HILLSBORO, Mo. _ A man accused of sexually assaulting two women and murdering a third at a Catholic Supply store in west St. Louis County in November has been charged in an attack on a Jefferson County woman two months earlier.
Thomas Bruce, 53, was charged Monday with burglary, kidnapping, assault, sexual abuse and harassment in the attack at a 77-year-old woman's home near Hillsboro on Sept. 27.
As in the Catholic Supply case, investigators in Jefferson County say Bruce demanded the victim perform a sex act, then disappeared with little trace and no known connection to the victim. His arrest in the Catholic Supply case broke open the Jefferson County investigation when the victim recognized his mug shot in local media as the man who attacked her, police say.
The woman told police she was walking from her car to her home near Hillsboro between 4 and 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 when she saw a red car drive slowly past. Moments later, Bruce knocked on her door, according to court documents. He claimed he was with AMVETS, a service organization for veterans, and wanted to ask her a few questions and was willing to pay her.
When the victim asked the man to leave and tried to close the door on him, he forced his way in, knocking the victim to the ground, according to court documents.
Once inside, Bruce sexually abused the woman and demanded she perform a sex act, according to the charges. As he dragged her into a bedroom, her house phone rang, according to the charges. The victim told Bruce her husband was calling because he was on his way home. Bruce told her he would kill him when he got home. Then he put the victim in a bedroom and demanded she stay there, according to the court documents. He left, taking her cellphone.
The victim suffered injuries to her knees and elbows, according to the documents.
Neighbors on Pioneer Road northeast of Hillsboro had seen a red car in the area, and gave a description similar to the one given by the victim. But investigators had little to go on in the apparently random attack.
Then, in November, the victim saw Bruce's mug shot in media reports about the attack at the Catholic Supply store in St. Louis County. She called police to say that was the same man who had attacked her, according to the documents.
Bruce was charged with 17 crimes in the Nov. 19 sexual assault of two women and the killing of a third at the Catholic Supply store on Manchester Road. The woman who died, Jamie Schmidt, was a customer at the store and a member of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in High Ridge, where she sang in the choir.
Workers at an auto repair shop also saw media coverage of the Catholic Supply store attack and called Jefferson County police to say they had Bruce's car in for repairs.
It was damaged during an apparent road-rage incident on Oct. 17, a month after the attack in Jefferson County and a month before the Catholic Supply killing. Bruce's wife gave detectives permission to search the 2017 Kia Forte, and they found a tracking device attached to the car's data port. American Family Insurance uses the KnowYourDrive device to monitor the driving habits of its customers, according to court documents.
Deputies got a search warrant for the data from the device, and discovered it had been at the Jefferson County victim's house on the date of the attack between 4:17 and 4:32 p.m., according to court documents. Cellphone records also put Bruce in the area during the time frame, according to the documents.
Without the arrest in the Catholic Supply case and the GPS evidence, Bruce might never have been identified as a suspect in the Jefferson County case, authorities said. They aren't sure how the victim was chosen and don't know of any link between her and Bruce. Her home is about 10 miles from where Bruce lived, in the Quail Run Estates mobile home park in the Antonia area.
Similarly, investigators didn't have much to go on in the days after the Catholic Supply attack. The killer entered the store in a strip mall on busy Manchester Road, attacked the women inside and then disappeared.
Investigators didn't know where he came from, where he went or how he left. They spoke to the victims, but it appeared there was no connection between them and the attacker.
Eventually, on a second round of interviews at neighboring businesses, a detailed description of the attacker from victims jogged the memory of a server at Hotshots. She said the description fit a man who had talked to her and given her a business card on the day of the attack. A search through the bar's trash turned up the business card, and officers arrested Bruce early on Nov. 21, two days after the crimes.
His bail has been set at $500,000 in Jefferson County.
St. Louis County judges did not allow bond in the charges stemming from the Catholic Supply case. St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said Friday he will seek life in prison with no parole in the case. Bell, who was sworn in as the new St. Louis County prosecutor on Jan. 1, said during his campaign for the office that he was opposed to the death penalty.
