MCALLEN, Texas | 
 
 MCALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - An elderly South Texas couple died and their son was injured after a swarm of bees attacked them on their remote ranch, authorities said on Wednesday. William Steele, 95, and his wife, Myrtle, 92, died and their son, Richard, 67, was injured after bees attacked them as they tried to clean a hunting cabin on their ranch near Hebbronville on Monday, an investigator with the Jim Hogg County Sheriff's Office said. The elder Steele was spraying to kill bees that had built a hive in the fireplace, when the bees swarmed and attacked him, his wife and their son, she said. Myrtle Steele, 92, was airlifted to a Corpus Christi hospital, about 100 miles away, where she died Tuesday, Judy Steele said, adding her mother-in-law had been stung more than 300 times. He was taken to Laredo Memorial Hospital, about 80 miles from the ranch, and was released Tuesday, she said. Judy Steele said there was no cell phone service from her in-laws’ ranch and her husband had to drive several miles to the nearest phone, where he called 9-1-1. William Steele tried to escape the bees by running from the cabin, but he fell and succumbed to hundreds of bee stings, Espinoza said.
– An elderly couple was killed and their son injured when they messed with a swarm of bees at their Texas ranch. William Steele, 90, was spraying to kill bees that had built a hive in the fireplace of a small house he owned in a remote area of the ranch when they swarmed and attacked him, his wife, and his son, reports the Valley Morning Star. Steele tried to run from the cabin but collapsed and was stung hundreds of times. The couple's 67-year-old son was also stung but he managed to escape and get to the nearest phone to call authorities. Deputies without any protective equipment braved the swarm to rescue Myrtle Steele, 92. She had been stung some 300 times and died several days later in a nearby hospital. "It was a terrible thing," an investigator with the Jim Hogg County Sheriff's office tells Reuters. "You don't prepare for something like that. "