A MUST READ for my fellow Law Enforcement and Military Friends…R. Glenn
KUSA – As a teenager, Taylor Thyfault was exceptional. His ambition and passion led him to make a list of 25 future goals when he was in high school.
Those goals were:
- Join the Army and be the best that I can be
- Go bungee jumping
- Get married
- Start a family
- Buy an English Bull Dog and name him Diesel
- Swim with sharks
- Visit Hawaii
- Visit the tribe I am from (Saquangue Lakota Oyate)
- Save a life
- Coach a Lacrosse team
- Graduate high school
- Get a masters part time in the military
- Get a job
- Buy my own truck
- Wrestle an alligator
- Meet the 'Jackass' crew
- Buy my Quad
- Play football for a minor league
- Go cliff diving
- Volunteer in the community
- Go to Alaska
- Be there for all of the people that have been there for me
- Never be arrested
- Go to Oktoberfest in Germany
- Be the best man, husband, son, soldier, and friend as … possible
As apparent, Thyfault didn't dream about becoming rich or buying a mansion. Thyfault's mom, Carole Adler, knew about those dreams, and she knew he was capable of accomplishing them. They were extremely close.
By the time Thyfault was 21 years old, he was already an Army veteran and in the final stages of his cadet training with the
On May 23, 2015, Thyfault was on assignment with Trooper Clinton Rushing on a crash investigation on Colorado Highway 66 near
The driver missed the stop sticks and crashed into both men. Rushing was critically injured, Thyfault died at the scene.
A tow-truck driver who was at the scene of the initial wreck said Thyfault warned him to get out of the way, and this warning saved his life.
Adler considers her son a hero.
"And if you asked him, he'd do it again, because he sacrificed himself, for someone else," Adler said. "He lived, he dreamed and breathed that."
Adler knows she was the last person Thyfault sent a text message to on the day he died. They routinely communicated throughout the day. They worked out together. They had coffee on Friday mornings. Her grief never leaves.
Just a few weeks after Thyfault's death, Adler felt the urge to text him to tell him she missed him and she loved him. She knew this was a one way conversation, but it helped her feel close to him. After sending several text messages, she got a response.
Sergeant Kell Hulsey from the Greeley Police Department got a new work phone this summer. He noticed the text messages instantly but assumed they were the wrong number and ignored them. It was that one message late one night that made him stop and think about his response.