Couple’s search for missing boy turns deadly when car hits their horses, family says

A Mississippi couple was struck by a car while riding their horses, said family and friends of the pair.

Brent Boyd and Shameka Boyd, a husband and wife from Ruth, were riding horseback on a search for a missing boy in Wesson when a vehicle crashed into them, killing the horses, Jackie Edmonds Saujon, a family member, said in a Feb. 12 Facebook post.

The Boyds were hit Feb. 11 by a Chevrolet Equinox traveling on U.S. 51 in Copiah County, according to a Mississippi Highway Patrol news release.

Brent Boyd, 41, and Shameka Boyd, 40, were both hospitalized in Jackson following the wreck, troopers said. The 34-year-old driver was also sent to the hospital, according to the highway patrol.

The Boyds’ horses, however, didn’t survive the crash, said Melissa Keene, a friend of Shameka Boyd, on Facebook.

“These were their pride and joy and their best friends,” Saujon said on Facebook.

Shameka Boyd had fractures to her back, neck, rib and tailbone, Saujon said. She needed surgery on her spine and ankle, Saujon said.

Brent Boyd potentially needed surgery on his ankle as well, Saujon wrote in her post. His thoracic vertebrae was broken on the left side of his spine in the wreck, she said.

In an Feb. 12 update on their health condition, Tina Russell-Tucker provided a statement on Facebook from Brent’s brother. He called their healing a “marathon” and said the doctors were working to get the couple’s condition stable.

“They have a long road of recovery ahead of them,” Saujon said.

Copiah County is about 35 miles southwest of Jackson.

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