‘The Ice Just Kept Breaking’: Two Brothers Drown After Plunging Into Icy Pond to Rescue Little Brother — But Stranger’s Split-Second Move Only Saves Mom

Authorities say three young brothers died after falling into an icy pond following a massive ice storm in Texas.

The boys, 9-year-old E.J. Doss, 8-year-old Kaleb Doss and 6-year-old Howard Doss, died on Jan. 26 in the rural town of Bonham, not far from the Oklahoma border.

The boys’ parents spoke to local and national news outlets about how the tragedy unfolded.

According to their mother, Cheyenne Hangaman, the family was staying at a friend’s house to wait out the bitter winter storm that swept across much of the U.S. and left freezing temperatures in its wake.

Across the street from the home was a pond that Hangman told the boys not to go near. The pond had completely iced over in the storm.

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When they fell in, Hangman’s daughter alerted her mother, who immediately rushed outside.

“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.”

Hangaman said she ran across as much ice as she could to get to them before falling in herself and doing her best to drag the boys out of the water.

“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.”

A man who heard a cry for help came and threw a rope into the water to help Hangaman 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.”

Authorities say that first responders and a neighbor pulled the bodies of the two older boys from the water. The youngest child was recovered much later after an extensive search of the pond.

Hangaman described her sons as “bubbly.”

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

A GoFundMe page was set up to help the family.

Funeral services for the three boys were held on Feb. 1 in Greenville, Texas.