Feb. 23, 2026

50 Shades of Evil: Tennessee

50 Shades of Evil: Tennessee
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Season 9
“Bruce Mendenhall” also known as the “Truck Stop Killer” left a trail of terror throughout the state of Tennessee as well as at least 5 other states in the mid 2000’s while targeting truck stop sex workers in the course of his job as a long haul truck driver.
In 2007 Mendenhall was arrested at a truck stop by legendary Nashville homicide detective Pat Postiglione, likely in the act of targeting another victim. This arrest would lead to a confession of six murders although Mendenhall is suspected in many more throughout the United States.

“50 Shades of Evil” is a podcast series brought to you by “Bloody Angola Podcast”.

Chapters
05:43 The Case of Symantha Winters
07:22 The Murder of Sarah Nicole Holburt
09:19 Detective Pat Postiglione's Investigation
15:55 The Arrest of Bruce Mendenhall
19:28 The Interrogation Begins
24:28 Discovering More Victims
27:32 Timeline of Convictions
31:43 Trials and Sentencing
35:06 Current Status of Bruce Mendenhall
35:31 Suspected Cold Cases
46:28 The Ongoing Investigation

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WEBVTT

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M M.

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A wall street line shackle change, Oh do someome gird

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it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's

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been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three.

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Come here.

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By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild,

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and went theirs.

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I Hey, everyone, welcome back to Bloody Angola. I'm your host,

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Jim Chapman, and today I am bringing you another fifty

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Shades of Evil episode, and we're going to go to Tennessee.

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And I want you to imagine a long haul trucker Chris,

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crossing the interstate highways, blending in to the anonymous flow

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of commerce. And he travels. He looks ordinary, He does

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not stand out, just blends in. But beneath that ordinary

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facade hides a predator with a chilling trail of bodies

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stretching across multiple states and multiple murders at truck stops

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and rest areas. Now I'm talking about Bruce Mendenhall, the

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infamous truck stop killer. This is a man who turned

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parking lots into graveyards and confessed to a string of

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brutal murders that shocked an entire country. Now he was

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arrested in two thousand and seven and a Nashville truck

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stop with blood still fresh in his cab. And his

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crimes targeted vulnerable women, sex workers, hitchhikers, and others that

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he encountered on his trucking routes. Eventually, he was convicted

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of multiple crimes in Tennessee and Indiana, and he was

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suspected in even more crimes across Alabama, Georgia, and beyond.

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He is widely considered the most dangerous inmate in Tennessee.

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And today I'm going to cover all of those crimes,

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his conviction, his sentence, and his incarceration. So let's get

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into it now. Bruce Mennenhall was born on April fourteenth

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of nineteen fifty one. This is in Crawford County, Illinois.

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That's a rural part of Illinois. Nothing fancy there. He

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grew up. He served in the United States Marines during

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the Vietnam War era. Now, after the military, he settled

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into seemingly a normal wife. He married a woman named Linda,

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and incidentally, Linda was a diabetic that would cause her

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to go blind later on in their marriage, and together

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they would have three kids. They would have two daughters

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and a son, and he worked as a long haul

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truck driver out of Alboyne, Illinois. He would haul loads

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across the country, and on the surface, he just seemed

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to be another blue collar guy grinding it out on

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the interstate right, getting things from to point b The

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family lived in a modest home in Illinois, and Bruce

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was not someone you would meet and say, hey, that

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guy has a great personality. He just lacked really any

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personality according to those who knew them. He was kind

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of mouthy, not a very friendly guy, but not overtly

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rude according to his neighbors, which long haul truck driving

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probably the perfect job for him considering his personality. He

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didn't have to be around a whole lot of other people.

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It was just him in the road. Now, it is

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interesting to note that despite this lack of personality that

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Mendenhall had, in nineteen ninety seven actually ran for mayor

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of Alboy in Illinois. But if you're going to step

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into politics, you better have some sort of personality, and

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he lost in an absolute landslide against the incumbent. So

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let's talk about his job quickly. Being a long haul

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truck driver, you're all over the United States five hundred miles,

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thousand miles, even three thousand mile trips across country are common,

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and you're never in one area for long. This type

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of job would serve Bruce menden Hall well, it would

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give him the perfect cover, endless miles of highway, anonymous

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truck stops, and encounters with what you would say were

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typically vulnerable people, people that were struggling in life. So

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I'm going to take you to June sixth of two

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thousand and seven, and I'm going to tell you about

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Samantha Winters. Now, Samantha was forty eight years old. She

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was from Nashville, Tennessee. In her forty eight years, she

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had a very tough life. She was no stranger to

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law enforcement, having a very lengthy criminal record, mostly for

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prostitution and drug related charges, and she was a transient figure.

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She would turn tricks often at truck stops in Nashville

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and the surrounding areas. On June six of two thousand

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and seven, workers at a pilot truck stop in Lebanon, Tennessee,

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they make an absolutely shocking discovery when inside of a

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trash ben literally thrown away like a piece of trash,

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was the body of Samantha Winters. Police in the corner

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were called in. An autopsy was performed, and it showed

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that Samantha was killed via a twenty two caliber gunshot

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to the head. Now, as horrific of a murder as

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this was, it didn't create the outrage that you would

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think it would create. Now, had this been a soccer

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mom with three kids and a husband, you might have

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seen a lot more outrage. If this was a transient

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it was someone that lived that life right. They were

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in a high risk lifestyle, and it made the news,

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But it wasn't like national news that this lady was killed.

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But police were investigating, and it wouldn't be long before

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another murder would shock the Nashville community. And that brings

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us to Sarah Nicole Holbert. Now, Sarah was twenty five

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years old, and much like Samantha Winters, she had her struggles.

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She had lost her mom at a relatively young age.

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She was shuffled from family member to family member. By

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the time she reached adulthood, she had two daughters and

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had spiraled into a crack cocaine addiction. After a failed relationship,

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her children would be removed from her care and that

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would cause her to just enter this dark world as

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a sex worker, and she would frequent those truck stops

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in the Nashville area when her life would come to

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a tragic end. So on June twenty fifth of two

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thousand and seven, a security guard was making his rounds.

