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Couple who survived Las Vegas shooting killed in car crash weeks later

Dennis and Lorraine Carver spent the last two weeks of their lives happy and "living in the moment," according to their daughter.
/ Source: TODAY

Dennis Carver jumped on top of his wife, Lorraine, as rounds of bullets sprayed through the crowd around them at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct 1. Then, during a lull in the gunfire, he grabbed her hand and the two scrambled to safety, escaping the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history.

But two weeks later, tragedy struck again. The couple was killed in a fiery car crash that occurred less than 200 yards away from their California home.

Dennis, 52, and Lorraine, 54, were on their way home the evening of Oct. 16 when their vehicle rounded a curve and veered off the roadway and into the lawn of a private home. Their car crashed into a metal intercom speaker and two brick pillars, and quickly caught on fire, according to the California Highway Patrol. The fire could be seen from the family's back window.

Police said an ongoing investigation is trying to determine whether speed was a factor in the crash.

Their eldest daughter Brooke, 20, took to Facebook several days later to express the grief she and her 16-year-old sister, Madison, have felt since the night their “lives changed forever.”

“Our beautiful, amazing, and strong parents were in a tragic and fatal car crash just down the street from my house,” she wrote. “Our parents couldn't have done more for us, they truly did make sure we had anything and everything we could ever want, including love which will last a lifetime.”

Brooke said her parents, who lived part time in Henderson, Nevada, where they owned a towing company, had been together for 22 years. Their final weeks together were among their happiest.

“After the shooting, they heard from all of the people they cared about most. They were so happy,” Brooke told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The last two weeks of their lives were really just spent living in the moment.”

Brooke recalled how her father ordered flowers for his wife three days after the Las Vegas tragedy.

“He just wanted to give my mom a reason to smile after the shooting,” she said. “I swear they were more in love those two weeks than the last 20 years.”

A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Brooke declined to comment when reached by TODAY on Tuesday.

Madison told the Review-Journal that she felt comfort knowing that her parents are still together.

“We’ve found some peace in knowing that our parents just loved each other so much that they had to go at the same time,” she said. “They couldn’t live without each other.”

In her Facebook post, Brooke thanked loved ones who had brought happiness into their parents' lives and provided support during the past month.

“This week we have been through more pain than we have ever been and probably will ever go through again," she wrote. "It's hard to see God's plan right now and how this was all part of it, but through the support of family and friends we have been pushing through.”