INDIANAPOLIS -- Blood from 10 different persons was found inside the truck cab of suspected serial killer Bruce Mendenhall, a prosecutor said Thursday in charging him with killing a missing Indianapolis woman.

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Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi charged Mendenhall, of Albion, Ill., in the July 12 slaying of Carma Purpura, 31, whose body has never been found.

Mendenhall, who will turn 57 Monday, also is charged with murder in connection with the deaths of women whose bodies were found in Nashville and Lebanon, Tenn., and in Birmingham, Ala. He's being held at the Davidson County Jail in Nashville.

At the time of his arrest in Nashville the day of Purpura's disappearance from an Indianapolis truck stop, police say he confessed to being present at as many as six slayings in the three states and in Georgia.

"The cab of the truck was literally awash with blood," Brizzi said at a news conference to announce the latest charges.

Also found in the truck cab was a .22-caliber handgun that Mendenhall used to execute his victims after wrapping their heads in plastic wrap and duct tape, Brizzi said.

One of Mendenhall's attorneys in Nashville, public defender Jason Gitchner, said he had no comment on the latest charge.

Even though Purpura's body has not been found, Brizzi said he was confident he had enough evidence to convict Mendenhall in her case. Brizzi said on Thursday that he will seek the death penalty regardless of the outcome of trials in other states.

Blood drawn from the woman's parents provided a DNA match to blood inside the cab, where investigators also found a bloody bag containing her cell phone, ATM card and clothing she was wearing at the time of her disappearance.

Nashville police found blood on Mendenhall's hands and under his fingernails.

Enough blood matching the DNA of Purpura's parents was found inside the cab to determine the woman could not possibly be alive, Brizzi said.

At the time of Mendenhall's arrest just hours after Purpura's disappearance, the trucker told police the victim had been shot in the back of the head at the Indianapolis truck stop and then left inside a vehicle parked at a nearby fast food restaurant, but Mendenhall denies being the murderer, Brizzi said.

"It's almost as if he wanted to get caught and then play a game of I'm smarter than the police," the prosecutor said.

A truck stop employee told Detective Tom Tudor of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department that he had seen Purpura near Mendenhall's truck about 1:30 a.m. on the day of his arrest in Nashville, Tudor said in a probable cause affidavit supporting the murder charge. The two cities are about five hours apart.

Police scoured the area from the air and on the ground, with the help of search dogs, over three days but never found Purpura, the affidavit said. It suggested her body might have been left in a trash bin and subsequently incinerated.

Purpura worked at the truck stop, Brizzi said, but he would not disclose what her work was.

Mendenhall also is charged in the slayings of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville, whose body was found shot and stuffed in a trash can June 6 at a truck stop in Lebanon; of Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25, who was found shot to death June 26 at a truck stop in Nashville; and Lucille "Gretna" Carter, 44, who was shot with a .22-caliber weapon before her nude body was found July 1 by a trash bin along a road in Birmingham.

Nashville's Assistant District Attorney Tom Thurmon said Mendenhall will be tried in Tennessee first.

"Once we have him, we're not going to give him up to another state until we've completed prosecution, then they can take him," he said.

Thurmon said he'll announce within the next month whether prosecutors in Nashville will seek the death penalty or life without parole.

Thurmon said he was very surprised to hear that the Indianapolis district attorney said that the blood of 10 people was found inside the cab. He said he'd never heard that.

Hulbert's sister, Roxanna Wayman, would like to see the death penalty and said she feels the pain of the latest family to get the news.

She said she'd tell Purpura's family that, "We're sorry and that are our hearts and prayers are with you, and we know what you're going through. And we know it's hard, but hopefully justice will prevail and he'll get what he deserves," Wayman said.

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