KIRKWOOD • The stolen handgun Charles “Cookie” Thornton used in the Kirkwood City Hall shootings was among eight firearms taken in a 1994 burglary in Franklin County, according to county sheriff’s reports made public Thursday.

The burglar broke out a window at a home in Robertsville and stole two VCRs, two boom boxes, three pistols, four rifles and a 12-gauge shotgun, the reports said.

All three pistols — including the Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum revolver that Thornton used — have now been recovered and tracked through their serial numbers, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said.

A .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol was recovered in 1996 by St. Louis police, according to the reports, but no further information was available on it.

A .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol was recovered in 1998 in Maryland Heights by officers answering a suspicious-person call. Police Maj. Mike Kozuszek said officers encountered a man who let them search his nearby apartment, where they found the stolen .22. The suspect in that case was not Thornton.

Police and family members said they have no idea where Thornton got the revolver that he used, along with a pistol taken from a fallen police officer, to commit the five killings Feb. 7.