A Texas mother has described the heartbreaking moment she tried to save her three young sons, who died after falling through an icy pond during a severe winter storm. Cheyenne Hangaman told local station Fox4 that she 'just couldn’t save' the boys, aged six, eight, and nine, who had ventured onto a frozen pond behind a friend's house in Fannin County, near the Oklahoma border, on Monday.
Hangaman was alerted by the boys' sister and rushed to the pond. 'I start running towards the pond and I jump in and I try to save them — also trying to keep myself alive because the water is freezing,' she said. 'As soon as I jump in, I like locked up.' She added, 'I couldn’t really hardly do anything. It was just one of me and three of them. And they were all needing me at one time and I couldn’t — I just couldn’t save them.'
Hangaman had warned her sons to stay away from the pond, but her youngest ventured onto the ice and fell through. His brothers attempted to rescue him and also plunged into the water. A nearby man, the head football coach at Bonham High School, heard the commotion, raced to the scene, and threw Hangaman a rope to pull her to safety. Multiple agencies responded, according to the Fannin County Sheriff's Office.
First responders, with a neighbour's help, pulled the two eldest boys from the water and rushed them to hospital, but they were pronounced deceased. The youngest was recovered after an extensive search. 'All three children have been pronounced deceased,' the sheriff's office said.
Through tears, Hangaman remembered her sons: 'My oldest one, EJ, didn't care about nothing but football and getting his haircut. Caleb’s personality was out of this world. He was the sweetest soul I ever met. And Howard, he was just goofy. He liked to liven the party. He was hard-headed.'
A GoFundMe page has raised over $60,000 to cover funeral costs. The drownings occurred during winter storm Fern, which caused over two dozen deaths and left thousands without power across the US.
