In the moments before

It was a clear Saturday in March the day that dark-blond-haired, 22-year-old Brian Reams planned for a night of bar-hopping with friends. It was like any night off for a college student: text messages about where to go, when to go, and who was coming with.

Meanwhile, in the same town, there was another man, Aaron Vernon Heyer, also 22, who was making similar plans to go to the same bar. Heyer wasn't from Eugene, though. He was visiting some friends for the weekend. His birthday was coming up and they were going out.

What neither man knew, however, was that their lives were about to collide. They didn't expect that hours after their plans were set, Heyer would drive north on Hilyard Street at the same time Reams would be walking home a friend, and that Reams would step into the street where Heyer's car would hit him at roughly 35 miles per hour.

Neither knew that Heyer wouldn't stop, and that Reams would later die from his injuries. Heyer later lied about his involvement and led Eugene police officer Ben Hall on a three-month-long investigation that culminated in 19 months in prison for Heyer.

They didn't know that night would change dozens of lives forever.

Two athletes, two paths

In high school, hundreds of miles apart, Reams and Heyer were both popular and athletic.

Reams grew up with both his parents and an older sister. The family lived for five years outside Detroit before moving to Pocatello, Idaho, where Reams attended high school.

"He played nearly every sport you could imagine," said Reams' mother, Debra Reams. "He was real popular and gregarious."

Brian Reams was a passionate Notre Dame fan, and he adopted their football team's slogan, "Play like a champion today," as his own personal motto.

Reams courted several universities in the Northwest before deciding to attend the University of Oregon in the fall of 2003. "The city and the University of Oregon fit him perfectly," Debra Reams said. "Brian came all on his own."

After his freshman year, Reams joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity on 10th Avenue and Patterson Street where he formed close relationships with the chapter's members. After his death, several members got tattoos that reminded them of Reams.

"Brian was one of those guys who lived his life to the fullest," said Marty Hermens, University senior and Beta's chapter president. "He had the motto, 'play like a champion today', and that's one way to describe him, he played like a champion everyday."

Heyer grew up in Coos Bay, and he had two younger brothers. He graduated from Marshfield High School in 2002, where he wrestled and played football, said Heyer's younger brother, Raymond Heyer.

Raymond Heyer said his brother was like a "big teddy bear."

"He has one of the biggest hearts that I know of," he said.

Socially, Heyer was the life of the crowd, said his high school friend Thomas Mayes. Mayes said Heyer wasn't quite on the right track before the accident, but he had a lot of potential.

"He was the guy you could always count on for a laugh, and you could also count on to be there for you," Mayes said.

Before the crash, Heyer worked at a local mill with his father. He occasionally participated in cage fighting at local venues.

Heyer didn't attend college, as he had trouble applying his skills in the classroom, his father, Alan Heyer said.

"He's obviously not a perfect kid," Alan Heyer said. "He's made his share of mistakes ... and he's paying dearly for what has happened."

The night

On Saturday, March 3, Reams text messaged back and forth with University student Dani Tabor. The two became friends after they shared two classes and studied together. Reams' mother Debra later read the messages when she received his belongings from the police that were once collected as evidence from the crash.

"She'd say, 'We're gonna dance,' and he'd say, 'No, we're not gonna dance. I'll meet you there but we're not dancing,'" Debra Reams recalled from the text messages.

"They were just meeting up with friends and having fun," Debra Reams said. "They were all walking."

Tabor and her friends met Reams and his friends at Taylor's Bar and Grille at the start of the night. At Taylor's, Tabor got Reams to "frolic a little bit," Tabor recalled.

From there, the group went to Rennie's Landing and stayed until at least 1 a.m. Reams went home, but about 30 minutes later he sent Tabor a text message saying he'd be up for a while if she wanted to meet up again.

"We had a blast that night," she said. "He was just one of those people who could bring the life to the party. I didn't even know him that well, it just poured out of him. You'd see him and he'd always be smiling, and he'd say, 'Oh, are you OK? Do you need anything? What do you want to do? Let's do this it'll be really fun.' Just something silly. He could make the worst idea sound so great."

Tabor went to New Max's Tavern and met up with Reams. The two drank Hefeweizen and talked at the end of the bar until it closed.

"Well, it's getting late, I should maybe go home," Tabor recalled telling Reams.

He offered to walk her home.

"Oh no, you don't need to, it's fine," she told him. "I live like two blocks from here."

"No, that's just what we do," Tabor recalled him saying. "We walk each other home."

Tabor agreed. "He was just being a good guy," she said.

The crash

Reams walked with Tabor from Max's until they were about 200 yards from her apartment, which was on 15th Avenue in between Hilyard and Alder streets. Before they crossed Hilyard, Tabor told him she could make it the rest of the way, but he told her he didn't want anything bad to happen to her, so he'd see to it she made it to her front door.

At the northwest corner of the intersection of 15th and Hilyard, Reams looked to his right and saw a car about a half a block away in the left lane that was slowing to either park or turn into an alleyway. He entered the street, but Tabor stayed on the edge of the road. At the same time, Heyer, driving a dark-green Cadillac, accelerated and passed the slowing car that Reams saw moments earlier. As the Cadillac crossed back into the left lane it struck Reams, sending him into the air, the investigation report says.