Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Two Carroll County siblings died and a third was injured Saturday during an accident resulting from a cattle roundup on a family farm north of Green Forest.
According to Ted Hostetler, a team leader for the Mennonite Disaster Services Search and Rescue team and on-scene incident commander, Alex Hostetler, 20, and his brother, Layne, 15, died while trying to extricate a straggler steer from a pond on the 1,000-acre farm owned by their father, Louis Hostetler. Their sister, Eileen, 18, was injured attempting to help her brothers get out of the pond.
The accident happened just after 9:30 a.m., when riders were attempting to round up a few stragglers from the herd of 720 cattle. Hostetler said Alex had gone into one of the many ponds on the property to retrieve a steer when he encountered trouble. Layne rushed in to help and soon both brothers were struggling in the water along with the steer and their horses.