The man known as the Truck Stop Serial Killer was convicted of another murder in January. This week, he was sentenced for the third murder conviction.
Bruce Mendenhall was sentenced to an additional 65 years in prison for the July 2007 murder of Carma Purpura of Indianapolis.
Mendenhall is already serving two life sentences in Tennessee for a pair of murders, and he is still facing a trial for an Alabama murder. He is also under investigation for murders in Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Authorities say Mendenhall met his Indiana victim at a Flying J truck stop in Marion County in 2007. The woman’s body was discovered four years after she disappeared off the side of the Kentucky highway in a ravine with evidence of a lethal bullet wound to her head.
Evidence against Mendenhall included a .22 caliber rifle and a collection of the victim’s bloody clothes.
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
