A heartbroken mother whose husband and two children were killed in a horror car crash has spoken out about the harrowing experience.
Sitting down with People, Lauren Muckleroy, 44, recalled the exact moment she learned her entire immediate family had died.
The family-of-four had been traveling from their home in Fort Worth, Texas, to her parents’ home in Johnson City on November 23, 2023 – the evening before Thanksgiving – when a drunk driver ploughed head-on into their car.
Lauren was driving at the time and the impact of the crash left her with two broken arms, a series of spine fractures and an intestinal tear. She was the only survivor.
Her beloved husband, Zach, 12-year-old son Judson and daughter, 9, were all killed instantly.
‘I remember a police officer telling me that all three of them were gone,’ she said of the words that changed her life.
‘I remember thinking, «What is my life going to look like now? Where will all my love go?»‘ the heartbroken mother added.
Since recovering, Lauren has described how she copes with the emotional wounds of losing her beautiful family.
‘Sometimes I go a day without crying, and then other days I can’t get it together.’
Lauren Muckleroy’s husband, Zach, and their two children – 12-year-old Judson and 9-year-old Lindsay – were killed in November 2023 after a drunk driver hit their car head-on
The children – along with their father – were pronounced dead at the scene. A year later, their mother – the accident’s only survivor – spoke about the ordeal
‘It washes over me,’ she added, revealing that still hasn’t been able to bring herself to unpack the three bags from the trip.
Lauren now lives near her sister in Austin, but still owns her family’s home in Fort Worth. ‘Life will never be normal again. I will miss them forever,’ she said.
To get through the past year, she described how she has poured her heart into outreach efforts, helping kids who have lost her parents.
‘I wanted my energy to go to something that isn’t a reminder of this tragedy,’ said Lauren, who recently chaired a nonprofit gala that helped raise some $700,000. ‘Being able to pour myself into something uplifting is amazing.’
She went on to say that it was her way of paying respect to the dearly departed.
‘I want my focus to be on remembering them,’ she said, calling Lindsay a ‘spunky… spitfire’ and noting that Judson – better known as Juddy – had ‘such a good heart.’
Recalling the boy’s love of baseball and pickleball, she described showing up at his baseball team’s championship game this year.
‘I’ve tried to sit in the grief and feel it, even though that’s hard,’ she explained.
‘It washes over me,’ she said during the in-person sit-down, during which she revealed that still hasn’t been able to bring herself to unpack the bags from their fateful road trip
She now lives near her sister in Austin, but still keeping ownership of her family’s old home in Fort Worth
Lauren said she continues to stay close to those who knew her family best – something that can be tough given that many of her kids’ friends still wrestle with the loss
Lauren said she continues to stay close to those who knew her family best – something that can be tough given that many of her kids’ friends still wrestle with the loss.
She went on to describe how, during a fundraising run in the spring, a group of her late daughter’s friends showed up in pug onesies – the girl’s favorite dog.
‘I was sad, but hugging these girls, I felt joy,’ she said.
Lauren recalled encouraging the youngsters to ‘talk about [the loss], [and to] not pretend it didn’t happen.’ Meanwhile, she admits that ‘life will never be normal again.’
‘I will miss them forever,’ she said. ‘We sometimes think that to find hope or joy, that we have to eliminate sorrow, but it’s possible that you can experience both at the same time.’
But, ‘it can still be good,’ the still-mourning mother added. ‘It sounds crazy to say, but I see so much good that’s come from our situation. The worst thing is never the last thing. I truly believe that.’
In the meantime, Lauren said that she finds solace in the fact that her husband and children continue to live on through memories and the constant outpouring of support from those who knew them.
‘I have felt the unfairness of this, not just to me, but for the three of them,’ she said.
‘I will miss them forever,’ the still-mourning mom said. ‘We sometimes think that to find hope or joy, that we have to eliminate sorrow, but it’s possible that you can experience both at the same time’
‘On those hard firsts,’ she said of things like birthdays and first of school, ‘we’re really loving and remembering them and just feeling it.’
At the time of the crash, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the Muckleroy family was traveling southbound when a man driving northbound in a Toyota pickup ‘veered across the highway and collided head-on’ with their Chevy Suburban.
Connor McKim, the 25-year-old driver who died soon after the crash, was later found to have had a blood alcohol level of .261 – more than three times the legal limit of .08.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Muckleroy for comment.
