Texas health investigators are looking into complaints filed against Camp Mystic with help from the Texas Rangers, while the health agency also evaluates whether to renew the camp’s license to operate this summer, according to state officials.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is reviewing what it said were hundreds of complaints filed about the care of children at Camp Mystic, a historic youth camp on the Guadalupe River where 27 girls and counselors died along with the camp’s owner when the river flooded on July 4 last year.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick cited the investigation Tuesday in a public letter to the health agency, urging it for the second time not to renew the camp’s license.
“With many questions remaining unanswered surrounding the deaths of 27 young girls, parents and Texans deserve to have all issues resolved prior to Camp Mystic and/or their operators being allowed to welcome children back into their care this summer,” Patrick wrote to DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford.
Camp Mystic submitted its application to renew its license to operate at the end of March. The camp has sought to reopen a newer portion of its property this summer that is on higher ground and had no fatalities during the flood, called Camp Mystic Cypress Lake.
The camp said it has been cooperating with a joint committee of legislators from the state House and Senate that has been tasked with investigating issues surrounding the flood, and that it looked forward to working with the Rangers.
“We are pleased the Texas Rangers are getting involved,” said Mikal Watts, attorney for Camp Mystic and the Eastland family that runs it. “They are an independent, honorable investigatory body that we were hoping, like past mass disasters including Uvalde, would get involved and do an in-depth report not merely on 27 deaths but 119 deaths that happened that day.”
Meanwhile, separate battles that could determine whether the camp continues operating are playing out in courtrooms.
The parents of Cile Steward — the only camper whose body hasn’t been found — asked a judge overseeing their lawsuit against Camp Mystic to keep the camp closed as a way to preserve evidence in the case. The judge in early March directed Camp Mystic not to repair the older portion of the camp where the girls died, but the order doesn’t affect Camp Mystic Cypress Creek.
Another group of Camp Mystic parents sued DSHS in federal court, alleging the state failed to follow the law by licensing the camp without making sure it had an evacuation plan. The same day, Patrick posted his first letter to X calling on Shuford not to renew the camp’s license.