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This is at the TA truck stop in Nashville, and

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he sees the body of a woman. She had been

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shot three times in the head with what an autopsy

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would determine later was a twenty two caliber firearm and

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she was posed by whoever killed her. She was on

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her back, she was completely nude. Her feet were together,

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but her legs were apart, Her arms were positioned over

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her head, and she had her genitals exposed. She also

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had a tattoo on her buttocks, and this was of

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a like lips if you will, It had been completely

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cut off. Nashville police, of course, would be called in

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a legendary homicide detective from the Nashville area would be

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assigned to that case. His name was Pat postig Leo. Now,

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if you do what I do, you cover crime for

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a living. This guy is pretty well known. But for

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those unfamiliar, let me tell you a little bit about

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the legendary detective. He had worked for Nashville PD at

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this point for thirty two years and he had a

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mind blowing twenty five years as a homicide detective. That

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is a long time as a homicide detective. You don't

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see a whole lot of guys with twenty five years

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in and the reason is for a living, you are

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going to murder scenes. That's what you do. It takes

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a toll on these guys. So a lot of guys

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don't make it twenty five years or gals, but Pat did.

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And everyone who ever worked with this guy would say

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he was the best homicide detective they had ever worked

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with anywhere in the country. Now, in his twenty five

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year Pat was so good that he had solved fifty

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five cold cases. So whoever did this once Pat was

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put on the case, they are likely in a bind.

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He was legend then and he still is now. So

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experience like Detective Pat had that helps you to spot

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things right off the bat. And one thing that Detective

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Pat made note of from the start was that this

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girl was posed. People who kill on a whim, if

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you will, They get in a fight maybe with this

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transient woman, and they just shoot her. They're not going

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to take the time to pose that victim. That's precious time,

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that's also taken a huge risk, and they're not going

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to do it. Typically, that is legit serial killer stuff,

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something that comes from progression of a crime. Not always,

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but in an extremely high number of cases, if that

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body is posed, that person is killed before and they

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want everybody to know about it. So in Pat's mind,

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there must be other cases out there that are yet

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to be solved where he can find similarities to this case.

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So the first thing he does, he starts reviewing surveillance

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tape from the truck stop in which this murder took place,

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but also other truck stops in the area to see

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if he spots anything unusual. Maybe this young lady traveled

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from one truck stop to another with whoever killed her.

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He didn't know, but he's gonna find out. He also

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reaches out to the FBI and he asked them to

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send him any information they may have on the murders

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of female victims at truck stops in their area of

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the country where someone was killed and hopefully he would

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be able to find in these other cold cases from

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other truck stops. Some similarities to his case. Maybe they

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have bullet casings that he could compare to the bullet

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casings found in Sarah's murder. And he also wanted to

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take a look at what is known as fuel tickets,

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which these truckers they get gas or when they get food, whatever,

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but primarily gas. Essentially, it's a log that keeps track

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of the truck number, etc. And there's a receipt attached

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to it. This is known as a fuel ticket. But

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if the trucker doesn't get full, obviously that ticket is

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not going to exist. But it was certainly worth checking. Now,

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sometimes in life you get lucky, and it's even better

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when you're good and lucky, and pat was certainly all

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of those on this day. So he tells one of

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his homicide partners, Hey, man, let's go check out those

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fuel tickets. I'll meet you there. This is on July

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eleventh of two thousand and seven. He leaves his office

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and he starts heading that way and an eighteen wheeler

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passes him when he's almost to the truck stop. Now,

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he had already reviewed prior to this the surveillance video

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from the night that Sarah Holbert was murdered and while

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he didn't actually see the murder take place, the cameras, unfortunately,

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were not in a position where you could see a

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martyr take place or anything of that nature. They just

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didn't catch it. What you could see was people pulling

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in and out of that truck stop. And one thing

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he did notice was an eighteen wheeler that just stood

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out to him, and I'll tell you why in just

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a second, as it pulled in the night of that murder.

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And the reason it stood out was that eighteen wheeler.

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The cab of it was yellow in color, and you

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just don't see a lot of cabs that are yellow

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in color. These eighteen wheeler ca So it pulled in,

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you can clearly see that in the video, and then

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just sixteen minutes later it pulled out. And he also

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found that strange because the trucker did not get gased.

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There was no fuel ticket for this guy or a

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log of it that they could find in the past,

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so that was strange. He didn't get any food either,

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He just pulled in and pulled out sixteen minutes later. Now,

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again the camera was not in a position to see

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what this eighteen wheeler was doing for those sixteen minutes

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but being a sharp detective with a photographic memory, incidentally

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he remembered that, and lo and behold. As he's traveling

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down the road going to meet his homicide partner, Detective

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Pat sees an eighteen wheeler going the opposite direction of

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the way that he was traveling, and it appeared to

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be the same yellow eighteen wheeler. He's so sure of

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fact that he turns around and he actually starts following

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it from a safe distance. So, while he's following this

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eighteen wheeler, he calls his partner and Pat tells him, look,

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here is the tag number. I'm following this guy. You know, basically,

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if something goes hey wire, you know the tag number

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of this eighteen wheeler. Well, the eighteen wheeler does something

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kind of strange, and it starts circling several blocks that

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surround this truck stop, and then it pulls in to

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the same truck stop that Sarah was murdered in the

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same place. As a matter of fact, that Pat was

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headed to go check for more fuel tickets and meet

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his partner. So this eighteen wheeler pulls into the truck

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stop and when he does, something else stood out to Pat,

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and that is that the eighteen wheeler pulls in knows first. Now,

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typically when eighteen wheelers pull into a truck stop, they

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pull in to the spot and they back end. They

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don't pull in those first for obvious reasons. You got

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this big ass eighteen wheeler on the back that you've

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got to back out at that point. That's kind of

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hard to do when you have other truckers pulling in

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and out. And detective pad he makes note of that

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as well. Now as he's watching this driver, he sees

230
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the driver put the eighteen wheeler into park and he

231
00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.240
immediately gets out of the driver's seat, and the detective

232
00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.799
notices him go to the back sleeper portion, the sleeper

233
00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:36.879
section of that eighteen wheeler and close that back curtain.

