In a heart-wrenching incident that left a community in mourning, a young couple, along with their friend, tragically lost their lives less than 48 hours after the newlyweds had eloped.
When Jessiah Plemons and Lily Rose eloped on October 15, 2021, they thought it was just the beginning of their long life together as husband and wife. Sadly, however, just as family and friends learned that the couple had secretly married, they also learned that the newlyweds, along with their friend Madison Davis, were killed less than 48 hours after their nuptials.
According to police in Knoxville, Tennessee, Jessiah Plemons, Lily Rose, and Madison Davis were traveling on the Weisgarber exit ramp from Interstate 40 when tragedy struck. It was just after 3 a.m. on that fateful Sunday morning — just two days after Plemons and Rose had secretly wed — when their Dodge pickup left the roadway, colliding with the guardrail, WATE reported. But, that’s not what killed them.
Instead, the trio had exited their vehicle and were standing next to their disabled truck when a Chevy pickup struck them and their Dodge, police said. While the driver of the Chevy was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Plemons, Rose, and Davis weren’t so lucky. Tragically, all three were pronounced dead at the scene.
News of their passing hit their families hard since it was said that the two were living their best lives when they died. “I think that’s what made it harder, is the fact that she was the happiest she’d ever been and it got taken away from her,” Lily’s cousin, August McClelland, explained. “She was silly, she was always silly. She always wanted to do TikToks with people, like that was her thing,” she added, saying that those TikToks would help get them through their grief.
Lily’s aunt, Selena McClelland, shared similar sentiments about the young woman, who was described as having a bubbly personality and the kind of girl who didn’t take herself too seriously. “Lily was just the life of our family. She would just bring sunshine into the room. Her laughter would fill the room,” her aunt recalled.
Plemons’ family also shared heartwarming memories of the young man, who had a love for music and took his sister, Milea Effler, to her first concert and bought her her first guitar, which she learned how to play while her brother was learning to play the drums. Although he had struggled with addiction, music got Plemons through recovery, his sister explained. “[H]e had turned himself around,” she said. “He called it his new birthday when he turned 23 because that’s when he was fully sober.”
Having overcome addiction, Jessiah Plemons wanted to give back and help others fight through recovery, his mom Michelle explained. “He’d done a lot of sponsoring to a lot of people. Also had spoken to the jails, you know, to try to give others a thought of having a brighter future,” she said, adding that her son went to Narcotics Anonymous religiously, where he openly shared his story and struggles.
Indeed, Jessiah Plemons was always making sure everyone else was okay. “He helped me buy my first car. He gave me a place when I had nowhere to go,” his sister said. He had also taken in his older sister’s two kids, who were just 2 and 5 years old, so they wouldn’t be turned over to the Department of Children’s Services.
Along with his sister’s two children and the two children Lily Rose had of her own, Plemons and his bride looked forward to blending into a family of six. Sadly, that wouldn’t come to complete fruition. Instead, Plemon’s mother Michelle would be taking the two children his son was raising as his own.
Because the couple had eloped in secret, their families had no idea they were wed until they discovered their secret wedding through social media. Shortly thereafter, they received the devastating news of the accident and never got the opportunity to congratulate them. “Next thing you know, I get a knock on my door. And it’s just, it’s every mother’s nightmare. Every mother’s nightmare,” recalled Plemons’ mother, who believes the couple may have been on their way home after celebrating their marriage when their life together was cut short.
Although their deaths have left their loved ones grappling with profound loss, grieving the lives of these young individuals who were filled with hope and dreams for the future, the love story of Jessiah Plemons and Lily Rose also provides the world with a reminder to live each day as if it were your last — because it just might be.
This couple never got to fully enjoy and experience this new chapter of their lives. However, the rest of us have that opportunity, and we can follow the example that Jessiah Plemons and Lily Rose were able to give before their lives were cut short. Both knew the importance of laughing, loving, living, and giving, as well as overcoming obstacles such as addiction. To honor their memory, we should all do the same.
