Shortly before the three-year-old’s untimely death, a woman posted a photo of her granddaughter’s last moments.
Devastating reports state that on October 7, 2022, Scarlett Jensen was killed in a hit-and-run. Her mother, Samantha Jensen, and father were out of town attending a wedding, so her grandma was taking care of her and her 2-year-old brother, Henry.
However, something unimaginable occurred when the three of them were strolling in the Oldtown, Idaho, family’s private driveway. Scarlett, her brother, and her grandma were all plowed over by a Chevy Tahoe that sped down the street.
“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,” Samantha Jensen recalled.
“Scarlett was killed almost instantly and my mom and Henry were critically injured.”
After fleeing the scene on foot, the suspect who was operating the Chevy was eventually caught a few miles away. He is currently incarcerated for ten years.
“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,” Samantha told PEOPLE.
“My mom had several broken bones but was able to be released from the hospital.”
She added: “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 family was engulfed in sorrow in the weeks that followed, but Samantha’s discovery of an apparently harmless photograph her mother had taken of Scarlett just before she passed away provided a brief respite.
“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,” Jensen says. “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.”
The photo in question was shot after Scarlett’s grandma took her two grandkids out for ice cream, according to PEOPLE.
“When they arrived home to our back driveway, Scarlett wanted to get out of the stroller to pick flowers,” Samantha explained. “That’s when my mom took the last picture I have of her alive.”
The distraught mother clarified that her days now are different. Although some people are inherently more resilient than others, the family is making every effort to deal with their immense loss.
“Some days, it feels like I am drowning, and some days I am able to tread water,” she told PEOPLE. “My whole family is putting in a lot of work in therapy and trying to heal as much as possible. My faith in the Lord has saved my life and helped me tremendously in my healing journey.”
The distraught mother initially found it hard to look at her daughter’s last photo. However, Samantha realized two years after her death that the picture is a symbol of a beautiful life.
“I am so incredibly thankful to have that photo,” she told PEOPLE. “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.”
Peace be with you, Scarlett.
