They were old enough to ride horses, canoe and pray before bed. Not to save themselves from a river that rose six meters in the darkness.
In the early hours of July 4, 2025, as the Guadalupe overflowed across Texas, 25 campers and two teenage counselors at Camp Mystic were not evacuated from the lowest cabins. Investigator Brant Johnston of the Texas Rangers wrote that the camp knew about the nighttime warnings and still did nothing: no drills, no adequate emergency plans, and far too few adults to care for them. “Young campers cannot be expected to recognize on their own a danger that threatens their lives”, he wrote.
Now 14 search warrants seek the communications of the Eastland family, which owned the camp, to determine whether there was involuntary or negligent homicide. Richard Eastland, its owner, also died that night. The body of one of the girls, Cile Steward, has still not been found. Her parents only want to know what her final minutes were like.
