WARREN COUNTY, Mo. _ An O'Fallon, Mo., man who clung to a semi for several miles on Interstate 70 later jumped off and was fatally struck by another semi truck while running in and out of traffic Tuesday.
Darryl D. "Manny" Boyle Jr., 20, was struck in a westbound lane of the interstate east of Jonesburg, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum said. He was pronounced dead shortly before 6:30 p.m. at a hospital.
Boyle's older sister said he probably became paranoid while at a construction-training site in High Hill, Mo., and had gotten on the semi in an attempt to get home.
Perhaps he was exposed to marijuana, the sister, Jasmine Boyle, 25, of St. Louis, said. Her brother had been diagnosed with paranoia and drug-induced psychosis, "so if he was ever around marijuana it made him paranoid," she said. "A doctor said being around it, the aroma in the air, would make him paranoid.
"He was just paranoid, he was sick at the moment," Boyle said as she tried to make sense of her brother's death. "He became paranoid and he was trying to get home, maybe he lost where he was going."
Police are still investigating why her brother was on foot on the interstate and why he climbed onto the semi. Nothum said the Highway Patrol had responded to the area shortly after 5 p.m. after receiving calls about a man on I-70.
A trooper saw a man, later identified as Boyle, riding on an eastbound tractor-trailer, Nothum said. The patrol initially said Boyle was on the hood, but Nothum later said Boyle apparently had grabbed onto a side mirror "and was just kind of hanging or standing on the running board."
The commotion caused traffic to slow to a crawl. Boyle rode on the eastbound semi for some distance; it wasn't clear exactly how far, nor was it clear whether the driver stopped or tried to stop during that stretch.
Boyle jumped off near Highway B and started to walk down the eastbound shoulder of the interstate. The trooper pulled behind Boyle and told him to stop, Nothum said, but Boyle again ran into traffic. Nothum said Boyle crossed the interstate, saw other arriving police officers and then about 5:30 p.m. ran back into the westbound lanes and into the path of the semi truck that hit him.
Jasmine Boyle said police told her family that an officer tried to use a Taser to subdue her brother, but that his heavy jacket prevented it from working; that's when he ran into traffic, she said.
Nothum said he heard that another police agency tried to use a Taser but was unsuccessful. He didn't know which agency but said it wasn't the patrol, which doesn't carry Tasers.
On Wednesday morning, Jasmine Boyle said her family was trying to raise money to pay funeral costs. She said her brother graduated from the Fort Zumwalt School District in 2015 and briefly attended Philander Smith College in Arkansas before his family decided it was best for him to stay in the St. Louis area.
He was working a construction job and was supposed to attend a three-day training program in High Hill. Jasmine Boyle said the family was supposed to pick him up after the three days, but he left after the first day. He had complained to colleagues that he wanted to go home.
