Five minutes.
That is how quickly an ordinary Saturday afternoon turned into an unimaginable tragedy for the family of Bridget Reagan.
At 5:18 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, Reagan sent a text message to her fiancé, Clint Carson, about her son’s haircut.
At 5:23 p.m., Carson said, Reagan’s cellphone called 911.
A large tree had fallen across U.S. Route 30 in Paris Township, crushing the Jeep Wagoneer Reagan was driving and killing the 35-year-old Minerva business owner and mother of three.
For Carson, the tragedy came almost impossibly close to another. His father had died exactly one week earlier.
In exclusive interviews with Jordan Miller News, Carson, Reagan’s sister, Kelsi Holmes, and her 18-year-old son, Aiden, opened up about the moments their lives changed, the woman behind Chic Haven Boutique and the community that has surrounded their family since her sudden death.
Five minutes
Carson was in the Pittsburgh area preparing to attend a concert with his cousin when Reagan sent him what would become her final text message.
There was nothing unusual about their communication that afternoon, Carson said. When one of them was out doing something, they weren’t constantly checking in with each other.
Then his phone rang from an unidentified number.
Carson said he normally wouldn’t have answered, but because he was outside Pittsburgh, he thought poor cell service might have caused the caller identification issue.
The woman on the other end asked whether he was Clint Carson and whether his fiancée was Bridget Reagan.
Then she told him Reagan had been involved in a serious accident and had passed away.
Carson didn’t believe her.
He thought it was a scam. Even when the caller asked whether he owned a black Jeep Wagoneer, Carson remained skeptical.
Then she mentioned the car seats visible inside the vehicle and asked whether any children had been with Reagan.
That’s when it became real.
“And that’s when I knew,” Carson said. “I knew it was real.”
Carson immediately called to make sure Reagan’s children were safe. They were with their father.
Then came the hour-and-40-minute drive home.
Only minutes separated Carson’s final conversation with Reagan from the crash.
“Accident was five minutes later because her phone called 911 at 5:23,” Carson said of the final text he received at 5:18.
‘I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.’
Reagan’s oldest son, Aiden, was with his girlfriend, Aubrie, at her parents’ house when he learned his mother had been involved in a serious accident.
At first, he believed she was still alive.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Aiden said. “I thought they were messing with me. You know, all I heard was that it was a really bad accident. I thought she was still OK.”
As the reality of what had happened began to set in, Aiden remembers standing outside, leaning against Aubrie’s grandfather’s truck.
“I wanted to throw up and, like, pass out at the same time, but I couldn’t,” Aiden said. “So I just stood there.”
He looked toward the sky.
“All I could do was just stare at the sky,” he said. “Like, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.”
Holmes was sitting on her couch when Carson called her with the news.
At first, she couldn’t believe him either.
“Clint, no, she’s not,” Holmes recalled responding when he told her Reagan had passed away.
Then Carson told her the coroner had confirmed it.
“I just started screaming,” Holmes said. “I don’t even know what went through my head.”
Holmes said the reality was almost impossible to comprehend.
“It was like a sick joke, and then reality smacks you in the face,” she said. “It wasn’t.”
‘She was definitely born to be a mom’
Reagan was the mother of three children — Aiden, 18, Cohen, 6, and Bristyl, 5.
Carson and Reagan went on their first date April 6, 2024. Reagan was living in Columbus at the time while Carson lived in the Minerva area. The two spent months traveling back and forth before Reagan eventually moved to the area.
“She turned this place into a new home,” Carson said.
Carson proposed to Reagan on her birthday last year.
Together, they were building a blended family that included Reagan’s three children and Carson’s son, Sylar Carson.
“She was definitely born to be a mom,” Carson said. “She was good at it.”
When asked what he wanted people to remember about his mother, Aiden first pointed to her work ethic.
“I want people to know how hard a worker she was,” he said.
But he also wants people to remember how willing she was to forgive.
“It didn’t matter what you did to her,” Aiden said. “She would never do anything to hurt you. No matter what you did, she’d always give you another chance.”
‘You’re looking at her’
Reagan’s work ethic could be seen throughout Chic Haven Boutique, the downtown Minerva business she built from beginnings in the living room of her Columbus home.
Days after her death, Holmes and Aiden stood inside the store surrounded by what Reagan had created.
