Serial-Killings Suspect Pleads Not Guilty In 1 Case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An Illinois truck driver who police say confessed to killings in several states, including Indiana, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Nashville homicide.

Police in July arrested Bruce Mendenhall and charged him with criminal homicide in the death of Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25. She had been found dead with gunshot wounds on June 26 at a truck stop along Interstate 24 in Nashville.

He pleaded not guilty in the case on Wednesday by video arraignment, his attorney Jason Gichner said. Gichner had no other comment on the proceedings.

Mendenhall also has been charged with murder in Lebanon, about 25 miles east of Nashville, in the death of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville. Her body was found shot and stuffed in a trash can June 6 at a truck stop in that town.

A police detective had gone to the Nashville truck stop on July 12 to conduct a follow-up interview in the investigation of Hulbert's death. When he got there he saw a truck fitting the description of a vehicle that was spotted the night before Hulbert's body was found. The detective said the driver, Mendenhall, appeared nervous when being questioned and granted permission to look inside his truck.

Mendenhall was taken into custody when the detective spotted what appeared to be blood in the cab, police have said.

Police in Birmingham, Ala., have also filed murder charges against Mendenhall in the death of 44-year-old Lucille "Gretna" Carter.

Investigators there said she was shot with a .22-caliber weapon and dumped nude next to a trash bin on a service road. She was found July 1 with plastic bag over her head and duct tape around her neck.

In Indiana, police are investigating whether Mendenhall was involved in the death of 31-year-old Carma Purpura, who was last seen July 11 at an Indianapolis truck stop. Police hope a DNA test of blood on clothing found in Mendenhall's truck will determine if it is Purpura's.

Mendenhall told investigators he killed a woman he picked up at the Indianapolis truck stop and dumped her body in a trash bin near a restaurant off Indiana 37 just south of Interstate 465, police said. Police searched that bin and others at nearby truck stops but found nothing.

Purpura's identification card was found in Mendenhall's truck, Indianapolis police have said.