{"id":142147,"date":"2026-01-29T03:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142147\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T03:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:50:19","slug":"moms-desperate-fight-to-save-three-sons-from-freezing-pond-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142147\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom\u2019s desperate fight to save three sons from freezing pond \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three brothers \u2014 ages 6, 8 and 9 \u2014 died Monday after falling through an icy pond<\/a> across the street from a house where they were staying near Bonham, authorities said Tuesday. Their mother said she jumped into the freezing water but couldn\u2019t save them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were just screaming, telling me to help them,\u201d Cheyenne Hangaman told The Associated Press. \u201cAnd I watched all of them struggle, struggle to stay above the water. I watched all of them fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers died on Monday after falling into the private pond north of Bonham, a rural community of about 10,000 people northeast of Dallas-Fort Worth near the Oklahoma border, the Fannin County Sheriff\u2019s Office said. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tNBC 5 NewsNBC 5 News<\/p>\n

Edward Doss, the boys’ father, talked with NBC 5 and identified his sons as 9-year-old EJ, 8-year-old Kaleb and 6-year-old Howard.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Hangaman said she and her children had been staying at a friend\u2019s house across the street from the pond, and that she\u2019d warned them not to go near it. But, she said, on Monday her youngest daughter ran to tell her that her brothers were in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran across as much ice as I could to get to them and eventually ended up falling in myself,\u201d said Hangaman, who said the freezing water immediately shocked her body.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cheyenne<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAP Photo\/Julio CortezAP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n

Cheyenne Hangaman speaks to The Associated Press about the death of her three sons, who drowned in a frozen pond on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Bonham, Texas. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t help them all by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hangaman said a man who came to help was able to throw her a rope to get her out of the pond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t breathe. I couldn\u2019t move,” she said. \u201cBy that time, I knew that my kids were already gone. So I just had to try to fight for my life at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonham ISD Athletic Director John Ramsey confirmed in a statement to NBC 5 that he was outside when he heard the call for help.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L-R:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tEdward DossEdward Doss<\/p>\n

L-R: EJ Doss, Kaleb Doss and Howard Doss.<\/p>\n

“I was nearby helping a neighbor when I heard someone calling for help and went to assist. Any person in that situation would have done the same thing,” Ramsey said. “I was simply close enough to help in a moment of crisis, doing what I hope anyone would do for someone in need.”<\/p>\n

Ramsey said the family will need plenty of prayers as they deal with the loss of their sons and asked the community to come together to support them however they can.<\/p>\n

All three of the boys were in elementary school in the Bonham Independent School District, which had canceled classes on Monday because of the frigid weather that had swept across much of the U.S. The school district was also closed on Tuesday due to extreme weather conditions, including icy roads and freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

Hangaman said all three boys were \u201cbubbly.” “You couldn\u2019t really stop their bubbliness,” she said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a layer of ice still covered much of the small pond in a wooded area.<\/p>\n

More than 40 deaths have been reported in states affected by severe cold.<\/p>\n

NBC 5 and The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three brothers \u2014 ages 6, 8 and 9 \u2014 died Monday after falling through an icy pond across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59636,116,118,117,4375,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-142147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fannin-county","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-news","12":"tag-severe-weather","13":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}