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ST. LOUIS — Samantha Hampton pulled up to her twin sister's apartment building in Clayton's Clayshire neighborhood Wednesday morning on her way to dropping off her sons for school. She and her sister then would head to work.

But Samantha immediately saw something with her sister, Michelle Hampton, that frightened her. Michelle was in her SUV, looking petrified, with a masked man in the passenger seat. A yellow truck, occupied by men also wearing masks, had blocked in Michelle's vehicle.

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"She was able to roll down the window and scream at me, 'Sam no!' to let me know something was wrong," Samantha said. 

Michelle drove off, and Samantha chased behind, with the yellow truck on her tail.

"I called 911 right away — immediately," Samantha said.

What followed was a harrowing attempt to keep up with her sister's white Nissan Rogue, while frantically trying to get help from police. The yellow truck, she said, tried to run her off the road. Twice, her 911 calls were dropped, she said, as police "could have just listened and tried to help."

Samantha said she eventually lost track of her sister when the gunman riding with Michelle shot at Samantha's car.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, four hours after the reported abduction, Michelle was found shot to death in an alley in the 4700 block of Greer Avenue in ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´. The site is in the Kingsway East neighborhood in north ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, and 8 miles from her Clayton apartment in the 8100 block of Whitburn Drive.

Detectives worked all night Wednesday on the case but still had no one in custody as of Thursday afternoon. Michelle's vehicle was "quickly recovered" after the shooting, while detectives also seized a "vehicle of interest" Wednesday night, according to ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ police.

Clayton police said the victim was "specifically targeted and there are no indications of any further threat to the Clayton community." They also said she entered her SUV "under suspicious circumstances."

Investigators are trying to determine if Michelle knew the suspects. It appears the gunman forced her to stop at ATMs.

×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ police spokesman Mitch McCoy said detectives also are trying to learn more about the "encounter" before Michelle got into her SUV and hope to piece together details of what transpired during the four hours before she was killed.

Brad Wilson, executive director of East Central Dispatch Center, which handles 911 dispatch for Clayton and other municipalities, declined to comment because the investigation was still active.

The family of Michelle, 37, believes police did not work quickly enough to intervene.

"I honestly feel like they failed," Samantha said.

'Kept telling me they can't help'

When her sister drove away shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday, Samantha followed the vehicle for several miles. Along the way, she talked with dispatchers in both ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County and ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ city.

On one call, Samantha said, the 911 operator "hung up on me. So I keep calling back and getting somebody new."

As she barreled down Interstate 64, Samantha told the dispatcher, "Something is wrong. Somebody has my sister. I'm following them."

The 911 operator asked if she was reporting road rage. She said no. The operator asked for her location. At one point, when Samantha was nearing Hampton Avenue, the county 911 operator transferred her call to a ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ dispatcher.

"They kept telling me they can't help unless I stop or pull up to a police station," Samantha said. "I'm telling them I can't stop because they're driving off with her. I'm not leaving her. And the phone hung up again."

Near Euclid and Enright avenues, the gunman in her sister's SUV shot at Samantha's car, hitting a window. Neither Samantha nor her twin 15-year-old sons in the car with her were injured. 

She lost track of her sister's vehicle and pulled off at a gas station along Kingshighway, calling 911 again.

"Go get her right now!" Samantha said she yelled at police. "Her phone is still pinging."

Samantha was tracking her sister's cell phone via the Life360 phone app. Police later found the phone on the front porch of a house on Euclid, she said.

When the officers came to her at the gas station, she said, they argued in front of her about what steps to take. She heard one officer say the response was "lazy."

McCoy, the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ police spokesman, said officers worked to find Michelle Hampton as soon as her vehicle entered the city.

"No one in the world would want to find a victim in need of help more than a police officer," McCoy said.

The SUV's license plate was picked up once or twice by license plate readers, he said, though it's unclear if that was done before or after the body was discovered.

The SUV was found abandoned near Euclid.

'She was my support'

Michelle was the mother of a 14-year-old girl. She also adopted Samantha's twin teenage boys and 7-year-old son.

Michelle was vice president of operations at Beaver Industrial Supply, a tool store in The Hill neighborhood. Samantha worked in sales for the company. 

"She was everything to me," Samantha said. "Without her, there's no me. She was my support."

The sisters were identical twins.

In 1987, they were the first twins born at SSM St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake Saint Louis. The story made headlines. Years later, an article featured the family again when Samantha gave birth to twin boys at the same hospital, delivered by the same doctor.

Colleen Hayden, a co-worker at the tool company, said Michelle Hampton was her best friend. 

"She was so kind and really witty. We would joke around all the time," Hayden said.

On their last day working together, Hayden and Michelle swapped stories about their children. 

Being a mom "was probably her favorite thing," Hayden said.

Hayden said the employees who came to work Thursday were in shock. "It is hard to be here," she said. "It's really hard."

On Thursday afternoon, Samantha planned to speak with detectives again and go to the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Medical Examiner's Office to identify her sister's body.

McCoy asked anyone with information to contact ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ homicide detectives at 314-444-5371. Tipsters who want to remain anonymous, or are interested in a possible reward, can call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.

A through GoFundMe has been set up by Tamara Abdelaal, another sister of the Hampton twins. Contributions would help pay funeral expenses and to care for Michelle's daughter and the three nephews she adopted.

Nassim Benchaabane and Dana Rieck of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.