Mother of 22-year-old killed by wrong-way driver says son was her 'superhero'

HAYWARD, Calif. - As a toddler, Xavier Selzer was called 'X-Man.'

His mother, Joyce Moreno, said boundless energy, love, and captivating deep dimples made him her superhero.

"Always happy. Always had a smile," she said quietly, through a downpour of tears.

Just weeks before Mother’s Day, this mother is broken. She needed a steadying hand from her eldest son, 27-year-old Victor Vasquez, to get through an interview with KTVU outside her Hayward apartment.

"It’s something that you don’t expect, a mother to bury her child. It should be the other way around. He should be burying me," said Moreno.

Her world was flipped upside down early in the morning on Apr. 23, in a mangled mess of metal and lost lives. Xavier was driving his red Honda Civic westbound on State Highway 237 in Sunnyvale.

Moreno said he worked delivering packages for Amazon during the overnight hours so that he could attend Chabot College during the day.

"I never had to worry about him veering off the path. He always had a plan and was focused," she said.

As the 22-year-old Selzer drove westbound, a 34-year-old in a white Honda drove east. But California Highway Patrol officers said he was traveling in the wrong direction in the westbound lanes of the freeway. The two vehicles hit head-on, killing both drivers.

The identity of the 34-year-old has not been released. CHP accident investigators suspected he may have been driving under the influence.

"The officers who were on scene, based on the things that were found in the vehicle. I believe there was an empty case of some kind of alcohol in the vehicle," said Officer Ross Lee of the San Jose CHP office.

Joyce said she could sense something was wrong Sunday morning when she was unable to reach Xavier through his cell phone. She called the CHP, which in turn led to her receiving a call from the Santa Clara County Coroner, informing her of her son’s death.

"And then I called my [eldest] son and let him know his brother was gone. And that was it," said Moreno.

With the holiday devoted to mothers on the horizon, Joyce Moreno is now spending her time planning her youngest child’s funeral. Her anger at a possible DUI driver taking her child’s life is surpassed by sadness at the loss of the child she thought of as her personal angel.

"He was a good kid. He was an amazing person. He was an amazing son," said Moreno.

A viewing for Xavier Selzer is scheduled for 5 p.m. May 11 at Holy Angels Mortuary in Hayward. Interment is the following day at Saint Clement Church, also in Hayward.

Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on Twitter, @JesseKTVU and Instagram, @jessegontv