‘They were just screaming’: Mom was unable to save 3 sons who died after falling through icy pond

BONHAM, Texas (KXII/Gray News) — Three young brothers died Monday after falling through ice on a private pond north of Bonham, Texas, according to multiple local and state agencies.

The victims have been identified as brothers Howard, 6; Kaleb, 8; and E.J., 9.

Their mother, Cheynne Hangaman, said she jumped into the freezing water Monday but wasn’t able to save them.

“They were just screaming, telling me to help them,” Hangaman told The Associated Press. “And I watched all of them struggle, struggle to stay above the water. I watched all of them fight.”

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First responders and a neighbor pulled the two older boys from the water. However, the 6-year-old did not resurface but was later recovered after an extensive search of the pond.

Hangaman said she and her children had been staying at a friend’s house across the street from the pond, and that she’d warned them to not go near it. But, she said, on Monday her youngest daughter ran to tell her that her brothers were in the water.

“I ran across as much ice as I could to get to them and eventually ended up falling in myself,” said Hangaman, who said the freezing water immediately shocked her body.

“I would grab one, try to put him on ice, but the ice just kept breaking every time I would sit him up there,” she said. ”I would just keep trying to go to each one of them trying to help them and it was only me, like I couldn’t help them all by myself.”

Hangaman said a man who came to help was able to throw a rope to her to get her out of the pond.

“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move,” she said. “By that time I knew that my kids were already gone. So I just had to try to fight for my life at that point.”

All three of the boys were in elementary school in the Bonham Independent School District, which had canceled classes Monday because of the frigid weather that has swept across much of the U.S.

The school district was also closed Tuesday due to extreme weather conditions, including icy roads and freezing temperatures.

“We are devastated by this unimaginable loss, and our thoughts are with the family, friends, and all who knew and loved these children,” Superintendent Lance Hamlin said in a letter to parents.

Hangaman said all three boys were “bubbly.”

“You couldn’t really stop their bubbliness,” she said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.