Religious Supply Store Murderer, May Have Assaulted Others

The man accused of killing a woman and sexually assaulting two others inside a suburban St. Louis religious supply store is a suspect in another assault in the rural St Louis area.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Capt. Gary Higginbotham said that a 77-year-old woman reported the assault in September, but investigators had little to go on until the woman spotted Thomas Bruce’s picture in the media.

Bruce is charged with 17 felonies, including first-degree murder, for the Nov. 19 attack at the Catholic Supply store near Ballwin. Prosecutors allege that Bruce tried to force three women in the store to perform sexual acts on him and that he killed a married mother of three when she refused.