“They Never Came Home: Flood Claims Lives of 5 Camp Mystic Girls”

KERR COUNTY, TEXAS: A sum­mer camp turned into a heart­break­ing night­mare in Kerr Coun­ty, Texas, where offi­cials con­firmed on July 5 that at least 43 peo­ple are dead and 27 young girls remain miss­ing after a sud­den flash flood tore through the area.

Among the worst hit was Camp Mys­tic, a pri­vate all-girls Chris­t­ian retreat locat­ed in Hunt, Texas.

Flood dam­age and debris are vis­i­ble along TX-39 fol­low­ing severe flood­ing on July 5, 2025, near Hunt, Texas (Eric Vryn/Getty Images)

Death toll rises at Camp Mystic

It all began to unfold as reports came in from Camp Mys­tic, where five young girls lost their lives. One of the vic­tims was Janie Hunt, as con­firmed by her griev­ing mom, Anne Hunt,

Anoth­er name to emerge was Renee Sma­jstr­la, iden­ti­fied by the non­prof­it A Voice for the Voice­less, which advo­cates for the miss­ing and crime vic­tims

Two best friends, Lila Bon­ner and Eloise Peck, were the most recent young campers found dead, accord­ing to FOX 4 Dal­las. The two girls had just fin­ished sec­ond grade at Brad­field Ele­men­tary.

A fifth camper has also been con­firmed dead, though the fam­i­ly has cho­sen to keep her name pri­vate.

Out of the 43 vic­tims con­firmed as of this writ­ing, 28 are adults and 15 are chil­dren, accord­ing to offi­cials. Trag­i­cal­ly, five adults and three chil­dren remain uniden­ti­fied. As of July 5, 27 campers are still miss­ing. In total, 750 campers were on site when the storm hit.

Nobody saw this com­ing,” Kerr Coun­ty Judge Rob Kel­ly lament­ed. He also spoke to the pain of wit­ness­ing “many of the body bags” at local funer­al homes.

Heart O’ the Hills camp director among victims

Jane Rags­dale, the beloved camp direc­tor and co-own­er of the near­by camp Heart O’ the Hills, was also con­firmed dead. 

Con­gress­man Chip Roy (R‑Texas) shared aer­i­al pho­tos from a heli­copter tour, show­ing build­ings and trees either flat­tened or swept away entire­ly. For­tu­nate­ly, no chil­dren were stay­ing at Heart O’ the Hills when the flood hit, as the camp was between ses­sions.

We at the camp are stunned and deeply sad­dened by Jane’s death. She embod­ied the spir­it of Heart O’ the Hills and was exact­ly the type of strong, joy­ful woman that the camp aimed to devel­op with the girls entrust­ed to us each sum­mer,” the camp said in a state­ment. 

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump post­ed on Truth Social, “Mela­nia and I are pray­ing for all of the fam­i­lies impact­ed by this hor­ri­ble tragedy. Our Brave First Respon­ders are on site doing what they do best. God bless the fam­i­lies, and god bless Texas!”

Families wait in agony while helicopters rush to save lives

As the dis­as­ter unfold­ed, anx­ious fam­i­lies gath­ered at reuni­fi­ca­tion cen­ters set up at Ingram Ele­men­tary School and Arca­dia Live The­ater. Camp Mys­tic informed par­ents that if they hadn’t been con­tact­ed direct­ly, it meant their child was safe. 

But the wait has been tor­tur­ous for par­ents like Ellen Toran­zo. Her daugh­ter, Gre­ta Toran­zo, is still miss­ing as of this writ­ing.

So is Hadley Han­na, whose moth­er, Car­rie Han­na, con­firmed she is miss­ing. Both girls remained unac­count­ed for as of Sat­ur­day, July 5 after­noon

Fam­i­ly tells us Hadley Han­na is still miss­ing from Camp Mys­tic tonight. Her moth­er says she’s dev­as­tat­ed and ask­ing for prayers.@NBCDFWpic.twitter.com/vKXmsoRLoZ

One sur­vivor, 13-year-old Eli­nor Lester, told the Asso­ci­at­ed Press how she and her cab­in­mates were res­cued by heli­copter after wad­ing through flood­wa­ters. She said the “camp was com­plete­ly destroyed.”

Lester had been on Senior Hill, the high­er part of the camp. But younger campers, some as young as 8, were placed in cab­ins along the river­banks, which were the first to flood.

The cul­prit appears to be a sud­den rise in the Guadalupe Riv­er, which surged near­ly 30 feet in just 45 min­utes after heavy rain hit on July 4 morn­ing

State and fed­er­al response inten­si­fies as search efforts press on

The scale of the dis­as­ter called for more than just a local response. The Nation­al Guard was acti­vat­ed, and Home­land Secu­ri­ty Sec­re­tary Kristi Noem revealed that US Coast Guard teams were instru­men­tal in sav­ing or assist­ing in sav­ing 223 lives.

Boerne Search and Res­cue teams nav­i­gate upstream in an inflat­able boat on the flood­ed Guadalupe Riv­er on July 4, 2025, in Com­fort, Texas (Eric Vryn/Getty Images)

By Sat­ur­day, July 5 morn­ing, offi­cials had evac­u­at­ed more than 850 peo­ple, includ­ing 167 by heli­copter and treat­ed eight injured vic­tims, accord­ing to the Kerr Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office. Author­i­ties also cleared a mas­sive 300-foot radius on both sides of the Guadalupe Riv­er, span­ning from one mile north of Camp Mys­tic through Hunt and Ingram.

Gov­er­nor Greg Abbott announced that Texas had deployed 1,300 state respon­ders and more than 800 vehi­cles and equip­ment assets. He also signed a fed­er­al dis­as­ter dec­la­ra­tion and declared an emer­gency in 15 coun­ties.

This is a time when we, as a state, need God more than ever,” Abbott said in a state­ment. “The one thing I hear the most are the prayers that are being sent for those who are in harm’s way.”

Addi­tion­al air­craft have been request­ed for the search, and offi­cials have vowed not to stop until every miss­ing per­son is found. Mean­while, in Travis Coun­ty, about three hours away, floods claimed four more lives.

Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance mourned on X, “Our nation’s heart breaks for the vic­tims in Texas and their fam­i­lies. Just an incom­pre­hen­si­ble tragedy. I hope every­one affect­ed knows they’re in the prayers of my fam­i­ly, and of mil­lions of Amer­i­cans.”

As of 6 pm local time Sat­ur­day, July 5, more than 600 cus­tomers with the Ker­rville Pub­lic Util­i­ty Board remained with­out pow­er. For fam­i­lies still search­ing for loved ones, the Kerr Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office has urged them to call the Red Cross at 1–800-733‑2767.