Friends call victim ‘loving’ and ‘kind’
Friends of Taylor Toller are offering their condolences to the young woman’s family after learning her boyfriend, Dustin Duthie, has been charged with killing her on July 25.
Cole Widdifield said he first met Toller in junior high and the two became fast friends. That friendship blossomed into a romantic relationship.
He says the woman who “put everyone first” and “cared about others more than they cared about themselves” was his first love.
“She was the sweetest girl and she did care so much about everybody,” Widdifield said. “It’s unfortunate that bad things happen to nice people. Her life was cut too short because I think things were starting to look up for her.”
Widdifield said Toller, 24, and Duthie dated off and on for about five years and had a volatile relationship.
“I don’t know what the status of their relationship was as of the 25th … but my understanding is they were on the rocks again,” he said, adding he had met Duthie a few times and said the young man was quick to anger.
When Widdifield learned Toller was one of Duthie’s three alleged victims, he said he was grief-stricken and went into a panic.
“Your heart drops, my heart went in my stomach and you freeze up,” he said.
A woman who went to high school with Duthie, who asked not to be identified, met Toller through her husband. She said Toller was the kind of person who could “always make you smile when having a bad day.”
She said Toller attended Notre Dame High School while Duthie went to Sir William Van Horne High School.
“This is all too real,” she said when she learned of the murder. “(She was) always there when you needed someone to vent to and vice versa. She is a beautiful, smart young lady.”
Duthie, 25, is charged with the second-degree murders of Toller, his mother, Shawn Boshuck, and his stepfather, Alan Pennylegion