Mother mourns daughter thrown from car that fell off cliff: ‘I wish God would have taken me first’

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (KTVK/KPHO/Gray News) - A mother is grieving her 39-year-old daughter, calling her the light of her life, after she died when her car went off a cliff in Arizona.

Jinger Cutting is planning a funeral for her daughter, Kristin “Kris” Little, who died last Friday. She says no parent should outlive their child, AZ Family reports.

“It kills me to think that I will bury my child first,” Cutting said. “That should not be the case.”

Earlier this month, Cutting went on a girls’ trip with her daughters to celebrate Little’s 39th birthday.

“I wish God would have taken me first. God needed Krissy. She is an absolute angel. She was an angel on this earth for 39 years, and now, she’ll be an angel in heaven,” she said.

At one point, Little used to watch the sunset almost every day at a lookout spot in the Thumb Butte area, and Cutting says that’s what she was doing last Friday when she bumped into some high school friends.

When everyone left, Cutting says her daughter went back down the Thumb Butte side, which is very difficult, but Little had driven her truck that way all the time.

The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office says deputies reponded to the area around 5 p.m. for a report of a vehicle falling off a cliff. They received an alert about the incident from Little’s Apple Watch.

Deputies believe Little veered to the left, causing her vehicle to go off the road and down the mountainside. The vehicle was found about 1,000 feet down.

Deputies say Little was thrown from the vehicle in the crash.

Cutting says Little’s dog, CJ, was found alive and uninjured next to her daughter’s body. She believes CJ was ejected through an open window before her daughter.

“To know CJ will be here with us for the balance of her life, that gives me great comfort,” Cutting said.

Due to the darkness and rough terrain, deputies had to wait until sunrise Saturday to recover Little’s body. They never left her side.

“Those rescuers stayed with my daughter all night long, and that meant the world to me,” Cutting said.

The mother says she finds comfort in her memories of her daughter, who she describes as a free spirit who loved nature.

“She loved life to a maximum. She did everything with her complete heart,” Cutting said. “She was a wonderful girl. She was everything. She was the light of my life. She was full of positive energy all of the time.”

Little was a real estate agent in Prescott, but she loved to spend her time outdoors. Cutting says her daughter loved camping and hiking with CJ. The two were inseparable.

“Hug your children, please, every day. Hug those babies because you don’t know when you’re going to see them again,” she said.

Cutting says the outpouring of support from the community following her daughter’s death has been “overwhelmingly beautiful.”

A celebration of life is being planned for Sept. 15 near Watson Lake in Prescott. A time has not been set.

Cutting says she plans to create a foundation in Little and CJ’s names to help with rescue efforts for Parks and Recreation. Her first priority is to have a guardrail installed in the area of the incident to keep other families safe.

The crash is still under investigation.

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