Legal Battles and Final Findings

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Tonight on dateline The girls were terrified I see the water pouring into our cabin It literally swept me off my feet Oh my gosh. what did we do? It happened last fourth of July, The wall of water that swallowed Camp Mystic. we learned that Blakeley was missing. What's going through your mind? It was torturous I said, where's Ellen She said The the entire cabin is missing We prayed to God that she was out there holding on You are seeing trunks float down the river. You're seeing cars fly by you twentyw seven girls died. It should have never happened. Could this tragedy have been averted? one hundred percent, our girls should be here They were told to stay in their cabins. Hundreds of girls' lives were saved. So you're making an argument for keeping them inside the cabins. It's called shhelter in placelace It is the closest to hell that I had ever been. The terrifying floods here at Camp Mistic One year later, anguish, anger HuntingQions I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline Here is after the Food For many kids, summer camp is a rite of passage. At Camp Mystic, an all girls Christian camp in the Texas Hill countountry That tradition ran deep I have been attending Mystic for ten summers as a camper irst year counselor, Ainsley Bisharv I had always known that I was going to be a counselor and mystic is the closest thing to heaven that I've ever experienced. It's where my faith began. Owned and operated by Dick and Tweedy Eastlyland since nineteen seventy four Camp mystic had drawn Texas families to the Guadalupe River for almost a century They were so invested in every single girl. I mean, you could just see the love that the two of them had, and it was so special Eleven year old Gwyen Getton in her fourth year had felt that love Now it was her nine year old sister, Ellen's turn She was finally old enough to be a big girl and kind of go off and you know, not have her mom and dad around parents, Jenny and Doug. How did Gwen feel about having her sister at the camp? Very excited. They had already figured out before they even left what activities they were gonna to try to do together camp Mystic offered everything from horseback riding to river canoeing Lindssey McCroory hoped that for her eight year old daughter Blakeley, it could also be a place of healing. Blakey had lost her father a few months before camp, my late husband, after a brief battle with cancer, and then her uncle died in June, my brother. So we were happy for her to spend time outdoors and just be a kid. Blakey, Ellen, and more than five hundred campers arrived on june twenty ninth, twenty twenty five spread across cabins near the river and up on higher ground Blakey was assigned to a cabin called Twins One two interconnected cabins about four hundred feet from the river Ellen got Bubble in right next door And Ainsley was a few steps away in Gigglebox, one of three counselors responsible for sixteen young campers aged eight to ten So younger kids would have been staying closer to the river Yes. The camp settled into its usual rhythm of games, activities, and Sunday devotionals. Ellen went fishing and joined the crafts group As the end of the first week neared, she and her sister looked forward to the big july fourth celebration Well on july third Gwen went to her cabin. They were having a dance party and kissed Ellen goodoodnight and Ellen kissed her cheek and they said they loved each other. Outside, a storm was brewing A powerful weather system had stalled over central Texas and was about to unleash waves of thunderstorms over the same area for hours Dick Eastlland was awake and monitoring the weather when the National Weather Service issued its first flash flood warning on july fourth at one fourteen AM It was scary. About a half hour later, ten year old Lucy Kennedy woke up disoriented and frightened cabin was down the road from Allen and Blakeley. There was like a really loud Th And my like whole cabin. like I think everyone woke up because it was really loud. I mean, it sounded like people were shooting fireworks off in our cabin The rain was falling so hard that by two fourteen AM an hour after the flash flood warning, a dry creek that cut through the camp had turned into a torrent The river kept rising at a record rate At three eleven AM, Dick Eastln and his son Edward, who was in charge of the younger Kappers, started evacuating the cabins closest to the river About ten minutes later, it was Lucy's cabin's turn When the water started coming up, was anybody giving you instructions as to what to do? Our counselor said to grab like maybe like a pillow and blanket just in case we had to sleep in like a water and a flashlight. and then they told us to be strong and go to the wack and then they went after us At three twenty six AM, a counselor snapped this photo girls from Lucy's cabin struggling through rising waters to reach the two story wreck haall How strong was the water Really strong. I mean, was it pulling at you or pulling at things around you? Were you able to close to your friends Ainsley saw Lucy's group race by her cabin and wondered as a counselor what she should do. The girls are either running from their cabins or they're being taken in a suburban in a truck through the main road. And I remember listening through the window and we're being told to stay in our cabin, stay in our cabin, stay in our cabin I see the water pouring into our cabin. Without a second thought, girls put on your shoes and grab a rain jacket and we're leaving Aesley tried to open the door When the water came through the door, it literally swept me off my feet. and I remember slamming the door somehow and just being in