“She gave so much to this store,” Holmes said.
“She lived here,” Aiden added.
Holmes said she still remembers her sister’s excitement about moving Chic Haven into its current location.
“I don’t know how she did it,” Holmes said. “I don’t know how she started from your living room in Columbus and built this.”
Reagan, she said, had a way of transforming places and making them feel like home.
Standing among the clothes, displays and merchandise her sister had chosen, Holmes said the boutique itself tells part of Reagan’s story.
“You’re looking at her,” Holmes said. “This is her.”
That presence extended beyond her store.
Holmes said Reagan coached children’s soccer, donated raffle baskets to cheer events, made T-shirts for local events and regularly supported other small businesses.
“She genuinely loved the people around her and was constantly finding ways to give back,” Holmes previously told Jordan Miller News.
Two losses, one week apart
Carson was already grieving when Reagan was killed.
His father had been suffering from dementia, which had worsened considerably in recent months. His health declined rapidly toward the end, and he eventually entered comfort care.
At 4:52 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, Carson’s father passed away.
Exactly one week later, Reagan was killed.
Carson said his father’s death was painful, but the family knew it was coming. Reagan’s death gave them no opportunity to prepare.
Now, he is trying to grieve both losses while being there for the children.
“It’s hard when you have four or five people riding on you that you know you just kind of got to keep being strong for them,” Carson said.
The house Reagan helped make a home is now filled with reminders of her.
Carson said Reagan’s younger children know their mother is gone but don’t fully understand the magnitude of the loss. Aiden has struggled deeply with losing his mother, while Carson said Sylar has been quieter as he processes the loss in his own way.
Relatives from both sides of the family have surrounded them with support.
“This is a house full of grief,” Carson said.
“I guess I don’t really know that we’re coping with it very well,” he added.
A community shows up
In the days following Reagan’s death, the Minerva community has rallied around her family.
Flowers and notes have filled the area outside Chic Haven. Local businesses have organized fundraisers. A candlelight vigil Tuesday evening brought family, friends and community members together outside the boutique.
For Aiden, seeing the response has helped him understand the number of lives his mother touched.
“It felt kind of indescribable, knowing how many people cared for her,” he said.
Carson said the response has also overwhelmed him.
“I would have never guessed so many people cared about me and her as they do,” Carson said.
His employer, MAC Trailer, has given him time away from work, while friends, colleagues and people throughout the community have reached out to the family.
Some of the most personal messages, however, are still arriving directly to Reagan.
Carson has her cellphone.
People continue to text her number, telling Reagan how she inspired them, helped them or made a difference in their lives.
“It’s incredible, actually,” Carson said.
‘Act of God’
Lt. Johnnie Maier, commander of the Canton Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, previously told Jordan Miller News that Reagan was traveling west through a heavily wooded, two-lane stretch of U.S. 30 near Robertsville when a large tree fell from the north side of the roadway and crushed the Jeep.
Reagan was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators have been looking into whether the tree was rotted or whether saturated ground contributed to it falling. Maier said the incident was being treated as an “act of God,” and no criminal charges were anticipated.
For Reagan’s family, the randomness of what happened remains difficult to comprehend.
“She should have never left the way she did,” Holmes said. “She deserved a lot more.”
But Holmes said there is no question about what mattered most to her sister.
“She loved them,” Holmes said of Reagan’s children. “She loved her family, and clearly she loved her community.”
‘There was nobody with a bigger heart’
Carson never imagined a life without the woman he planned to marry.
When asked whether he had ever pictured one, his answer was immediate.
“No.”
The future they expected to share changed without warning on U.S. 30.
But Carson said Reagan changed him during the time they had together.
“There was nobody with a bigger heart than her,” Carson said. “I learned a lot from her about how to treat people and how I should be treated.”
“She was amazing,” he said.
For Holmes, Reagan was more than a sister.
“She was my person, my constant, and someone I could always count on,” Holmes previously said.
For Aiden, she was the hardworking mother who always gave people another chance.
And across Minerva, reminders of Reagan’s impact remain everywhere — in the flowers outside Chic Haven, in the people who gathered with candles and in the community now surrounding her family.
Some of those reminders are still arriving on Bridget’s phone, one message at a time.