234
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And basically there's a curtain that you can slide all

235
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the way across in the back of it that provides

236
00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.759
for privacy right when you're trying to sleep. A lot

237
00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:48.919
of them sleep inside of their I guess you could

238
00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:53.360
call it a sleeper section of their cab. The detective

239
00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:57.240
just found that strange that he would immediately close that

240
00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:59.720
curtain as soon as he got out of the driver's seat.

241
00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:04.200
Whatever he gets out of his vehicle and Detective Pat

242
00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:08.039
approaches the eighteen wheeler. He knocks on the door and

243
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:12.319
the driver appears, and Pat basically says, hey, man, do

244
00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:14.519
you mind stepping out for a minute. I want to

245
00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:19.000
talk to you. I'm a detective with the Nashville Police Department.

246
00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:22.599
The driver steps out of the truck and his shirt

247
00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:26.440
is like wide open. He doesn't have any shoes on,

248
00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.480
and he's stretching as if to make Detective Pat think

249
00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.359
that he just woke up from a long sleep, that

250
00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:36.680
he was startled and woken up. Now, what the driver

251
00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:39.759
doesn't know is that Pat had been following him and

252
00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:43.519
knows full well that this eighteen wheeler driver just pulled

253
00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.920
in to that parking spot. He didn't just wake up.

254
00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.839
So Pat gives him a quick somepnosis of why he

255
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.079
wanted to talk to him, and he mentions, hey, man,

256
00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:57.559
you're driving this yellow eighteen wheeler that's unique in a

257
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:01.759
murder case that I'm working. And this driver gets kind

258
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.880
of mouthy with the detective and he says, oh, well,

259
00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:07.880
there's a ton of yellow cab trucks all over the

260
00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:11.480
roads at all times, and Detective Pat says, yeah, I

261
00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:14.680
understand that, but would you mind if I looked into

262
00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:18.799
your cab of your eighteen wheeler. And the reason that

263
00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.599
he asked him that, although he didn't mention it to

264
00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:26.839
the driver before, was because when the driver opened the door. Initially,

265
00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:32.839
Detective Pat this awesome homicide detective who is very aware

266
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:36.400
of everything going on around, and he notices right off

267
00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:41.000
the bat blood droplets on the driver's side into your door. Now,

268
00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:45.720
you could tell that someone tried to haphazardly clean these

269
00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.440
blood droplets, but they couldn't get all the stains out apparently,

270
00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:53.119
and he noticed that right off the bat. So at

271
00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:56.799
this point, Detective Pat's partner had arrived on the scene,

272
00:18:56.920 --> 00:18:59.720
and Detective Pat tells him, hey, man, go get a

273
00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:02.960
can sent to search form out of your vehicle, and

274
00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:05.359
we're going to get this driver to sign this. And

275
00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:08.319
he's given us permission to search his vehicle because they

276
00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:11.319
had to have that consent. And it's at that point

277
00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:15.720
that the driver, who turned out to be Bruce Mendenhall, incidentally,

278
00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.799
he mouths off, well, you're not going to tear up

279
00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:22.079
the interior of my truck, right, And I say that

280
00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:24.559
to show you kind of his personality. He was just

281
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.440
kind of a deck you know, that's what people said

282
00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:29.759
that grew up with this guy, and that's how he

283
00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.119
was acting to these detectives. And Detective Pat tells him, no, man,

284
00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:37.079
I'm just going to give it a once over. That's it.

285
00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:40.160
So men in Hall consents to the search. He signs

286
00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:44.799
the paper. Pat climbs in and he steps behind that

287
00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:50.279
curtain and initially he doesn't notice anything that stands out,

288
00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:53.480
like a sore thumb, but then he sees a bag

289
00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:57.279
and it's kind of half open, a trash bag, and

290
00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:00.960
you can see towels in these paper towels they are

291
00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:03.960
blue in color, and he knows right off the bat

292
00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:06.359
these are the ones that you get from truck stops

293
00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:10.839
to clean your hands, the very heavy duty and they

294
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:16.599
are absolutely soaked with blood, and I mean soaked. There

295
00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:19.680
are a ton of them in this bag. And the

296
00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:24.039
alarming thing that the detective knew right off the jump

297
00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.519
was that this was fresh blood, so it was not

298
00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:33.000
the blood of the victim that he was investigating, Sarah.

299
00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:35.279
So the detective goes back to the front of the

300
00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:37.680
cab and he asked men in Hall. He said, hey, man,

301
00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:41.599
what is all the blood in this bag? And men

302
00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:44.680
in Hall responds oh, I cut my leg and I

303
00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:48.559
use these towels to clean the cut. So Detective Pat

304
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.359
then says, okay, show me the cut on your leg.

305
00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:54.160
So men in Hall, he pulls his pant leg up

306
00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.079
and guess what, Absolutely no cut on his leg, no scar,

307
00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:04.400
no bag, nothing, and that is a lot of blood

308
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:09.640
in this trash bag. Detective knew this guy's full of shit.

