Alleged serial killer may be connected to Mid-South murder - WMC Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

Alleged serial killer may be connected to Mid-South murder

Investigators say Bruce Mendenhall is a serial killer. He's admitted to the murders of half a dozen women and police in Dyersburg are trying to figure out whether he's connected to the death of Dyer County's Jennifer Smith.

"I just want to know who did it," Smith's mother Trudy Kindel told Action News 5. "It has been awful not knowing and I feel for the other relatives."

Kindel's 24-year old daughter Jennifer Smith was murdered. Her body was found about 40 miles outside of Nashville in 2005. It was dumped at an old truck stop that's still used by truckers. Investigators in Hickman County, TN say Smith's murder is similar to the murders of six other women.

Officers told Action News 5 the killer positioned the bodies of his victims after he murdered them. Smith's body was also positioned. She was discovered lying on her back with her legs straight out.

Investigators have been searching for Mendenhall for weeks. His yellow truck showed up on a Nashville truck stop surveillance camera last month. It was spotted the same night and at the same truck stop where Sara Nicole Hulbert was found shot to death.

Kindel hopes Mendenhall's arrest provides the answers she's looking for "it's just been so hard and I just need some closure."