Fatal Halloween crash shakes Mississippi town

CHUNKY, Miss. -- Every Halloween in the rural eastern Mississippi hamlet of Chunky, families and groups of friends load costumed children onto flatbed trailers and drive from house to widely spaced house for trick-or-treating.

It's how things have been done for as long as Joyce Reynolds, co-owner of a local trading post, can remember.

On Monday night, a pickup truck slammed into the back of a small utility trailer carrying 10 people on a dark stretch of two-lane highway just outside Chunky, killing a mother and her two young daughters and severely injuring seven other Halloween revelers.

"Most everybody stays in the city limits where the lights are on," Reynolds, whose own children and grandchildren rode golf carts for trick-or-treating, said Tuesday. "What was unusual was them driving out Highway 80 where it was dark."

The crash happened after sunset on a stretch of two-lane U.S. 80 that has no street lights.

Killed were Kristina Shaver, 33, and her daughters, Baylie, 8, and Brooke, 2, who lived near Chunky.

Mississippi Highway Patrol Staff Sgt. Andy West said seven people were injured and were taken by ambulance or helicopter to one hospital in Jackson, about 80 miles to the west, and two hospitals in Meridian, 20 miles to the east.

The driver of the Jeep pulling the utility trailer, Terry Smith, 58, of Chunky, and his two passengers escaped injury, as did the driver of the pickup that hit the trailer, Chase Cook, 20, of nearby Decatur. No one was charged, but an investigation continued Tuesday.

West said the children on the trailer were dressed up for Halloween, but the wreck scene was so horrible, he didn't remember exactly how their costumes looked.

Pieces of wrapped Lifesaver Gummies, Milky Way and Kit Kat chocolate bars and Starburst candies still were scattered by the roadside at the site Tuesday. Investigators used bright orange paint to mark the spot where the crash occurred.

Among the other seven people injured on the trailer were three children, two teenagers and a woman. Their conditions were not known. Initially after the crash, authorities said six people were in critical condition. West did not know the age and gender of the seventh injured person.

Kristina Shaver became a widow three months ago when her husband, 36-year-old Kerry Douglas Shaver, died in late July, a local funeral home said.