The Depraved Crimes Of The Truck Stop Killer

[Music] a security guard is patrolling a truck stops of america stop on north first avenue just off of interstate 24 as per usual [Music] as this truck stop in nashville is incredibly busy and borders on an area that has a high crime rate security guards regularly patrol the area and it is also overseen by a network of cctv cameras as he continues walking he soon makes a horrifying discovery the body of a woman is found she has been shot dead and posed on her back with her feet together and legs apart with her arms above her head he quickly calls emergency services little did the police know this would put them in a race against time to find a sadistic serial killer before he struck again [Music] twenty-five-year-old sarah hulbert had had a difficult life after losing her mother at a young age she was sent to live with relatives out of state she would later move back to tennessee to be closer to her siblings after falling in love she would go on to have two daughters who were the center of her world the happiness was not to last however she would soon spiral into a drug addiction after her relationship had fallen apart and she had become a single mother as a result she had tried to beat her crack cocaine addiction for the sake of her two young children as she continued to fall deeper into drug addiction her daughters were removed from her care in bids to get clean she would be in and out of rehab several times but without her children she spiraled further into the destructive addiction that had taken so much from her she had become a sex worker to buy drugs and would often visit truck stops to make money detective sergeant pat posterlioni arrived on scene at the truck stop one thing that immediately stood out to him was the lack of blood at the scene this indicated the victim had been killed elsewhere and then her body had been moved to that location and posed in the lewd position due to the positioning of the body and lack of evidence from the scene of the crime it was the worst fears of officers that this was not a first-time killing this was someone who were killed before the task that lay before the officers was huge this was an incredibly busy truck stop with truckers and people coming and going all the time but one thing they knew was that her body had been dumped there within the previous 30 minutes the security guard who had made the discovery said she wasn't there when he last checked half an hour ago as officers found out and began conducting a search of the scene near the body they found a footprint with an unusual soul that was often seen in work boots it was vital for the officers to check the cctv and it was this that would give them a major lead a yellow truck is seen coming in and driving all the way to the back of the truck stop where the body of the woman had been discovered by the security guard 16 minutes later the truck is seen coming back out checks from the stop revealed no evidence to show that the truck could stop to refill or buy food [Music] as the investigations of the crime scene continued a post-mortem was carried out on the victim her body was found to have bruises and cuts indicating the struggle had taken place her body also showed signs of torture her rear had a significant injury suggesting part of her skin had been cut out with a knife semen found inside her body was sent off to have the dna analyzed it was revealed that she had died from a single close-range gunshot wound from a 22-caliber gun running her fingerprints through the database it came back with a match and they could finally put a name to their victim she was 25 year old sarah hulbert [Music] her family were immediately contacted they went straight to the coroner's office in disbelief hoping that maybe it wasn't her a few months prior to her death she had made the decision to finally overcome her demons and was in recovery after another rehab stint but sadly she would later relapse and begin using again near to where her body had been discovered there was a hole in the fence where drug dealers and sex workers would enter and exit the truck stop to avoid being seen by the security guards her sisters mentioned to the police that she had two known male associates who were also in the drug scene and police believe they were with her the night she had been murdered the men were soon tracked down and questioned as they were involved in the drug scene they were reluctant to talk to the investigators however when the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in began to dawn on them they admitted to being her pimps they were adamant they had absolutely nothing to do with her murder they had been driving around with sarah at about 10 pm on june 26th and an argument had broken out they said she exited the vehicle and went into the truck stop sarah hulbert never returned after waiting a few hours and she still hadn't come back they assumed she must have left with a trucker and so they too decided to leave they agreed to give dna samples to clear their names when the results came in the semen sample taken earlier did not match either of their dna they were ruled out as suspects the dna sample did not match with any sample from the sex offender database the police then turned to the fbi for help to see if they had any cases on their nationwide database that matched the modus operandi of this one that had been committed in a different jurisdiction and this would lead to the news that could blow the case wide open there had been a previous murder of a woman in lebanon tennessee on june 6 2007 just off of interstate 40 the naked body of a woman was found in a garbage bin in a pilot station truck stop on murfreesboro road she was later identified as 48 year old samantha winters she was a sex worker and had worked at the same truck stop where sarah had been found police believe that she had been picked up at the nashville truck stop murdered and then her body taken out to lebanon her body had been posed and she had been killed by a 22 caliber gun but the horrifying information did not stop there the database had two more matches in different states with these murders taking place before sarah hulbert had been killed [Music] one of these victims had been a woman called sherry drinkard who was 43 years old her naked body had been dumped and then posed just like the other victims in lake station indiana by the side of the road and she too had died from a gunshot wound to the head fired from a 22 caliber weapon the other victim was found in a motel car park in georgia on the 29th of january 2007 at 5 pm like the