Mom's anguish: Tragedy as her 3 young sons drown in a frozen pond in Fannin County
16-year-old dies in sledding accident in Frisco, national death toll, currently 34
Three young brothers died after falling into an icy pond in Fannin County during a winter storm, according to the Bonham Fire Department.
The tragedy in Bonham follows a fatal sledding accident in Frisco on Sunday when 16-year-old Elizabeth Angle, a sophomore and soccer player at Wakeland High School, lost her life.
Angle and another teenage girl were being pulled on a sled by a 16-year-old boy driving a Jeep when the sled hit a curb and crashed into a tree. Angle died at the scene. The second girl remains on life support.
At least 34 people have died in 14 states throughout the US as the winter storm brings ice, snow, and extreme cold.
The three elementary school students died in a frozen pond in Bonham, a city approximately 60 miles northeast of Dallas. Relatives of the victims confirmed the three children were brothers, aged 6, 8, and 9 years old.
Bonham ISD officials issued a statement expressing devastation over the “unimaginable loss” and have committed to providing ongoing support to the family and students.
The boys’ mother, Cheyenne Hangaman, told FOX 4 about her desperate attempt to save her sons on Monday. She said the youngest brother, Howard, went underwater first, and his older brothers jumped in to help him.
“I started running toward the pond, and I jumped in. I tried to save them while also trying to keep myself alive,” Hangaman said. “As soon as I jumped in, I locked up. I couldn’t do anything.”
Hangaman said a local high school football coach also tried to help the boys out of the freezing water. The mother, who had followed her sons in, eventually had to be pulled out by a neighbor.
“It was one of me and three of them, and they all needed me at one time. I just couldn’t... I couldn’t save them,” she said.
The superintendent of Bonham ISD sent a letter to parents on Monday expressing the district’s heartbreak. The letter stated the district is “devastated by this unimaginable loss” and is working to provide support for the family.