Search-warrant records show Texas Rangers are investigating whether decisions by Camp Mystic leadership before and during the deadly July 2025 flood could support charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and child endangerment.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Texas Rangers have opened a criminal investigation into Camp Mystic and members of its leadership over the deaths of 27 girls and counselors during the catastrophic July 4, 2025, flooding along the Guadalupe River, with newly disclosed court records showing investigators are examining whether the camp’s actions could constitute several criminal offenses.
No charges have been filed against Camp Mystic or its leadership. The search warrants and allegations contained in investigators’ affidavits represent steps in an ongoing investigation and do not establish criminal liability.
The Rangers obtained 14 search warrants for electronic information belonging to members of the Eastland family, which operated the girls’ summer camp, and other Camp Mystic personnel. A Kerr County state district judge approved the warrants last week.
Investigators are seeking communications that could show what camp officials knew about the developing weather emergency, how they responded as the Guadalupe River rapidly rose and what decisions were made before campers were evacuated, according to reporting by The New York Times.
Texas Rangers investigator Brant Johnston wrote in search-warrant affidavits that investigators believe Camp Mystic leadership committed multiple offenses involving children who were at the camp when the flood struck.
“These offenses were committed against child campers — including both deceased victims and surviving campers of the flood event,” Johnston wrote, according to the affidavits.
One affidavit identifies possible offenses under investigation as manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child and deadly conduct, according to KUT.
The Associated Press reported that investigators were specifically seeking electronic communications from the camp’s owners that could contain evidence relevant to those potential offenses.
The criminal inquiry follows more than a year of scrutiny over how Camp Mystic prepared for and responded to the flood, which inundated portions of Kerr County after the Guadalupe River rose rapidly.
Twenty-five girls and two counselors were killed at Camp Mystic. Camp director Richard Eastland also died, bringing the total number of deaths at the camp to 28.
Across Kerr County, the disaster killed 119 people, according to state records cited by The Texas Tribune.
A separate 115-page investigation commissioned by the Texas Legislature later identified deficiencies in Camp Mystic’s emergency preparedness and response.
Investigators Casey Garrett and Michael Massengale concluded that the camp did not have written emergency plans that complied with state requirements and had failed to sufficiently prepare campers and counselors for the possibility of flooding.
The legislative review also found that Camp Mystic received weather alerts before the disaster but did not adequately prepare for the approaching storm or evacuate campers quickly enough.
According to the investigation, the camp’s emergency procedures did not assign specific flood-evacuation responsibilities to staff members and counselors. Counselors also lacked adequate instructions explaining how an evacuation should be carried out.
Garrett and Massengale concluded that Camp Mystic had access to means of obtaining weather information and taking protective action but failed to adequately respond to the warnings it received.
Their report also documented communication problems extending beyond the camp itself, identifying failures involving state and local officials during the emergency.
The criminal investigation comes after additional scrutiny from Texas health officials.
In April, state health authorities said they were investigating hundreds of complaints connected to Camp Mystic with assistance from the Texas Rangers.
Camp operators had previously planned to reopen the property for the 2026 summer season, proposing to accommodate more than 800 girls in sections of the camp located away from areas most severely damaged by the flood.
Those plans were abandoned. Camp Mystic withdrew its application for a state license in April and later decided not to reopen.
Families of children killed in the disaster have separately turned to the civil courts.
In February, families filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services alleging that the agency improperly licensed Camp Mystic, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Attorneys Paul Yetter and Richard Mithoff, who represent families involved in that litigation, said the newly disclosed search warrants could help establish what decisions were made as the threat developed.
“These warrants show that decisions made by camp leadership before and during the flood may have been criminal,” the attorneys said in a statement. “Twenty-seven girls should be alive today, and we will not stop seeking answers.”
The Rangers’ investigation now adds the possibility of criminal exposure to the legislative findings, regulatory scrutiny and civil lawsuits that have followed the disaster.
Authorities have not announced when the investigation will conclude or whether prosecutors ultimately will pursue any charges. For now, the warrants give investigators access to electronic records that could help reconstruct what Camp Mystic’s owners and staff knew, communicated and did as the Guadalupe River rose and the flood swept through the camp.
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