Mom, 2 girls killed on Halloween trailer in Mississippi

U.S. 80 in Newton County is still littered with the spoils of a night meant to be fun for children and families but now holds tragic memories for the small town of Chunky.

A pair of shoes lay separately among the candy and in the weeds on the side of the road, apparently knocked from the feet of their owner and left behind when the victims of a Halloween night vehicle accident were transported to hospitals in Jackson and Meridian. Some of them have life-threatening injuries, officials said. The shoes are not far from the scene where Kristina Shaver and her two daughters, Baylee, 8, and Brooke, 2, were fatally injured while riding in a trailer for a Halloween party Monday night.

The trailer was hit from behind by a pickup, authorities said.

The Shavers were among 10 on the trailer, but they were the only fatalities as of Tuesday. Community members said the others injured in the wreck were Shaver's middle child, McKensey, Shaver's sister, Melissa Cook, 31, and her children. Shaver's husband was killed in a car wreck earlier this summer, family friends said. Cook's husband died in 2012.

McKensey Shaver is the last living member of her immediate family. She is in critical condition at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

UMMC confirmed they are treating five patients. Two pediatric patients are critical, and two are fair. Cook was in critical condition at UMMC as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Don Jones, who lives on Chunky Duffee Road, said his wife keeps count of the trick-or-treaters, and that the trailer had come by their home earlier in the evening.

"She was hollering, 'How cute, how cute!' so I came to the door and they were all there, just precious, just small kids. I guess door steps, you'd call them. And they were just having a good time," he said.

The tenor of the night changed when Jones and his family could hear sirens in the distance, he said.

"When the local fire department takes off, everyone can hear the sirens," he said.

Shortly after that, there were three helicopters landing on the ballfield not far from the wreck site, he said.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Spokesman Sgt. Andy West said the vehicle and trailer was turning off U.S. 80 around 7:45 p.m. when a Ford F-150 driven by Chase Cook, 20, who family friends say is not believed to be related to Melissa Cook, drove into the back of the trailer. West said that "a full investigation will be conducted into the cause of the wreck."

OTHER AREA ACCIDENT: Fiery fatal auto crash in Jackson

The tire marks on the road, highlighted in orange reconstruction paint, drew a fairly clear picture of where the vehicles collided and where they came to rest in a yard on the side of the highway. But it doesn't answer how or why.

"It would be inappropriate for us to speculate why the driver drove into the rear of that trailer, and we want to refrain from making any statements until the investigation is complete," West said.

The trailer was being pulled by a Jeep driven by Terry Smith, 58, of Chunky.

Newton County Elementary School Principal Jason Roberson said counselors were on campus Tuesday to help students and faculty with the impact of the accident.

"Any time you deal with loss, it's difficult, but when you're trying to explain it to children it compounds it even more," he said. "What we've focused on is remembering the good times we've had here."

Roberson said the counselors will remain on campus for the rest of the week.

"I've never dealt with anything of this magnitude, and it's been a lot to take in," he said. "Everybody's been touched by this."

Jones said he's praying for the families of the dead and injured. He said he doesn't know Cook, but he's praying for him, too.

"I pray for him because he's going to be scarred for life to know what happened when he hit that trailer," he said.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.