A grieving mother shared the final photo of her toddler, taken just moments before the child was trag!cally k!lled while picking wildflowers. Samantha Jensen shared her heartbreak on TikTok after the sudden loss of her 3-year-old daughter. Originally from Oldtown, Idaho, Jensen recounted the events leading up to the tragedy, sharing her daughter’s last moments with viewers.
In the video, Jensen said, “My mom took this picture at 4:47 pm, and my daughter’s time of death was 4:52. My mom didn’t realize she was capturing her last moments. It’s hard for me to look at because knowing what came next is devastating.” Jensen told People she wasn’t present with her daughter Scarlett and her 2-year-old son Henry, as she was attending a wedding. Her mother, Jamie, was caring for the children, and they had been enjoying a lovely day together.
On October 7, 2022, Jensen’s mother, Scarlett, and Henry were out picking flowers. Jensen explained, “They had gone for ice cream that afternoon and then went for a walk. When they got to our driveway, Scarlett wanted to get out of the stroller to pick flowers. That’s when my mom took the last photo I have of her alive.”
Shortly after the picture was taken, a Chevy Tahoe sped through the private driveway, hitting all three. Jensen explained, “My mother waved and screamed for the driver to stop and tried to move my children, but he was going too fast. Scarlett was k!lled almost instantly, and my mom and Henry were critically injured.”
The driver fled the scene but was caught a few miles away and is now serving a 10-year sentence, with two years credited for time served. Jensen recounted, “Henry was airlifted to the children’s hospital with a fractured spine, six broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone, a liver laceration, and other injuries. My mom had multiple broken bones but was eventually released.”
Jensen added that Henry spent a week in the PICU before returning home in a full body brace for 10 weeks. Weeks later, Jensen learned her mother had taken a final photo of Scarlett just before the accident.
She explained, “My mom lost her phone in the chaos, and it took time to find it. When I went through the pictures, I found that one. The timestamp showed it was taken just five minutes before Scarlett’s declared time of death, meaning it was seconds before the crash. At first, it was incredibly painful to see,” Jensen said. “How do you come to terms with having a ‘last picture’ of your child?”
Now, she feels grateful for the photo, saying, “It captures the peace of her final moments and the beauty surrounding her during her last breaths. I will always remember her as happy and carefree, picking flowers with her best friend, her Meemaw.”