'They were just screaming.' Mom unable to save 3 sons who fell through
icy pond in Texas
[January 28, 2026]
By JULIO CORTEZ and KENDRIA LAFLEUR
BONHAM, Texas (AP) — Three brothers — ages 6, 8 and 9 — died in Texas
during the massive winter storm gripping the U.S. after falling through
an icy pond across the street from a house where they were staying,
authorities said Tuesday. Their mother said she jumped into the freezing
water but wasn’t able to save them.
“They were just screaming, telling me to help them,” Cheyenne Hangaman
told The Associated Press. “And I watched all of them struggle, struggle
to stay above the water. I watched all of them fight.”
The brothers died on Monday after falling into the private pond north of
Bonham, a rural community of about 10,000 people near the Oklahoma
border, the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office said. First responders and a
neighbor pulled the two older boys from the water and the youngest
sibling was recovered after an extensive search of the pond, according
to the sheriff.
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.”
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Cheyenne Hangaman speaks to The Associated Press about the death of
her three sons who drowned in a frozen pond Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026,
in Bonham, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
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.
On Tuesday, a layer of ice still covered much of the small pond in a
wooded area.
More than 40 deaths have been reported in states affected by severe
cold.
___
Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Kathy McCormack
in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
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