Texas Probes Possible Manslaughter in 27 Camp Mystic Flood Deaths

Camp Mystic is the subject of a criminal investigation that could lead to manslaughter or negligent homicide charges in connection with the deaths of 27 girls during catastrophic flooding in Texas last year, according to court documents.

In search-warrant applications executed last week, investigators requested access to electronic communications belonging to the camp’s owners, saying the records could contain evidence of manslaughter, negligent homicide, child abandonment or other offenses. No charges have been filed. A camp representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas Ranger Brant Johnston wrote in an affidavit that Camp Mystic had insufficient emergency plans, did not conduct emergency drills or training, and lacked enough adult counselors in some cabins. He also said camp owners failed to move children from low-lying cabins despite monitoring flood warnings late at night.

“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 that “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 died when the Guadalupe River surged over its banks before dawn on July 4, 2025. Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland was also killed in the flooding.

For generations, Camp Mystic had been a summer tradition for families who sent their daughters there to ride horses, canoe, fish and take part in Bible studies. The Christian all-girls sleepaway camp did not reopen this year and has filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

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The broader disaster killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, prompting questions about the decisions and failures that led to such a devastating loss of life.

Attorneys representing some victims’ families welcomed the search warrants, while arguing that investigators should not have needed them to obtain answers.

“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, 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.”

Steward’s body has still not been recovered.

Johnston said in the warrant that he had visited Camp Mystic several times and that investigators had interviewed witnesses, flood survivors and people connected to the camp. However, he wrote that several individuals, including members of the Eastland family and other senior camp officials, declined to be interviewed.

The Eastland family and other camp leaders have nevertheless testified in court and before the state Legislature in the months since the flood. Camp director Edward Eastland delivered a tearful apology.