a state of What now And at this time, a worker from the camp had come up to our window. It was Edward Eastland, her camp director They had said to me, This is crazy, this is crazy. I don't know what to do. Remember thinking in my mind, you don't know what to do? I have sixteen little girls behind me and I'm just as afraid as they are They decided to go through the window. Edward helped them break out one of the screens, then rushed to evacuate another cabin. And we get the first girl to get through the window and thank God that she was too afraid to jump through the window first. So without a second thought, I jumped out of the window grab her and just put her and show her that it was okay. And that is when I realized how Fast, high, and rapid the water was moving I mean, it was rushing just enough to easily swipe a little girl off of her feet take her away from us. It was terrifying Fear was about to turn into a race for survival Aainsley and two other councselors were trying to save their eight to ten year old campers in the biggest flood camp mystic had ever seen When they started passing them through their cabin window, the water was almost knee high Rising fast. I mean, I would carry three of them at a time, as many as I possibly could. and We saw this pavilion in higher ground to our cabin, and we all made trip after trip after trip until all of the girls were out of our cabin and up to the pavilion When we were able to look back on our cabin, you could already see water rushing through the windows and pouring into the cabin from every angle But soon the water reached the pavilion. There was no way out other than a steep hill behind them It was a very steep, steep climb and with the rain coming down, it was almost a waterfall So we would walk the girls up and do a quick headcount of them. and we would just yell prayers over them and just continue to climb the hill and each time the water would rise. What was happening below them seemed incomprehensible The lightning would strike and it would kind of light up just a very like narrow viewpoint for you and you would just see just the destruction that this water was causing to our sanctuary. You are seeing trunks float down the river. You're seeing cars fly by you. You're hearing the trees snap. I mean, it sounds like they're exploding Most horrific sounds, though, were the voices You're hearing screams of names. you're hearing screams for help. Over and over and over again Some of the screams for help were coming from twins' cabins where Blakeley was trapped A worker on the second floor of the commissary shot this video of twins cabins at three twenty six AM several feet of water swirling below the windows twentywenty four minutes later, the cabins were almost entirely submerged The situation at Ellen's cabin, Bubble In, was just as dire. Around three thirty five AM, Dick Eastland arrived and began moving girls into his truck Fifteen minutes later, he radioed Edward for help. I have bubble in cabin in my car, he pleaded. I'm stuck against a tree. Anden, at three fifty eight AM, a worker who was trapped on the second floor of the commissary made a call to nine hundred eleven We don't know what to do. Okay Right now, the best thing I can tell you is to get to as higher ground as you can. I know it's not the most ideal We there' water everywhere. We cannot move. Okay, we are at there in a room and the Okay rising in. The water was also rising at Rck Hall where Lucy was We are on the bottom floor and then we had to move to the top floor because it was getting higher What did you hang on to we like so we didn't really like hang ono anything. The water was like about right here and then we just stayed on the second floor until it went down That happened just before six AM. The water slowly receded. Ainsley and her campers worked their way back to the pavilion at the bottom of the hill. A truck was dropping off several girls from twins' cabins who had been swept into the current and survived by clinging for hours to a branch of an uprooted tree You just run out and you grab these little girls who look like a ghost. and you hug them and say it's okay, it's okay. L You're safe We have you. And that wasn't the only survival story Ainsley learned another group trapped in their cabin stayed afloat on mattresses, the rising waters stopping just as they reached the ceiling. And at this point, The sky starts to lighten and it's morning time And so your vision is just slowly getting better and you're seeing more and more and your heart is breaking at every Instant Everyone assembled at Rreck Hall where Edward's wife was leading a headcount And so one by one, each cabin is called to the front of Rck Hall. where Mary Liz has a roster sheet. and is going each girl one by one calling their name out, laying eyes on them, making sure that they're there sixixteen campers and counselors from twins' cabins were present. But when Edward's wife called the names of Blakeley and ten other cabin mates There was no response. and That was the first realization of There are girls missing. We're the fourth cabin in that line of the youngest girls. and we're just watching them in complete and utter disbelief and shock then they called Ellen's cabin bubble in I don't think I'll ever forget the moment when the headcount was done and bubblein was called and they weren't there. 