sylvia Haynes.

He said, "'I'm over at Sylvia's house now. I'm gonna kill her. She made me suffer."' "I heard three shots and he hung the phone up," the woman said.

The woman did not call police to report either the rape or the shooting. "I was too scared, too scared to call the police." With her consent, a reporter relayed her report to St. Louis police Thursday afternoon.

"I don't understand why he didn't kill me," she said. "Maybe he loved me."

He later traveled by bus to a suburban Wal-Mart, took ammunition without paying for it and headed again by bus to Finninger's Catering Service in St. Louis, where he had worked for about a year. He opened fire at the business, killing co-owner Cleo Finninger, 79, and her daughter, Christine Politte, 44. Another employee, Patricia Ann Meier, 48, was wounded.

Chalmers then shot himself in the parking lot, according to police.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.