‘It’s a nightmare’: Las Cruces community mourns special needs teen who shined in band

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- On Friday, September 13th, Isaac Brealey-Rood's spirit might have shined brighter than the full moon above the Field of Dreams.

"I was stunned," said his mother, Carissa Bonacci in September. "I teared up. He was so happy. He was out on the field with the other kids."

In September, she told ABC-7 that the Oñate High band welcomed her intellectually disabled son with open arms. However, no member of the band was happier than her other son, Aidan.

"It's been a pretty close bond since day one," Aidan told ABC-7 last fall. "My earliest memory is when I first saw him."

The two brothers have been inseparable since their mother adopted Isaac from Colombia at age three. However this past week, tragedy struck their family.

"I never in my wildest dreams thought we would be going through something like this," Bonacci said. "It's a nightmare."

On their family's morning walk on Tuesday, Bonacci said her son started stumbling and looking overheated. He didn't improve after resting, so the family called 911. She said the wait was almost unbearable.

"It was the longest two hours of my life," she said.

Isaac ultimately spent the last hours of his life at an Albuquerque hospital, his mother told ABC-7. There is no official cause of death yet, but Bonacci said the temperature when she called 911 was only 84 degrees.

"I didn't really understand it was the end until a few hours before," Bonacci said. "He was just the happiest, most outgoing and genuine person I ever met."

Isaac's viewing will be next Thursday at Getz Funeral Home in Las Cruces. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking the community to make a donation to the Special Olympics of New Mexico.