309
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:13.279
Detective Pat also notice is a lot of female clothing

310
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:17.240
and when he asks Mendenhall whose closes are these, Mendenhall

311
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:20.680
struggles to come up with an answer. By this point

312
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:23.079
in time, the detective knew this guy's full of shit,

313
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.640
so he gets out of the cab and right there

314
00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:30.799
on the spot, he places mendon Hall under arrest. He

315
00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:33.039
puts him in the back of his car, and as

316
00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.079
soon as he sits down to drive away, Bruce Menenhall

317
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:39.759
says to him, out of a clear blue sky, they're

318
00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.640
the ones who did the killing, and he basically points

319
00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:46.640
out to an empty parking lot. So Detective Pat he

320
00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:49.960
thinks this guy is fucking absolutely crazy. He tells him, look,

321
00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:53.000
we're gonna go down to the station and you can

322
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:56.079
fill me in on whatever the heck you're talking about

323
00:21:56.279 --> 00:21:59.400
with these guys that you claim did these killings. So

324
00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:03.200
to go down town and he starts interrogating Bruce men

325
00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:08.559
in hall and Bruce spends the most bizarre story that

326
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:12.400
this detective had ever heard. He said that three men

327
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.920
were following him around and they were killing women in

328
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:20.480
his truck. And he stated he was pissed off these

329
00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:24.559
acquaintances and that they were from Illinois and they were

330
00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:28.799
killing these women using his twenty two rifle and forcing

331
00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:31.839
him to dispose of the bodies because he didn't want

332
00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.240
to get blamed. He even admitted to cleaning up the

333
00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:39.640
blood and leaving the body of Sarah Hulbert, but he claimed, hey,

334
00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:43.839
I left her in plain view, in plain sight because

335
00:22:43.960 --> 00:22:46.799
I wanted y'all to do your job and catch these

336
00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:50.039
guys because they keep trying to frame me for all

337
00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:56.039
these killings. Just totally off the wall nuts story, right. So,

338
00:22:56.160 --> 00:22:59.000
a couple of things that I need to note here.

339
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.319
FIR police did what you would think they would do.

340
00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:08.160
They would scrub the truck for DNA. And I've gotten

341
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:12.799
some different numbers on how many people's DNA were found

342
00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:17.680
in this truck. Some reports say six, some reports say seven.

343
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:22.359
But I listened to an interview with Detective Pat where

344
00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:26.039
he said eight people. And I'm going with what Detective

345
00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:29.240
Pat said because he's the one who worked this freaking case.

346
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:35.880
So eight people's DNA matched in that truck other than

347
00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:38.920
mende Hall. Now doesn't necessarily mean they knew who all

348
00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:43.039
this DNA belonged to, but they knew there was DNA

349
00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:46.599
outside of the drivers in this vehicle, and it was

350
00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:50.720
eight different people. And I'm talking blood DNA, not like

351
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:55.200
touch DNA. Now, not only that, but a more extensive

352
00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:59.079
search of the truck also yielded a blood soaked twenty

353
00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:07.680
two caliber knives, handcuffs, latex gloves, weapons cartridges, black tape,

354
00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:13.119
a night stick, and sex toys. Now, Mendenhall had worked

355
00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:16.759
for this trucking company for only two years, and he

356
00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:22.000
was fifty six years old. So who becomes a serial

357
00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:25.559
killer in their mid fifties. As many as I've covered

358
00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.920
over the years, I've never come across someone like that

359
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:34.279
mid fifties and you start killing at that age, that's

360
00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:40.680
like atypical af And this legendary detective knew that as well.

361
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:43.160
And he's like, oh, this guy's been killing a while.

362
00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:45.839
He knew that there had to be other victims, and

363
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:51.160
that leads us to Carmen Papura. So Carmen was a

364
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:54.359
thirty one year old mother of two. She was living

365
00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:58.920
in Indianapolis at the time of her disappearance. In her family,

366
00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:02.400
they would describe her as a devoated parent. Her daughter

367
00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:07.279
was fifteen years old when Carmen went missing and Carmen

368
00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:10.799
was last seen alive in the early morning hours of

369
00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:14.640
July tenth of two thousand and seven at the Flying

370
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:20.720
Jay Travel Center in South Indianapolis. Now, Carmen was different

371
00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:24.000
than the other two victims I had mentioned. She was

372
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:28.160
not a known sex worker, So how does she tie

373
00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:32.359
in to Bruce men in Hall Well? When Detective Pat

374
00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:36.839
was questioning Bruce about whose fresh blood was all over

375
00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:41.599
the toweles the day that he was arrested, Bruce Minnenhall

376
00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:44.200
said he didn't know her name, but it was a

377
00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:48.400
girl from Indianapolis that was shot in the cab of

378
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:51.799
his vehicle, but that he didn't do it. Those three

379
00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:57.279
acquaintances did it. So Detective Pat calls the Indianapolis Police

380
00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:00.480
and he asked him, Hey, do y'all have anyone missing

381
00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.319
in the past few weeks from a truck stop in

382
00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.839
that area, and they said, well, as a matter of fact,

383
00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:10.440
we do, and that of course was Carmen Papura. So

384
00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:16.079
detective pat asked Bruce Menninghall where the body was. Okay,

385
00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:20.000
so these three guys quote unquote shot this girl, left

386
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.559
her in your cab. Where is her body? Now? Bruce

387
00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:27.440
Mendenhall said, well, I drove to Kentucky and I threw

388
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:31.200
her in a trash can at a truck stop, which

389
00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:34.680
we know now was not true. And I'll get to

390
00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:38.240
that in a minute. But in the meantime, detectives follow

391
00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:42.640
up on that lead and they find nothing. He would eventually, however,

392
00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:46.279
be charged with Carmen's murder after a slew of evidence

393
00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:50.920
turned up, including DNA that was matched to Carmen from

394
00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:55.920
that blood soaked trash can and towels that were found

395
00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:59.079
inside of his vehicle. And they also had some surveillance

396
00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:03.599
cameras from the Flying Jay and in Indianapolis showing Carmen

397
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:07.880
talking to men in Hall outside of his vehicle, his

398
00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:12.039
eighteen wheeler. Now, there are many more victims connected in

399
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:15.960
one way or another to Bruce Menen Hall, but for

400
00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:19.440
now we're going to focus on the convictions first, really

401
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.599
give you a good idea of why this guy was

402
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.839
dubbed the truck stop killer. So I'm going to go

403
00:27:25.880 --> 00:27:30.200
into a timeline of all this just to keep you

404
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:34.160
posted on how things moved along. July twelfth of two

405
00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.079
thousand and seven, he's arrested at that TA truck stop

406
00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:42.640
in Nashville for the murder of Sarah Hulbert. Then a

407
00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:46.720
little over two weeks later, he is charged with yet

408
00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:50.359
another murder. This is on July twenty eighth of two

409
00:27:50.359 --> 00:27:54.000
thousand and seven. And this murder charge is related to

410
00:27:54.119 --> 00:27:57.319
yet someone else that I have not mentioned yet. And

411
00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:03.119
her name is Greta Carter. So Lucille Greta Carter was

412
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:07.240
a forty four year old transit woman. She was murdered

413
00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:11.880
in Birmingham, Alabama, in July two thousand and seven. Her

414
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:16.519
body was discovered nude and it was dumped near a

415
00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:20.240
trash bend on a service road. She had been shot

416
00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:24.319
with a twenty two caliber weapon and a plastic bag

417
00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:27.960
was found over her head with duct tape around her.

