A mother has shared the last photo of her toddler alive before she was killed during a walk to pick wildflowers.
Samantha Jensen took to TikTok to talk about her grief after her 3-year-old daughter’s life was suddenly taken from her one evening.
The Oldtown, Idaho native explained the events leading up to the tragedy and showed online viewers her daughter’s last moments alive.
Samantha Jensen recalled her daughter’s final moments (Tiktok/@samjensen44)
She said in the clip: “My mom took this picture at 4:47 pm and my daughter’s time of death was 4:52. My mom didn’t know she was capturing the last moments of her life. This one is really hard for me to look at, just knowing what comes next breaks my heart.”
Jensen told People that she wasn’t there that day with her daughter, Scarlett and her 2-year-old son, Henry, as she was out of town for a wedding.
Instead, she tasked her mother, Jamie, with looking after the kiddies and they were having a lovely day together.
Jensen said that on October 7, 2022, her mother, Scarlett and Henry were picking flowers.
She told the publication: “That afternoon they went to get ice cream and enjoy a walk together.
“When they arrived home to our back driveway, Scarlett wanted to get out of the stroller to pick flowers. That’s when my mom took the last picture I have of her alive.”
After her mother snapped the cute picture of the children, Jensen described how a Chevy Tahoe came speeding through their private driveway, mowing down all three of the family members.
Jensen explained: “My mother was waving her hands, screaming for him to stop and she tried to grab my children to move them out of the way but he was going too fast.
“Scarlett was killed almost instantly and my mom and Henry were critically injured.”
Story of what happened to my babies♥️ #grief #griefandloss #griefjourney #childloss #childlossawareness #fypage #caraccident #fyp
According to reports, the man who killed Scarlett fled on foot, but was caught a few miles from the crime scene.
Jensen shared that he is now serving a 10-year sentence, with two years credited for time served.
The mother recalled: “Henry was life-flighted to the children’s hospital where they found a fractured spine, six broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone, a liver laceration and several other injuries.
“My mom had several broken bones but was able to be released from the hospital.”
She continued: “Henry spent a week in the PICU before he was stable enough to come home, and he had a full body brace on for 10 weeks.”
The mother would later realize weeks after the tragedy that her mom had snapped a final picture of her daughter, moments before the hit and run.
The driver sped down their private drive (Tiktok/@samjensen44)
She said: “My mom lost her phone when they were hit and it took us a while to find it, so when we finally did I was going through pictures and found that one.
“I looked at the timestamp and realized it was only five minutes before her declared time of death, so it must have been taken seconds before the person hit them.
“It was extremely painful for me to look at in the beginning,” Jensen said.
“How do you come to terms with the existence of a ‘last picture’ of your child?”
But now, she explained how she is ‘so incredibly thankful to have that photo.’
She continued: “It captures the peaceful feeling of her last moments, the beauty she was surrounded by when she took her last breaths. I will forever picture her happy and carefree, picking flowers with her best friend and Meemaw.”