The water was close enough for neighbors to hear the screams and for a mother to jump in after her sons. Yet on that frozen pond outside Bonham, Texas, every rescue attempt failed, and three elementary school boys did not come home.
3 Brothers, 1 Frozen Pond
According to reporting by Fox News, citing local authorities and relatives, three brothers, ages 6, 8, and 9, entered an icy pond in Bonham during a severe winter storm in North Texas. When the youngest, identified by the family as Howard, went under the surface, his older brothers followed in a desperate attempt to reach him.
THREE BOYS DROWN IN ICY POND | https://t.co/GQrLctDOnq
Three young brothers, all under the age of 10, tragically lost their lives after falling through an icy pond just outside of Bonham, Texas, according to the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office. pic.twitter.com/dI9xtzCsrq
— News 4 San Antonio (@News4SA) January 27, 2026
Their mother, Cheyenne Hangaman, told Dallas station FOX 4 that she saw what was happening and ran toward the water. She described a split-second decision to prioritize her children over her own safety, even as the temperature and wind made survival in the water unlikely.
“I started running toward the pond, and I jumped in. I tried to save them while also trying to keep myself alive,” she said in an on-camera interview with FOX 4. “As soon as I jumped in, I locked up. I could not do anything.”
Hangaman said a local high school football coach also entered the water to try to help pull the boys out. At some point, a neighbor intervened to pull her from the pond. According to FOX 4, the neighbor and first responders were able to reach the 8-year-old and 9-year-old and get them to shore, then to a hospital, where both later died.
The 6-year-old Howard did not resurface during the initial rescue efforts. His body was recovered only after an extended search of the pond, according to Fox News, which cited local officials. Publicly available reporting so far has not included a detailed incident report from law enforcement or the fire department, so the exact sequence and timing of those final rescue efforts remain unclear.
Schools and a City in Mourning
The three boys were all students in the Bonham Independent School District. In a letter shared with families and reported by FOX 4, Superintendent Lance Hamlin described what had happened as an “unimaginable loss” and confirmed that all three victims were elementary school students in the district.
“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we inform our community of the tragic passing of three elementary students. We are devastated by this unimaginable loss, and our thoughts are with the family, friends, and all who knew and loved these children,” Hamlin wrote, according to FOX 4. The district said it was arranging counseling and other support for classmates and staff.
Hangaman told reporters that her sons each had distinct personalities and interests. She described one child who loved football and haircuts, another she called exceptionally kind, and the youngest as energetic and playful. Those personal details have come from family interviews, not from any official investigative file, which has not been released publicly.
As of the latest reporting by Fox News, local authorities had not announced any criminal investigation related to the pond deaths. There is also no public information yet on whether officials are reviewing safety measures around the pond, including fencing, signage, or past incidents. Without an incident report or formal review, the public record does not answer how quickly first responders arrived or what specific obstacles they faced on the ice-covered water.
Another North Texas Student Killed on Ice
The deaths in Bonham were not the only student fatalities linked to the same winter storm. In Frisco, roughly an hour to the southwest, a 16-year-old student at Wakeland High School died during a sledding outing, according to the same Fox News report that cited local police.
Authorities identified the teenager as Elizabeth Angle, a sophomore and soccer player. Police said Angle and another teenage girl were being pulled on a sled behind a Jeep driven by a 16-year-old boy when the sled struck a curb and then hit a tree. Angle died at the scene. The second girl was taken to a hospital and, according to Fox News, remained on life support at the time of that report.
Frisco police told reporters that their investigation into the sledding crash was still active. They did not publicly specify whether they were examining possible criminal charges for the driver or whether they considered the incident a tragic accident without criminal liability. No court filings related to the crash have been reported so far, and police have not released a full collision report to the public.
In a statement quoted by Fox News, the department warned that snow and ice can create “extremely slippery surfaces” and can lead to serious or fatal accidents. That language aligns with longstanding guidance from national safety agencies on the risks of towing sleds or inner tubes on public streets.
Weather Alerts and Local Preparedness
The events in Bonham and Frisco unfolded during a powerful winter storm that left much of North Texas under a blanket of ice, sleet, and snow. Fox News noted that millions of people across multiple states were under winter weather alerts and that officials had declared emergencies as ice accumulated on roads and other surfaces.
The National Weather Service issues winter storm warnings and ice storm warnings when forecasters expect conditions that can severely disrupt travel and threaten life. Federal guidance stresses that ice on roads, sidewalks, and ponds can make even short trips hazardous, and that residents in areas unaccustomed to prolonged freezing temperatures may underestimate the danger. General safety tips from the Weather Service, available on its winter safety page at weather.gov, urge people to stay off ice-covered bodies of water unless the thickness has been professionally verified.
Medical research has long documented how quickly cold water can overwhelm the human body. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that sudden immersion in cold water can cause an involuntary gasp or hyperventilation, along with rapid loss of muscle control. On its drowning prevention page at cdc.gov, the agency explains that even strong swimmers can lose the ability to move effectively or keep their airway above water within seconds in very cold conditions.
Hangaman’s account that her muscles “locked up” as soon as she entered the pond closely mirrors those medical descriptions of cold shock. That detail supports, rather than contradicts, the official picture of a rescue attempt that unfolded too fast for any of the adults present to overcome the physical conditions, even before emergency crews arrived.
What We Still Do Not Know
While the broad outlines of both incidents are public, significant pieces of the picture remain incomplete. Officials in Fannin County have not released a detailed narrative of the pond incident, including how far the boys were from the shore when they fell through, whether they were playing on the ice before the breakthrough, or how quickly rescuers reached them. Public reporting has also not clarified who owns or manages the pond and what safety measures, if any, were in place before the storm.
In Frisco, police have said their investigation of the sledding crash is ongoing. Still, they have not publicly described what evidence they are gathering or what potential charges they are evaluating, if any. It is not clear whether investigators are focused primarily on traffic law violations, possible negligence, or simply documenting the circumstances of a fatal accident for the record.
What is established so far is limited but stark. Three brothers in Bonham entered a frozen pond during a winter storm, their mother and others tried to reach them, and all three children died. A high school student in Frisco was pulled on a sled behind a Jeep on icy streets and killed when the sled hit a curb and then a tree. In both cases, officials had publicly warned that ice-covered surfaces during the storm could be deadly, yet those warnings did not prevent four young lives from being lost.
Whether future investigative files or policy reviews will change how North Texas schools, cities, or families approach ice and winter recreation is a question that remains open, along with the quieter one that hangs over both communities: how much more detail the public will ever receive about the last minutes before the ice broke and the sled hit the tree.