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Apply today at snhu. edu slash dateline Granger knows, when you're a procurement manager for an office park You're not managing one building. you're managing all of them And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners Light's about to fail, filters ready to clog, HVac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind Count on Granger for quality products, easy reordering, and twenty four seven support Call one eight hundred Granger, click Granger. com or just stop by Granger. For the ones who get it done. Ccing number one was the location of your emergency G going toide I have an infant, she can't hold her breath In the early morning hours of july fourth, emergency services up and down the Guadalupe River in Kerrk County were overwhelmed with calls for help. I need help I can't swim d I can't get out Overnight, the river rose a record thirty seven feet Experts would call it a one in a thousand year flood It was seven twenty two AM when one of the Eastlands called nine hundred eleven for the first time. Here at C't make and hunt Texas. We need search and rec He, what's going on? We're missing as many as twenty to forty people Wyinne Kennedy, who is Lucy's mom, lives about ten miles from Camp Mystick On july fourth, she woke up to text messages from panicked parents asking about their daughters since I'm local, they were texting me about the flood My response was I'm not even worried about them. They're in the safest place they can be. and I didn't know how bad it was or how severe it was Fortunately, Lucy was okay. I was able to get through to certain people because I know a lot of people in the community. So I know I was able to find out Lucy was safe Hundreds of miles away in Houston, there was no sign of the storm. The Getons plan to celebrate the holiday with a nice dinner and fireworks caught off guard when a camp representative called them Ellen was missing. Jenny texted one of the camp directors I said, whereere's Ellen She said, I don't know I said, what do you mean you don't know And she said that the entire cabin is missing And they were with one of the other heads of leadership That was Dick Eastlyland, a man they trusted We were told that Dick was with them, so we thought he was just in a place. We didn't have cell service. We packed an overnight bag and got the car thinking that we're going to pick up our girls. You know, death didn't even cross my mind. That changed when they arrived at a local elementary school where rescuers brought campers to be reunited with their families And I heard one of the other dads say, we've got some bad news here. And at that same time, I was hearing about human bodies in the river and then it was kind of like literally being shot in the chest. She wass like, what Another parent told them that their daughter, Gwen was safe. They soon spotted her, traumatized and terrified about her sister She was hysterical. and she dropped to her knees and screamed, I don't want to be an only child. And what do you say as a parent We said, calm down, she's fine, she's strong. She's a strong swimmer. You know, she's they're going to find her. By nightfall, all the campers and counselors from Bubble Inn were still unaccounted for So were eleven from twins' cabins, one and two and one from another cabin twenty seven girls in all. Their families were brought to a nearby church and told to wait for news. The parents would sit together in rows and we would hold hands together. When you started hearing the parents getting the news to go to the morgue And you heard their screams That' something you can't unhear. You'd hear their wailing and then U we as parents, we start to just erupt with uninhibited emotion just fear Later that night, they heard that rescuers had located Dick Eastlyland's truck in a grove by the river near the camp. Inside, the bodies of Dick and three Bbble in girls but not Allllen. We cried on our knees and prayed to God. that she was out there and clinging on and holding on Blakeley's mom, Lindsay, had been on vacation overseas when she heard Blakeley was missing We went to the airport, got on the flight. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep Still hopeful, she arrived at the church two days after the flood Then a Texas Ranger asked for her DNA That's when I realized that she might not I've made it out alive. from this flood. Searchers found Blakeley's body the next day. She was still wearing a necklace her mother bought her I gave her this necklace Before camp it says mystic and it's in the colors of the camp, green and white. Mant a lot to both of you D Lindsay had lost so much that year husband. brother And now her precious eight year old daughter gone in the spot she hoped would be a refuge. It was going to be a place of healing for her, but it actually became a place of death for her too As Lindsay was coming to grips with the worst of news Houston firefighter Tyler Graff and his rescue dog Tucky arrived in town to join the search efforts The aftermath was Pre all inspiring, shocking. Smells of disaster, smells of decomposition Canoes in the trees When you come down into the basin, It's like entering a whole realm It's it's somber And it's full of sadness. By the time you got here, Were you on a search and rescue mission or just a search mission? Search and recover by the time that we were searching, we weren't looking for live victims About a week after the flood, on a muddy bank across the river, Tyler found a single croc charm still attached, flowers, a cupcake. a name tag Ellen get We found it right here on this point on this other side here. It was a very sombber moment and we knew This crog had some sort of story to it the story of a nine year old girl whose family was desperately waiting to hear What happened to her The days immediately after the flood were a blur for Jenny and Doug Getton as they waited for word about Ellen Knowing but not knowing So we waited a week and that whole week went was so hopeful that there was some way that she had made it through. and the reality is There was no hope They got the call