Color, Courage, & A Life Remembered
Lexy Pyle’s Family Turns Heartbreak into Hope
At 19, Lexy Pyle lit up every room she entered. She was a soon-to-be college freshman with dreams of becoming a pediatric nurse. She was full of life — a life that was senselessly stolen one August night by a drunk driver.
In the quiet aftermath of that heartbreaking loss, her family is determined to make sure Lexy’s story doesn’t end there.
“You don’t know what true love is until you have kids,” says Lexy’s mother, Melissa Dunn. “And when you have kids, that’s your fear — that something will happen to them.”
On August 3, 2021, Lexy was in the passenger seat as 19-year-old Payton Hunter sped down First Avenue North. Court records show he was driving at excessive speeds and had just blown through a red light when a car turned in front of him near North 12th Street.
“She was a typical seatbelt wearer, but the seatbelts weren’t accessible in the truck, so she wasn’t wearing one,” Melissa says. “All the impact happened right at her door. It was just enough to partially eject her.” Lexy died at the scene. Hunter admitted to police at the scene that he had been drinking.
Lexy's Family: Faith Sayler, Jennifer Sayler, Dean Sayler, Melissa Dunn, Shane Dunn, Lisa Jones, Casey Hess, Hayden Sayler, Nate Sayler, Mandy Pierce
It wasn’t long after her death that the Love for Lexy Foundation became more than just an idea.
“I think the reason why we did it is because the justice system fails everyone. We were trying to keep her name out there,” says Taylor Dunn, Lexy’s 17-year-old sister. The family says Hunter was charged with negligent homicide and faced 30 years in prison. Instead, he received 10 years, with five of them suspended. He is now serving time in a pre-release center. “Since the accident, he spent one day in jail,” Melissa says.
Instead of letting the anger simmer, she says, “We wanted to be a positive light instead of a negative one.”
“When you keep getting comments from people saying, ‘She did this for me,’ or ‘She helped me in this way,’ it was just so much positivity,” says her stepdad, Shane Dunn. “To create a foundation meant something.”
On August 2, the family plans to turn Pioneer Park into an explosion of powdered paint in her honor with Lexy’s Color Run. It’s the second year the family has hosted the 5K race.
“I don't know what possessed us to do this,” Melissa says with a laugh. “There are six different powder stations that runners get powdered at throughout the race.”
Taylor adds with a smile, “I rolled in it last year. It was all over the finish line.”
Runners will start at 3rd Street West and Avenue B on the park’s east side. They will wind their way up to 12th Street West before turning back toward the park and the finish line.
Melissa adds that you don’t have to be present to take part in the fundraising effort.
“We had virtual runners,” she says. Last year, 15 states were represented with runners who ran in Lexy’s honor.
When asked what Lexy would think of the family’s efforts and the latest fundraising event, Melissa says, “Oh my, she’d be so happy. I think she’d be rolling around in the color, too.”
Taylor laughs and says, “No, she’d probably grab the whole bottle.”
It’s just one of a handful of fundraisers the family uses to do good in Lexy’s name. They also have a Love for Lexy custom license plate that, to date, has raised more than $10,000. With Lexy’s desire to be a nurse, the family launched a scholarship for nursing students. So far this year, they have doled out six $500 scholarships.
“It’s not much, but it will probably pay for a semester of books,” Melissa says. “I want to be able to fundraise to keep that going.”
Lexy's sister Taylor
Taylor helped her mom start Lexy’s Closet, a collection of prom and formal dresses that can be shared with girls who might not otherwise be able to afford one. The family also used some of the funds to help make Christmas a reality for kids in need, sponsoring more than 50 families in their hometown of Laurel last year alone.
Aside from a philanthropic mission, Melissa hopes to use the Love for Lexy Foundation to spark change in Montana’s laws.
“We are trying to pass a law called Lexy’s Law that makes officers draw blood at the scene of a death or serious injury,” Melissa says, adding that in Lexy’s case, it was hours before officers were able to draw blood from the driver responsible for Lexy’s fatal crash.
May 22 would have been Lexy’s 23rd birthday. Melissa and Taylor celebrated with lunch at The Brew Pub, the place where Lexy worked up until her death. They also got sunflower tattoos — it was Lexy’s favorite flower — to serve as a constant reminder.
“It’s hard,” Taylor says. “She was my only sibling.” Both of the girls’ bedrooms were in the basement of the family home. “The door is always closed. The light is always off.”
It’s just more fuel, the family says, to keep the fire of Lexy’s life lit.
“It’s hard not to love her,” Melissa says. “I don’t want her to be forgotten.”
