Court Documents: Police Didn't Notify Public Of Serial Rapist In Norman

Norman police may have known they had a serial rapist in their community long before Robert Bruce confessed to raping eight OU students. That's according to court documents filed since Bruce was charged.

Monday, February 20th 2012, 11:47 pm



Norman police may have known they had a serial rapist in their community long before Robert Bruce confessed to raping eight OU students. That's according to court documents filed since Bruce was charged.

2/15/2012 Related Story: DNA Links Colorado Inmate To Oklahoma Assaults

According to court documents, it seems detectives had a pretty good idea they were dealing with a serial rapist back in 2005. But the public was never notified until Bruce confessed to the crimes last month.

Police now say Bruce is responsible for stalking and raping OU college students over a 21-year period.

Retired Detective Allen Dupuis worked the first case back in 1985.

"I remember handcuffs, I remember the intense pain of the victim emotionally, psychologically," he recalled.

Dupuis said the case was one of those you can never let go.

"You would see hand cuffs on a mirror and think does that match the suspect," Dupuis said.

But it wasn't the handcuffs that would tip detectives off. Instead, it was a specific method the suspect would use of heating a window up with a torch before breaking it called "heat and punch."

In the November 2005 case, Detective Parks says "the unique method of entry had been used in similar incidents (to include sexual assaults)."

The public, however, was never notified a serial rapist may be on the loose.

"What you try to do is give out as much information without putting people in a panic mode," Dupuis said.

Dupuis never worked on the other cases, and is now a counselor. He said there is a fine line between the public's right to know, and stopping and catching the criminal.

"How do you get the communities' help involved in an investigation without sharing too much information that's going to alert your suspect to destroy evidence, change their method of operation as an example?" Dupuis said.

After that 2005 case, Bruce broke into two other Norman homes but was unsuccessful in raping anyone.

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