They are photographs that freeze time, images captured in a heartbeat now immortalised as eerie memorials to lives lost.

From smiling selfies to candid snaps, these final photos of people taken mere moments before their deaths are as haunting as they are heart-wrenching.

Some show couples in high spirits, laughing with loved ones and enjoying holidays, unaware of the cruel twist fate was about to deliver. Others appear unsettling in hindsight with shaking helicopters and locations that would later become scenes of unimaginable tragedy.

In one chilling case, a grinning newly-wed husband and wife were pictured leaving their reception just moments before they were mowed down by a drunk driver. The bride died instantly.

Just earlier this week, a TikTok beauty influencer was shot dead during a livestream after a gun-wielding motorbike rider sped past her salon and blasted her three times in the head and chest.

Last month, a couple posted a tragic last selfie on social media just moments before they were killed by a twister at a Brazil waterfall.

These pictures – collected from archives, families, and online sources – are more than just macabre curiosities. They’re painful reminders of life’s fragility, the randomness of death, and the poignant beauty of a moment frozen in time.

Behind every image lies a story, a family in mourning, and a life cut short.

Bride in chopper before fatal crash on way to wedding

A bride was killed minutes before her wedding when the helicopter taking her to the altar as a surprise for her husband-to-be crashed just a few miles from the ceremony.

Rosemere do Nascimento Silva, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was killed in December 2016 along with three others – the pilot Peterson Pinheiro, her brother Silvano Nascimento da Silva, and a photographer, Nayla Cristina Neves, who was six months pregnant.

The 32-year-old’s fiancé, Udirley Damasceno, was left waiting at the wedding venue unaware of what she was planning to do, or of the fatal air crash.

Footage of the moment the helicopter went down, released as part of the investigation into the crash, was shared online by local news channels.

In the clip, the beautiful bride looks happy and excited as she looks out of the window of the Robinson 44 helicopter.