other victims she had died from a gunshot wound from a 22 caliber gun they ran the fingerprints through the database to try and work out who she was it was revealed that she was a mother of five from atlanta deborah anne glover she had spoken to her eldest child just a few hours before her death and asked her to tell her siblings that she had always and would always love them she also told her not to call the number back when she still hadn't contacted them her daughter became increasingly concerned for her welfare deborah ann had been battling a drug addiction and working as a sex worker in november 2006 her daughter tried to help her beat her addiction and in december she had began to make big steps on the road to recovery but she would soon disappear although deborah anne had not been found in a truck stop it was an area that was regularly used by truckers the police now had four female victims spanning across different states all sex workers all posed in a degrading position all dead from a 22 caliber gun detective sergeant pat poster leone knew it was vital to revisit the nashville truck stop to make sure that absolutely no stone had been left unturned as he was driving he saw a truck headed towards him bearing a striking resemblance to the one seen on the cctv footage taken from the night sarah hulbert had been murdered postilloni turned around and followed the truck after calling his colleagues to tell them what he had seen and give them a description of the vehicle he approached the truck after it pulled into the truck stop but got no response after banging on the door after banging for a second time a man pulled the window curtain back and looked down at him postelioni explained that he was with the police and following this the driver opened the door and exited the truck postleoni would later say the driver appeared as if he had just been woken up he was asked to present his driver's license and identify himself and finally they had a name bruce douglas mendenhall pocileoni engaged him in conversation asking how long he had worked as a trucker and when the truck had last been in the area mendenhall said that the truck was last in nashville in may as the pair were talking poster leone spotted something there was blood on mendenhall's left arm and on the inside of the driver's side door so as not to arouse suspicion posted he only told mendenhall that officers were asking drivers of this kind of truck to provide dna samples mendenhall signed the consent form and provided a mouth swab then and there posterly only asked him if he could look inside the truck mendenhall agreed behind the seats was a sleeping compartment where poster leone found a pair of work boots the soul bore a striking resemblance to the unusual footprints that had been found by sarah's body behind the driver's seat was a black trash bag containing clothes shoes and tissues all soaked in blood mendenhall explained that when he had been trying to enter the truck a few hours prior he had accidentally cut his leg and that was where the blood had come from he was asked to show the cuts but there was none mendenhall's story suddenly changed he said the blood actually belonged to a sex worker he had picked up the night before and she had cut her hand posted he only knew it was vital to ensure that mendenhall did not have access to any weapons mendenhall explained that he did have a gun in the truck and handed it over to poster leone it was a 22 caliber rifle postedly only knew the game was up and bluntly asked him if this was the truck the police had been looking for he asked several times before mendenhall shrugged his shoulders and said if you say it is posted he only asked him if he was the person they had been searching for mendenhall gave the same response he shrugged his shoulders and replied if you say so [Music] by this point pocileoni's partner had arrived on scene and after he was escorted out of the truck bruce mendenhall was arrested it was vital to secure the truck and preserve any evidence so it was sent to a crime lab to be processed over 300 items from his truck were catalogued as evidence including handcuffs knives tape and sex toys blood spatter was found on the walls mattress floor and ceiling the news that came next was more disturbing than anyone could have imagined it emerged that the blood belonged to seven different women the bloody clothing found in the bag belonged to a sex worker from indiana her family had not yet realized she had gone missing [Music] the bullet that had killed sarah hulbert had been fired from the gun found in his truck and the blood on the gun came back to her and at least one of the woman mendenhall signed a rights waiver and said he would voluntarily give them a statement without the presence of a lawyer but who exactly was bruce mendenhall he had been born on april 14 1951 in crawford illinois as an adult he had lived on pine street close to downtown albion a neighbor from pine street would later say that visitors wouldn't often come to the mendenhall household adding he was a little different in 1997 he had ran in the mayoral elections but incumbent reverend bill rucker had won in a landslide mendenhall had come in last place when looking into mendenhall's background the police discovered a man with no record of violence and he had not had any run-ins with the law on the face of it he appeared to be a typical family man married with two grown-up daughters jimmy nesbitch reported for the courier press the mendenhall had later moved into a small home in the country surrounded by farms this house would later be searched by police to try and help build a picture of who he was and add to their evidence one of his neighbours recalled that mendenhall and his wife had shown up on her driveway his wife asking her if she wanted to purchase anything from a catalogue mendenhall stayed in the vehicle the neighbor said he just sat in the car and had a weird look on his face the report in the courier press also said he would often ignore his neighbors if they tried to interact with him the mayor of alby and ryan hallam would say he hadn't really had any run-ins with the law everybody thought he was a little mouthy and so forth like that anything off-kilter no not too much the minister from the church close to the mendon hall's home said that after he was arrested his family was struggling to come to terms with the news the news of his arrest was the talk of the town mayor hallam said we've got 2 000 people the news spreads like wildfire people in albion could not believe that one of their own was capable of such horrific crimes everyone's in