Colorado mother's message after son was killed by train: "He was a good kid. He didn't want to die"
The mother of a 16 year old hit and killed by a train in early November shared a painful story on Tuesday about her son's death.
Castle View High School student Joey Catalioto was killed on Nov. 2 when he was walking along tracks on the east side of Sedalia.
Pamela Catalioto is convinced he was unable to hear the train approach because of the AirPods he was wearing.
"If he would have heard it he would have moved," said Pamela as she shared her son's story in a news conference coordinated by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
The investigation is still ongoing, but Pamela Catalioto says she has been told there were multiple soundings of the train's horn and her son seemed not to regard it.
"They said he didn't flinch. He didn't look, he didn't react. Like he just couldn't hear nothing."
Her son would often walk along the tracks as he enjoyed the outdoors she said.
"He did like to walk along the tracks. Just to clear his head and to be with nature … he would take a walk, bike rides, downtown Castle Rock. He would just ride the trails and what he would say is he liked to go to the car graveyards where people would go to. There's a bunch of classic cars," she said.
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There is a lot with old cars near the spot in Sedalia where Joey was hit. His mother said his dream was to one day rebuild an old car.
"He found it, sad that they were just dumped there," she said.
The day Joey was killed, his mother was tracking the location of his headphones, wondering where he was when she spotted him along the tracks. She feels she witnessed him being struck.
"His Air Pods just moved really quick and I thought, 'oh that's a weird glitch I've never seen before' and he was right by the tracks and his Air Pods were somewhere else."
The day after Joey was killed, Pamela and her daughter went to the scene to try to find the Air Pods Joey was wearing. They searched for hours and have never found the earphones.
Editor's note: Following the publication of this article, Pamela Catalioto requested that CBS Colorado mention that her family has started a GoFundMe "to help our family." It is called "Struggling After Sudden and Traumatic Loss" and on Dec. 5 it was about one-third of the way towards the fundraising goal.
CBS News Colorado videographer and reporter, Mark Neitro and Alan Gionet joined them in their search. Neitro also tried to help with a few kind words. He's been through the same situation.
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His stepdaughter 20-year-old Amanda Kirchner was hit and killed by a train in Westminster back in 2016. She was wearing over-the-ear headphones and did not hear the train that hit her.
Since that tragedy, Neitro and other members of Amanda's family have created the One Ear Out organization to spread information about headphone safety.
One Ear Out suggests keeping one ear free to hear outside noises and dangers in any environment where there might be risks.
Pamela Catalioto was sharing a similar message as she related her loss along with memories.
"He was a good kid," she said. "He didn't want to die."
The day before his death, Joey had given his mother a long hug she will not forget.
"He just like came up behind me and just put his arm around me and just hugged me for at least a good minute. And I thought 'OK, that's different.' And I just kind of like patted his arm and he just stayed there for a really long time."
There is good information about headphone use at the website started by Amanda family here.
