Police say N.M. serial rapist 'Ether Man' arrested in Colo.
November 03, 2009 18:18 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A man arrested in Colorado is suspected of raping 11 women in New Mexico and Texas over a 15-year span and, more recently, trying to kill a Colorado police officer, authorities said.
Authorities in Albuquerque and Pueblo, Colo., are checking to see if Robert Howard Bruce, 47, of Pueblo, might have been involved in other unsolved crimes.
"It would not surprise me if there were other victims, but there is nothing that has come forth yet," Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said Monday.
Dubbed "Ether Man" in Albuquerque, Bruce was tied to the rapes in New Mexico's largest city dating to 1991 after his DNA matched one case. Walsh said police think Bruce may have committed crimes from 1991 to 2000 in Albuquerque and a 2006 rape in Austin, Texas. Bruce lived in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Raton from 1988 to 2003, Walsh said.
Bruce also is accused of attempting to blow up the home of a Pueblo police officer who was scheduled to testify against him in a peeping Tom case. Bruce appeared in a Pueblo courtroom Monday to be advised of the charges in that case - two counts of criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and one count of possession of an explosive devise.
District Attorney Bill Thiebaut said Bruce's next court date will be Nov. 16, when a preliminary hearing will likely be scheduled. Pueblo's case against Bruce will have to be resolved before he can be extradited to face charges in New Mexico.
A public defender who is representing Bruce did not immediately return calls for comment.
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