Family mourns 21-year-old killed in Fort Worth crash. ‘He spoke life into me.'

A wrong-way driver crashed into another car in northwest Fort Worth on Feb. 3. A 21-year-old college student was severely injured and died at the scene. Police investigated, filed their report and closed the case.
The story ended for everyone else. But for those who loved Solomon Sanchez, the crash near the intersection of Boat Club Road and Ten Mile Bridge Road was more than just an accident.
Sanchez's family and friends are still searching for closure.
Daquirie Thanphirom, 35, was 14 years older than her baby brother Solomon.
Thanphirom, the oldest of four siblings, said her parents were both nurses. Their father worked nights, their mother worked days, and 'so in between the chaos of everything, I was kind of helping as the oldest daughter,' she said.
Growing up when she had a bad day, her brother would get an extension cord, plug in a strobe light, and blast one of his favorite Hall and Oates songs.
Solomon would come in a black blazer, and he would just start to 'mic test' — 'He's like, 'Wake up! The day is here. It's gonna be OK. It's a party. Make it a party,'' Thanphirom told the Star-Telegram. She said that was one of her best childhood memories.
'Everywhere I took (Solomon) people always asked if he was my son,' Thanphirom said.
Solomon loved reading. 'He just wanted to understand the world — that is why I think he chose sociology as his degree that he was going to get at the end of this year,' his sister said.
'He never wanted anyone to have a bad day. He started saying that when he was about 10, because he was bullied a lot at school, just because he really didn't care what other people thought he was,' she said.
People would always tell him that he reminded them of King Solomon in the Bible, 'just very wise beyond his years,' Thanphirom said.
Thanphirom had completed a seven-mile run that day to train for a half marathon, which her baby brother had encouraged her to do. Solomon attended a full day of classes at UT Arlington and planned to play basketball with friends that evening, she said.
Around dinner time, he texted her asking what she was cooking, and she told him she was making hamburger sliders and would save some for him, Thanphirom said.
At 8:45 p.m. he texted that he was about to head out and might stop by her place. At 9:08 p.m., he texted that he was on Boat Club Road, she said.
'And that was the last text I got from my brother,' she said.
She and her husband were waiting for Solomon. She had already packed his food and dessert.
When he didn't arrive, she became concerned and texted him, 'We're still waiting for you. Take your time. Drive safe,' Thanphirom said.
Her brother's friend called her around 9:30 p.m., concerned about Solomon's location, which hadn't moved for 25 minutes, she said.
'I remember looking at my husband, and before I could even tell him anything, he was already running down the stairs and hopped in his car,' she said.
Thanphirom followed in her own car after she arranged care for their children. 'I got stuck in traffic because all of Boat Club was shut down both ways,' she said.
She then called her brother's friend Heaven to wake her parents, who live a few blocks away.
Her husband was already at the crash site, Thanphirom said. 'He told me, 'I don't think it's good. Before he could say anything else, I heard my mom scream. And then he said it: 'He's gone'
'I just spoke with him at 9:08 and I'm here standing on the street where he just died at 10:05 p.m.,' she said.
Solomon was killed in a head-on collision with an 84-year-old driver who was on the wrong side of the road, according to a police report.
Fort Worth police told the Star-Telegram that the driver who hit Solomon may have struck something on her side of the road before she veered onto the opposite side, but she was not intentionally driving on the wrong side, according to their investigation.
The woman also was seriously injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital by ambulance. She later died, according to an obituary.
The detective had requested that the driver be evaluated by a medical advisory board, according to the crash report, but police said their investigation did not find that the driver's age or a medical condition factored into the cause of the accident. The detective did not determine for how long the driver was on the wrong side of the road.
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According to the report and the detective on this case, it appears the collision was 'purely accidental,' a police spokesperson said, and no charges were filed.
After the initial crash, a third car that was behind Solomon collided with the other two vehicles, according to the report.
Heaven Sayus, 23, said that Solomon became her first new friend when she moved to Texas, providing her with a sense of home.
'If happiness was a person, it would literally be Solomon,' Sayus said.
Sayus and her husband were the last people to see Solomon on the night of the accident.
'We were just having a good time goofing off playing basketball,' she said.
A mutual friend gave Sayus a call about 10 p.m. and asked, 'Have you heard from him?'
'When I got there with my husband, we saw tons of cop cars, lights, everything,' she said.
'There were so many things going through my head, but I think the whole time I was just praying that it's not him,' she said.
Sayus said spending time with Solomon's loved ones has helped her cope with the loss of her friend.
'Being with his family and friends and sharing stories and happy memories of him is really what has helped in coping,' she said. 'Obviously, there are still hard days where I just really miss him, but I think being around them helps.'
Echo Splain, 24, said she met Solomon when he served her drinks at the coffee shop where he worked, Crude Craft Coffee Bar. Later they became friends and bonded over their love for coffee, music and sociology.
Splain said Solomon made every social situation safe and loving. 'He was the kind of person who, when in a group of people, made the most overlooked people feel seen,' she said.
It took Splain two days just to fully process her emotions related to the accident.
'I think I was just kind of in shock, just trying to figure out what I could do to help the family,' she said. 'Because I haven't experienced a loss like that before.'
Splain said the way the case was handled did not allow 'a lot of closure,' for the family and friends.
'Within our group, we're able to find a little bit of healing, but it's purely just because of how good of a person Solomon was,' Splain said.
'Every single person that came up to us said the same thing,' Thanphirom recalled, through tears. 'They said, 'Your brother always spoke life into me.''
Thanphirom said when she thinks about how her brother was taken, she is angry, but life goes on.
'I'm just going to take it day by day, because I truly believe in how we're told tomorrow was not promised, and that phrase will stick with me for the rest of my life.'
'Grief is not linear, and it's a tragedy that's going to bring on so many raw emotions, but you have to find your voice in all the chaos and stick to your loved ones' narrative and fight for them,' Thanphirom said.
'If I'm being completely honest, I really hate when people say, 'Life will go on. You're going to be OK. Don't worry, it'll get better,'' Thanphirom said. 'I don't think it'll ever get easier when someone you love is taken from you.'

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