SABATTUS, Maine — Tristan Boyd, the teenager who died after being struck by a truck while riding his bicycle in Sabattus on Thursday, is remembered by loved ones as a larger-than-life kid who loved his family.
"He was incredibly kind. He would’ve given the shirt off his back," Megan Boyd, Tristan’s aunt, told NEWS CENTER Maine Friday. "He was just a good kid who loved his family."
Boyd said as a child, Tristan was afraid of what the world would think about him, but was brought out of his shell by playing basketball. He also loved music and computers.
Perhaps most memorable to his family was his strong-willed attitude.
"If Tristan had an idea in his head of something he wanted to do, he was going to do that," Boyd added.
The 15-year-old also found a sense of self by riding four-wheelers and his bike.
"He loved his freedom outside," Tristan’s cousin, Levi LaFlamme, said Friday.
It was doing what he loved, riding around town, when his life was cut short. Police say the crash happened near the intersection of Litchfield Road and Hillside Drive in Sabattus, and that the driver involved is cooperating with the investigation.
Now, his family grieves an unimaginable loss. In a statement to NEWS CENTER Maine, Boyd’s mother, Whitney Bouchard writes, "He was a free spirit that nobody could hold back. He was my everything and my whole purpose in this world. Not a day will go by that I won’t carry him with me."