Authorities said the three-vehicle wreck on State Highway 62 left a 9-year-old boy hospitalized and remains under investigation.
JASPER, TX — Officials have identified the mother and daughter killed in a three-vehicle crash Friday night on State Highway 62 at the Jasper-Newton county line as Meagan Martin, 35, of Groves, and Serenity Rivera, 13, of Hemphill, as state troopers continued investigating what caused the wreck.
The identification put names to a crash that quickly drew attention across Southeast Texas because it killed a young mother and her teenage daughter, injured another child in the same vehicle and shut down a rural stretch of highway near County Road 825. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the collision began when a northbound pickup crossed into oncoming traffic at about 8 p.m. Friday. A justice of the peace said Rivera died after being taken to CHRISTUS Southeast Texas-St. Elizabeth in Beaumont, and he ordered an autopsy in her death. No charges had been announced by Tuesday.
According to the preliminary DPS investigation, a Honda passenger car and a Chevrolet pickup were traveling south on SH 62 when a Dodge pickup heading north moved into the oncoming lane near the Jasper-Newton county line. Troopers said the Dodge sideswiped the Honda and then struck the Chevrolet. Martin, who was driving the Chevrolet, died at the scene. Her daughter was taken by ambulance to a Beaumont hospital, where she later died. The driver of the Honda, a 45-year-old woman from Bridge City, was not hurt. The driver of the Dodge, identified by DPS as Timmy Castillo, 57, of Buna, was taken to a Beaumont hospital with injuries authorities described as not life-threatening. The roadway remained closed for hours Friday night as deputies and troopers worked the scene and redirected traffic around the crash site.
Authorities have released only part of the picture so far, and several details remain unresolved. DPS has not publicly said why the Dodge crossed the center line, whether speed or impairment played a role, or whether investigators found any mechanical issue that may have contributed to the crash. Troopers also have not said how long the northbound pickup was in the wrong lane before impact. What is known is that another child, a 9-year-old boy riding in Martin’s Chevrolet, survived and was hospitalized in Beaumont with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Family members told local television stations the boy is Martin’s son. Justice of the Peace Ben Collins Sr. said one victim died at the scene and Rivera died later at the hospital. Collins also said he ordered an autopsy in the girl’s death, a routine procedural step in some fatal crash cases when authorities need a formal medical record as the investigation continues.
The crash also brought together several communities tied to the victims. Martin was from Groves, while Rivera lived in Hemphill and attended Hemphill Middle School, according to relatives and follow-up reporting from local news outlets. Family members said Martin worked as a respiratory therapist at Baptist Hospital, a detail that deepened the public response because many people in Southeast Texas knew her through health care or through family connections. Relatives also said Friday had started as a happy day for Rivera. She had learned she had been selected for the Hemphill Middle School cheerleading squad only hours before the collision, according to family members quoted in local reports. That detail quickly spread online and turned the story from a highway fatality into a broader community loss, especially in Sabine County and the Groves area, where friends posted photographs and tributes over the weekend and into Tuesday.
For investigators, the case now moves through the slower and more methodical stages common after a fatal highway crash. DPS is leading the investigation because the collision occurred on a state highway. That process typically includes measurements from the scene, vehicle damage analysis, witness interviews, medical findings and a review of any available electronic or phone records if troopers determine they are needed. The autopsy ordered in Rivera’s death may become part of that case file. As of Tuesday, DPS had publicly identified the drivers and summarized the sequence of events but had not announced any citation, arrest or criminal charge tied to the wreck. Officials also had not released an expected completion date for the crash report. Until that work is finished, key questions about driver behavior, road conditions and any contributing factors are likely to remain open, even as the names of the dead have now been made public.
The human toll has been at the center of the coverage since the first reports from the county line late Friday. Collins, the justice of the peace, offered a brief public message after the deaths were confirmed, saying, “Prayers go out to the family.” Friends and relatives described Martin as a caring mother and medical worker, and they remembered Rivera by a nickname, Ren, in posts that focused on her energy and excitement about school activities. A fundraising page was created to help the family with expenses, another sign of how quickly grief moved beyond the crash scene into neighboring towns. Even with that outpouring, the public record still rests mostly on the facts collected by troopers: three vehicles, one lane departure, two deaths, one injured child and an investigation still underway along a stretch of highway that turned deadly in a matter of seconds Friday night.
By Tuesday, authorities had identified the victims and outlined the basic chain of events, but the cause of the lane departure and any possible enforcement action were still unresolved. The next major step is the completion of the DPS investigation and any findings that follow from the autopsy and crash reconstruction.
Author note: Last updated March 10, 2026.