DNA test may determine if missing woman is victim of killer

INDIANAPOLIS -- A DNA test may determine if a missing Indianapolis woman was the victim of an Illinois man who has confessed to killing six women in four states.

Carma Purpura, 31, was last seen July 11 at a south side truck stop.

Bruce Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, was arrested the next day at a truck stop in Nashville, Tenn., and confessed to killing six women in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, authorities said.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Det. Tom Tudor said police found Purpura's identification card in Mendenhall's truck. Police hope a DNA test on blood on clothing found in his truck will determine if the blood is Purpura's.

Mendenhall, who has been charged with killings in Nashville, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., reportedly told police he killed a woman he picked up at the Indianapolis truck stop and dumped her body in a trash bin near a fast food restaurant off Indiana 37 just south of Interstate 465. Police searched that bin and others at nearby truck stops but found nothing.

"At this point, we're proceeding as if the body will not be recovered," Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said.