The Texas Rangers appear to be pursuing criminal charges against Camp Mystic, saying in a search warrant affidavit they believe camp leadership committed crimes including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide when 27 girls and counselors died in the July 4, 2025 floods, according to The New York Times.
“These offenses were committed against child campers — including both deceased victims and surviving campers of the flood event,” an investigator from the Texas Rangers, Brant C. Johnston, wrote in affidavits, according to the Times.
The Rangers’ 14 warrants seeking to investigate electronic data of the Eastland family, which ran the camp, along with other camp staff, were approved by a Kerr County state district judge on Friday.
Camp Mystic, a historic youth camp on the Guadalupe River where 25 girls and two counselors died after the river flooded, had planned to reopen and welcome more than 800 girls to parts of the campgrounds away from the hardest-hit areas. But in April, it withdrew its application for a license to operate, ultimately deciding not to reopen.
A state-led probe found that the camp did not have state-required written emergency plans or adequate evacuation measures at the time of the floods, which left 119 people dead in Kerr County.
Over the past 60 years, lawmakers repeatedly failed to pass flood protections that could have protected residents in the state’s most dangerous, flood-prone areas, according to an investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune.
Casey Garrett and Michael Massengale, hired by the Texas Legislature to conduct a probe of the flood response, said in a 115-page report that cascading failures led to the tragedy. They cited communication lapses between state and local authorities and lackluster instructions to counselors about how to safely evacuate in the event of a flood.
In February, families who lost daughters in the flood sued the Texas Department of State Health Services, accusing that agency of wrongfully licensing the camp, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Houston attorneys Paul Yetter and Richard Mithoff, who represented the families in that lawsuit, said the search warrants are a step towards “transparency and accountability.”
“These warrants show that decisions made by camp leadership before and during the flood may have been criminal,” they said in a statement. “Twenty-seven girls should be alive today, and we will not stop seeking answers. This is a necessary step in that process.”
Disclosure: The New York Times has been a major financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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