418
00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:33.240
Her DNA was actually found in the cab of Mendenhall's truck,

419
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:36.839
as well as some of her personal effects. So for

420
00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:39.839
now just keep that in your back pocket, that he

421
00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:42.880
was charged with her death. And incidentally, I do want

422
00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:46.599
to mention there were several cases where they would find

423
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:50.119
these victims with a bag placed over their head that

424
00:28:50.279 --> 00:28:54.880
was taped very tightly around their neck, and Detective pat

425
00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:58.440
theorized that that was to keep them from bleeding out,

426
00:28:58.680 --> 00:29:03.039
because meaning Mendon All would have to drive around with

427
00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:06.559
these bodies in that sleeper section of that cab for

428
00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:10.680
several days sometimes to hide them and to dump them.

429
00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:14.039
So we move on to August seventeenth of two thousand

430
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:17.039
and seven, and he gets indicted in the death of

431
00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:21.200
Samantha Winners. And on April tenth of two thousand and eight,

432
00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:25.839
finally he gets charged in the murder of Carmen Papura

433
00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:29.519
in Indiana, based off of the DNA found in the

434
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:32.839
trash bag of his truck. Primarily, so he is in

435
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.240
a world of shit. He has now been charged in

436
00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:41.279
four murders and indicted in three, and he's in jail

437
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:45.200
awaiting trial. And in August of two thousand and eight,

438
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:49.559
he gets indicted again, but this time not for murders.

439
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:55.480
It's for solicitation of murder, basically murder for hire. When

440
00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:59.799
an inmate rats him out for offering to pay fifteen

441
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.400
one thousand dollars to kill those three individuals that he

442
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.519
tried to blame for killing. All of these victims initially

443
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:13.240
as well as Detective Pat in his partner at Nashville PD,

444
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:15.920
so a total of five people. Now you may be

445
00:30:16.039 --> 00:30:20.480
wondering where this guy is gonna get this kind of cash. Well,

446
00:30:21.039 --> 00:30:24.759
while Bruce is sitting in prison, get this. He's a

447
00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:28.759
waiting trial for all these murders. And his wife dies,

448
00:30:29.559 --> 00:30:34.240
and apparently he had an old life insurance policy out

449
00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:38.079
on his wife, and regardless of whether you are in

450
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:43.119
jail or not, you can still collect on that life insurance.

451
00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:45.720
So he had the money to pay for these murders,

452
00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:51.160
but these inmates writing him out. So the next significant

453
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:54.039
thing that occurs for Bruce is the trial on these

454
00:30:54.119 --> 00:30:58.400
murder for higher charges. That's in January of twenty ten. Now,

455
00:30:58.519 --> 00:31:02.839
surprisingly he be he eats the case regarding the two detectives,

456
00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:07.480
Detective Pat and the partner. Apparently the prosecution could not

457
00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:10.920
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was planning to

458
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.160
pay to have them killed, but it is commonly believed

459
00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:18.720
that he was. He is however, found guilty of attempting

460
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.519
to hire someone to murder those three acquaintances that he

461
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:25.680
was blaming for all of this, and incidentally, they were

462
00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:29.319
real people. They were actually people that Bruce Menenhall in

463
00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:33.440
the past had had problems with from his hometown. And

464
00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:38.240
he gets thirty years total at his trial for attempting

465
00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:40.720
to hire someone to kill them. Now, next up is

466
00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:45.799
the murder trial in the murder of Serholbert in twenty ten.

467
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.200
He gets convicted and he is sentenced to life in

468
00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:53.200
prison for that murder. Then the next significant thing that

469
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:56.799
occurs in this case is in twenty eleven. Remember Karma

470
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:03.240
paper Well. Her remains were finally found in twenty eleven.

471
00:32:03.359 --> 00:32:09.400
August fifteenth of twenty eleven, more than four years after

472
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:13.519
she disappeared. Apparently, her skeletal remains were found in a

473
00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:19.160
steep ravine off the shoulder of a parkway in Barren County, Kentucky,

474
00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:25.960
south of Louisville, and investigators recovered approximately thirty bones, including

475
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:31.480
her skull, which showed evidence of a fatal gunshot wound. Now,

476
00:32:31.480 --> 00:32:35.880
at the time of the discovery, the remains were unidentified,

477
00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:40.559
and some theorists initially speculated they might belong to a

478
00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:45.480
Native American woman. However, they were identified as being the

479
00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:50.000
remains of Karma, but that was not until twenty eighteen,

480
00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:52.880
So they were discovered in twenty eleven, but at that

481
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:59.039
point nobody knew or nobody was able to definitively prove

482
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.720
that they they were Karma's remains. Not only that, but

483
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:07.279
also in twenty eighteen, he is convicted in Tennessee of

484
00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:11.359
the first degree premeditated murder and abuse of a corpse

485
00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:15.119
in the death of Samantha Winners, the first person we

486
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:18.880
covered today, and he is sentenced to life in prison

487
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:23.759
in that case. So in twenty twenty one, finally he

488
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:29.039
is transferred to Indiana to stand trial in the murder

489
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:34.759
of Karma Papura, but it would be a lengthy process,

490
00:33:35.400 --> 00:33:39.759
likely due to the trials kind of coinciding with COVID

491
00:33:39.960 --> 00:33:43.799
in the timing there, and it's not until January of

492
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:47.240
twenty twenty five, just last year, that at two day

493
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:51.119
trial takes place. This is in Marion County, Indiana, and

494
00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:54.960
he is convicted on January twenty second of twenty twenty

495
00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:00.559
five of the murder of Karma Papura after Jerry deliverers

496
00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:03.640
of less than ninety minutes, So that tells you how

497
00:34:03.720 --> 00:34:07.319
strong the evidence was there. And he is sentenced to

498
00:34:07.480 --> 00:34:12.840
sixty five years in an Indiana prison for that crime. Now,

499
00:34:12.880 --> 00:34:17.679
remember the Alabama case for Lucille Carter that I told

500
00:34:17.719 --> 00:34:21.880
you about earlier in this podcast. Remember he was charged

501
00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:28.599
in Alabama but never indicted. Welld de mended Hall's existing

502
00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:33.719
sentences on June fifth of twenty twenty five. That case

503
00:34:33.800 --> 00:34:38.719
is closed and the warrant was recalled without an indictment.

