ENGAGED COUPLE KILLED IN CRASHES HOURS APART, LEAVING BEHIND SON

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 

Engaged couple killed in crashes hours apart, leaving son, Louisiana family says

By Olivia Lloyd

May 22, 2025 10:02 AM

 

A couple engaged to be married died in separate crashes hours apart on the same Louisiana road, leaving their young son behind, according to family and law enforcement.

 

Alexus Lee, a 25-year-old teacher, was driving on Louisiana Highway 67 at around 2 a.m. May 16 when she veered off the road for unknown reasons and hit a culvert, causing the SUV to flip, Louisiana State Police said in a news release.

 

She wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

 

Then shortly before 3:45 a.m., John “J.R.” Collins, Lee’s 35-year-old fiancé, was driving south on the same highway in the direction of Lee’s accident when he took a curve at a high rate of speed, ran off the road and hit a tree, troopers said.

 

He wasn’t wearing a seat belt either and was thrown from the Chevrolet Camaro, dying at the scene of the crash about 10 miles north from the site of Lee’s accident, according to state police.

 

Loved ones have now pledged to take care of the couple’s 4-year-old son.

 

“I love them and I’m gonna miss both of them and I’m gonna find the strength to go ahead,” Collins’ father, Arthur Collins, told WALB.

 

Alexus Lee’s sister, Dominique Lee, referred to the 25-year-old woman as “my ride or die, my diary, my emergency contact, my best friend,” in a tribute on social media.

 

“I know they left here knowing their child is in good hands for sure,” she told WALB.

 

A photographer who knew the couple called them “exceptional.”

 

“I wish I could have presented your memories as I collected more on your wedding day,” McDaniel Dotson wrote on Facebook. “You were never too shy to hit the dance floor. You will truly be missed, rest easy, my beautiful friend.”

 

Family held a joint celebration of life for the couple at East Feliciana STEAM Academy, where Lee was a teacher.

 

The accidents are still under investigation.

 

The pair crashed in East Baton Rouge Parish and East Feliciana Parish, about a 30-mile drive northeast from Baton Rouge.