MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas — It's a small pond off rural Wigginsville Road and the site of an immense tragedy Thursday evening.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said two boys, ages 3 and 4, drowned in the pond Thursday night.
"It breaks my heart,” said neighbor Tina Terry.
Terry has grandchildren she never lets out of her sight.
“As a grandmother, I cried last night, you know?" Terry said "I watched them do CPR and they couldn’t save them, you know? I’ve been crying all day.”
It appears the children died after they wandered away from home with a third child who survived.
Deputies and emergency personnel initially responded to a report that the kids were missing.
“I’ve been doing this close to 40 years, and it doesn’t get any easier,” said Caney Creek Fire & Rescue Chief Raymond Flannelly.
Flannelly said crews did everything they could do to try and save the children. They focused on the pond after a firefighter noticed bubbles on the water and small footprints in the mud. One child was found immediately while the other was at the bottom of a deeper area in the middle of the pond.
"There’s been a ton of drownings in the greater Houston area this summer," Flannelly said. "And, the sad part is, it’s all preventable, just with a few safeguards.”
A neighbor pointed us to a home not far from the pond where at least one of the children lived. We're told both victims were related, but someone said the family was too shaken up to speak.
"My heart breaks for the parents,” Terry said.
The child who survived was treated for some cuts and scratches at a hospital in The Woodlands.
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