Dulap Nelson was a special animal. His original mom, Trisha Nelson was a friend. Trisha was planning to take her first trip away from her fiancé to Dallas for a week. She and I were chatting on a Friday evening in February of 2015 about her plans to come stay with me for the week. The chat went silent in the middle of a lively conversation, which I thought was odd. I knew she was at work, so I didn’t think too much of it. The next day, I found out that her fiancé was drunk and called her to pick him up. For some reason, he was wearing tactical gear and started a horrible argument, prompting her to desperately bail from the car....
He murdered Trisha that Friday night.
People always say to women (and some men) in these circumstances, “Why didn’t you just leave?” Because we were too afraid- because our partner threatened us- because our partner threatened our animals- because our partner has control of the car, the bank account, and our communications with the outside world. Pick one.
She loved her animals as her children and was afraid he’d do something to them. All of her iguanas ended up in an iguana shelter she volunteered at, and many of us rallied to help find them homes. Trisha had made Dulap Nelson internet famous over the course of several years, so people were clamoring to get him- never mind a person had been murdered; they wanted the famous animal. A group in the reptile realm convinced me to adopt him. A friend and I flew to Minnesota to adopt four of her iguanas. She took three and I took Du. I drove all the way from MN to Dallas with a car full of kennels and lizards; this was due to the kindness of hundreds of people in my Iguana group pulling together to help me with what ended up being over a $2K venture. Dulap should still be with his mom, but her abusive boyfriend took it all away. Never judge someone in a controlling relationship by saying “Well, you could have just walked away”.
She RAN. RIP Trisha.
R.I.P Dulap Nelson: You returned to your mom in July of 2021 and all is now as it should be- Trisha and Dulap together.
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