on july twelfth. Tex stranger called us and said, We have her body. We have Ellen's body. We weren't allowed to see her because she'd been in the water for so long And that haunts me every single day None of the twenty seven missing camp Mystic campers and counselors survived They're known as Heavens twenty seven thirty eight kids lost their sisters fififty one parents lost daughters that day Ferals went on for days. When Ellen was laid to rest, eleven year old Gwen eulogized her. It does not matter if you have known Ellen For nine years or nine days Because just by looking at her beautiful face You can tell ind and sweet. And amazing she is One of the things I love about Ellen is her funny laugh She was always so creative in the most hilarious ways Gwen spoke. and did an incredible job to honor her sister And it was Awful I mean, you talk about nightmare We're in this massive church that probably holds sixteen hundred people How are we here Afterwards, the Getten struggled to go on It's like an amputation. You're walking around without part of you. And you have to learn somehow to continue with life missing a wholeo You know, piece of it In their Houston home, the Gatens surrounded themselves with reminders of Ellen and held on to the letters she wrote before she died When we got H on july sixth, we had some letters waiting for us. there's still sealed. We can't bring ourselves to open them up. we're not Ready to do that yet. I think opening them Sems like more of a permanent. and I'm not there yet. Blakeley's mom knew she had to keep the memory of her eight year old daughter alive somehow. She vowed to talk about Blakeley whenever she could. She just It was a ton of fun. She would always play practical jokes on us one time she put her box turtle in my purse. She was a young girl that had an old soul She even asked me at one point before camp if I would date again because she wanted to have a stepfather. She just had such a big heart The Mystic community was also mourning its patriarch, Dick Isastland. When we found out about all of the deaths And then we found out about Dicks passing. It was a little piece of the camp dying And Mystic is such a special place to me. so that was such a hard pill to swallow. Her nightmares are never ending, so is her guilt findinding out that Girls did not make it and that I had is a survivor's guilt that I can't even explain in words. Because why am I here and others are not Ainsley says the kindness of others helped her get through the bad days. I know. Kindness helped Blakeley's mom too, along with videos of her daughter that she watched unrepeat. Pink Pony Cub, I'm gonna keep on doing. T be able to do. Go to her room. Yes, I've gone in her room. I've even slept in her bed. It's a way for me to hold on to those memories when we used to read in her bed, she was doing little projects in her room playing I I definitely don't shut the door to her room and I'm not putting my heart on a shelf per se After their lives were shattered came the questions We brought these mothers together to ask what they learned When they went digging Could this tragedy have been averted? What has thisific Hey, what' you doing Are you doomscrolling other people's vacations? Miami, San Diego? With Expedia, your trip can earn rewards which you can use towards your next eligible stay. Soon, people will doomscroll you Expedia, the one place you go to go places. Terms apply This message comes from DSW, with their semi annual sales starting now and featuring lots of deals. 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To learn more, visit realalized d. com slash podcast Natalie Langry and my daughter's Laney I'm Wendy Childress and my daughter is Chloe I'm Patricia Bellows and my daughter is Margare I'm Ellen Cetady and my daughter is Margaret Cheatetady I'm Sam Jacoby, and my daughterers Marary Kate Jacoby I'm Andrea Feruzo and my daughter's Catherine Feruzo. I'm Ellen Tronzo and my daughter is Greta Tronzo. These Houston moms all lost daughters at Camp Mist it. They've leaned on each other ever since Ellen's mom, Jenny Gitton, gathered them at her house. And these people are really the only ones who truly understand. Yeah I don't think anyone can relate to what we've experienced except for the other twenty six families. I have trouble relating to my friends prior to july fourth, hearing about their busy lives, their carpools That's not my life anymore. Nothing is the same. A. There's the before and then there's the after. Because the person you were before is gone. That person is dead They're haunted by questions about that night There's a desperate need to know. What did you go through? Were you alone? Were you with someone? Were you afraid? Was it fast? And they say the Eastlands, the family they trusted to keep their girls safe, remain virtually silent after the flood We've never received a debrief, if you will. So We've never gathered you together as a group No. They've never called us a personal condolence note here A text with the Bible earth there. Lovely, but. ot not what you're looking for. not what we're looking for. notot the answers that we need In the absence of those answers, these parents decided to dig for the facts on their own talking to as many people as they could What they found only deepened their anguish Could this tragedy have been averted? A hundred percent Yes Our girls should be here the timef there iss time for them all, the whole camp to evacuate safely They compiled a timeline that raised troubling questions about what the Isastlims did and didn't do that night A little bit after one AM, there was a flash flood warning issued that, you know, flooding possible, you know, casualties as a result of flooding That warning came at one