Camp Mystic will open despite lawsuit over missing girl, judge rules – National
The judge stopped short of halting reopening plans after a family of one of the girls who died last summer sued to keep the camp closed.
The parents of eight-year-old Camp Mystic attendee Cecile Steward, who disappeared in the flooding and whose body has not been found, filed a lawsuit earlier this year claiming the camp failed to protect the children under its care.
Steward was among 136 people killed when the banks of the Guadalupe River burst in July and engulfed the site of the Christian girls’ camp in Travis County, Texas.
Steward’s parents, Will and CiCi Steward, asked District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble to prevent the owners from reopening the facility and to stop any construction while the lawsuit is pending.
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“What we’re trying to do is preserve the evidence that’s there so that we can understand, so that future campers will never be put in a situation like this again,” Will Steward told reporters after the hearing.
Cecile Steward, who was eight when she was swept away by floodwaters at Camp Mystic, TX, last summer, has never been found.
Ryan Steward/ Instagram
Their request for a temporary injunction maintains that any changes at the camp could destroy evidence needed for their lawsuit.
Gamble ruled that Camp Mystic’s owners cannot demolish or change the cabins where campers were housed during the floods, and said they must not use the portion of the camp closest to the Guadalupe River where those accommodations were located.
The camp, which was established in 1926 and has been run by the Eastland family since the 1980s, failed to carry out an effective evacuation of campers and was overwhelmed by fast-rising waters that swelled from 14 feet (4.2 metres) to 29.5 feet (9 metres) in an hour.
“The worst thing you can do is put a bunch of 8-year-olds on a bus and try to drive them out of there. They all would have drowned,” said Mikal Watts, a lawyer for Camp Mystic and its family of owners.
Richard Eastland, the owner of Camp Mystic, was among the victims. His family says he died trying to save the girls.
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025.
(Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFRONALDO SCHEMIDT / Getty Images
In a courtroom Wednesday, family members of girls who died in the flooding wore buttons depicting their faces as lawyers for Camp Mystic displayed pictures of trees planted in their memory and digital renderings showing plans to rebuild the camp, which is located on a 1,000-year old flood plain.
Lawyers representing Camp Mystic expressed sympathy for the girls’ families but argued there was little staff could have done to save the girls.
“Nobody had ever seen a prior flood anything like we saw in 2025,” Watts said.
More than 850 campers have already signed up to attend Camp Mystic this summer, he added.
Will and Cici Steward said they don’t believe the camp has adequate safety measures in place to accommodate a new cohort of campers while the search for their daughter continues.
“They didn’t have a plan, and they don’t have a plan moving forward,” Cici Steward said.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked state regulators not to renew Camp Mystic’s licence while the deaths of campers are under active investigation.
— With files from the Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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