Police detail events leading up to woman's shooting death in Rostraver

Robert S. Chaplin was standing in the yard, flailing his arms and yelling, when police arrived at his Rostraver home for a reported shooting Feb. 5, according to township police Officer Brian Dove.

Dove testified Tuesday that a distraught child shouted to arriving officers, “Mum’s in the basement.”

That’s where Dove said he found Estela Rivera Vasquez, 35, with a gunshot wound to her right chest, along with a handgun and shell casing on the floor close by. She was taken to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital, where she died.

During an interview with police about four hours later, Chaplin, 34, told investigators he and Rivera Vasquez, his live-in girlfriend, had been bickering all afternoon and evening.

“Did he indicate that he shot the victim?” Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Ranger asked Rostraver police Detective Sgt. Raymond Dugan during Chaplin’s preliminary hearing.

“He did,” Dugan responded.

District Judge John E. Christner ordered that a single count of homicide against Chaplin be held for court after an hourlong preliminary hearing. One of three children living at the Route 136 home called 911 about 11 p.m. Feb. 5 to report the shooting.

Rivera Vasquez and Chaplin, who lists a South Carolina address in court records, had lived there together for a couple of years.

Chaplin appeared to wipe away tears at a couple of points during the hearing Tuesday.

Dove testified that Chaplin appeared to be heavily intoxicated and was distraught and agitated when police got to the house. In addition to the shell casing in the basement, Dove said he spotted one outside in the driveway.

Chaplin told authorities that the couple went to a grocery store earlier in the night. While there, he hit a yellow pole in the parking lot and wanted to shoot his vehicle, Dugan testified. Chaplin was cooperative during the interview and added that he bought a bottle of Jim Beam while they were out.

“He said he was suspicious of her being unfaithful to him. He wanted to leave her, and that made him angry,” Dugan said.

In court papers, police said Chaplin claimed the shooting was an accident. Police later confirmed a pole in the grocery store parking lot had been damaged.

The three children who live at the home were not hurt. Rivera Vasquez was their mother, but Chaplin is not their father, authorities said.