On Tuesday, Wendy Rollins took her son home.
Through the years, she said, she’d taken many fun drives with him — trips often filled with music and french fries. This drive, however, was silent.
The seat normally taken by Colton Moser — whom she called Colty — was instead occupied by his ashes.
Moser, 25, was one of three disabled men who died Feb. 6 after authorities said they were left in an idling van for more than four hours. The other two men were identified as 22-year-old Mosa’ati Moa and 39-year-old Tim Jones.
Their caretaker, 25-year-old Isaiah Vaughn Pulu, was charged with three counts of murder last week. Pulu, an employee of Safe and Sound Services, a business that transports and provides support for people with disabilities, told investigators he left the men in a garage with the door open so he could go to his apartment to eat and watch television. By the time he returned, prosecutors say, the door was closed and the men were unresponsive.
Moser’s mother had just arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to visit family when she received a phone call that her son had died.
“I’m just trying to find a balance between coping with how much we miss Colton and just that sadness of him being gone,” Rollins said. “And then also just overwhelming anger towards the person that took their lives, and then also the program that didn’t manage or prevent it.”
On Thursday, Pulu’s legal team reissued a statement it made last week calling the deaths a “tragic accident” and saying “our hearts go out to the victims and their families.” Pulu’s lawyers say they may have more to share after receiving evidence from prosecutors.
Safe and Sound Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Colton Moser
Moser grew up in Red Bluff, California, where Rollins said she homeschooled him for 18 years. She took him out shopping and to restaurants daily, she said, because Moser loved people — and fancy food like filet mignon.
Her son’s time in California is what Rollins is trying to focus on when she remembers him. That’s where he made a “huge impact” on his neighbors.
“Everybody at the grocery store knew him and loved him,” Rollins said. “...We were able to go to local restaurants and have people really accommodate his disability, and families just were unconditional with us — and I think they taught us a lot, and I think that Colton taught them a lot.”
Moser loved mountain biking and swimming, Rollins recalled, and could ride a tube pulled by a speedboat “with the best of them.”
He also was close with his older brother, Garrett, Rollins said, who “filled our home with all of his friends.”
“That group of friends, I think Colton believed, were his friends, too,” Rollins said. “And I think Colton made a lasting impression on that group of learning not to judge, and to accept people that were different, and that there [were] really neat things about them.”
When one of Rollins’ other sons started a family in Utah, she and Moser moved, too. She said it was a “lengthy process” to transition Moser’s services to the Beehive State and that there were no good options for programs. They just had to pick “the better of the worst.”
Despite her grief and anger since her son’s death, the community — and her family — has been a lifeline, she said.
“There’s a lot of power in numbers,” Rollins said, “and to have the public stand behind the families and our boys through this process and show the support that they have been showing, and kind of being their voice, has been really, really hopeful to all of us.”
Tim Jones
Jones’ cousin, Merri Seegrist, said losing the family member she called Timmy has been devastating.
Seegrist said she was 11 when Jones was born, and she became his designated family babysitter.
“He was just the cutest, sweet, fun, very happy little boy,” Seegrist said. “An infectious little smile, active — just a zeal for life. He had some disabilities, and so it held him back, but he loved music.”
Jones loved Lagoon’s roller coasters and enjoyed professional basketball, Seegrist said. Another cousin, Mark Madsen, previously played for the Los Angeles Lakers before eventually becoming the head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of California, Berkeley, Seegrist said, and Jones was “always proud of that.”
Seegrist moved from Utah to Oregon in the past few years, so it has been a while since she last saw Jones. That, she said, has been hard for her to come to terms with.
“It’s been a lot to process, that’s for sure,” Seegrist said. “We’ve got a lot of people that love him. … So there’s a huge outpouring of people rallying together and trying to put together a really nice celebration of life for him at the end of the month.”
Merri’s brother Alan Seegrist said he also has experienced a “wave of emotions” since the loss of his cousin. Alan still lives in Utah and has been working to plan the service for Jones.
Alan, who was in his mid-20s when Jones was born, remembers his cousin as “full of life.” Jones and his sister lived west of Interstate 15 growing up, and Alan recalled that the two once rode their “big wheels” all the way up to the Utah Capitol.
“Tim was a good person,” Alan said. “He had a lot of challenges in life that he didn’t ask for, and of course none of us do. But he’s home. I’m not sure how else to say it. He’s home. And his trials on Earth are over.”
Jones’ service will be held Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. at a Latter-day Saint chapel in South Jordan. Alan said the service will be open to all members of the public, regardless of faith.
“I hope that’ll be a healing thing for everybody,” Alan said, “and a time to unite together and focus on, really, the wonders of his life.”
Mosa’ati Moa
Moa was deeply loved by his family, friends and “everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” according to a GoFundMe organized by a family member. Attempts to reach Moa’s family were unsuccessful.
“He had a unique personality, a gentle spirit, and a way of touching lives simply by being himself,” the relative wrote on the fundraising site. “His loss has left an immeasurable void in our hearts.”
Another Moa relative posted a song in honor of the three men who died, Alan Seegrist said. The song “brings tears to your eyes,” he said, and focuses on peace and healing.
“This song honors The Brave Three — Mosa’ati, Colton and Tim,” a Moa relative said in a Facebook post sharing the song. “Three lives that mattered deeply. Three families forever changed. Three lights that will never fade.”
Pulu, the caretaker accused of murder in the three men’s deaths, made a brief court appearance via webcam Thursday, when his attorney asked for a hearing to address whether he can be released from the Salt Lake County jail. He is currently behind bars without the opportunity to post bail.
He is scheduled to be back in court next Friday for that detention hearing.
— Tribune reporters Jessica Schreifels and Tony Semerad contributed to this story.