Alabaster Police are preparing to file charges following an Easter morning accident on Highway 119 at the intersection of 11th Ave. SW that killed an Alabaster man and left his wife critically injured as the couple was on their way to church.

Roy Hixson, 84, and his wife, Mary, were taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham following the head-on collision, where Roy later succumbed to the fatal injuries.

Daniel Goodwin, lead crime scene and traffic homicide investigator for the Alabaster Police Department, said the charges were not related to the accident.

During the April 16 Alabaster City Council meeting, Mayor David Frings, who attends church with the Hixsons, said there was an alleged third car with any out-of-state license plate involved in the accident and it fled the scene.

Goodwin said that third car did not strike either vehicle and it has been located.

Mark Davenport, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Alabaster (Cumberland), said the Hixons had been attending the church for one and a half years and had officially joined the church a year ago.

Davenport said the church received a call about the accident around 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Davenport said the couple had really embraced the church, just as the church had embraced the couple.

“They were a delightful couple,” Davenport said.

Sandra Thames attended church with the couple and she said they will truly be missed.

“They were as sweet as they could be. I just loved them,” Thames said. “Roy had such a great sense of humor.”