Do you know who murdered Carrole White?
In the fall of 2017, a series of brutal, calculated killings began to unfold in southwest Detroit, leaving the community gripped by fear. A man was using his vehicle as a weapon, targeting vulnerable women in the dead of night. Among his victims was Carrole Ann White, a 59-year-old White woman whose life was senselessly cut short. Her death would become a key piece in the investigation of a serial killer's terrifying rampage.
On the frigid morning of December 13, 2017, at approximately 2:15 a.m., Detroit police responded to a call in the area of Anthon and Campbell Streets. There, they discovered Carrole's body lying face-down in the snow between the sidewalk and the street. She had sustained severe injuries consistent with being intentionally struck by a vehicle. The investigation would later reveal a chilling and transactional motive behind the violence. The perpetrator, Lawrence Paul Mills III, solicited women for paid sexual encounters in his vehicle. After the act, once the woman had exited, he would run her over to violently reclaim the money he had paid. In some instances, he would also physically beat his victims before striking them with his car.
For more than two years, the murders of Carrole White and another woman, 34-year-old Melinda Salazar, who was killed in October 2017, remained unsolved. The Detroit Police Department suspected a connection due to the similar method and location of the crimes, but physical evidence was scarce, and the hit-and-run nature of the attacks allowed the killer to vanish quickly. The crucial breakthrough came from a 29-year-old pregnant woman who was attacked on December 22, 2017, just nine days after Carrole's murder. The woman was brutally beaten and struck multiple times by an SUV but miraculously survived and was able to provide police with a detailed description of her attacker.
The trail eventually led investigators to Lawrence Paul Mills III, a father from the suburb of Garden City who worked at a pizza parlor. He was arrested on April 24, 2020. Following his arrest, Mills confessed to the murders of Carrole White and Melinda Salazar. The vehicle he used in the attacks was identified as a golden tan 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer. Investigators also believe Mills may be responsible for other similar attacks, including one in March 2017 where the victim survived, and the death of another woman, 32-year-old Mary Penegor.
On April 28, 2020, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office charged Mills with the first-degree premeditated murder of Carrole Ann White. Weeks later, additional charges were filed for the murder of Melinda Salazar and the assault on her unborn child, as she was pregnant when she was killed. Despite his earlier confession to police, Mills pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial began in 2021, and on November 17, a jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder but convicted him of two counts of the lesser charge of second-degree murder for the deaths of Carrole White and Melinda Salazar. He was also found guilty of assault on a pregnant individual intentionally causing a miscarriage.
On December 8, 2021, a judge sentenced Lawrence Paul Mills III to a term of 28 to 48 years in state prison. As of November 2026, he is incarcerated at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven, Michigan. The resolution of the case brought an end to a violent chapter in Detroit's history, but for the families of Carrole White and the other victims, the pain of their loss remains. The case stands as a grim reminder of the predator who used the city's streets as his hunting ground.
