Day care, family mourn mother, ‘wonderful, beautiful children’ killed in Rock Hill crash
Sadness and shock filled the broken hearts of a South Carolina family and a Rock Hill day care’s employees Monday — days after a mother and her twin 3-year-old daughters died following a car crash.
Those who loved Tionese Crim Hughes, 30, and daughters Mackenzie and Mariah Hughes said their impact on people will live on forever. The three died after a crash on Saluda Road Friday night. Another person in a different car also was killed.
The twins were in the back seat of a car driven by their mother, officials said. One of the girls died on the way to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, and the other died later at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte. Their mother died at the scene.
The girls went to Right Choice Child Development Center in Rock Hill starting from when they were around 9 months of age, said Sidnetrice Williams, owner of the day care. The twins would have turned four in August.
“They were just wonderful, beautiful children,” Williams said.
Memorial outside of Rock Hill day care
The center also previously cared for another of Tionese Hughes’s older children, Williams said. All of them were loved by the day care family, Williams and other staff said.
A Facebook post by the child care center Sunday said the staff were devastated and heartbroken.
Staff member Tara Parker had the twins in her class. The twins and family were loved by the staff and other children, including her own son in the same class, Parker said.
“They were bubbly, full of personality,” Parker said about Mackenzie and Mariah. “They were amazing, very smart.”
Over the weekend, people created a memorial to the twin girls and their mother outside the day care. Paint covered the stones outside the building, and people brought flowers, stuffed animals, candles and balloons.
People gathered to pray, hug and share love for three people whose lives were cut short, but will never be forgotten, Williams said. A pastor led a group in prayer Sunday evening as people vowed to remember a young mother and her two daughters.
“We want people to come here and know that we all love each other,” Williams said.
Two children not in car
Tionese Hughes was a devoted mother of four children, said her uncle, Shon Crim of Camden. Two older kids, a boy age 7 and a girl age 6, were not in the car with their mother, Shon Crim said. Family members are caring for the surviving children.
“She just loved those kids,” Shon Crim said Monday of his niece, Tionese. “They all were so special, her and those beautiful girls.”
Tionese Hughes moved to Rock Hill and worked for a security firm after serving the public earlier in her career at Kershaw Correctional Institution in southern Lancaster County, her uncle said.
She worked as a corrections officer at the prison from 2018 to 2022, a S.C. Department of Corrections spokesperson told The Herald.
She also was deeply religious — convictions her children shared, Shon Crim said.
“You never expect this in a million years,” he said. “It’s crushing.”
Most of Tionese Hughes’ family still lives near Camden in Kershaw County.
Funeral services will be held at a later date in Camden, family said.
Kristen Agard, 39, of Rock Hill, the driver of another car in Friday’s collision, also died at the scene, officials said.
The police investigation into the collision remains ongoing, Master Trooper Gary Miller of the highway patrol said Monday.
This story was originally published March 26, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
