Grandmother Captures Last Photo of 3-Year-Old Granddaughter Just Minutes Before Tragedy Strikes

When an Idaho mother asked her mother to take care of two of her children, no one expected anything bad to happen. But when she came back, she had to hurry to the hospital after losing one child and finding the other in serious condition.

On October 7, 2022, tragedy hit Samantha Jensen and her family when she left her two young children with their grandmother. Before everything changed, Samantha’s mother took a final photo of her granddaughter, not knowing that disaster was about to happen.

Samantha Jensen, a mother from Oldtown, Idaho, shared a heartbreaking story on TikTok and in an interview about how she lost her three-year-old daughter, Scarlett, in just a few minutes. On the day of the tragedy, Samantha was at a wedding while her mother took care of Scarlett and her two-year-old brother, Henry.

That afternoon, their grandmother, Jamie, took the kids out for ice cream and a walk. When they returned, Scarlett wanted to leave the stroller to pick flowers in the back driveway. This moment was captured in the last photo of Scarlett, where she was walking along the private driveway.

Suddenly, a driver having a “mental breakdown” lost control of his Chevy Tahoe and drove down the driveway, hitting Jamie and the children. Samantha recalled that her mother frantically waved her arms and screamed for the driver to stop. She tried to pull the kids to safety, but the car was going too fast. Scarlett died almost immediately, while Jamie and Henry were left critically injured.

The driver ran away on foot but was caught a few miles away. Jamie and Henry remained hurt until a neighbor heard Jamie calling for help and came outside. When Samantha’s plane landed, police officers took her to the hospital to see Henry, whose condition was uncertain. Fortunately, she found Henry alive after being airlifted to a children’s hospital.

Henry had a broken jaw and collarbone along with other injuries. Jamie had many broken bones but was released from the hospital later. Henry spent a week in the pediatric ICU before getting stable enough to go home, where he had to wear a full-body brace for ten weeks.

Both Jamie and Henry took months to recover physically. On the anniversary of Scarlett’s death, Samantha shared two pictures of herself next to Henry in the hospital, while he wore a neck brace. She turned to her faith and thanked God for the miracles that allowed her to spend more time with Henry.

On that tragic day, Jamie took an important photo of Scarlett while she was walking with Henry. Samantha later shared this photo on TikTok on October 13, 2024. The touching image shows the children walking down a dirt road with their backs to the camera. Samantha revealed that the photo was taken at 4:47 p.m., just five minutes before Scarlett died at 4:52 p.m.

Samantha still feels the loss deeply. She said, “My mom didn’t know she was capturing the last moments of her life.” In her post, set to a song, she mentioned how hard it was to look at the picture, saying, “…Just knowing what comes next breaks my heart.” The post was captioned, “Life isn’t fair, and I really miss my baby tonight.”

It took weeks for Samantha to find out that her mother had captured Scarlett’s last moments. Jamie lost her phone during the accident, and when it was recovered, Samantha found the photo. After seeing the timestamp, she realized it was taken just five minutes before Scarlett’s tragic death.

Although the tragedy happened over two years ago, Samantha shared another video of Scarlett walking just a week before she posted the last image of her daughter. Scarlett, born on New Year’s Day in 2019, was Samantha and her husband’s first child. They also have two other children: Molly, two, and Rosie, one.

Samantha remembered Scarlett as silly and sweet, who loved unicorns, horses, and the movies “Spirit” and “Frozen.” She was excited to play in a soccer game the day after she died and enjoyed spending time with her siblings and taking care of Molly.

Two days after the anniversary of Scarlett’s death, Samantha posted on Facebook to honor her daughter. She shared a post written three days after Scarlett passed away, along with many photos of her. In the post, she revealed Scarlett’s middle name was “June.”

Samantha expressed the indescribable pain of losing her daughter, saying, “I feel it deep in my bones and in every inch of my body.” She promised to keep Scarlett’s memory alive and to ensure Henry and Molly would always remember their older sister.

The driver responsible for Scarlett’s death is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for vehicular homicide, with two years taken off for time served during the trial.