Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / FBI Hunting 500 Serial Killer Truckers Loose on America's Roads
Transcript
- In Nashville, Tennessee, at a truck stop. Bruce D. Mendenhall, a long haul driver, was sitting in his cab when he was approached by a homicide detective. The police were actively searching for a serial killer. Several weeks prior, the lifeless body of Samantha Winters, a twenty five year old woman, was discovered in a dumpster. She had been wrapped in plastic and duct tape and then fatally shot in the back of her head with a point two two pistol. Tragically, another victim named Sarah Nicole Hulbert, also twenty five years old, had been found dead. Like Winters, she was covered in plastic and had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. These two victims were among the nearly one thousand women that law enforcement believed had been murdered by long haul truck drivers. Finally, there was a breakthrough in the investigation. Cops believe that nearly one thousand women have been herded by long haul truck drivers. The detective from the Nashville Metro Police Department inquired of Mendenhall, are you the individual we have been searching for. Mendenhall nonchalantly shrugged and replied, if you insist. The contents discovered inside the truck cab of the fifty six year old were beyond comprehension, leaving investigators to label it as a killing chamber. According to the police report, the assortment of torture tools found included a rifle, a nightstick, tape, handcuffs, latex gloves, sex toys, and a bag of blood stained clothing. DNA analysis conducted on the clothing revealed a match to five women who had either been murdered or reported missing. Among them was Calmer Purpura, a thirty one year old mother of two who was last seen at a truck stop in Indianapolis, Indiana, Piana, nearly three hundred miles away. Papurer's mobile phone and bank card were also discovered within the truck. The presence of blood spatter in the cab strongly suggested that Mendenhall had taken her life there, yet he adamantly refused to disclose the location of her body. It took another four years before her remains were eventually found. Mendenhall, a resident of Illinois and a married father of two daughters, was apprehended in two thousand seven. And subsequently convicted for the murders of Winters and Hulbert. Furthermore, he has been charged with the killing of Purpura and is suspected of being responsible for the deaths of at least five more women. Two of his alleged victims, including sex worker Robin Bishop and hitchhiker Belinda Cartwright, were likely struck by his truck. However, these deaths are not isolated incidents, as stated by former Assistant Director of the FBI Frank Philiutzi. Filiuzzi has dedicated years to investigating the phenomenon of serial killers who utilize trucking as a means of disguise. In his recently published book Long Haul Hunting the Highway serial Killers, Figliuzzi provides a comprehensive analysis of how numerous truckers scour rest stops, motels, and roadside restaurants in search of victims. These killers commit their crimes and then swiftly move on, leaving behind minimal traces. The FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative HSK has estimated that a significant number of murders spanning over the past thirty five years could potentially be linked to four hundred to five hundred truckers along the main interstate routes. Approximately eight hundred and fifty women have either vanished or been discovered deceased. Shockingly, only a small number of these killers have been apprehended. Leading the HSK is Catherine de Vane, an expert in the behavioral analysis of criminals. Her team meticulously matches crimes to their perpetrators, with forensic evidence playing a crucial role in their investigations. Equally important is the identification of each individual killer's modus operandi their distinct signature techniques. For instance, Robert Ben Rhodes, one of the earliest documented truck stop killers, had a disturbing fetish. He would shave the pubic hair of his victims. Rhodes is believed to have murdered fifty women during a span of fifteen years. Similar to Mendenhall, he constructed a mobile torture chamber in the rear of his truck. Within this chamber, women were held captive with handcuffs, enduring excruciating pain as Rhodes pierced their flesh with fish hooks. Many of his victims were prostitutes, but his final victim, Regina Walters, was only fourteen years old and not involved in prostitution. Regina had fled her dysfunctional family home in Pasadena, Texas, along with her boyfriend Ricky in nineteen ninety. Rhodes encountered them near Houston and swiftly killed Ricky by shooting him in the head. He then subjected Regina to weeks of repeated rape, keeping her as his prisoner. To further torment her family, He even contacted her father and cruelly informed him I made some changes, I cut her hair. Regina's lifeless body was eventually discovered at an abandoned farmhouse in Illinois. She had been strangled to death. Catherine Devane categorizes Trucker homicides into two distinct groups. According to her, some men seek to control life and death, desiring to experience the power of determining the outcome.