TWIN FALLS, Idaho — On Feb. 27, 2007, two families from Sweet, Idaho suffered a tragic loss when five children from their families were killed in a car accident on their way to school. The teens hit icy roads and their car slid off the road into a pond near Black Canyon Reservoir near Emmett. All five got trapped inside the car and drowned.
Inside the car were Brooke Probst, 15, and her brother Brant Probst, 12. Megan Walker, 15, and two of her brothers, Tyler Walker, 14, and Kyle Walker, 12, were also in the car when the crash happened.
“I’d always been a middle child," remembered Jeremy Walker, who was 10 years old when his siblings were killed. "I was the fourth down and fourth from the end. And all of a sudden that put me and my younger brother – we’re the oldest in the family all of sudden.”
Sage Probst [Walker] was eight years old at the time and she also recalled the day she learned her older sister and brother had been killed.
“I just remember my mom taking me out the door, having in my head that a white car had drove into a pond and that’s the color car they drove," she said. "So I just remember going to school with that in the back of my mind, worried.”
Twelve years after the devastating car accident and Jeremy and Sage are now in love and happily married.
Sage said her family and the Walkers had been close before the accident. Megan and Brooke were best friends who did everything together - and so were the three boys. She said the accident brought the families even closer.
“After the accident, our families went on quite a few yearly traditions to remember the kids," she said. "We went to Hawaii together, we went to Disney World together. Our families were just really close and we did a lot together. We just became best friends.”
That's where Jeremy and Sage say the early part of their love story started.
“As Sage got a little older and especially as I got a little bit older, it started to be pretty apparent that we had feelings for each other,” Jeremy said. “I just remember at her twelfth birthday, just being like, ‘Man, Sage is so gorgeous.’ And I’d always thought she was so fun and beautiful and things like that but I remember that being the time I was like, ‘Man, I like Sage.'”
According to Sage, it wasn't exactly love at first sight but falling for Jeremy was meant to be.
“When we were really little in elementary school, everyone loved Jeremy because he was like the coolest guy there and it used to irritate me," Sage remembered. "So I always said, 'I will never be the girl to like Jeremy' and I would tell everyone that. And later on, about seventh grade, I started to like him and so that’s where the feelings started.”
At the end of Sage's sixteenth birthday party, Jeremy asked her out on their first official date - and it went well.
The two said they dated throughout high school, but weren't officially together until Jeremy returned in January 2018 from serving a two-year LDS church mission.
In August 2018, Jeremy and Sage were married.
Jeremy said part of what he believes makes him and Sage click as a couple is their shared loss and the special connection it created between them.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my older siblings and not a day goes by she doesn’t miss her brother and sister and that will never change," he said. "But, at the same time, not a day goes by that I don’t feel like that tragedy has turned into a blessing.
“We both lost siblings together,” Jeremy added. “That will always be something that’s so hard in our lives but I also feel like it’s something that I can understand how she feels, and I think she definitely understands how I feel.”
Jeremy and Sage said they believe their siblings have always been watching over them - and maybe even doing a little matchmaking along the way.
“Growing up, we always felt like they’ve been our little people watching us through everything we’ve done," Sage said. "We felt like they’ve been excited when we got married – we definitely felt them there on our wedding day.”
Jeremy also believes their siblings would be pleased that he and Sage ended up together.
“I imagine they’re looking down and they’re just as happy as could be,” he said.
Jeremy and Sage also told KTVB they look forward to having kids and being able to tell them all about their five aunts and uncles.