Texas Rangers seek search warrants in ongoing Camp Mystic criminal investigation

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(The Center Square) – The Texas Rangers have filed affidavits for search warrants for the owners and employees of Camp Mystic as part of its criminal investigation into the all girl’s camp in the Texas Hill Country.

In the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, 25 campers and two counselors were killed during a flash flood that state investigators have so far concluded was preventable if emergency preparedness and response had been implemented. The girls’ parents filed multiple wrongful death lawsuits against the camp and its owners, members of the Eastland family, alleging gross negligence.

The state legislature, Texas Rangers and Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) launched investigations into the camp. The parents also sued DSHS, alleging it shouldn’t have approved the camp’s operating license. They also called for DSHS to deny the camp its operating license this year in response to the Eastlands attempting to reopen.

The Eastlands have denied allegations of gross negligence. At a hearing earlier in the year, one of their attorneys told the parents’ attorney that they were “going to burn in hell” while opposing their request to not destroy evidence. At the time, the Eastlands sought to tear down the cabins where the girls drowned as state investigations were ongoing. A court order prevented them from doing so.

The legislature also ensured they could not reopen the camp, The Center Square reported. After being forced to remain closed, the camp filed

for bankruptcy.

The Texas Ranger search warrant affidavits were filed in the 216th District Court in Kerr County for more than a dozen people, including members of the Eastland family. In one 47-page affidavit obtained by The Center Square, a search warrant was signed by Presiding Judge Kirsten Cohoon to obtain phone records and electronic and digital data held by Apple, Inc., of Tweety Eastland, the matriarch of the family.

Texas Ranger Brant Johnston requested the search warrant stating it was his belief that Camp Mystic, LLC committed the offenses of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning and endangering a child and deadly conduct.

The affidavit requests all data related to Tweety Eastland’s phone, including user IDs, email addresses, any telephone numbers, device serial numbers, electronic sim cards, all records associated with the account, personal identifying information, location information, data

stored with the service provider among extensive other information.

Members of the Eastland family did not respond to a request for comment.

Obtaining “concealed items” is necessary to obtain evidence related to “emergency protocol planning or omissions; flood history awareness and weather monitoring; real-time communications during the event; post-flood recovery and operational responses, state regulatory communications including correspondence with the Texas Board of Nursing, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and other state licensing entities, records reflecting compliance or non-compliance with statutory safety standards; and evidence demonstrating a conscious disregard of recognized risks or reckless deviation from

standard safety protocols or legal duties,” the affidavit states.

The Texas Rangers investigation began in March. Since then, Johnston says he’s conducted numerous interviews with the camp’s operators, agents, and high managerial agents, as well as witnesses and flood victim families.

However, several Camp Mystic owners and operators refused to cooperate or be interviewed, he said, including Edward Eastland, Mary Liz Eastland, Richard Eastland J., Cathryn “Catie” Eastland, Besty Althaus, and Glenn Juenke, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also details extensive data related to flood and weather patterns in Kerr County, cites the state legislative investigation and findings, as well as state laws and a timeline of events prior to, during and after the flood. It also makes similar conclusions as the state legislature: the camp didn’t have formal, written evacuation plans in place or evacuate the children closest to the river despite acknowledging decades of flood dangers and previous flooding at the camp.

At a hearing earlier this year, Edward Eastland testified that as the rain intensified after midnight, he prioritized moving canoes, not children, The Center Square reported.

The affidavit also cites testimony from an April court hearing in which the plaintiff’s attorney asked Mary Liz Eastland, “You knew the property. You knew the flood lines. You knew access points. … And these were first year campers. You had 34 more years of experience than Cile [Steward, the only deceased camper whose remains haven’t been found]. She needed your help and you abandoned her. Didn’t you?” Eastland replied, “yes.”

It also notes that it took nine months for her as the camp’s registered nurse to report the girls’ deaths in violation of state law and she only did after the legislature ordered her to, The Center Square reported.

It also cites Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ordering the Eastlands to not destroy evidence, arguing the plaintiffs “demonstrated a probable right to the relief sought on their claims for negligence, gross negligence, and premises liability” because the

camp didn’t have “adequate flood protections” while operating in a high-risk zone and failed “to maintain a written evacuation plan or provide documented safety training, which supports a finding of negligence.”

Johnston said the operational practices of Camp Mystic “demonstrate a pervasive pattern of institutional complacency, regulatory non-compliance, and a systemic and conscious disregard for mandatory safety standards and state law. Camp Mystic, LLC was aware of but

consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk” that constitutes “a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise.”