’Everyone loved him.’ Family, friends remember Nipomo teen fatally injured in highway crash
The Nipomo teenager who was fatally injured following a Highway 166 car crash was a goofy, energetic skateboarder who enjoyed cracking jokes and making people smile, his friends and family members said.
Shiloh Degadillo, 18, was also known for his caring and kindness.
“He just always brought so much light to the room,” his older sister, Alondra Banks, told the Tribune on Monday. “He made people feel happy.”
Delgadillo was driving on Highway 166 west of Bull Canyon Road at about 9 p.m. June 5 when he apparently made an “unsafe turning movement” and careened into a telephone pole, the CHP said.
Authorities believe Delgadillo then stepped out of his car and onto a live downed power line. The shock from the wire caused his heart to stop.
The teenager was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, according to the CHP.
According to his sister, Delgadillo was driving home from a friend’s graduation party and was supposed to be home by 8 or 8:30 p.m.
Following his electrocution, Delgadillo spent 12 days on life support at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. He died from his injuries on June 17.
Friends, co-workers and family members visited the hospital every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m to see Delgadillo and pray for him.
Among Delgadillo’s visitors was one of his co-workers from the McDonald’s restaurant in Pismo Beach. She told his sister that Delgadillo would stick up for her when people picked on her, Banks said.
“He would protect her,” Banks said. “It just goes to show how caring he was about other people all the time.”
Lopez High School graduate receives diploma in hospital
While in the hospital, Delgadillo also got a visit from Lucia Mar Unified School District Superintendent Paul Fawcett, board president Don Stewart and other district representatives, who brought his high school diploma.
Delgadillo was just weeks from graduating from Lopez High School in Arroyo Grande when he was involved in the June 5 crash, and he wasn’t able to complete the one summer class he needed to earn his diploma.
“Losing a child is the most difficult experience a parent can go through,” Fawcett told The Tribune on Monday. “Presenting Shiloh with his diploma was the right thing to do and hopefully, even if momentarily, his family was able to experience the sense of pride and joy that comes with seeing your child graduate.”
According to Banks, the district representatives were wearing their black graduation robes and nurses had dressed Delgadillo in his own gown.
One of Delgadillo’s brothers held his graduation cap, she said, and after the district representatives gave their commencement speeches, that brother moved the tassel from one side of the cap to the other to symbolize that Delgadillo had graduated.
Then, they held out Delgadillo’s hand and put his diploma in the hospital bed with him.
“It was one of his biggest goals to graduate high school because he’s always had trouble with school,” Banks said. “We were able to tell him, you know, ‘You’ve graduated.’ ”
Banks said that she felt “extremely proud” of her brother during the bittersweet ceremony.
“But also emotional,” she said, “the fact that we wouldn’t be able to fully celebrate with him the way we would have wanted to.”
Family, friends remember Nipomo teen fatally injured in crash
Delgadillo liked to sit on the beach with his brother, Bryan Jimenez, listening to music while watching the sunset, Banks said.
Delgadillo also enjoyed skateboarding. He picked up the sport when he was 11 or 12, and spent much of his time skating at the Nipomo Recreation Center.
Delgadillo wanted to open a skate clothing store “and just have a place for people to hang out,” Banks said.
“He was just accepted into that community at a very young age, and also helped bring more people into that community,” Banks said.
Not only did Delgadillo love skateboarding, but he was good at it — always tackling tricks without hesitation, his longtime friend Riley Lovato told the Tribune on Tuesday.
Lovato said Delgadillo was an adrenaline junkie who was known for performing kick-flips and doing tricks off of the Rec Gap, a 10-foot-tall brick wall.
“I was always impressed by how talented he was,” Lovato said. “He was always having a good time and never vibed with negativity.”
Ryan Bedard, another longtime friend of Delgadillo’s, remembered how the teen fell asleep in the car coming home from a six-hour day at the beach.
“He comes outside of his house wearing exactly what he went to the beach in, but with Vans and socks on and his skateboard,” Bedard recalled.
Delgadillo then went to the Nipomo Recreation Center skate park and proceeded to shred. “He was killing it like he had woken up from an eight-hour good day’s sleep,” Bedard said.
Delgadillo brought his sense of humor everywhere he went, and “was like everyone’s older brother,” Bedard said.
He’d punch his friends in the arm, tackle them, and hug everybody.
“How he treated his little brothers, that’s how he would treat everyone,” Bedard said. “He just showed his love that way.”
Another close friend, Marcos Barron, said Delgadillo encouraged him to improve both his skateboarding and his life.
Barron remembers Delgadillo telling him, “You’re my brother, Marcos. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life. I love you, brother.”
Barron said that he and Delgadillo looked alike, and when people asked if they were brothers, they would say “yes.”
“Our bond was that strong,” Barron wrote in a text message to the Tribune Wednesday. “We’re more than best friends/brothers. We were one.”
Degaldillo’s family members say that they’ll always remember his big heart and generous spirit.
If his friends didn’t have a place to stay, he would sneak them into his closet and they stayed at his house for the night, Banks said.
One friend started to sleep at his house for long periods of time, and Delgadillo asked his parents to let him stay.
They did, and that friend has been living with the family for about a year and a half. He’s now like a brother, Banks said.
“He was always so caring and loving,” Banks said. “I’m really proud of how many people he was able to positively impact.”
Skateboarding community celebrates teenager’s life
On Sunday, about 50 of Delgadillo’s friends poured into the San Luis Obispo Skate Park to celebrate his life.
“Everyone was there for Shiloh,” Bedard said. “We filled up pretty much the entire park.”
People traded memories about Delgadillo at the celebration.
“You would just walk through the crowd, and you hear people talking about him,” Bedard said. “Everyone loved him and everybody had some really great memories with him.”
Banks wrote in a Facebook post that she hopes friends and family make a yearly tradition of meeting at the skate park in Delgadillo’s memory.
“We love him and we miss him,” Banks told the Tribune on Monday. “I’m really glad he had this amazing community of friends he could go to.”
Community donates money, meals for family
Banks said the outpouring of community support she and her family have received in the wake of her brother’s death has been “amazing.”
“We’ve had so much support,” she said.
After Banks put out a plea on Facebook asking for donations to help her family pay for his medical bills and funeral expenses, people donated about $17,000 in three days, she said.
Mylissa Weymer, a family friend, started a fundraiser to cover Delgadillo’s funeral costs, selling homemade red and green salsa for $5 a jar. She’s sold $200 of salsa so far, and orders keep coming.
“They’re like family,” Weymer told The Tribune on Monday. “I needed to do something to help.”
While Delgadillo was in the hospital, friends and relatives brought two meals a day for his family.
“People have been showing up, ” Banks said. “Everything has made a difference.”
Funeral services for Shiloh Delgadillo
A rosary for Shiloh Delgadillo will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Nipomo. A vigil will follow from 8:30 p.m. to 12 a.m.
On Thursday, funeral mass starts at the church at 10 a.m. A burial service will directly follow mass at the Santa Maria Cemetery, and the there will be a reception at the church.
All are invited to the services, and the family asked people to wear white to the Thursday services to celebrate Delgadillo’s life, Banks said.
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
CORRECTION: On Wednesday, June 23, The Tribune included a statement from Marcos Barron, Shiloh Delgadillo’s best friend, in the story.
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