A 20-year-old missionary from Utah and his companion were killed Thursday in a head-on collision in New Mexico, according to a news release Friday from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Michael Austin Davis of Corinne, Utah, and 20-year-old Tyson Gene Haycock, of Miles City, Mont., who had been serving the faith’s New Mexico Farmington Mission, died in the crash.
A third missionary who was in the car, 19-year-old Britton Jeremie Berrett of Roberts, Idaho, suffered serious injuries but is in stable condition and being treated at a hospital in Albuquerque, according to church spokesperson Sam Penrod.
Davis had been serving since August 2019, while Haycock’s proselytizing stint began just a few weeks ago in June.
The accident is under investigation by local law enforcement, Penrod said.
“Our deepest sympathies go to the families of these faithful missionaries, and we express our love and condolences to all who love them,” he said in the release. “We pray that their families, friends and the missionaries they have served alongside will all feel God’s love and peace during this difficult time.”
Ten Latter-day Saints have died this year while serving full-time missions for the Salt Lake City-based faith.
Earlier this month, 60-year-old mission President José Maria Batalla, a native of Argentina, died of cardiac arrest after battling COVID-19 for two months. He had been overseeing the Bolivia Cochabamba Mission.
In January, a 24-year-old elder serving in his home country of Haiti died after being admitted to a hospital with “health complications”; a 19-year-old elder from Utah was killed in a car crash in Arkansas; and a 20-year-old Nigerian serving a mission in his homeland died after a “sudden health episode (unrelated to COVID-19).”
In March, a 21-year-old missionary drowned in his homeland of El Salvador, and a 48-year-old mission president in the Philippines died of an apparent heart attack.
In May, an 18-year-old missionary from Utah and his 20-year-old companion from Colorado were killed in a head-on collision in Denton, Texas.
