After Losing Parents in Car Crash, 6 Texas Orphans Meet Heroes Who Saved Their Lives

The accident happened in April during a family camping trip.

Months after an unthinkable tragedy, six children who lost their parents in a horrific Texas car crash have found support in the heroes who rescued them. 

In April, the Owen family was returning from a camping trip in Sulphur Springs when tragedy struck.

The father, Scott Owen, was driving when a mechanical defect in the right wheel of the camping gear trailer they were towing caused him to lose control of the vehicle and veer into the shoulder, according to a police report.

He overcorrected back onto the highway, slamming into a pickup truck, before colliding with a mailbox. The car then left the road and flipped over multiple times before landing upside down in a creek, where they were discovered by first responders. 

Officer Brandon Murphy was among the first to arrive.

"The car was smashed to pieces," Murphy told Inside Edition. "There was debris everywhere."

Murphy also found 10-year-old Dalton, 15-year-old Michaela and their parents, Scott and Jennifer, were not breathing.

"My first thought when I was doing CPR was, ‘Please God, please help us,'" Murphy added. 

Murphy said that Dalton appeared "lifeless" as he was removed from the vehicle. 

They were airlifted to the nearest hospital. All six children miraculously survived. However, their parents did not make it. 

Now orphaned, they are trying to cope with their loss.

Four of the six children, Mitchell, 13, Alysa, 11, Samantha, 7, and Liam, 5, were discharged from the hospital. They suffered a variety of injuries, including broken bones, concussions, cuts and bruises. 

Michaela suffered major head trauma and underwent multiple surgeries. Dalton was on life support for three weeks, both were in the hospital longer but have now been discharged. 

"Half the time I cry into a pillow because stress is overwhelming," Mitchell told Inside Edition. 

On the day Dalton was discharged, the 14 heroes from Sulphur Springs Police Department, Hopkins County Fire Department, and Hopkins County EMS visited the children they helped save. 

Officer Murphy put a necklace around Dalton’s neck, telling the boy that it had special meaning. 

"I was wearing this the day we pulled you out and I’d like you to have it," he said. "That way, you're always protected."

The children are now living with their grandparents.

"We just take it minute by minute," their grandmother said. "You just do what you have to do."

The community has rallied around them, raising money through a GoFundMe page that's maintained by family friend Holly Jarrett.

Family friend Holly Jarrett is pictured with the children. - Handout

A local furniture company, PFC Furniture Industries, donated bunk beds, where the kids sleep next to a photo of their parents.

"People are just so generous and they want to help,” their grandmother said. 

Members of the First Baptist Church of Plano are building an addition to the grandparents’ house to accommodate all the kids.

The Hughes Family Tribute Center also helped the family with funeral services. 

“It makes me feel like I’m a part of this world and people care, it's really nice,” Mitchell said. 

The siblings also have an older brother, 23-year-old Ethan, who was not in the car at the time of the crash. 

Additional reporting by Kim Pestalozzi.

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