Beloved Los Banos teen’s family still coping with loss as investigations continue

Sitting on top of the dozens of mementos in the memorial shrine to 18-year-old Tyler Turner in his mother’s home is a homemade championship belt for the video game “Super Smash Bros.”

Tyler and his friends created a student organization at Pacheco High School, “Smash Tour,” dedicated to playing the popular video game.

On the inside were quotes from players, written by hand each week they played the game.

Tyler’s last two entries on the belt were: “Oh no I’ve fallen” and “Didn’t want it to end like this.”

The innocuous quotes now seem like a sign to his mother, Francine Salazar Turner, foreboding his death in an August sky-diving accident. Tyler Turner was killed Aug. 6 while sky diving with an instructor from the Parachute Center in Acampo near Lodi. The instructor, 25-year-old Yong Kwon, also was killed, possibly as a result of a reported parachute malfunction, authorities have said.

Tyler had graduated just two months earlier from Pacheco High School and planned to attend UC Merced.

The fatal accident, which struck his family hard, remains under investigation by federal authorities.

“It kind of made itself,” Salazar Turner said of the memorial – full of photos, clothing and messages of support – in her home. “I set a few items myself. Then the whole family came in. And there has been so much support from the community.”

On the end of the memorial is one of Salazar Turner’s favorite photo illustrations, a blown-up photo of Tyler’s back as he was kneeling to pray before he boarded the airplane on Aug. 6. A friend had Photoshopped the image with angel wings.

“I just remember screaming and screaming and screaming,” Salazar Turner said about that day in Acampo. “It’s a physical pain, mental pain. My heart felt like it’s ripping.”

The pain is still felt by Tyler’s parents. Both are attending therapy and have the support of family. But Salazar Turner said she knows it won’t ever be the same.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation, a small parachute meant to pull the reserve and main parachutes didn’t fully inflate, leading to entanglement with the reserve parachute and tether.

FAA officials are determining what actions the agency may take against the parachute center, which has a controversial safety history.

In a Sept. 1 news release, the United States Parachute Association concluded that Kwon was trained by an instructor who was not authorized and may have forged signatures on applications. More than 130 tandem instructors, many at the center, were required to retake courses after Tyler’s death.

“It was negligence,” Salazar Turner said. “(Tyler) wasn’t told his instructor wasn’t certified. I would have absolutely said, ‘No, let’s get someone else.’ ”

But Salazar Turner said she tries to avoid being consumed by the investigations. Instead, she focuses her attention on Tyler’s life.

Tyler attended Volta Elementary and Los Banos Junior High before achieving academic success at Pacheco High School, where he graduated with honors in June.

He was accepted to UC Merced with enough college credit to enter as a sophomore. He received eight local scholarships totaling about $7,300.

Tyler was born with cerebral palsy, a condition affecting muscle control. It affected his legs the most, but he always found a way to make his and others’ situations positive.

Last year, Tyler told his mother he wanted to join the track and field team. He didn’t care if he was the slowest – he just wanted to enjoy the experience.

Religion played a key role in Tyler’s childhood. Up through high school, Salazar Turner remembers routinely telling him to turn down the volume on a recording of Bible verses he listened to late at night.

One of Tyler’s best friends told Salazar Turner that Tyler’s positive, outgoing nature may have saved him from a suicidal period in his life.

Buying championship belts for the next president of the “Smash Tour” group and a new group he was planning to start at UC Merced was the second-to-last thing to cross off a list of things to accomplish.

The last item on the list was sky diving.

“He did everything he wanted to,” Salazar Turner said. “Everything was right, ‘I’m good, I’m ready.’ ”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Beloved Los Banos teen’s family still coping with loss as investigations continue."