LITTLE ROCK — A 26-year-old mother tried but failed to rescue her three young boys after she drove a vehicle into Brewer Lake in rural Conway County early Sunday morning, according to the Conway County sheriff's office.
The children, ages 2, 7 and 8, drowned, and the events surrounding their deaths are under investigation, Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith said Sunday.
Smith declined to release the names of the children or their mother, saying that family members were still being notified of the children's deaths.
Both the children's mother and father, who live at separate addresses, are Conway County residents, he said.
Rescuers with the sheriff's office responded to the mother's 911 call at 3:39 a.m. after she said she had driven her vehicle into the lake off Johnny Walker Road, a dead end street off Arkansas 92 that leads to a boat ramp at the edge of the lake, Smith said.
She said she had pulled the children from the car but lost hold of them in the water, Smith said.
The first boy was found about 15 to 20 minutes after the rescuers arrived and the other two boys were found quickly afterward, Smith said.
The children were taken to St. Anthony's Medical Center in Morrilton where they were pronounced dead, said County Coroner Richard Neal.
Neal declined to discuss any other information about the deaths.
Bill Sadler, spokesman for the Arkansas State Police, which is helping the Conway County sheriff's office investigate the incident, declined to answer questions about it Sunday.
Smith said the agencies were continuing to piece together an explanation for why the mother was at the lake so early in the morning and how the car ended up in the water.
"There's some circumstances we're looking at," Smith said.
No arrests or charges had been made as of Sunday afternoon, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7, 9 on 04/20/2009