Parents of an 8-year-old girl still missing since the July 4, 2025 flash floods in the Texas Hill Country have filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against Camp Mystic and its owners, alleging the camp failed to protect campers from severe flooding that killed dozens.
The lawsuit, filed in Travis County District Court, seeks more than $1 million in actual and punitive damages and accuses camp leaders of ignoring weather warnings and failing to evacuate cabins despite the rapid rise of the Guadalupe River in a region prone to flash floods.
The July 2025 floods along the Guadalupe River were among the deadliest in state history, killing at least 137 people across Central Texas, including 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic, and leaving multiple others missing when waters surged through the camp’s low-lying cabins.
Austin parents Will Steward and CiCi Steward say the family that ran the camp failed to protect their daughter Cecilia “Cile” Steward, who is “presumed to be deceased.”
“On June 29, 2025, Will and CiCi Steward dropped their eight-year-old daughter Cile off for her first time at sleepaway camp, an entire month at Camp Mystic, where Cile’s mother, aunt, grandmother, and countless cousins had attended as campers and counselors,” the lawsuit says. “Cile’s parents did not know that when they kissed Cile goodbye, it would be the last time they would ever hold her.”
Dick Eastland, the owner of the camp, was swept away and killed in the catastrophic flooding, as were 27 children and camp counselors.