Guy McClelland Mills, a 64-year-old white male from Breezewood in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, was murdered on December 31, 1977. He and his wife, Laura Mills, also 65 and white, were found shot to death in their home early the following morning. The crime scene was described as ransacked, suggesting a robbery may have been the motive. Their deaths were part of a string of brutal killings that terrorized western Pennsylvania during the late 1970s.
Just hours after the Mills couple was discovered, the body of 36-year-old white male Joel Krueger was found in a parked car along Interstate 70, approximately three miles from the Mills residence. He had also been shot. Investigators quickly suspected a connection between the two incidents due to the proximity and similar method of killing.
The primary suspect in these murders was Edward Arthur Surratt, a white male and former U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Surratt, who had a history of violent crimes and was already serving multiple life sentences in Florida and South Carolina, confessed in 2021 to the killings of Guy and Laura Mills, as well as Joel Krueger. His confession came decades after the crimes, during interviews conducted by Pennsylvania State Police at the Raiford Correctional Facility in Florida.
Surratt had been arrested in July 1978 following a violent home invasion in Florida, where he tied up a family, raped the mother and teenage daughter, and was caught after falling asleep at the scene. His fingerprints linked him to numerous unsolved murders in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Authorities believe he was responsible for at least 18 killings, many involving couples, where he would kill the husband and either rape and kill or abduct the wife.
Despite his confession, prosecutors in Pennsylvania chose not to pursue charges against Surratt for the Mills murders due to his existing life sentences and the risks associated with transporting him across states. Law enforcement emphasized that closure for the victims’ families was more important than additional convictions. Surratt remains incarcerated and is suspected in several other unsolved homicides from the same era.
