Moments before 22-year-old Jeffrey Hunter knew that his life would come to an end, he sent his mother Regina Wood a text message saying goodbye.

Hunter, a senior at the University of Central Arkansas, texted his mother minutes before a tornado hit his home in Vilonia, Arkansas on April 27. The two shared a brief text message exchange while he was taking shelter in a bathroom before he died, reports Gawker.

"First he said mama, I'm so scared," said Wood about her son to Fox 24 KFTA-TV.

"Goodbye mama..." he wrote to his mom, who was 20 miles away in her home in Beebe. "It's heading right for me."

The tornado then hit his home where he was staying staying with his father and stepmother, who both survived but were seriously injured. A neighbor found his body the debris after the EF-4 storm destroyed a number of homes in the area.

"I kept saying are you okay? Are you okay? Let me know. Let me know. No answer," Hunter's mom told local news station KNWA.

Hunter, one of 15 Arkansas residents who died in the tornado, was slated to graduate from the University of Central Arkansas over the weekend. Instead, his funeral service was held on Saturday.

Lyman Watkins says he discovered Hunter lying unconscious on the ground.

"I made my way, he was at that house right there," said Watkins.

There are flags up for each one of the victims in the Vilonia neighborhood who died on that day.

Altogether, a wave of tornadoes killed at least 18 people in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Iowa during the storm. According to Reuters, Arkansas was the hardest hit with at least 16 people dead. At least 10 people died, including two children, in Arkansas' central Faulkner County, plus authorities said that at least 150 homes were destroyed in the most destructive storm system of the year.