(The Center Square) – The parents of Camp Mystic campers and counselors who died from the July 4, 2025, flash flood have sued six Texas Department of State Health Services officials alleging they violated their daughters’ constitutional rights to life and bodily integrity.
The lawsuit was filed by Houston-based Yetter Coleman and Mithoff Law on behalf of the parents of nine deceased daughters: Lila Bonner, Chloe Childress, Molly Dewitt, Katherine Ferruzzo, Lainey Landry, Blakely McCrory, Anna Margaret Bellows, Sarah Catherine Marsh and Mary Kathryn Jacobe.
It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Austin Division and names Texas Department of State Health Services officials as defendants in their individual capacities: Jennifer Shuford, Timothy Stevenson, Jeffrey Adam Buuck, Annabelle Dillard, Lindsey Eudey and Maricela Torres Zamarripa. Shuford is the agency commissioner, the others are responsible for camp oversight and inspection. DSHS is statutorily required to enforce camp safety laws.
It is the first lawsuit filed against state officials by parents who lost daughters at Camp Mystic. Twenty-seven girls were killed, including two counselors, referred to as “Heavens 27.” Last November, the parents of 20 daughters sued the camp, its owners and affiliated entities alleging wrongful death, gross negligence and other claims.
DSHS officials “responsible for licensing youth camps deliberately looked the other way,” attorney Paul Yetter said. “While Camp Mystic bears responsibility and is also being sued, state officials knew the camp’s emergency plan lacked a required evacuation component and still licensed it as safe.”
The lawsuit alleges, “Years ago, the Texas Legislature and Governor decided to require youth camps to have evacuation plans. They knew camps are not safe unless they have advance plans to evacuate cabins during an emergency, especially floods, which are so common in central Texas. They directed a specific state agency – the Department of State Health Services – to enforce the rule.
“Yet DSHS officials quietly decided not to enforce this requirement. For at least a decade, they licensed a camp on the banks of a river, in the heart of ‘Flash Flood Alley,’ with no evacuation plan. In fact, officials knew the camp had an anti-evacuation plan – a ‘stay put’ policy.”
It also alleges, “Young campers and counselors were killed because the camp had no plan. The camp is responsible, but so are the state officials who helped create this inexcusable risk to life by directing and executing a policy of non-compliance with Texas law.”
Last year, the state legislature passed a series of reforms signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott requiring camps and state agencies to implement, The Center Square reported. One new law requires DSHS to enforce compliance by conducting inspections, investigating complaints, and suspending or denying camp operating licenses.
However, DSHS was already supposed to be enforcing state law, the lawsuit alleges, including a law requiring youth camps to maintain a written and posted evacuation plan for each building. The law requires camps to have a written disaster plan, including evacuation procedures for each occupied building prior to issuing a license. Camp Mystic’s stated plan directed campers to remain in their cabins during a flood – including those located in a designated flood zone.
The camp denies all culpabilities for the girls’ deaths. Its legal counsel, Jeff Ray, has said the owners “empathize with the families of the campers and counselors and all families in the Hill Country who lost loved ones” on July 4 and characterized accusations in the lawsuits as “misinformation.”
According to state records, DSHS inspected and licensed Camp Mystic two days before the July 4 flood. State officials licensed the camp knowing it didn’t have a legally required evacuation plan, the lawsuit alleges.
An evaluation of camp procedures, including information provided at a state legislative hearing last year, revealed the camp didn’t evacuate several cabins including those housing Heaven’s 27, who were swept away by flood waters.
DSHS officials “‘consciously and recklessly’ endangered the children the laws were designed to protect,” the lawsuit alleges, violating their constitutional rights.
DSHS still has not revoked Camp Mystic’s license. It remains valid through March 6. The camp also announced last year it planned to reopen this summer, ignoring pleas of Heaven’s 27 parents, including the parents of Cile Steward, whose remains were never found.
Yetter Coleman filed one of the first lawsuits representing the parents of seven daughters; nearly all of them are also plaintiffs in this case. Law firms in Austin, Gilmer and Boerne sued Camp Mystic on behalf of the parents of one camper; Houston-based The Lanier Law Firm also sued on behalf of the parents of six campers. Another lawsuit was filed on behalf of the parents of six campers. They were all filed in the District Court of Travis County.
These lawsuits and the second lawsuit filed by Yetter Coleman request a trial by jury, for the court to award actual and exemplary damages and cover attorney fees and costs.
