MATTOON – Four women from a Baptist church in northwest Mississippi left home Monday morning, intent on seeing Amish country in Illinois.

About 10 miles from their intended exit on Interstate 57, the sport utility vehicle the women were in was struck from behind by a distracted semitrailer truck driver who didn't see that traffic was backed up.

Everett Van Duzee, 55, of New Iberia, La., precipitated a chain reaction collision that ultimately involved nine vehicles, killed three women and injured 13 others, two of them critically.

He has not been arrested, but troopers are investigating what state police District 10 commander Capt. Stuart Shaver described as "discrepancies in his log book."

"What he says and what we are investigating don't seem to be matching up," Shaver said.

One of the critically injured is Deborah Anne Faust, 58, of Sardis, Miss., believed to be the driver of the SUV that was either the first or the second vehicle in front of Van Duzee, according to Shaver. Faust remained hospitalized in the burn unit at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield in critical condition Tuesday evening.

The three women with her, including her mother and her sister, died within seconds of the collision from multiple traumatic injuries, not burns, Coles County Coroner Ed Schniers said.

The women killed were identified as Faust's sister, Sheila Douglas, 61, of Batesville, Miss.; Faust's mother, Juanita Hall, 80, of Sarah, Miss.; and family friend Doris Mayo, 68, also of Sarah, Miss.

Mrs. Mayo's former daughter-in-law, Angelisa Weaver of Sardis, who is also a cousin to the other three women, described the quartet as "excellent, beautiful Christian people."

"They all went to church together at the Hollywood Baptist Church in Sledge," Weaver said. "They don't miss a Sunday. They were always volunteering to do something."

Two accident reconstruction specialists and numerous other troopers have been investigating almost nonstop since the 5 p.m. crash on Memorial Day.

"The scene of something like this is chaos. By the time police arrived, the medical people were there, the injured were wandering around. The process of trying to identify who belongs to what car is a very long process," Shaver said.

By Tuesday afternoon, he said troopers were fairly certain what happened but were trying to verify information. They believe it was either the SUV that Faust was driving or a Chevrolet Equinox, also a small SUV, that was struck first by Van Duzee. Faust's SUV went into the median and caught fire.

The Equinox was unrecognizable.

"Most people thought it was overturned. You couldn't tell it was on its wheels. It was completely crushed by the semi. The troopers saw the vehicles and had no hope for anyone inside," Shaver said.

Miraculously, an 11-year-old girl crawled out.

"She was literally walking around the crash scene," he said.

The adult woman who was driving the Equinox was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, where Shaver said she has serious injuries but is expected to recover. Another man and a boy traveling with them in a separate vehicle ahead were also involved in the chain reaction.

Van Duzee was treated and released for minor injuries but had blood and urine samples taken at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Coles County, which is done routinely in fatal crashes.

"There is no physical indication of alcohol or drugs being involved," Shaver said. "We're believing it's driver distraction or inattention. It just happened to be the last day of Driver Distraction month."

The crash happened two miles north of Mattoon, where traffic was backed up on the highway due to a construction project about three miles to the north that forced vehicles to merge from two lanes to one. Shaver said there were electronic message boards warning of the lane reduction, necessary because there were holes in the pavement where one of the lanes is being resurfaced.

After the accident, traffic was diverted to U.S. 45 but was still backed up for miles due to the volume of people driving at the end of the holiday weekend.

Troopers had the interstate reopened by 1 a.m. All the vehicles involved had to be towed away.

"Considering the size of the chaos that was the traffic crash scene, I'm pleased with the ability of the officers to pick up cars, get the scene photographed and measured, and get that road opened in eight hours," Shaver said.