Two 12-year-old children died Thursday after falling through the ice on a pond in Winslow, Ind., despite the efforts of one child’s mother to rescue her son, officials said.
The children, identified in a news release as Paige Bailey and Brice Phillips, were playing outside before dinner when the incident occurred, said Ryan McIntyre of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ law enforcement division.
Brice’s mother heard her son yelling and the splashing of water from the pond behind their home, McIntyre said.
“She went out to the pond and attempted to rescue the boy,” McIntyre said. “She was not able to pull him to land.”
A diver was able to pull out both children, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources said in a news release. But authorities think the children were “under water at least half an hour before being rescued,” according to the agency.
“They started CPR as soon as they were brought out of the water, and they continued that on the way to the hospital, but once they were at the hospital it was determined they had passed,” state conservation Officer Joe Haywood said.
The ice was an estimated inch to an inch and a half in thickness at the time. It is not clear what they were doing out on the pond, McIntyre said.
McIntyre said Paige was a friend of the Phillips family.
