(The Center Square) – After the second day of a joint Texas Senate and House Investigating Committee hearing into Camp Mystic where 25 campers and two counselors died from flood waters last July 4, lawmakers questioned the camp owners’ judgement. They also said the owners, members of the Eastland family, lost their privilege to have a license. They expressed astonishment that Mary Liz Eastland still hadn’t complied with the law to report the deaths of 27 girls.
State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, said there were 27 deficiencies in Camp Mystic’s current application and “owning a camp or business that is licensed in the state of Texas is a privilege. Giving out licenses is for the public good.” Other lawmakers later clarified it was 22 deficiencies cited by the state so far.
Speaking to Mary Liz’s husband, Edward Eastland, Perry said, “I would have thought that after coming out of July 2025 that … everything on that application would have been pristine, with all answers, all questions” to prove to the state the Eastlands “recognized our shortfall.” He said when he read through transcripts of investigators’ interviews with Eastland, he was “really concerned by the attitude” of Eastland, who Perry said “was finger pointing” about deficiencies in the application, including evacuation plans.
The camp submitted an application with the Texas Department of State Health Services and previously told The Center Square it was in compliance with all state laws. That turned out not to be the case, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said.
“If it’s the will of the people that you not open the camp, we’re talking May 30, you still haven’t reported the 27 deaths that are required by law,” she said. “I’m so glad you are getting therapy but do you really think you’re ready to take on 500 children plus?”
“The license is a privilege to have. We set a standard. In some of our day cares if they have one death, we take their license away. We shut them down.”
Kolkhorst directed Mary Liz Eastland: “Report the 27 deaths. Adhere to the law. Why else would we write these laws? Are you really ready [to reopen] when you have not reported the 27 deaths as required by law?
“Please, please, I am begging you. Report those 27 deaths. Don’t be above the law.”
Perry said, “It just floored me that after all the families, the state and y’all have been through as a family that the response could be anything but ‘I made a mistake,’ ‘I guess I didn’t read it right’ or ‘I don’t know what you’re asking,’” referring to their current application deficiencies. He said Edward Eastland’s response was “cavalier” and “nonchalant … that we’re just going to move forward as if everything’s OK now.”
Camp Mystic owners want to reopen for six weeks to have between 850-900 campers attend and gross between $3 million and $4 million, they told lawmakers. This is after investigators hired by the legislature presented their findings and concluded the Eastlands were complacent and could have prevented the campers’ deaths last July 4.
Perry said there was a difference between the camp reopening and who would run it. He said the legislature would be discussing with DSHS that the Eastlands had lost their licensing privilege. There comes a point where “the consequences of not doing your job is so significant it’s so consequential that you don’t have the privilege of running a business. Our system of justice has a large deterrent factor in it,” he said.
“In my perspective … if you are left as an operator in any form or fashion, what deterrent does that send to another operator that I can have kids die on my watch and still be an operator?” he said. “I just don’t believe honestly with the investigative facts that lined out” that the Eastlands are ready to reopen and “you still have to have a level of responsibility and accountability in your leadership teams.”
He said Camp Mystic may legally “probably get to stay in existence but I will tell you from this guy’s perspective … whatever laws we make or whatever rules we have to devise y’all will not be an operator next season if I can have anything to say with that because you just missed it. Camp Mystic may [be able to] stay with the different operator but … there just has to be a certain level of finality to it and leaving you as an operator doesn’t provide that finality.”
State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, also questioned how Camp Mystic could claim they were in compliance with state law. In response, Edward Eastland’s brother, Britt Eastland, said they “believed they had a perfect application.”
He also said, “we did everything we could” during the flood last year and remained defiant about reopening. “We believe families will be glad five years from now, 10 years from now that they will be glad we had camp this summer,” he told lawmakers.
Earlier in the day, Edward Eastland said former Judge Michael Massengale, an investigator the legislature hired, “was right” that they “didn’t do enough” to save the girls who died. He acknowledged he “failed the parents” of the camp and said, “I have no excuses.”
State Rep. Erin Gamez, D-Brownsville, said she was getting hundreds of emails in what felt like a “coordinated campaign to influence this committee to issue licensure to Camp Mystic.” The Eastlands denied any involvement.
“I just want the public to know that there’s no amount of coordinated political pressure campaign that is going to influence or stop this committee from doing what we have to do to protect these children and these families,” she said.
