NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A missing persons organization said they may have been on the trail of Bruce Mendenhall five years ago.

Related: PDF: Mendenhall Truck Search Warrant | Video

Mendenhall is the trucker who police said could be a serial killer. He has been charged in the deaths of two women: one in Tennessee and one in Alabama.

Their suspicions are troubling given what a search warrant shows was found in Mendenhall's truck when he was arrested.

Police produced a list of items found in Mendenhall’s truck that ended in more than 300 items including a rifle, several weapons cartridges, knives, black tape, handcuffs, a nightstick, latex gloves, sex toys and condoms.

Several items were blacked out by investigators.

But years before Mendenhall was arrested and charged, a group out of the Cookeville area said they began to suspect a killer was moving along the interstate.

Todd Matthews said when he first saw Mendenhall, a police composite sketch immediately came to mind.

"I saw that photograph and it looked like the guy in the composite,” he said.

Matthews remembered the sketch was of a truck driver believed responsible for the unsolved slaying of Belinda Cartwright in 2001.

Cartwright was among several women who were slain along Interstate 75; I-75 snakes through several states including Kentucky and Tennessee.

"I had an I-75 serial killer theory a few years ago, it made sense. We did a few blurbs in the media, but it never picked up until now. Now I'm getting calls back from it, and that was five years ago,” he said.

Channel 4 spoke with Matthews as he was leaving for a missing person's conference.

Despite years of largely being ignored by police and the media, there's no sense of "I told you so" for Matthews.

He said he just wants closure for the families of the slain women that he's in frequent contact with who keep the memories of their loved ones alive.

"I think a lot of families are hoping this is their guy. This is the answer to what they're looking for,” he said.