504
00:34:39.320 --> 00:34:44.079
I personally disagree with that decision. It's my opinion that

505
00:34:44.280 --> 00:34:49.920
this lady's life was no less worthy than anyone else's.

506
00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:54.159
She deserved her day in court, Her family deserves their

507
00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:57.440
day in court, so to speak. But it is what

508
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:01.000
it is now. As of today, Bruce Min is seventy

509
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:05.800
four years old. He's currently incarcerated at the Trialsdale Turner

510
00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:10.480
Correctional Center. This is in Hartsville, Tennessee, and he remains

511
00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:15.400
a suspect in multiple other cold cases across several states.

512
00:35:15.719 --> 00:35:18.119
And I want to cover the facts of those quickly

513
00:35:18.639 --> 00:35:23.760
because I think they are important. I just don't believe

514
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:28.119
that this guy decided, at fifty six years old to

515
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:31.079
be a serial killer. I believe this was going on

516
00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:35.239
far earlier, and of course I have no direct evidence.

517
00:35:35.719 --> 00:35:40.480
But here are some other murders that he is possibly

518
00:35:40.519 --> 00:35:45.199
suspected in, and I'm going to put them in chronological order,

519
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:48.320
and we're going to start with Tammy Ziwiki and Tammy

520
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:52.719
Joe Siwiki was a vibrant twenty one year old. She

521
00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:56.199
had a passion for soccer photography. She grew up in

522
00:35:56.239 --> 00:36:00.920
a close knit family and she would eventually go to

523
00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:05.360
Grennell College in Iowa, where she was entering her senior

524
00:36:05.480 --> 00:36:07.800
year as a Spanish major. And she was also a

525
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:12.360
standout athlete on the college soccer team. And obviously, with

526
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:15.039
the way I started off her story, this was not

527
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:18.920
his mo later on, this was not a transient female.

528
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:21.840
This was someone with the hell of a future right well.

529
00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:25.039
On the morning of August twenty third, nineteen ninety two,

530
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:28.920
Tammy set out from her family's home and she made

531
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:32.679
a stop in Evanston, Illinois. She wanted to drop off

532
00:36:32.719 --> 00:36:38.079
her younger brother, Darren at Northwestern University. They part ways.

533
00:36:38.199 --> 00:36:41.960
That's around name that day, and she continues in her

534
00:36:42.119 --> 00:36:46.679
nineteen eighty five White Pontiac T one thousand. Those are

535
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:50.480
sporty hatchbacks, if you will. But one of the problems

536
00:36:50.519 --> 00:36:53.960
with her Pontiac was it would overheat at times when

537
00:36:53.960 --> 00:36:57.519
it was on the road too long, and she knew that,

538
00:36:57.920 --> 00:36:59.679
and she was kind of prepared for it, but she

539
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:01.800
knew at some point I might have to pull over.

540
00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:05.960
She was dressed casually for her drive. She had on

541
00:37:05.960 --> 00:37:09.559
one of those college t shirts from her college, some

542
00:37:09.639 --> 00:37:16.480
denim shorts, and flip flops. Now somewhere between Lesalle and Utica, Illinois,

543
00:37:17.159 --> 00:37:22.119
trouble strikes witnesses would later report seeing Tammy pulled over

544
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:24.599
on the shoulder of the road. The hood of her

545
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:27.519
vehicle was up and it looked like she was dealing

546
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:32.440
with engine issues, and a tractor trailer was parked nearby,

547
00:37:33.039 --> 00:37:36.079
and a man described as a white male in his

548
00:37:36.199 --> 00:37:41.239
early forties, over six feet tall, dark bushy hair, was

549
00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:44.920
spotted talking to her and it looked like he was

550
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:47.320
trying to be a good Samaritan, offering to help this

551
00:37:47.400 --> 00:37:50.079
girl on the hot summer day. Right but that afternoon,

552
00:37:50.119 --> 00:37:54.639
in Illinois, state trooper discovers her car abandoned. The keys

553
00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:58.440
were still in the ignition, but Tammy was nowhere to

554
00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:02.119
be found. Her side her cleats were there. Her camera,

555
00:38:02.599 --> 00:38:06.199
a distinctive watch that she had with a soccer ball

556
00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:09.960
face on it was missing, and she was missing, so

557
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:14.000
obviously there's a frantic search for Tammy. Her family and friends.

558
00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:17.039
They refused to believe this girl just simply ran away.

559
00:38:18.119 --> 00:38:22.079
There was no boyfriend, she was very into her schooling

560
00:38:22.199 --> 00:38:25.400
and things like that. She didn't have distress in her life,

561
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:29.440
no reason for her to just often disappear. Authorities. Initially

562
00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:33.000
it seemed like we're dragging their feet due to the

563
00:38:33.039 --> 00:38:35.840
fact that, hey, maybe she just ran off despite what

564
00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:40.119
the family told her. But on September one, some hunters

565
00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:44.679
stumbled upon a body in a rural ditch along I

566
00:38:44.960 --> 00:38:49.480
forty four in Springfield, Missouri. Now this is nearly five

567
00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:53.519
hundred miles from where her car was found. The remains

568
00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:58.880
were wrapped in a red plaid blanket and bound with

569
00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:02.599
duct tape, and it was discarded. She was this poor

570
00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:06.960
child was discarded like a piece of trash. An autopsy

571
00:39:07.079 --> 00:39:12.199
would then reveal some pretty traumatic shit that Tammy and dirt.

