TN - BRUCE MENDENHALL convicted Truck Stop Killer

Does anyone remember in the forum section in the Cold Case files here, Dalles Mckinsey was writing a book about how when he was a child, he had witnessed his stepfather killing? Yet they never caught the step father since he kept changing locations and names.
Most likely this Bruce has been killing for decades also.
If i can find the cold case link i'll post it on here.


Just in case anyone was wondering the link is:

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33687&highlight=dalles+mckinsey
 
http://www.wlfi.com/Global/story.asp?S=8147181


Associated Press - April 10, 2008 11:34 AM ET

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indiana prosecutor says blood from 10 different victims was found inside the truck cab of suspected serial killer Bruce Mendenhall.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi (BRIH'-zee) says he has charged the 56-year-old Mendenhall of Albion, Illinois, with murder in the slaying last July of Carma Purpora of Indianapolis.

The 31-year-old woman's body has never been recovered. But Brizzi says DNA tests link some of the blood from Mendenhall's truck cab to the woman's parents. Investigators also found her cell phone, ATM card and clothing she wore on the day she disappeared.

<<more at link>>
 
How does an ugly *advertiser censored* like this lure women? Is no one else paying attention if it is done by force? These are important questions to consider so that we can warn women away from future disaster. Sadly, there are more like this one out there.
 
Posted Nov. '09
Suspected serial killer set for trial on solicitation charges | VIDEO

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/nov/15/suspected-serial-killer-set-for-trial-on-charges/




Photos posted Dec. '09
http://www.courierpress.com/photos/2009/dec/02/49911/




February '10
Bruce D. Mendenhall gets 30-year prison sentence

Suspected serial killer tried to hire hit man to kill witnesses


http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/feb/26/mendenhall-gets-30-year-prison-sentence/




Posted 6/2011
Attorney for suspected serial killer Mendenhall quits

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jun/14/no-headline---15a0xmendenhall/




Posted 8/2011
Suspected serial killer gets new lawyer, trial date

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/aug/02/no-headline---ev_mendenhall/



This site has several more links to articles written about convicted seriel killer Bruce Mendenhall and his travels through the justice system since his capture back in? '07
http://www.courierpress.com/news/topic/bruce-d-mendenhall/
 
October 2010

On Thursday, Metro police arrested 56-year-old Bruce Mendenhall of Albion, Ill., for the shooting death of Sara Hulbert. Her body was found at an East Nashville truck stop in late June.
Mendenhall returned to the same truck stop Thursday.
Hulbert's relatives Friday said Hulbert knew Symantha Winters, whose body was found at a Pilot travel center in Lebanon in June. Mendenhall is also a suspect in her death.


http://www.newschannel5.com/story/6788397/midstate-truck-stop-murder-victims-knew-each-other

another article about Hulbert and Winters
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/6709943/police-investigate-possible-i-40-serial-killer

Suspected Truck Stop Serial Killer Ran for Mayor in Illinois

July 14, 2007
Many people in this southern Illinois town thought Bruce Mendenhall was loud, hot-tempered and a little peculiar, but they were still stunned to hear police say he has confessed to killing six people.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289279,00.html
 
Officials in Wilson County, Tenn., have set a new trial date for suspected serial killer Bruce D. Mendenhall.

Mendenhall, 60, of Albion, Ill., is expected to stand trial Aug. 8 for the June 6, 2007, slaying of a Lebanon, Tenn., woman. A scheduled April 10 trial date was vacated last month.

The body of Symantha Winters, 48, was found stuffed into a trash can at a Pilot truck stop off Murfreesboro Road in Lebanon, Tenn., with trash piled on top of her.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/topic/bruce-d-mendenhall/

Archive of articles at the Courier Press
http://www.courierpress.com/news/topic/bruce-d-mendenhall/
 
I have family in Albion and I believe that this guy actually ran for mayor of the town in what would have been his active period but was defeated. Luckily, he did not gain the title "His Honor".
 
I have family in Albion and I believe that this guy actually ran for mayor of the town in what would have been his active period but was defeated. Luckily, he did not gain the title "His Honor".

I am from Albion originally. He did run for mayor when I was in high school, around 1994 or 1995, I think. No one really took him seriously, and he didn't come close to winning. The media likes to make it sound like we almost elected a serial killer, but it wasn't like that.

I don't know if he was killing at that time or not. The murders he has been charged with are much more recent, but who knows how long he's been active.
 
I am new here, but for personal reasons, have been researching some similar cold cases along Interstate highways. Back in 1989, along I-65 a friend of mine was killed by a serial killer. They have never caught him. They have definitely connected him to 4 instances, but one of those victims survived. Based on the presumed age of the killer, I have looked back to 1965-71 for possible early cases with the same general attributes. I found at least 14 murders of young women who were near an Interstate in the Midwest. The general facts were stabbed or shot (two modes know to be used by the I-65 Serial killer); raped; left in a secluded area near tracks or a fence or a ditch. The trail seems to start in Milwaukee, WI in 1971. Terri Erdmann went to James Madison University HS in 1971. That would have been about the time the I-65 killer may have graduated from HS. Other assaults had taken place at the location she was found (training?). Then the other possibles are: Tina Davidson in 1973 Racine, WI; Vickie McDonough in 1974 St. Joseph Co., IN; Nancy Radbill 1979 Milwaukee, WI; Juanita Boyd 1981 LaPorte Co., IN; Donna Mraz 1982 Madison, WI; Jeannette Banek 1983 Weston, WI; Vickie Heath 1987 Elizabethtown, KY (definitely I-65 Killer); Mary Gill 1989 Merrillville, IN (definitely I-65 Killer); Jeanne Gilbert 1989 Remington, IN (definitely I-65 Killer); Unknown (survived) 1990 Columbus, IN (definitely I-65 Killer); Holly Anderson 1992 Perrysville, IN; Carol Reynolds 1992 Warren Co., KY; Tammy Zywicki 1992, LaSalle Co, IL. The theory was that the I-65 Killer was a trucker and the killings were on his route. The composite sketch from the unknown survivor is the only real clue to his identity. The above names not definitely connected to the I-65 Killer may not be correct, but what if they are? Could the killer have gone to HS in Milwaukee? Could the man, described as male, white, 6 foot tall, brown hair, green eyes, with a right lazy eye be a classmate? I've gone as far as I can with this. I would really like to find this creep so he can pay for what he did to my friend and her whole family as they dealt with what happened.
 
What a creep. I hope all 10 DNA profiles of the blood found within his truck can be matched, sooner rather than later, so justice can be served and so the victim's families may finally have closure.
 
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Does anyone know when he got his CDL/started trucking? I don’t believe for a second that his first kill was in the 2000s.
 

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