Camp Mystic Faces Criminal Probe Over Flood Deaths

Camp Mystic faces a criminal investigation that could include manslaughter or negligent homicide charges in the deaths of 27 girls amid devastating flooding in Texas last year, court documents show. In applications for search warrants executed last week, investigators sought to obtain the electronic communications of the camp's owners, saying they could provide evidence of manslaughter, negligent homicide, child abandonment, or other crimes. No charges have been brought, and a representative of the camp did not immediately return messages seeking comment, the AP reports.

Brant Johnston, with the Texas Rangers, wrote in an affidavit that Camp Mystic had inadequate emergency plans, failed to conduct emergency drills or training, and in some cabins did not have enough adult counselors. Its owners neglected to take precautions by relocating children from low-lying cabins despite having monitored late-night flood warnings, Johnston wrote. "Young campers cannot reasonably be expected to independently recognize a rapidly developing, life-threatening hazard or to organize and execute an evacuation absent direction from an adequate number of adult supervisors," Johnston wrote. He concluded: "Camp Mystic, LLC was aware of and consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death to the campers in their care."

Twenty-five campers and two teenage counselors at the Christian all-girls camp were killed as the raging Guadalupe River surged beyond its banks before dawn on July 4, 2025. Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood. Attorneys for some of the victims' families welcomed the search warrants but said they should not have been necessary. "For more than a year, families of the 27 angels killed at Camp Mystic have fought, begged, and pleaded with the Eastland family for accountability and answers," Christina Yarnell and Brad Beckworth, attorneys for the family of victim Cile Steward, whose body still has not been found, said in a written statement. "Instead, the Eastlands have held hostage the information and answers owed to parents who deserve, more than anyone, to know the details surrounding their daughters' final moments."