Alexis Keslar had taken her twin sons, Silas and Eli, out in their pushchair for a walk alongside the Yuma canal in Arizona.
But, when a bee flew into her face, the mother found herself letting go of the pushchair for just a moment in a bid to swat it away.
Police explained: "The stroller rolled away from her in the canal, with the boys belted in the seat.”
Horrified, Alexis immediately ran into the canal and tried to save her babies, but the speed of the current and the depth of the water was too great; the stroller was quickly washed away.
Climbing out of the canal, Alexis called for help; the irrigation district that manages the canal slowed the flow of water, in a bid to help emergency services to find the boys.
After an hour of searching, the toddlers were found and flown to a hospital, were they were pronounced dead.
“No parent should ever have to lose a child, you know, let alone both of them at the same time," family friend Marlene Gleim told KYMA.
"That's what really, really is heartbreaking to me, because those little boys were, you know, meant so much to so many people."
The family has received more than $20,000 in donations since the accident, according to a GoFundMe page.