disbelief that we had an individual living here like this he didn't mix well with others around him but we never had any problems with him said mayor hallam it was now time for the police to interview their suspect in the process of interviewing bruce d mendenhall m-a-n-d-e-n-h-a-l-l but before they knew it he made a shocking admission he said that he had dumped the bodies but he hadn't killed any of them he explained that two men richie and david were the real murderers they were looking for he said they would go to every truck stop he went to and by the time they left there would be a dead body in his truck he would later say that a third person named terry was also involved i went into the ta got me something come back out and this way sprawled out in the back shoe problem not ours he said they would leave him to clean up he told the officers they would always use his gun to kill the women and then leave their bodies in his vehicle her head was only pointed towards the driver's side when talking about sarah hulbert he said that he had gone into the truck stop and when he came out he found her dead body in his truck he said that in a moment of panic he took her body out of the truck and left her on the ground in the far corner of the [Music] dumped your stop there in behind the truck trailers right out in plain view so they showing up at these truck stops and when they show up people die what we're trying to determine is whether you're trying to put the blame somewhere he told poster leone i'm pissed off at richie and david because they did all the killings officers did look into his claims and found that the three men in question did actually exist they were all interviewed and their fingerprints and dna samples were taken it turned out he had had altercations with all of these men over minor things he then offered up another shocking confession the latest murder had actually taken place the day before in indiana what do they do with the body the blood that's in your truck right now in that bag where did that come from [Music] they then presented him with the evidence that they had gathered from the truck they they killed about seven women in in your presence or close to a time when you were there despite his claims there was only one set of prints on the gun bruce mendenhall's there was also no evidence to prove that any of those men had been in the back of the truck when mendenhall was asked if he was the killer he refused to talk anymore and requested a lawyer the police assisted by the fbi worked in collaboration with investigators from the other jurisdictions where the murders had occurred using fuel receipts they constructed a timeline of his movements and were able to place him in the locations the victim's bodies had been found but what could the motive possibly have been post leonie would later say in a documentary he thought that it was potentially his hatred of sex workers that would be at the truck stops and his desire to degrade them post-mortem with the lewd posing of their bodies mendenhall's daughter disagreed and would say he never had a negative thing to say about anyone who chose that lifestyle there's people like that that will do that everybody knows that dad he didn't really pay attention to it he was charged with criminal homicide and taken to the metro davison county jail where he was held without bond following this it was time for bruce mendenhall to go on trial for the murder of sarah hulbert his attorney jason gitzner said that he had entered a plea of not guilty by video arraignment the prosecution's case rested heavily on the plethora of physical evidence that had been gathered prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty as there were no aggravating circumstances that are required in the state of tennessee and then i asked him i said are you the person we've been looking for and he just looked at me and he shrugged his shoulders and then his response was if you say so they also ensured that the jury were reminded of sarah and who she was they wanted to emphasize that she was a real person with children and a family who cared deeply for her she was not just another piece of the evidence after closing arguments the jury retired to consider the evidence and before long they had reached their verdict bruce mendenhall was found guilty of the first degree murder of sarah hulbert in tennessee a first-degree murder conviction and subsequent life sentence is interpreted to mean 60 years in prison a shocking story would soon be reported whilst in prison his wife had passed away from natural causes following her death mendenhall received the insurance money he used this money to offer fifteen thousand dollars to two inmates to kill the three men he had tried to blame for the murders one of the murders was due to be staged as a copycat to mislead the police into thinking the real murderer was still out there but it didn't stop there he had allegedly tried to have two investigators pat poster leone and lee freeman murdered post leone would later remark that in his career spanning more than three decades he had never known of someone trying to have him murdered he said when you are putting people away in prison potentially for the rest of their lives i guess she could possibly become a target for those reasons so we take it very serious in 2010 he went on trial for these offences the court heard from the two inmates he had tried to pay to commit the murders one of them was in prison for explosives charges and was asked by prosecutor rachel sobrero what were his words to the best of your recollection he replied how much c4 would it take to blow up a trailer they also heard from the other inmates who were serving 10 years on burglary charges he was belligerent about those two officers he wanted those two officers dead that's point blank what he said at around 2 30 pm the jury retired to deliberate and less than four hours later they had reached a verdict he was found not guilty of the allegations relating to wanting to have the two officers killed when it came to the plot to have the three other men killed he was convicted davidson county criminal court judge steve dozier sentenced him to 30 years in prison 10 years for each count that would be served consecutively he was also charged with the murder of samantha winters on the 2nd of august 2007 mendenhall waived his right to a preliminary hearing and a few weeks later on the 17th bruce mendenhall was indicted by a wilson county grand jury for the murder of samantha winters prior to standing trial in this case mendenhall filed an appeal against his conviction for