Father Charged In Murder Of Woman Found Dead In Shopping Cart

BALTIMORE, MD — Authorities say a man has been charged with murder in the death of his daughter, whose body was found this spring in a shopping cart in northwest Baltimore. He was served with the charging documents Thursday, July 11, the Baltimore Police Department reported.

Lawrence Banks, 66, of the 4000 block of Clarks Lane, was already at Central Booking, where he was being held on separate charges, police said. Banks was locked up May 30 for illegal possession of ammunition and possession of a firearm with a felony conviction, court records show.

His felony record includes two murders in 1991.

Banks was sentenced in 1993 to serve two 20-year sentences concurrently for two second-degree murder convictions, according to court records.

In one day, Banks killed a friend in Anne Arundel County and also murdered his son, who along with one of his daughters had accused him of abuse, according to The Baltimore Sun, which reported Banks was released in 2002 for good behavior.

The first-degree murder charge he now faces stems from the death of his daughter, Dominique Foster, 43, according to police.

Her body had been wrapped up in plastic bags and placed in a shopping cart when it was found at 3:48 p.m. on Sunday, May 12, police said. That was Mother's Day.

Officials said the shopping cart was located near the Clarks Lane Garden Apartments, where Lawrence Banks lived.

Investigators released an image of a tattoo on the victim to try to identify the body, which had reportedly been dismembered.

Another one of his children directed police to consider Lawrence Banks a person of interest, according to WBAL, which obtained an affidavit that said Dominique Foster "was in a sexual relationship with her father" and was staying with him at the time she was found dead. Police reportedly found blood and a handgun with five bullets in the magazine at the apartment, which helped police establish probable cause for the weapons offenses, WBAL reported.

Banks also has a history of violence surrounding his relationships. In addition to being convicted in the 1991 murders, he served 15 years for throwing a baby through a glass door in 1976 after an argument in his wife, who was later found dead and so badly decomposed a cause could not be determined, WBAL reported; and he was imprisoned once his girlfriend and her daughter were killed days after the daughter filed for a protective order against him in 2006, according to the station, which said he was released in 2014.

Banks was served with formal charges in Foster's murder Thursday, police reported.

At a bail review in June for the firearms-related charges, The Baltimore Sun reported Banks's public defender said the man was a retired housing inspector and father of six who has a master's degree from Towson University.