572
00:39:12.599 --> 00:39:18.239
She had been sexually assaulted. She had been stabbed seven times,

573
00:39:19.079 --> 00:39:23.360
and in this stabbing, it was in a circle around her.

574
00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:26.519
It looked like this person wanted to stab out her heart.

575
00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:30.960
It also looked like she was possibly strangled to death.

576
00:39:31.239 --> 00:39:34.000
So over the years, several names surface, and one of

577
00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:40.280
those was Bruce Mendenhall. His routes aligned with the crime scenes,

578
00:39:40.679 --> 00:39:44.760
both where she broke down and where she was dumped,

579
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:49.840
but he was never charged in that case. Now, to me,

580
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:53.679
there's some problems with the profile. She just doesn't fit

581
00:39:53.719 --> 00:39:58.039
the profile of how Mendenhall operated. But a lot of

582
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:01.159
people think he had something to do with this because

583
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:04.519
of the proximity to the route that he was working

584
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:07.920
at that time. And I'm gonna tell you about Belinda Cartwright,

585
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:10.480
and we're going to go to two thousand and one.

586
00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:15.599
But Belinda Cartwright was born on January nineteenth, nineteen sixty

587
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:18.840
five in Georgia. She grew up in a close knit family,

588
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:23.199
but she had some mental illness in her life that

589
00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:25.719
would lead her down a pretty rough road. She would

590
00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:30.840
wander the highways, often hitchhiking with truckers that she trusted.

591
00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:35.239
And in late winter of February twenty second of two

592
00:40:35.280 --> 00:40:38.519
thousand and one, she was thirty six years old, and

593
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:41.599
Belinda finds herself at a truck stop. This is in

594
00:40:41.800 --> 00:40:47.280
Loundess County, Georgia, just outside of Valdosta. She had been

595
00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:51.480
riding with a truck driver in a black flatbed semi

596
00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:55.880
truck marked young brothers on the side. Now, she stepped

597
00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:59.159
out to gather her belongings from the cab. The driver

598
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:03.159
suddenly put away and he leaves her behind. So she's

599
00:41:03.199 --> 00:41:07.119
pretty desperate, and Belinda jumps onto the running board and

600
00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:10.480
she pounds on the windshield and she's begging this guy

601
00:41:10.559 --> 00:41:14.519
to stop. And Whennesses later will report seeing the chaotic

602
00:41:14.599 --> 00:41:19.400
scene unfold, the truck was swerving as it hit a curb,

603
00:41:19.880 --> 00:41:22.119
trying to knock her off of the truck. This caused

604
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:25.760
her to las her grip and fall underneath the truck

605
00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:30.119
in the rear wheels. The massive tires would crush her instantly,

606
00:41:30.599 --> 00:41:33.960
but the driver never even slowed down, sped off into

607
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:38.000
the distance without so much as a glance backward. She

608
00:41:38.119 --> 00:41:41.519
had no idea on her body. All her possessions were

609
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:46.119
still in the truck, and authorities would later identify her

610
00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:51.039
through fingerprints as Blended Cartwright. That trucker was never found

611
00:41:51.119 --> 00:41:55.039
and the case just kind of stalled. But here's something

612
00:41:55.199 --> 00:42:00.199
really sad. No one in her family was notified of

613
00:42:00.239 --> 00:42:06.119
her death. For six agonizing years, her siblings were searching

614
00:42:06.480 --> 00:42:11.599
for Belinda. They would call hospitals, shelters, and police agencies,

615
00:42:11.719 --> 00:42:14.760
fearing the worst right but holding on to hope. And

616
00:42:14.880 --> 00:42:19.159
it wasn't until the truth would emerge from Social Security

617
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:22.199
records that the family would not only learn her fate,

618
00:42:22.760 --> 00:42:27.679
but also locate her pauper's grave. This was in Sunset

619
00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:31.280
Hills Cemetery in Georgia, and it was marked by a

620
00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:37.679
simple headstone that simply read Belinda Gaale Courtwright. Now, the

621
00:42:37.800 --> 00:42:44.159
composite sketch from Belinda's case bore a striking resemblance to Menenhall,

622
00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:51.199
and his mo would fit this particular person. He preyed

623
00:42:51.239 --> 00:42:56.440
on hitchhikers and prostitutes, and the circumstances just kind of

624
00:42:56.480 --> 00:43:00.679
aligned here, especially because of the fact that it was

625
00:43:00.719 --> 00:43:05.079
a runover killing, because he would be linked to another

626
00:43:05.159 --> 00:43:08.559
runover killing later on, and I'll get into that in

627
00:43:08.679 --> 00:43:12.480
just a second, but he was never formally charged in

628
00:43:12.519 --> 00:43:16.360
Belinda's death. Now, let's talk about Deborah and Glover. She

629
00:43:16.519 --> 00:43:19.239
was a forty three year old from Atlanta, Georgia, and

630
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:23.440
little is publicly documented about her early years. We did

631
00:43:23.519 --> 00:43:26.039
know that she was involved in sex work. So on

632
00:43:26.079 --> 00:43:29.400
the morning of January twenty ninth, two thousand and seven,

633
00:43:29.679 --> 00:43:33.719
Deborah found herself at a Motel six in Swanee, Georgia,

634
00:43:34.119 --> 00:43:39.119
which is about thirty miles outside of Atlanta. And this part,

635
00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:43.519
this drag that she was found in was peppered with

636
00:43:43.719 --> 00:43:47.039
truck stops. Police find her at a Motel six. She

637
00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:50.599
was shot multiple times with a twenty two caliber pistol.