the murder of sarah hulbert he argued that his legal counsel had been ineffective he said there were seven possible suspects and that his lawyers could have shown evidence to demonstrate this however it was noted that he had failed to give said list to the court his appeal also said he wanted further dna testing to be carried out the tennessee criminal court of appeals rejected this since his appeal had been rejected the trial for samantha's case could now go forward his lawyer said if you look at the crime in lebanon under the truck stop murders it's really not the sign of a serial killer they got a lot of blood evidence they've got pages of blood evidence but none of it is from samantha winters it's from sarah hulbert but the prosecution fired back saying i don't care what kind of person samantha winters was what kind of life she led she didn't deserve this when all the evidence had been presented the jury would deliberate for less than two hours before they returned a verdict of guilty for abuse of a corpse and first degree murder he again was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 it was reported he had been linked to yet another killing twenty-eight-year-old leticia ivonne milliken had gone missing from nashville she was living in a makeshift camp off of hermitage avenue amongst other homeless people she had also been a sex worker postilioni had worked with her family to try and find her her family hadn't heard from her for the last couple of months and on the 26th of june 2007 a missing persons report was filed the same day sarah hulbert's body had been found the police had been given an item that contained leticia's dna to compare with some of the blood found in mendenhall's truck it came back as a match several families are still waiting for convicted truck stop serial killer bruce mendenhall to stand trial it's been eight years since a jury convicted him in nashville but he's charged in three other cases he's also a suspect in the murders of a half dozen other women including leticia milliken whose body has never been found as newschannel 5's mark bellinger reports her family is frustrated with the weight this is maybe four years before she passed away and jessica donahue carries the memories of her sister in a very simple photo album i think my sister is worthy of justice and i think she needs it then her kids need it her sister leticia milliken disappeared in march 2007 three months later a security guard found a body at a nashville truck stop donahue and her mother tammy northcutt went there thinking the very worst so i mean i hit the concrete in south america parking lot you know news is flying helicopters and i really thought it was my child but it was not milliken it was sarah holbert a jury convicted bruce mendenhall of the murder they have families that was my biggest sister i've looked up to her i grew up with her and she has kids and it's horrible to have to look at her son's face and not be able to tell him i don't know where she's at i don't know exactly how she died northcutt and adan donahue fear they may never get their day in court if anything comes out of this i want him to see a picture of my sister and know hear her name out loud and let him know that my family knows what he did and i hope his her face haunts him every night while he's resting with tennessee's finest karma purpura was a 32 year old mother to two children and was known to visit truck stops regularly she had last been seen in the south side of indianapolis interstate 465 at a flying j truck stop sergeant matt mount of the mpd said they've taken dna from both parents to try and match with the dna from the blood on the clothing that was found inside the truck down in tennessee the dna tests came back as a match the police also found the clothes she had been wearing that day her phone and her bank card on the 10th of april 2008 mendenhall was charged with the murder of karma papura even though her body hadn't been found helen marshall the deputy prosecutor for marion county said it definitely makes it much more difficult to proceed we are working very hard to be able to file the case against him here august 15 2011 at the eight-mile marker of the louis b nunn parkway in kentucky human remains were found the medical examiner's office used dna to identify the person it came back as being the remains of karma papura mendenhall is about to stand trial again yes for another victim i've learned the now 70 year old was just transferred from the state prison in only tennessee to the marion county jail in indianapolis he will now be prosecuted for the 2007 murder of one karma j papura she is one of as many as nine victims allegedly killed by the former long-haul trucker from albion illinois the body of the 32 year old mother of two was found back in 2011 and dna has linked mendenhall to her murder to this day authorities do continue to look at him in connection rebecca with so many other unexplained or unsolved murders and nick you've even come to know mendenhall over the years yes unfortunately i have he's written me several times from prison always denying that he is a serial killer but in his latest letter he did talk to me about the papura case and how he was surprised to find that they had located her body bruce mendenhall is a remorseless killer who is serving life for two murders in tennessee but the serial killer's case file never really closes why because dna continues to link mendenhall to more victims in birmingham alabama mendenhall was charged with the murder of lucille carter known as gretna she had been found in a bin a bag was covering her head and face and there was tape wrapped around her neck she had also been left naked and like the other women she had died from a bullet fired from a 22 caliber gun investigators now believe that mendenhall may be responsible for at least nine murders with other potential cases in georgia alabama and illinois indianapolis deputy police chief scott robinette said it would not be too far of a stretch to say there's probably women who are missing and may have been subject to his hands yet we have not found those victims [Music] the brutal and depraved crimes of bruce mendenhall have left families and communities in tatters his crimes are impossible to comprehend with no motive and the full extent of them may never be fully known many are holding on to the hope that they will one day have the answers they desperately need and that their loved ones will see justice be served [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 30min 32sec (1832 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2022