BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Family members Thursday mourned three children and the woman they say gave her own life in a failed attempt to save them as her minivan rolled down a hill and sank in a park pond.
Michelle McIntosh, 39, died Wednesday along with her 2-year-old son, David, and 3-year-old family friend, Julia Boyd. Her nephew, Jayden Wilson, 6, died Thursday at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, where he had been in critical condition.
"I'm numb," McIntosh's husband, David McIntosh, said Thursday, crying. "It's like I'm still waiting for them to come back."
He said his wife had planned to find a spot for their Fourth of July picnic and then return to the house, less than a half-mile from Beardsley Park, to get him and their three other children. She had stopped the minivan to talk with friends in another car about where to set up, police said.
Seconds after she stepped out, the van began to roll, police said. She chased it and was dragged for a short distance, losing her shoes as she climbed in and tried to stop the vehicle, police said. It rolled down a steep hill and into a pond, where it was submerged in 15 to 20 feet of water for up to 25 minutes.
Police and fire officials were at the scene within five minutes, Bridgeport Police Chief Bryan Norwood said, but were unable to reach those trapped inside. A police scuba team pulled the victims out and rescuers tried to revive them before they were taken to hospitals.
Leonara Henry, Julia Boyd's aunt, said Julia's mother jumped in the lake after the van, but the water was too dark. Henry called Julia a "sweetheart."
"She would dance a lot -- just make you happy," Henry said.
Bridgeport Police Capt. Lynn Kerwin said the evidence so far "definitely points to it as an unfortunate, horrible accident."
Michelle McIntosh's mother, Veronica Plummer, said her daughter gave her life to save the children. She said, "She loves her children very much."
Family members were left to speculate about what might have happened. Plummer said the younger David McIntosh was a bright, energetic child who was fascinated with pretending to drive.
His father, a 40-year-old government auditor, said his son sometimes got out of his car seat. "Probably one of the kids was eager to get out of the car and touched the gear or something," David McIntosh said.
Authorities have not said what caused the van to roll. Police said at a press conference Thursday that it was unclear what gear the van was in but that the emergency brake was off. The ignition appeared to be on and the passengers' seat belts were off when the victims were recovered, said Deputy Chief James Honis.
Michelle and David McIntosh were childhood sweethearts who emigrated from Jamaica, Plummer said.
Michelle McIntosh worked in the financial aid office of Monroe College in New York, and was a dedicated mother who took the children for swimming lessons and to soccer games, family members said.
"If my kids fell on the ground and get a scratch, she's at the doctor's with them," David McIntosh said. "If they cry, she takes them to the doctor."
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