HOPE, Ark. – Four families are dealing with the loss of their loved ones following a multi-18-wheeler crash on Interstate-30 near Caddo Valley on June 8th.
According to the Arkansas State Police, James Robert Carter, 65-year-old George Adamson of Hope, 52-year-old Anthony Peoples of Hot Springs and 82-year-old Horace Butcher of Hensely all died as a result of the crash.
The family of an 82-year-old truck driver, Horace “Sonnie” Butcher says their emotions ran high on June 8th when the crash on I-30 occurred.
“What was worrying us was my dad was not answering the phone,” said Horace Butcher’s daughter, Sunnie Butcher.
Family members spent hours trying to confirm the death of their loved one. Weeks later, they say they still haven’t received 100 percent confirmation.
Sunnie says her family spent hours sifting through photos on social media looking for her dad’s dump trailer when they were notified of a wreck on the route Horace was driving that day.
When they found it, their heart dropped. Sunnie says family members rushed to the scene and were eventually told that her dad’s body was unidentifiable.
She says she took a DNA test 2 days after the wreck, but still hadn’t gotten the results back.
“I never got to identify him, and I never got to see it.”
On Friday, June 17th, Sunnie says she got a call from the funeral home who was to care for her dad’s body, telling her they were headed to pick up her dad’s body.
She says that is when reality set in, but still, without the DNA results, Sunnie is hoping for the body the funeral home picked to not be 82-year-old Horace Butcher.
Now the family is also waiting for the ashes of their loved one as they plan to have a memorial service for him this Saturday.
Sunnie says her father was still very active and that’s why this tragedy is such a heartbreaker for the family, but grateful her last words with him were “I love you.”
and that was it. “
Officials with ARDOT confirmed that eight tractor-trailers and three passenger vehicles were involved in the main crash.
In all, there were five separate wrecks.