When a driver slammed into Massachusetts State Police Trooper Thomas Clardy's cruiser, causing traumatic injuries that claimed his life, it shut the book on rekindling a relationship with his oldest son.

Now his 22-year-old son, Tim Covington, plans to travel halfway across the country to see his father in person for the first time at his funeral.

News reports following Clardy's accident indicated he had six children but MassLive learned of his seventh child, Covington, when his mother Emelie Haygood contacted a reporter via email upset that her son being omitted from news reports.

Haygood (nee Covington) met Clardy while he was away from home on a mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah, their home state. She was 16 and he was 21 years old.

Haygood said she was drawn to his good-natured spirit and they dated for a year.

After she became pregnant, Clardy wanted to get married but Haygood declined.

"I was so young," she said, explaining why she broke the relationship off.

As Haygood raised their son, Tim Covington, Clardy moved to California where he met his wife, Reisa. Haygood also married and has five children, including her eldest. Her husband - who helped raise Covington - adopted him when he was 17 years old.

In that time, Clardy joined the Marine Corps - serving multiple tours - and eventually settled in Massachusetts where he joined the state police in 2005. He and his wife have six children, ranging in age from 4 to 17 years old.

After close to two decades of little-to-no-contact with his eldest son, Clardy reached out to Covington when he was 19 years old.

"They wrote back and forth," Haygood said. "Tom was trying to rekindle a relationship with him."

The connection has been difficult at times, Haygood said, as her son struggled with the identities of the man who raised him and eventually adopted him and the man who is his biological father.

"He feels like he already has a dad," Haygood said. "Now he feels guilty, feels like his chance to get to know Tom has been taken away."

Haygood learned of Clardy's death this week from his sister. Since the accident, she has read in news reports of his final moments, as has her son.

Learning of his father's death has been difficult, Haygood said. "He's not doing very good right now."

Clardy pulled over a Chevy Tahoe for a traffic violation along the Massachusetts Turnpike Wednesday. His cruiser was struck from behind as he processed the stop, pushing his vehicle into the Tahoe and eventually off the side of the turnpike.

He was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester via ambulance where he was pronounced dead Wednesday.

His body was returned to his hometown in Central Massachusetts with a police escort Thursday afternoon. He will be laid to rest at Tighe-Hamilton funeral home in Hudson.

Covington, now 22 years old and currently residing in Ohio, plans to make the 12-hour trek to attend the funeral, a trip that makes his mother nervous.

He has never visited his father's home in Massachusetts, never met his stepmother, never met his six half-siblings.

Despite her anxiety, Haygood feels her son must go see his father as he's put in his final resting place. "It will be good closure for him," she said. "He's gotten the butt end of a lot of deals, I think he needs this."