Texas Rangers investigating last summer's catastrophic flood at Camp Mystic believe the all-girls Christian camp's leadership "recklessly caused" the deaths of 27 campers and counselors, according to newly unsealed search warrant affidavits that lay the groundwork for possible criminal charges.

The 14 warrants, approved by a Kerr County state district judge, seek digital communications, location data and other electronic records belonging to members of the Eastland family, which has run Camp Mystic for generations, along with other camp staff. A Texas Ranger wrote in the filings that he believes there is probable cause the camp's leaders committed manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, deadly conduct, and abandoning or endangering a child, according to the Texas Tribune's review of the documents.

What the warrants allege

Investigators say the camp did not have a written emergency plan that complied with state requirements when floodwaters from the Guadalupe River tore through the property before dawn on July 4, 2025. The warrants also allege the counselor-to-camper ratio fell short of state minimums, and that two counselors on duty that night did not meet the state's required age limit.

RECKLESSLY CAUSED THE DEATHS OF 27 GIRLS AND COUNSELORS

The river rose roughly 26 feet in under 45 minutes that night, part of a flash flood that killed at least 135 people across Texas and 107 in Kerr County alone — one of the deadliest inland flooding disasters in U.S. history. The 27 who died at Camp Mystic, mostly young girls asleep in cabins along the riverbank, became the defining tragedy of the disaster and the subject of state and federal reviews of Hill Country warning systems. This week's filings mark the first indication that camp leadership itself, not just government emergency-response agencies, could face criminal liability.

No one has been charged. Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reports the Rangers are still working through the seized digital records more than a year after the flood, and any decision to pursue charges would run through the Kerr County district attorney's office. Camp Mystic, founded in 1926, has not publicly responded to the warrants and did not reopen this past summer.

Legal experts say the digital-record review could take months before prosecutors decide whether to seek indictments. Families of several victims have separately pursued civil litigation against the camp and Kerr County over the flood response.