Wrong-way crash kills exotic pet store owner, ‘truly a good soul’

As Dylan Hazelhurst drove from Colorado to Las Vegas on Feb. 4, he was living his dream.

The 30-year-old was going to visit his newly opened Las Vegas exotic pet store — the second location for his business that was finally taking off. His rescue parrot and three dogs, Achilles, Sienna and Annie, who was just a puppy, were with him in his 2017 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. He was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him soon.

He was about 50 miles from Las Vegas when a wrong-way driver crashed into his van head-on. Hazelhurst and the other driver, 39-year-old Rayanne May Walters, of Logandale, both died at the scene.

“He truly was a good soul,” Hazelhurst’s mother, Debbie Hazelhurst, said Tuesday in a phone interview. “Maybe that’s the ones that God takes early. I don’t understand why, because he was only 30.”

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers were called to the crash about 9:25 p.m. Feb. 4 on Interstate-15 near Moapa. Investigators believe Walters, who was driving a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, was traveling north in the southbound lanes on the highway when she crashed into Hazelhurst, who was from Grand Junction, Colorado.

Highway Patrol spokesman Travis Smaka said Tuesday that the agency is still investigating what caused the crash, adding that investigators are waiting on toxicology reports to determine if impairment was a factor.

Debbie Hazelhurst said knowing how the crash happened would provide some answers, but “nothing is going to bring back our son.”

Walters’ family did not respond to a request for comment. During a brief phone call Tuesday, a woman who identified herself as Walters’ mother said, “She was a beautiful person.”

A love for animals

Also killed in the crash were Hazelhurst’s dogs, Annie and Achilles, and his 45-year-old yellow-breasted Amazon parrot, Fred. Debbie Hazelhurst, who also lives in Grand Junction, Colorado, said she and her husband drove to the crash site to find Fred’s body, so that her son’s pets who died could be cremated with him.

Sienna, Dylan Hazelhurst’s only pet to survive, is now living with his girlfriend. The family has taken to calling her “Sienna Angel,” because she didn’t have a scratch on her after the crash, Debbie Hazelhurst said.

Hazelhurst grew up loving animals, his mother said. As a child he wandered with his pet dog, hunting for lizards, snakes and scorpions. He “lived and breathed” the Discovery Channel, and Steve Irwin was his hero.

“He talked about this forever in his life — that some day he was going to do something with animals,” Debbie Hazelhurst said. “That was all he ever wanted to do.”

In 2013, Dylan Hazelhurst started his business Crocodile Reef, which at first focused on installing custom fish and reptile tanks. The business grew to include a reptile and exotic animal exhibit popular with field trips and children’s birthday parties.

Through his work, Hazelhurst became friends with Ken Foose, who opened his Exotic Pets store in Las Vegas in 1991. When Foose died in September, Hazelhurst didn’t want his death to leave a permanent hole in the Las Vegas exotic animal community, Debbie Hazelhurst said.

So Dylan Hazelhurst took over the Exotic Pets space, holding a grand opening for his second Crocodile Reef location in November, his mother said. He spent weeks at a time in Las Vegas, and was considering moving to the state.

Throughout his life, the 30-year-old had owned snakes, lizards, iguanas, tarantulas, insects and wallabies. While animals took up most of his time, “there wasn’t much he didn’t try,” Debbie Hazelhurst said. Her son raced go-karts in Italy, jumped from planes as a skydiver and volunteered to ride a live bull.

He traveled frequently, and Debbie Hazelhurst has spent the past few weeks fielding well-wishes from people across the U.S., some of whom only met her son once, but never forgot his kindness.

“He was the goofy guy, he was the one who made everyone laugh,” Debbie Hazelhurst said, adding that his death has left “a void” in the family.

‘He lived the dream’

Dylan Hazelhurst knew his parents worried when he took long drives, and he made a point to keep in touch, his mother said. She heard his voice for the last time about an hour before the crash — she wanted to call and see how far he was from the Las Vegas Valley.

She and her husband went to bed shortly after, expecting to wake up to a text from their son. But there were no notifications the next morning. Then came a call from the Clark County coroner’s office.

“It was just awful,” Debbie Hazelhurst said. “It’s still awful.”

She knew her son was aware that his long drives could turn tragic. About a month before the crash, her son sat her down and said if anything were to happen to him, he wanted his parents to keep his business going.

So that’s what Debbie Hazelhurst is doing. She and her husband, who were already looking after the store in Colorado, are keeping up with the animals and working with their son’s employees.

After bouncing between odd jobs, Crocodile Reef didn’t really “take off” until this past year, Debbie Hazelhurst said. But she is happy her son never gave up on his goals.

“He lived the dream that he talked about,” she said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.