A young couple and their 5-month-old baby died Saturday in a three-car head-on crash near Laramie, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports.
Joshua Madaris and his girlfriend Haylee Reney were both 21 years old with ties to both Florida and Laramie, Wyoming, according to a WHP fatality report and the pair’s social media pages.
Based on roadway evidence and witness statements, WHP found that a Jeep Grand Cherokee was driving eastbound on Wyoming Highway 130 in Albany County, with a Lexus SUV following about 100 yards behind it at about 2 p.m. Saturday, says the agency’s fatality report.
Madaris, Reney and the baby were in the Jeep, WHP spokesman Shawncey Day told Cowboy State Daily in a Monday interview.
Near mile marker 8.5, the Jeep tried to pass a vehicle in front of it, the report continues.
A Chevy Silverado towing a gooseneck trailer loaded with horses was traveling westbound at that same moment, and “the sudden attempt to overtake left no time” for either vehicle to avoid a head-on collision, says the report.
The WHP report says there were four horses in the trailer. However, in a follow-up email to Cowboy State Daily, a veterinarian who arrived on scene said there were in fact only three horses in the horse trailer and the fourth on scene was his own, which he'd been hauling just before he arrived.
The truck and Jeep crashed head-on, detaching the horse trailer so that it slid across the centerline and hit the Lexus in the front bumper area. The Lexus stopped and sat blocking the eastbound lane, while the horse trailer tipped onto its side into the nearby barrow ditch.
Meanwhile, the Chevy truck and Jeep both slid off the road northward, the opposite direction of the horse trailer, “coming to an uncontrolled rest,” the report says.
Three more people were injured in the crash and a fourth person was not injured, the WHP report says.
Day said two of the injured people were taken to the hospital, treated and released, while the third was taken to the hospital for a longer stay.
Two of the three horses were fine, but a third horse succumbed to its injuries on scene, Day said.
‘All We Need Is Your Love’
As news of the crash circulated over the weekend, efforts to help the families in Wyoming and Florida are gaining steam.
Laramie-based New Life church has organized an online Meal Train campaign for the Reney family in Laramie, with people signing up to provide meals and also donating to a fund that’s hit nearly $6,500 so far.
In Florida, a GoFundMe campaign has been launched for the family of Madaris that’s so far raised nearly $3,300. Joshua Madaris was one of three sons his father Rickey had, according to the fundraiser’s organizer, Angi Bourquin, who’s a cousin of the father.
The father “lost his oldest son, Branden, to a car accident as well 21 years ago,” she said.
Haylee’s father, Joe Reney, posted a grateful message to his Facebook page Saturday, saying, “We are blessed with so many friends and a whole lot of family. Thank you! All we need is your love and support at this time.”
Update: This story has been updated to reflect a clarifying point about the quantity of horses in the wreck, sent by a veterinarian who helped on scene.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
