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A grieving mother has shared the final photo of her 3-year-old daughter, “surrounded by love” before tragedy struck and her “sweetest little girl” was taken from her by a speeding driver.
US woman Samantha Jensen shared the photo, taken by her mother, of Scarlett to TikTok, writing: “Mymom 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.”
The photo was taken on the private driveway to their Idaho home at 4.47pm on October 7, 2022.
Scarlett Jensen and her brother Henry moment before tragedy. Photo / Samantha Jensen
A man named Dakota LaFountain was speeding towards them, in the midst of a mental health episode.
Jensen said her mother desperately waved and screamed at him to stop and tried to grab the children “but he was going too fast”.
Henry and his grandmother were injured but Scarlett was killed almost instantly.
LaFountain fled on foot and was later arrested. He is now serving 10 years in prison.
Sitting on the floor screaming
Jensen was flying home with Molly when the tragedy occurred and was first alerted that something was wrong when she got an emergency message on her phone to tell her that the road to her home was closed because of emergency vehicles. She then tried to call her mother and got no response.
“Then over the plane loudspeaker they called my name and said the police were waiting for me when I got off and that’s when I knew something was really wrong.”
Then, in an instant, her world changed forever.
“I remember sitting on the floor of the airport screaming while holding my 2-month-old baby and the police were trying to comfort me,” Jensen told Newsweek about the moment she learned what had happened.
She then needed to deal with grieving her daughter while being there for her son Henry, who was in critical condition with a fractured spine, six broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone, a liver laceration and other injuries.
“It was impossible to be everything that everyone needed at once,” she said.
Scarlett Jensen with her little brother Henry. Photo / Samantha Jensen
Her mother was released with broken bones on that first day, then Henry came home a week later in a full-body brace.
Weeks after that, Jensen found the photo.
“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 told People.
“I looked at the timestamp and realised it was only five minutes before her declared time of death, so it must have been taken seconds before the person hit them.”
Scarlett Jensen. Photo / Samantha Jensen
‘Grief is not linear’
Two years on, the family have welcomed a little girl, Rosie, into their family. “I have four children,” Jensen told Newsweek. “Three on Earth and one in Heaven.”
She credits her Christian faith and the support of friends and family with dealing with the pain of her loss but says she still takes things day by day.
“Grief is not linear, it doesn’t get better with time. You just learn how to carry it better,” she said.
Her first-born, her Scarlett, is always with her.
“Scarlett was the silliest, sweetest little girl. She loved horses, unicorns, being a big sister, and the movies Frozen and Spirit. She liked to play hide-and-seek, go to the park, go to preschool and play soccer,” Jensen said.
“The absolute joy of her life were her siblings, she loved helping take care of baby Molly and playing with her best friend Henry.”
Scarlett Jensen. Photo / Samantha Jensen
The pain she once felt at looking at that fateful, final photo has now changed.
“Now I look at the picture and I see a precious little girl picking flowers surrounded by the beauty of nature with her brother and Meemaw, two people she loved deeply. Her last moments were peaceful and happy and she was surrounded by love.”
Sharing the photo and her story on TikTok drew millions of responses and Jensen had a message to all the people it had touched.
“Take the pictures, hug your babies, read the extra story at bedtime,” Jensen said. “Enjoy every single moment with the people you love, and live life to the fullest in honour of the people you have lost.”