638
00:43:50.960 --> 00:43:56.320
Her body left discarded behind the motel near a truck

639
00:43:56.360 --> 00:44:01.800
stop in Deborah's body was found nude. Now, trucking logs

640
00:44:02.239 --> 00:44:06.440
that were investigated later after the arrest of Mendenhall would

641
00:44:06.480 --> 00:44:10.119
confirm he was in Georgia on that day, and his

642
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:15.840
routes would align perfectly with that Motel six's location, say,

643
00:44:15.880 --> 00:44:19.360
nearly two decades later, in twenty twenty six, right now

644
00:44:19.440 --> 00:44:25.239
when I'm recording this, her murder remains officially unsolved, though

645
00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:30.719
Mendenhall is still to this day considered the prime suspect

646
00:44:31.119 --> 00:44:33.639
in her murder. And a few more here that I

647
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:37.880
want to talk about. Sherry Drinkard. Her body was found

648
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:42.159
February twenty second, two thousand and seven, at a Tha

649
00:44:42.480 --> 00:44:46.719
truck stop in Lake Station, Indiana. She was found naked,

650
00:44:47.039 --> 00:44:50.800
She was discarded in a snow embankment, and her cause

651
00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:54.880
of death was shot to the head, which was a

652
00:44:54.960 --> 00:45:00.159
method consistent with Mendenhall's other confirmed victims. Now During his

653
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.519
his initial police interviews, men in Hall reportedly told Nashville

654
00:45:04.599 --> 00:45:08.960
investigators that he knew Drinkard and admitted to being in

655
00:45:09.039 --> 00:45:12.119
the Lake Station area around the time of her death.

656
00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:16.519
He didn't admit to killing her, but you know, totality

657
00:45:16.559 --> 00:45:20.159
of circumstances and the timing two thousand and seven. He

658
00:45:20.280 --> 00:45:22.119
killed a lot of people in two thousand and seven.

659
00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:26.199
Let's go to really less than two weeks later, and

660
00:45:26.239 --> 00:45:29.760
I'm gonna tell you about Letitia Milligan, who was twenty

661
00:45:29.800 --> 00:45:33.239
seven years old. She was last heard from on March

662
00:45:33.599 --> 00:45:36.519
fourteenth of two thousand and seven. At that time, she

663
00:45:36.639 --> 00:45:39.719
was living in a homeless camp none his tenth City

664
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:45.440
in Nashville, Tennessee, and although she remains a missing person,

665
00:45:45.920 --> 00:45:50.679
investigators did find a positive DNA match for her blood

666
00:45:50.840 --> 00:45:55.679
inside the cab of Bruce men Inhall's truck following his

667
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:59.800
two thousand and seven arrests Now. Despite the blood evidence,

668
00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:03.719
men in Hall has never been charged formally with her

669
00:46:03.800 --> 00:46:07.679
murder because there's no body, they're not quite sure where

670
00:46:07.719 --> 00:46:12.440
she's at. But considering the timeline of these two, in

671
00:46:12.519 --> 00:46:16.480
the locations they were both in Tennessee, the lifestyles match,

672
00:46:16.639 --> 00:46:19.360
I would say there's better than a ninety five percent

673
00:46:19.559 --> 00:46:24.159
chance Bruce Meninhall killed both of those ladies. And I

674
00:46:24.199 --> 00:46:26.559
got one more for you if you can believe that.

675
00:46:26.639 --> 00:46:29.840
And I'm gonna tell you about Robin Bishop. She was

676
00:46:29.880 --> 00:46:32.920
a woman in her early forties. She was known to

677
00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:37.480
frequent truck stops along major highways and engage in sex

678
00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:41.320
work to make her ends meet. And that's exactly the

679
00:46:41.400 --> 00:46:44.400
type of person Bruce men in All hunted. Right on

680
00:46:44.519 --> 00:46:48.480
a sweltering afternoon in July of two thousand and seven

681
00:46:48.599 --> 00:46:51.639
July first to be exact, Robin was at the Flying

682
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:56.440
Jay truck stop in Fairview, Tennessee, and witnesses would later

683
00:46:56.559 --> 00:47:01.519
report seeing a chaotic scene. A truck suddenly accelerates from

684
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:06.239
that truck stop, strikes Robin and runs over her with

685
00:47:06.360 --> 00:47:10.719
the eighteen wheeler tires. The impact alone was fatal and

686
00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:14.639
her body was absolutely crushed. That's important to mention. He

687
00:47:14.679 --> 00:47:17.840
has not been formally charged in Robin's murder, but he

688
00:47:18.079 --> 00:47:24.440
does remain the prime suspect in that case. And unbelievable

689
00:47:24.719 --> 00:47:29.239
the amount of cases that are linked to him that

690
00:47:29.320 --> 00:47:32.199
he's still not been or still not had to answer

691
00:47:32.280 --> 00:47:35.639
for as of yet. And that's all I got for

692
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:39.159
you today. Thank you so much for listening. Check out

693
00:47:39.199 --> 00:47:44.199
the Patreon Patreon dot com slash Bloody and Goal of podcasts,

694
00:47:44.559 --> 00:47:48.000
commercial free early releases, and all kinds of other content

695
00:47:48.599 --> 00:47:50.960
you can find us and support us if you would

696
00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:54.559
like to do so. Next week I'll be back with

697
00:47:54.760 --> 00:47:58.239
another edition of fifty Shades of Evil. We're going to

698
00:47:58.280 --> 00:48:01.679
be going to another state, decided exactly where yet, but

699
00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:05.400
I promise you you'll enjoyed the content that I bring you.

700
00:48:05.760 --> 00:48:08.519
Until next time for Bloody and GOA. I'm your host,

701
00:48:08.599 --> 00:48:10.159
Jim Chapman, much.

702
00:48:10.039 --> 00:48:33.840
Love a Wall Street line, shackle chain, Oh, who's some

703
00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:40.760
girdie it's calling my name? There is no.

704
00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:47.800
Mercy and this being a tentery juice as the huge

705
00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:54.079
stream game Wrangle three, I'm.

706
00:48:53.679 --> 00:49:05.280
Here by me to die inside these walls, inside the wild.

707
00:49:06.840 --> 00:49:08.079
And when the walk

708
00:49:09.840 --> 00:49:25.079
As I know, it's sumbody angle, obody angle