Could Be as Many as 100 Victims

T.J. Wilham

Nov. 8, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Robert Howard Bruce was "a good father," an ambitious entrepreneur who made an honest living and a neighbor who would do anything for you.

But, at night, police say, he searched out young, sleeping women, slipped a chemical-soaked rag over their faces and raped them. In all, the "Ether Man" allegedly raped at least 12 women in New Mexico and Texas going back to 1991.

Investigators say there may be as many as 100 more victims, including some overseas.

Bruce, who had moved to Pueblo, Colo., from Albuquerque several years ago, was arrested in connection with the Ether Man rapes last week when DNA linked him to seven of the sexual assaults.

At the time of his arrest, Bruce was in jail awaiting trial on charges that he allegedly tried to blow up a Pueblo police officer's home. That officer was scheduled to testify against Bruce in an upcoming peeping Tom case.

"He was a good dad to my kids, and we were totally unaware of this double life he led," said Rosemarie Navarro-Bruce, who was married to Bruce for a decade.

She did report one instance of domestic violence in which he assaulted and threatened her. Rosemarie moved to Colorado shortly after the two divorced in 2000 because something "was not right."

But she said she saw no signs that her husband was a sexual predator.

The couple had three children together and lived in a quiet neighborhood on 11th Street in Rio Rancho for a decade. At the time they were married, Bruce was earning at least $40,000 a year as a facilities technician in the environmental health and safety department at Intel. (NASDAQ:INTC) He left that job to work for a contractor, who assigned him back to Intel.

Bruce was charming, smart and articulate, police said.

They also say Bruce learned about chemicals while working at Intel.

"He was just a regular guy," said David Kenney, who worked with Bruce several years at Intel. "He seemed to be successful. His job was to make sure that we were performing to EPA requirements by not releasing things we shouldn't be releasing into the environment."

Something not right

Although her husband was a good father, Rosemarie said something wasn't right.

In 1997, the two got into an argument that led to Bruce's arrest. Rosemarie said she was upset because her husband was never home.

His excuses, she told police, were always that he had business trips or that he was taking classes stemming from a DWI conviction. Bruce told his wife the night he was arrested on the domestic violence charge that he "wanted to go in tonight and finish a work project."

An argument ensued, and, according to police reports, Bruce went to a closet, got a rif le and ammunition and threatened to kill himself and his wife. He then grabbed her by the hair, pushed her against the bed and threw a cordless phone at the wall, according to police reports. He put the rifle away and left the house.

Bruce ultimately pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges and was sentenced to six months' supervised probation.

Two years later, Rosemarie filed for divorce.

"He was a very successful man. He was working his way up. When you live a double life like that, it starts catching up," she said. "When I divorced him in 2000, I had no idea what he had done. I just knew something was not right and left (him)."

Bruce left Intel, followed his ex-wife to Pueblo to be close to his children, and married another woman, who continued to live in Albuquerque.

Bruce once again found a home in a quiet suburban neighborhood. He worked for several different software companies that sent him around the world. When police confiscated his passport, nearly every page had been stamped.

Most recently, Bruce worked for a company selling tortilla warmers. He worked out of a small office in Pueblo and had appeared on television shopping networks selling the warmers.

"He had ambition," said a woman who worked in the office with Bruce in Pueblo. "He was confident and talked about how he was going to get these warmers in the major department stores.

"We can't imagine that this went on for so long. We were all so clueless. He seemed like a family man who was juggling two families in two cities."

Bruce's new wife in Albuquerque wasn't clueless.

In fact, she played a key role in helping police identify him as the Ether Man.

Attempted bombing

Bruce's name immediately came up as a suspect in the attempted bombing of the home of Pueblo police officer Nathan Pruce this October.

Pruce had arrested Bruce in July 2007 after police were called by a woman who reported seeing a peeping Tom outside her home. The officer found a chair butted up against the woman's window and arrested Bruce after a brief chase.

The day he was supposed to appear in court to testify against Bruce, Pruce found a propane tank hooked up to his garage. Bruce did not show up for the trial, immediately making him a suspect in the attempted bombing.

Pueblo police detective Mark Bravo traveled to Albuquerque shortly afterward to find out more about Bruce. When he met with Bruce's wife, she gave the detective a possible motive in the bomb attempt: She thought a sketch that had appeared in a Journal story published in September about the Ether Man could be of her husband.

She also told Bravo that she had previously seen a ski mask, gloves, a knife and a list of women's names that were highlighted and had red stars in his car.

"At first, she thought he was cheating on her," Bravo said. "When she confronted him about the newspaper story about the Ether Man, he blew it off and told her that people are sick."

Based on that interview, Bravo contacted the FBI, which put him in contact with Albuquerque police detective Rich Lewis.

L ew is, who had been searching for Ether Man, had obtained DNA samples from several men without any luck.

But when investigators compared Bruce's DNA to samples collected from the Ether Man rapes, police had a match.

Lewis went to Pueblo to interview Bruce while he was in custody in Pueblo. The conversation was short by police standards: 45 minutes.

Bruce eventually requested an attorney. While the two talked, Bruce inquired about who would get the royalties to a book deal, police said.

He showed police he was smart, confident and a good salesman.

Bruce had spent three semesters at UNM and at least five semesters at TVI. Police say he started raping women shortly after college.

His current wife told police that a neighbor had told Bruce his DNA would be collected if convicted of the peeping Tom case. The neighbor was mistaken, but police say it frightened Bruce into thinking he would be linked to the Ether Man rapes -- and that's why he tried to kill the Pueblo police officer.

In the end, his DNA was collected to tie him to the bombing.

Shocking revelation

Benjamin Trujillo said he had no clue who Bruce really was.

Trujillo lived next to Bruce in Pueblo and considered him his best friend. The two went drinking together and watched football. Bruce helped him build a shed.

"Anytime you would ask him to do something, he would be right there for you," Trujillo said. "When I heard this, I was shocked. I wanted to cry. He was a good friend of mine, but I was left in the dark like everybody else."

Trujillo never noticed anything odd about his friend.

The only thing that seemed out of place was Bruce's relationship with a convicted rapist.

Bruce was close with Loren Chavez, who owned a nightclub in Pueblo. Over time, Bruce and Chavez became friends.

Chavez was convicted of rape and kidnapping in 2007 for an incident in 2004 in which he took a 19-year-old woman from a bar to his house and had sex with her. Police say Chavez drugged the woman.

"Loren had gone to his house a couple of times, and the two partied," Trujillo said.

Because Bruce traveled around the world, police are now attempting to trace every place he has been. They have collected bank records, airline tickets, credit card receipts and his passport.

Once they develop a timeline, detectives plan to contact every jurisdiction he has been in to see if there were any sexual assaults that could be linked to Bruce.

Police have already fielded calls from agencies across the country wondering if Bruce is connected to their rapes.

"There are so many potential victims out there," Bravo said. "Only he knows how many."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0010-39549841