Texas investigators have launched a criminal probe into the Camp Mystic tragedy that killed 27 girls and two teen counselors during severe flooding on July 4, 2025. Search warrants were executed to obtain the camp owners' electronic communications as potential evidence of manslaughter, negligent homicide, child abandonment or related offenses. Authorities allege the camp lacked adequate emergency planning, drills and adult supervision and failed to relocate campers despite late‑night flood warnings. Families say they have long demanded answers; one victim, Cile Steward, remains missing.
Texas Criminal Probe Targets Camp Mystic After Flood Killed 27 Girls; Warrants Seek Owners’ Communications
People place a cross by the Guadalupe River, across from Camp Mystic, following deadly flooding, in Hunt, Texas, on July 10, 2025. - Umit Bektas/Reuters
Texas authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the deadly July 4, 2025 flood at Camp Mystic that killed 27 girls and two teen counselors, and left many families demanding answers. Court documents show investigators have sought search warrants to obtain the camp owners’ electronic communications as possible evidence in a probe that could include charges such as manslaughter, negligent homicide or child abandonment.
Investigators' Findings
In an affidavit, Texas Ranger Brant Johnston detailed multiple alleged failures by Camp Mystic's leadership: inadequate emergency planning, absence of regular emergency drills or staff training, and insufficient adult supervision in some cabins. Johnston wrote that camp officials monitored late-night flood warnings but did not move children from low-lying cabins.
"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.
"Camp Mystic, LLC was aware of and consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death to the campers in their care," he added.
Human Toll And Community Impact
The victims included 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the Christian all‑girls sleepaway camp; Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood. The broader flooding along the Guadalupe River killed at least 136 people across several miles of the river, prompting urgent questions about preparedness and accountability.
Debris is piled up at Camp Mystic on July 7, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. - Brandon Bell/Getty Images
For generations, families sent girls to Camp Mystic to ride horses, canoe, fish and attend Bible study. The camp did not reopen the following season and has filed for bankruptcy reorganization.
Families Seek Answers
Attorneys for some 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," said Christina Yarnell and Brad Beckworth, attorneys for the family of missing victim Cile Steward. Steward’s body has not been recovered.
Johnston's affidavit says investigators conducted multiple site visits and interviews with witnesses, survivors and people connected to the camp. He also noted that several key figures, including some members of the Eastland family and other senior camp officials, declined to be interviewed. Members of the Eastland family and other camp leaders have appeared in court and before the state Legislature since the disaster; camp director Edward Eastland issued a public, tearful apology in those settings.
The criminal investigation is ongoing and no criminal charges have been filed to date. The search warrants for electronic communications signal that investigators are pursuing documentary evidence as they determine whether the camp's alleged lapses amount to criminal conduct.
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