Memorials are planned in Fairview and Springville after the March 5 storm that killed a mother and daughter near Highway 60 in Major County.
SPRINGVILLE, Utah — Grief spread from northwest Oklahoma to Utah over the weekend as relatives prepared memorials for Jodie Owens and her 13-year-old daughter, Lexi, who were killed when a tornado struck their vehicle near Fairview on March 5.
This story now reaches beyond a single storm death report because the Owens family’s life was split between Oklahoma, where they moved in 2022, and Utah, where they had spent 22 years. As loved ones planned services in both states, weather officials logged the Major County tornado as an EF2 event with two deaths, giving a formal record to a loss family members have described in intimate terms: a mother calling home to warn her children, then disappearing into the storm.
Relatives said the final minutes began as Jodie Owens drove back toward home after picking up Lexi from a friend’s house Thursday night. Jacob Zonts, Jodie’s brother, said she sensed the danger and called the children at home to tell them to get into the shelter. “She didn’t realize it was right above her,” he said, describing the tornado’s sudden arrival. Family members said the phone call ended after screams and silence. Local authorities later placed the emergency in the area of Highway 60 and County Road 2435 near Fairview. Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials said the driver was on the phone when contact was lost and that she was reported missing shortly afterward. In the first hours after the storm, officials said investigators were still confirming whether tornado damage caused the deaths, a reflection of the confusion that can follow a nighttime storm crossing open country.
By the weekend, the victims had been identified as Jodie Owens, 47, and Lexi Owens, 13. Family members and later reports added the details that filled out their lives beyond the tragedy. Jodie was described as the mother of eight children and a grandmother of four, with another grandchild expected in early May. Lexi was described as a seventh grader in Fairview. Relatives said mother and daughter were especially close. Janelle Bagozzi, Jodie’s sister, said Lexi was her mother’s “mini me,” sharing her appearance, music and interests and always wanting to be by Jodie’s side. Jodie’s husband, David Owens, said he could not fully express how wonderful she was and said she made him a better person. In later accounts carried by Oklahoma outlets, Jodie was described as a substitute teacher active in the school community and at church, details that helped explain why the deaths struck so many circles at once.
The Utah connection has been central to the public mourning. Family members said the Owens family lived in Springville for 22 years before moving to Oklahoma for David Owens’ work in 2022. Five of the couple’s eight children still live in Utah, and siblings in Pleasant Grove and Sandy became some of the first relatives to speak publicly about what happened. That history changed the geography of the loss. In Oklahoma, neighbors and school contacts knew the family through Fairview church and school life. In Utah, relatives and longtime friends remembered the years spent building a household in Springville. The result is a grief map that does not stay in one county line: it stretches from rural Major County roads to Utah Valley neighborhoods, from a storm shelter warning over the phone to a memorial service planned in the same state where Jodie and David married 23 years ago.
The official storm record is still being refined, but it already outlines the severity of the weather that night. The National Weather Service office in Norman listed a Major County tornado on March 5 from 8:08 p.m. to 8:26 p.m., rated EF2, with a seven-mile path and two deaths. The agency noted that research on the March 5 tornadoes is ongoing and that ratings and other data could change. Local coverage from Oklahoma described a broader outbreak that included several tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds in western and northern parts of the state. In practical terms, that meant people on rural roads were dealing with poor visibility, shifting warnings and fast-moving danger after dark. The Owens case became one of the clearest human stories to emerge from that outbreak because family members were able to describe exactly what Jodie was doing at the time: not fleeing for herself first, but calling home to make sure her children were under cover.
There are also immediate procedural and family steps ahead. Two memorial events have been scheduled, one in Fairview on March 14 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Cedar Springs Church of the Nazarene and another in Springville on March 21 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. David Owens said the Utah gathering falls on the couple’s anniversary date, tying the memorial to the place where they were married. A fundraiser has been organized to help with funeral expenses and the needs of the surviving children. Bagozzi said David Owens, a truck driver, now has to remain home because the family’s day-to-day system depended on Jodie. That shift is one of the clearest signs of what comes after the headline: school pickups, work schedules, caregiving and grief all being reordered at once.
Even as public attention settles on the tornado’s rating and path, relatives have kept returning to small details that make the loss immediate. Bagozzi said one of the hardest truths is that Jodie’s older children heard the last moments over the phone. Zonts said the vehicle appeared to have been thrown a long distance, leaving a scene that family members are still struggling to imagine. Yet their comments were not only about violence and shock. They also sketched a portrait of a woman who showed up for school functions, neighborhood needs and family life, and of a daughter who wanted to follow her everywhere. Those details explain why the coming memorials are expected to draw people not just from one hometown, but from two communities that knew the family in different chapters of the same life.
As of Monday, relatives were preparing for the March 14 and March 21 memorials, support efforts were continuing for the surviving family, and weather officials were still reviewing the March 5 storm data that turned one Oklahoma road into the center of a two-state mourning period.
Author note: Last updated March 9, 2026.