‘So senseless’: Pregnant mother killed in crash by DUI driver
Suzanne Chapel and her boyfriend, Isaiah Armstrong, were one exit away from getting home when their car ran out of gas on Interstate 15 last Saturday morning.
At around 2:15 a.m. on Jan. 13, Armstrong pulled over to the left shoulder, near Cheyenne Avenue. He put on his hazard lights and called AAA. Before help arrived, a 2020 Chevy pickup drove into the shoulder and crashed into the car.
Christopher Walker, 32, the driver of the Chevy, was charged with failing to maintain a travel lane and DUI resulting in death and serious injury, court records show.
Chapel, 21, died at the scene, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol. She was pregnant with her and Armstrong’s child when she died, according to her mother, Laura Chapel.
“Suzy had a smile that just lit up our world. She was an artist, and she gave her all,” Laura Chapel said. “She loved everyone around her.”
The child would have been Suzanne Chapel’s second. She is survived by her 5-month-old daughter, Auroya.
Suzanne Chapel loved makeup artistry, painting, photography, knitting and aspired to attend the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing in Los Angeles, her mother said.
“She was just kind of figuring out who she was and what she wanted to do, and it’s just so sad that everything was interrupted,” Laura Chapel said. “That her daughter will miss out on growing up with her.”
An online fundraiser to pay for Suzanne Chapel’s funeral expenses had raised more than $14,000 as of Friday evening. Armstrong was critically injured and “fighting for his life,” at the hospital, according to an online fundraiser.
Her brothers Sam, 22, and Adam, 24, described their younger sister as the life of the party and someone they looked up to.
“She was my best friend,” Adam Chapel said.
Her family recalled how she enjoyed trips to the beach, music festivals and turning up the music in the car to sing along.
“She’s going to continue to have an impact and that her story is going to hopefully make people think twice about getting in the car to drive after they’ve been drinking,” Laura Chapel said. “It’s just so senseless.”
According to Walker’s arrest report, a Highway Patrol trooper who responded to the crash had to hold Walker up to keep from falling over. The trooper smelled alcohol on Walker, whose speech was slurred.
Walker asked a trooper, according to the report, if he was under arrest because, “I came from the bar? Do you arrest everybody that come from the bar?”
Walker pleaded guilty to DUI in 2018, according to the report.
Court records show that Walker posted $50,000 bail and is due in court on Jan. 31. Jail records as of Friday evening showed that Walker remained in custody at the Clark County Detention Center.
“I’m not processing it. I’m not OK,” Adam Chapel said. “I’m traumatized, and I just miss my little sister.”
Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com.
