Friends and family are coping with the unknown after a mother and her young daughter were found dead Tuesday in a Fort Worth field.
The medical examiner released the identities of 27-year-old Lindsay Groce Gardner and her 1-year-old daughter, Hailey.
“She was a very positive person. She showed a lot of her faith. She was an artist,” said friend Jenny Spencer.
The two mothers were part of a group devoted to motherhood and raising their children in the most natural ways.
Gardner also worked at the Early Learning Center for Travis Avenue Baptist Church, and her co-workers became concerned when she never showed up for work.
“Just thinking about her baby, knowing that relationship is gone, I mean, the mother and child, is hard to think about, hard to grasp,” said Spencer.
Gardner's wrecked car was several hundred feet away, and their clothes were found nearby. It all happened near Bryant Irvin Road and Altamesa Boulevard.
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“It was so close to home, I mean right around the corner from my house, and we had been out to the park that day,” added Spencer. “When we found out it was like, 'No, it can’t be true.' It’s like waking up this morning was waking up to a nightmare. I can’t believe it happened.”
There are questions now left unanswered as to how a mother and her daughter died.
“Did she suffer, because that’s eating away at me. That’s eating away at me, how exactly did they die?” Spencer said.
Gardner had been on her way to her mother's house when the car crashed.
