Family reflects on motorcyclist's life as North Dakota police share image of his final moments
The daughter and partner of a Warman, Sask.-area man who died while on a motorcycle trip through North Dakota are pleading for the person driving a truck that can be seen in footage from the man's helmet camera to turn themselves in to police.
Randy Moore, 55, died on Sept. 8 while on an annual motorcycle trip with three friends.
They were headed from Saskatchewan through North Dakota on their way to Sturgis, S.D.
The trip ended abruptly when Moore lost control of his motorcycle and was thrown from it. He died at the crash site.
A truck had swerved into Moore's lane, said a North Dakota Highway Patrol news release.
"This person, we really hope he comes forward with information, turns himself in. He left the scene," Moore's common-law partner Vicky Pravda told CBC News.
On Tuesday, police in North Dakota circulated a photo that they say shows the final moments of Moore's life.
In the picture, a black truck is on the highway and appears to be driving toward the helmet camera while in the wrong lane.
Something is visible behind the truck, but it's unclear what it is. Moore's daughter Teagan said police told her there had been another truck and they had both been driving erratically before the crash.
The family gave police consent to view the video footage, Teagan said.
"I want nothing more than this person to be caught. I don't wish ill on people, but he is the reason my dad is dead today," Teagan said.
While she felt a mix of anger and sadness when she found out that her father's helmet camera had been on during the crash, she said the overwhelming emotion was relief because a trooper told her the cause had been caught on camera.
Teagan had visited the crash site and seen treadmarks from a vehicle that went into the lane her father had been driving in. She considers the treadmarks to be evidence that her father had been driving safely.
"It's good to know that this is at no fault of his own," Teagan said.
She said she feels empathy for whomever was behind the wheel of the truck, and is baffled that troopers heading to the accident scene saw a truck matching the description of the truck pulled over on the side of the road several kilometres away. Teagan imagines the driver had pulled over to collect themselves after everything that had just happened.
Moore had been at the head of the pack, with his companions so far behind that other people had already stopped to help by the time they caught up to see he had crashed, Pravda said.
They were traumatized and someone kindly offered to pick them and their bikes up to take them home — an offer they took up, he said.
Saying goodbye
The week Moore died, both Pravda and Teagan travelled to the funeral home in Montana where Moore's body had been taken after his death, as well as to the crash site.
Losing their loved one in another country had felt surreal to Teagan, and she said she needed to see his body and the place where he died to fully absorb what had happened.
A police escort took Teagan, her sister and her mother out to the crash site where they met with first responders who, in an emotional exchange, shared the details of her father's death.
"It's almost like our minds had to hear all the details, and all of the gory details and whatnot, just to make sense of it all," she said.
To say goodbye, she and her sister sat on the roadside drinking two Coronas that she said had been in her father's bike's side pouch and hadn't broken in the crash.
Teagan said she could feel her father's spirit still there, as she took in the stunning scenery of the national park nearby. She is comforted knowing that her father did not suffer long after the crash.
"He just felt most free on a bike. He loved the wind hitting his face and going fast. He died doing what he loved," she said.
"The last 10 minutes of his life must have been incredible."
Footprints worldwide
Pravda said it wasn't just motorcycling that took Moore, a paver by trade, beyond Canada's border. He was a snowbird who hated the cold Saskatchewan winters.
After years of travelling, he and Pravda found a deep love of Belize. They ended up setting up roots building cabanas there and forging deep friendships with people in the tropical country.
"He had a very contagious laugh. He was a very caring soul. He was very outgoing…. He would always go to the store and get stuff and meet new people along the way," she said.
"It's almost gone global, with the amount of people that are missing him."
Sgt. Les Lokken with North Dakota State Patrol said they have already received a few leads on the truck.
He said with transient work in North Dakota's oilfields, suspects in other cases have left the state to get away from police. Therefore, the vehicle they're looking for may not be in North Dakota, he said.
