{"id":490741,"date":"2026-02-26T02:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490741\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:45:15","slug":"families-of-9-who-died-in-july-4-camp-mystic-flood-sue-dshs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490741\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of 9 who died in July 4 Camp Mystic flood sue DSHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The parents of nine Camp Mystic campers<\/a> and counselors who died in the July 4, 2025, flood filed a lawsuit Monday in the Western District of Texas against six officials of the Texas Department of State Health Services, alleging violations of their daughters\u2019 constitutional rights to life and bodily integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DSHS officials responsible for licensing youth camps deliberately looked the other way,\u201d\u00a0Paul Yetter<\/a>\u00a0of Yetter Coleman said in a news release. \u201cWhile Camp Mystic bears responsibility and is also being sued, state officials knew the camp\u2019s emergency plan lacked a required evacuation component and still licensed it as safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs\u2019 deceased daughters are Lila Bonner, Molly DeWitt, Lainey Landry, Blakely McCrory, Margaret Bellows, Chloe Childress, Katherine Ferruzzo, Sarah Marsh and Mary Kate Jacobe.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

The defendants include DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford and five other agency officials involved in camp oversight and inspection.<\/p>\n

Business Briefing<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit claims DSHS licensed Camp Mystic despite its failure to comply with state law requiring youth camps to maintain a written and posted evacuation plan for each building. Instead, the camp\u2019s emergency instructions directed campers to remain in their cabins during a flood \u2014 including cabins located in designated flood zones along the Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, DSHS inspected and licensed the nearly century-old camp annually, including two days before the flood that killed 27 campers and counselors.<\/a><\/p>\n

The suit alleges officials knowingly licensed the camp despite the absence of a legally required evacuation plan.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

By failing to enforce state safety laws, the plaintiffs argue, these DSHS officials \u201cconsciously and recklessly\u201d endangered the children the laws were designed to protect, violating their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic\u2019s license has not been revoked. It remains valid through March 6, 2026, and the camp has announced plans to reopen this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains to be seen whether they will continue to disregard state law and renew Camp Mystic\u2019s license to operate, putting more girls\u2019 lives at risk,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial along with compensatory damages and attorney fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do is hold, not only the camp owners accountable, but also the state inspection officials who clearly neglected their duty and approved this evacuation instruction, which essentially was \u2018don\u2019t evacuate,\u2019\u201d Richard Mithoff told\u00a0The Texas Lawbook.<\/p>\n

Other lawsuits have been filed in\u00a0Travis County<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kerr County<\/a>\u00a0district courts against Camp Mystic, alleging negligence and liability.<\/p>\n

Counsel for the defendants have not filed appearances at this time. A judge has not been assigned to the case at this time.<\/p>\n

The Texas Lawbook is an online news publication focused on business law in Texas. For a longer version of this story, visit texaslawbook.net.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>Austin girl\u2019s body never recovered after Texas floods. Her parents are suing Camp Mystic <\/a><\/p>\n

The body of 8-year-old Cile Steward was never recovered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Letters to the Editor \u2014 College football playoffs, Kennedy Center, Democrats <\/a><\/p>\n

Readers worry about the money involved in the college football playoffs; wish Congress would stand up for the Kennedy Center; and explain how Democrats handled the 2024 election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of nine Camp Mystic campers and counselors who died in the July 4, 2025, flood filed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[28,14124,2302,192,79,1022],"class_list":["post-490741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-business","tag-camp-mystic","tag-courts","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}