{"id":44631,"date":"2025-11-11T08:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44631\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T08:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:22:15","slug":"families-of-victims-file-lawsuit-against-camp-mystic-over-deadly-flash-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44631\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of victims file lawsuit against Camp Mystic over deadly flash flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

The families of campers and counselors who died in the Hill Country Floods<\/a> at Camp Mystic<\/a> on July 4 have filed a lawsuit alleging gross negligence and reckless disregard for safety by the camp and its owners.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in Travis County District Court, seeks accountability for what the families called an \u201centirely preventable tragedy\u201d that claimed the lives of 27 campers and counselors.<\/p>\n

READ THE FULL LAWSUIT HERE<\/p>\n

The families bringing the suit include the parents of five campers and two counselors: Warren and Patricia Bellows, Blake and Caitlin Bonner, Matthew and Wendie Childress, Ryan and Elizabeth DeWitt, John and Andrea Ferruzzo, Ben and Natalie Landry, and Lindsey McCrory. <\/p>\n

Attorneys Paul Yetter, Justin Tschoepe, Reid Simpson, and Shannon Smith of Yetter Coleman LLP in Houston represent the families.<\/p>\n

According to the petition, Camp Mystic failed to adopt required evacuation plans and ignored repeated weather warnings, despite being located along the Guadalupe River in an area notoriously known as \u201cFlash Flood Alley.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThese young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,\u201d the introduction to the lawsuit\u2019s original petition read.<\/p>\n

The filing also alleges that the camp ordered campers to remain in their cabins as floodwaters rose and delayed evacuation efforts to prioritize preventing equipment from flooding rather than saving campers. It goes onto say that the camp made a \u201chopeless\u201d rescue effort from its \u201cself-created\u201d disaster when it was already too late to save many of the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe carry the memory of our daughter in everything we do,\u201d said Ryan DeWitt, the father of 9-year-old camper Molly DeWitt said in a statement announcing the suit. \u201cThis legal step is one of honoring her, and we believe that truth and justice are essential to finding peace\u2014not only for our family, but for every family affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks actual and exemplary damages and aims to hold Camp Mystic accountable while pushing for stronger safety standards at Texas youth camps.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients have filed this lawsuit to seek accountability and truth,\u201d Yetter said in the statement. \u201cCamp Mystic failed at its primary job to keep its campers and counselors safe, and young girls died as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second lawsuit against the camp was also filed and announced Monday by the parents of 8-year-old Eloise \u201cLulu\u201d Peck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not an unforeseeable act of nature. What happened at Camp Mystic was preventable, and no parent should ever endure the pain of sending their child to a place of safety only to face tragedy,\u201d said Attorney Randy Howry, who is among those representing the Peck family. \u201cThis lawsuit is about transparency, responsibility and ensuring no other family experiences what these parents have suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs in the second lawsuit are seeking damages exceeding $1 million under Texas law for wrongful death, survival claims, and exemplary damages intended to hold Camp Mystic accountable. The lawsuit also demands a jury trial and preservation of all evidence related to the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a difficult but necessary step for our family. We\u2019ve chosen to pursue legal action not out of anger, but out of love \u2014 love for our child, and for the truth and justice she deserves. We are asking for accountability, transparency and meaningful change so that no other parents have to endure this kind of loss,\u201d said Tim Peck. <\/p>\n

You can read the Pecks\u2019 lawsuit below:<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic released the following statement:<\/p>\n

We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God\u2019s healing and comfort. <\/p>\n

Jeff Ray, legal council for Camp Mystic, also released this statement:<\/p>\n

We empathize with the families of the campers and counselors and all families in the Hill Country who lost loved ones in the horrific and unprecedented flood of July 4. We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area. We disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well. We will thoroughly respond to these accusations in due course.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The families of campers and counselors who died in the Hill Country Floods at Camp Mystic on July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2330,9982,4034,4187,4035,223,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-44631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-camp-mystic","9":"tag-floods","10":"tag-hill-country-floods","11":"tag-kerr-county","12":"tag-kerrville","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-headlines","16":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}