An elderly man with a violent criminal past is facing new charges after officials say he continued to torment a Sugar Land woman whose mother he murdered 50 years ago.
Thomas Shrader, 70, is facing federal charges of mailing threatening communications. He is in federal custody in California, with authorities expecting an extradition to Houston.
Recommended Videos
Shrader was convicted of fatally shooting the woman’s mother and her friend in West Virginia in 1975.
In the years following his conviction and since his release on parole in 1993, he constantly tracked the woman down, threatening her and her husband despite them making a conscious effort to hide their location.
He sent the elderly couple a new 38-page letter in 2024. The contents of the letter were twisted and threatening, and the woman was only able to get through 25 pages of it.
When authorities interviewed the woman and her husband in November 2024, the couple was visibly shaken. Her husband broke down into tears and his nose even bled at one point due to the stress of the situation.
The woman, who was sober, had also begun drinking every night due to insomnia caused by the situation.
In May of 2025, Shrader had been approved for placement a halfway house. However, FBI sources confirmed to KPRC 2 that he was detained by the Bureau of Prisons.
“[Shrader is] going to be ‘writted over’ to Houston to face the charges here and have his initial appearance, but that might be a month or more away -- the timeline is unclear,” the FBI source said.
Background on the case
In the 1970s, Shrader was dating a woman he had met while in high school in West Virginia, but his abusive behavior and controlling tendencies led to a toxic relationship.
In one instance when they were together, Shrader choked her and told her, “Wherever you go, I will find you and kill you.”
The woman ended her relationship with Shrader in 1975 after they had spent two years together.
In July of 1975, Shrader went to the woman’s home while she was with her mother and a family friend. After she refused to leave with him, he returned to the house with a rifle and shot the woman’s mother and a high school friend in front of her.
He attempted to kill the woman as well, but she ran away to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor was also wounded in the arm during the incident.
The woman’s friend died from the shooting, and her mother died 10 days later from gangrene related to her injuries.
Shrader later pled guilty to first-degree murder and sentenced to two concurrent life sentences for the killings. He escaped from prison a year later, and the woman and her sister were taken into protective custody until he was recaptured.
In the years following his conviction, Shrader continued to send the woman dozens of letters from inside prison walls. He also sent flowers to her home for Christmas and taunted her about killing her mother.
Even more shockingly, Shrader filed a frivolous lawsuit against the woman for failure to marry him.
The woman eventually married another man and moved to Texas in 1983, hoping to get away from her incarcerated ex. However, he was able to track her down through contacting her family, and he continued to contact her.
In October of 1993, Shrader was paroled. Following his release, he was able to use the internet to track the woman and her family to Sugar Land. Court records stated that he still carried an image of the woman from high school in his wallet, telling them she was “the love of his life.”
In 2008, Shrader obtained the woman’s home phone number and began calling her house. Shrader told the woman’s husband that she was “his god” and he would do anything for her.
After receiving no response from the woman, Shrader mailed a 32-page ultimatum to the woman’s home in October of 2009.
He demanded that she resume her relationship with him before he “initiated the next step.” The letter contained numerous threats, including that she was going to become “Scottie Peterson famous.”
In November of 2009, Shrader was arrested for sending the letter. When authorities went to his home, they found three guns.
In 2010, he was found guilty for two counts of stalking by use of interstate facility and sentenced to 235 months in prison.
While serving that sentence in California’s FCI Victorville, authorities say Shrader sent the woman a new letter in November of 2024.
The lengthy letter, which the woman was unable to finish due to the trauma associated with its content, included threatening messages, as well as cursing her husband and detailing his plans to live a life with the woman and adopt her children and grandchildren, referring to them as “our children.”
Shrader also blamed the woman for the murders, saying “Why should I apologize for something you orchestrated and caused?” and “Your selfishness caused the cost of four lives that day! [The friend’s], your mom, mine and our life of being together.”
