A BYU-Idaho student was killed in a roll-over car crash on March 21.
John G Mills V, most commonly known as Jay, had been a BYU-Idaho student since 2025 as a biology major. He was from Cumming, Georgia, and was the oldest of four children.
Before his time at BYU-Idaho, Mills served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Pocatello.
“I just love him,” said Scott Herrod, the former mission president for the Idaho Pocatello Mission. “I love the young man. I know the Lord will take care of him.”
Scott and Deanna Herrod were the mission leaders of the Pocatello Mission during Mills’ service.
Deanna described him as a “gentle giant,” and a true gentleman.
“And yet there was a side of him that I didn’t get to see very often, but all of his companions talked about it and that was that he had a really fun wit,” Deanna said. “I love that about him, that he had that great humor that sometimes is so needed in the mission because it’s a serious work that these missionaries do. And it’s nice to have a little bit of levity here and there in the mission.”
When Scott first heard about the accident, he hoped that the news was wrong.
“My first thought was maybe the message was not correct, but it was correct,” Scott said. “Your heart goes out, you’re sad. It was just a wonderful thing that was perhaps cut short. So, my first thought was, I hope this is not correct. When I found out for sure it was just devastation and heartbreak.”
Deanna put Mills in charge of making videos for the mission, and she said he always did things with a smile on his face.
“He was so excited and his response would always be, ‘Yes, I’d love to do that,’ with an exclamation point,” Deanna said. “Everything was with an exclamation point. And I think it was his willingness to do things cheerfully. That really is my greatest takeaway of Elder Mills.”
Mills’ funeral was last Saturday. Several returned missionaries who served with Mills attended along with Scott and Deanna.
“I guess the thing I would say the most is, we respect him, and we truly love him,” Scott said. “We just think the world of him.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for Mills’ family. Over $32,000 has already been raised out of a $35,000 goal.