Jefferson County man charged with murder, sex crimes in Catholic Supply store attack

[Pitt Gorilla]

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...5b9265ae3.html

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • A 53-year-old Jefferson County man with no significant criminal record has been charged with 17 crimes in the sexual assault of two women and the killing of a third at a Catholic Supply store on Manchester Road on Monday.

Thomas Bruce, of Geranium Drive in the Antonia area, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and multiple counts of sodomy, armed criminal action, kidnapping, burglary and tampering with evidence. He is being held without bail.

Bruce entered the store on Monday afternoon pretending to be a customer, left, and then re-entered with a gun, charges say. He ordered the three women in the store to the back of the store and made them take their clothes off at gunpoint. He forced two victims to perform sex acts at gunpoint, and tried to do the same with Jamie Schmidt, a customer from House Springs, killing her when she refused.

The charges say he then ordered the two other women, who were store employees, “to continue performing deviant sexual acts on him.”

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said a tip had led to the break in the case. He would not say whether Bruce had confessed or made any statements.

McCulloch said the tampering charge filed against Bruce was because he had disposed of clothing that was “ultimately recovered.”

He said police did not know why Bruce had targeted the store. “It seems to me that a guy like this saw an opportunity,” McCulloch said. “There were three women in the store alone.”

McCulloch also said that investigators had found no criminal history for Bruce.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the crime was among the most heinous he had seen in his 32 years in law enforcement and was one that “shocked the senses.”

Catholic Supply’s president, Dan Stutte, said in a statement posted online: “We are deeply relieved that an arrest has been made. Our sincere thanks to the St. Louis County Police for its dedication and excellent work.”

St. Louis County police searched Bruce’s trailer home at the Quail Run Estates mobile home park in the Antonia area of Jefferson County where they arrested him early Wednesday. An American flag and a Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag waved on a pole outside.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department authorities said that deputies had not received any calls for service to Bruce’s home and that he had never been in their custody.

A neighbor said Bruce lived in the trailer with his wife. The neighbor, Kathy Schroeder, said she awoke Wednesday morning to about 100 police officers in her neighborhood. She watched officers carry several boxes out of Bruce’s home, and the skirts around the base of the trailer were removed as part of the search.

A rumor quickly spread that the search was linked to the Catholic Supply attack on Monday.

“It sent a chill through everybody,” said Schroeder, 45.

She said the couple had moved in earlier this year, about May.

In January 2017, Bruce and his wife, Diane, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in St. Louis, listing assets of about $92,000 and debts of nearly $159,000.

The bankruptcy was discharged in April 2017. Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the couple’s home in August, records show.

A brutal attack

Jamie Schmidt, 53, was a customer at the Catholic Supply at the time Bruce came in, charges say. A friend said she may have been there to buy supplies for a project to crochet rosaries for fellow parishioners at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in High Ridge, where she was in the choir.

She lived in House Springs, attended church in High Ridge and worked at St. Louis Community College in Wildwood as a secretarial assistant .

McCulloch said at the news conference that investigators had found no connections between Bruce and the three women who were in the store.

He said there had been a second customer in the store when Bruce first came in but that person left before Bruce allegedly returned and attacked the women inside.

“He left ostensibly to go get a credit card to come in and buy some stuff but, who knows why exactly, perhaps to go get his gun, but in any event came back in and fortunately another customer had just left the building or there would have been four people involved,” McCulloch said.

Asked whether prosecutors might seek the death penalty in the case, McCulloch said that “the aggravating circumstances are certainly there.” But he pointed out that the process of deciding whether to pursue that penalty was a long one and wouldn’t be completed before the end of the year, when his term of office ends.

“The next prosecutor will have to make that decision,” he said.

McCulloch and Belmar said the public responded to the police department’s plea for help in cracking the case by supplying hundreds of tips. They said evidence was still being tested and detectives continued to investigate whether Bruce might be linked to crimes elsewhere.

The description police sent out just after the Catholic Supply shooting seemed similar to the description of a man wanted in the slayings of two girls, Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” Rose German, 14, both from Delphi, Ind., in February 2017.

Indiana State Police still are working that case.

“We’re aware of the similarities and we’ve been in contact with authorities there in St. Louis County,” said First Sgt. Jerry Holeman, who leads the investigation for the Indiana State Police. “But it is way too early to tell if this is the same” person, Holeman said.

Indiana authorities have distributed a photograph of a potential suspect in the Delphi case — a white male wearing blue jeans, a blue coat/jacket and a hoodie — who was seen near the trail where the girls’ bodies were found. They also distributed a sketch.

[WhawhaWhat]

[SuperBowl4]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

So proud of you. Saw the recent climate report and are doing your part of recycle.

Global cooling is happening NOW!

[gblowfish]

My sister told me about this story. Her first home in St. Louis was about three blocks from this strip mall. She lives out in Jeff Co now. Not in a trailer park like this slimeball, but just off MO Hwy 30 in a nice neighborhood.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Maybe he was told something off the record the guy said?
A catholic supply store was picked at random? Too coincidental for me. Maybe some priest made him perform sex acts? But, maybe it could have been any store.

If he paid any attention at all, he wouldn't do this in a Wal Mart.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

That story makes me sick at my stomach.

I wonder why the author of the story felt the need to include: "An American flag and a Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag waved on a pole outside."

Because he's an agenda-pushing liberal shithead.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Because he's an agenda-pushing liberal shithead.

Yeah, that is kind of how it came across to me. It was a real reach on his part to include that.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Yeah, that is kind of how it came across to me. It was a real reach on his part to include that.

I listen to WBBM news radio frequently while I'm in the car. They pepper their reports with shit like that all the time. I fear it might even be more effective than some leftist loon ranting and raving, since they sound sincere and authoritative while doing it.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by JD10367

Pics or GTFO

Here you go.

[notorious]

Burn this piece of shit alive.

[KCFalcon59]

Originally Posted by wazu

Here you go.

Looks like a real dickhead. Fry him.

[Rain Man]

It looks like he was apprehended by a lefthanded policeman.

[cooper barrett]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

My sister told me about this story. Her first home in St. Louis was about three blocks from this strip mall. She lives out in Jeff Co now. Not in a trailer park like this slimeball (an ex pastor), but just off MO Hwy 30 in a nice neighborhood.

What do you have against trailer parks? I bet there are some here who live in nice manufactured housing villages who are offended. It looks nice compared to 40 Hiway in IND...

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en...oiowCnoECAYQBg

I used to live in Jeff Co south off 67 hiway in a nice neighborhood. Where is a nice neighborhood off 30 highway??? (joking) I used to ride 3-4 days a week on the single and double letter roads when visiting the ex- ISO in Pacific. I've crossed 30 Hiway too many times to count. A memorable place was Club Villa Magnolia, 8400 Villa Magnolia Rd, Cedar Hill, MO especially when Billy Peek was on stage.

Going through Jeffco off the main roads is certainly an experience where BAC records have been set, meth labs are a plenty, and many supremacist groups are known to congregate. When you can count the people you have seen in a day who were not Caucasian you must be in Jeffco.

When you go further south it just gets more interesting.

I don't think we will ever know why he did what he did unless being alive and someones bitch is better than the state killing him slowly and painfully. He was said to have recently forced to go bankrupt.

Remember Bob Burdella? It took years for Karma to catch up with him.

[cooper barrett]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It looks like he was apprehended by a lefthanded policeman.

You're so good with the details

[Flying High D]

Originally Posted by SAUTO

What the hell would a priest maybe making him perform sex acts have to do with flags?

What would it have not to do with it?

[stumppy]

Got a dollar that says they get more than this one murder when they run his DNA.