fourteen AM The National Weather Service saying a life threatening flash flood was imminent or already underway. They never made an announcement on the loudspeaker and two councselors had to go argue with leadership because water was coming in their cabins. To the best of our knowledge They didn't start moving girls until A three o'clock in the morning So they waited roughly two hours Not only was there a two hour delay, they say the camp was unprepared for what was coming I'd like to know why Didn't they have an evacuation plan Fooding, which was their most logical natural disaster. But you're saying there was no protocol. The protocol was. Correct. The protocol was a stay in the cabin Even though the two story rack hall and safety was only a short walk from their cabins It was extremely poor decision making that we believe led to our children's deaths. When they read the emergency instructions in the counselor's manual that Andrea Ferzzo found in her daughter's belongings They were flabbergasted. And it said stay in your cabins an announcement will be made on the loudspeaker And if the loudspeaker is not working, we'll use walkie talkies And I talked to other councselors who said, there were Milwaukee talkies and then the final sentence in this b. Food evacuation plan says All cabins are on high, safe locations, and we all hope just We're reeling Ainsley confirms she never saw walkie talkies in the cabins and had no emergency training in case of a flood it didn't feel like there was a big pressure to be this guardian and all of this things. I was just a counselor for these girls and we were going to have a great term and have fun together. In late September, less than three months after the tragedy That Mystic announced it would reopen for the twenty twenty six summer season Although the cabins where the victims had been staying would remain closed. Did it shock you completely Put your child in the same care. of the Eastland family when we don't even know what happened yet and everything that went wrong. It's Unthinkable that they would open a camp So soon after twenty seven people ied. on their watch. you know, there're still One camper missing, Seil Stewart. She's not been recovered yet This isn't over parents were so outraged they demanded the state deny Mystic a license for the twenty twenty six season What is the rush? It shows that they want profit over camp safety for right now Mystic has said that it is their Christian ministry to provide an environment for girls to grow spiritually and make lifelong friendships. And that is wonderful, but that does no good if your child doesn't come home alive In October, Texas lawmakers opened an investigation into what happened at Camp Mystic Weeks later, most of the victim's families, including many here and Blakeley's mom filed lawsuits against the camp and the Isastlands What do you want the lawsuit I want the lawsuit to, you know show Trparency, what happen? all the events leading up to this tragedy as well as accccountability What is it that you allege? We alleged that there was gross negligence their lawsuits point to something else too The Eastlands successfully appealed to FEMA to have cabins in a flood hazard area reclassified. And then the lawsuits say the Eastlints failed to share that information with parents There was a known flooding risk that was very well known to the Eastland family who runs the camp. There was no disclosure or communication to us What would the Eastlands have to say aboutbout that night It was absolute chaos It was not absolute chaos. You had no plan. That's not true The bereaved families waited eight months to hear an explanation about the tragedy from the Eastlands. Finally, in the spring, Eastlyland family members testified at pretrial hearings. Edward Eastlyn, who was responsible for the cabins near the river, spent hours answering questions, like this one. about that early morning warning You got a one hundred fourteen code red that you slept through, right Okay And this. You did not get on the loudspeaker and tell anybody what to do. cororrect? No, we didn' The attorney who was representing the family of Seel Stewart, the camper whose body has still not been recovered, was scathing about the Eastland's actions that night Absolute chaos It was not absolute chaos. You had no plan That's not true You had no friend. Your dad was making it up in the moment. He was not Wh was who had the plan He did. Who knew the plan there was no plan that anyone was trained and we didn't have it written down. but we has that plan. Days later at a Texas legislative hearing, Edward apologized for the deaths of the twenty seven girls. The world was a better place with them And the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe feels completely reasonable When I first saw Edward Eastlland, I started sobbing because I realiz that He was the one who was in charge of my children's safety and he failed and it was my first time to hear from him. at all The Eastlands are challenging the narrative of what led to the girls' deaths here at Camp Mystic. They say it wasn't the rising river or allegations that they waited too long to act The river did not kill these young ladies. Doesn't the family declined our interview request? Instead, we got their attorney, Michael Watts Problem is that where this particular weather system stalled led to flood coming behind notot from the river, but from the other direction Watts told us the video shot from the second floor of the commissary supports their case. He says it shows water from the hillside inundating the cabins And you can see in the video that the water iss coming this way But the The river's in the opposite direction. it's really easy to reach the conclusion that what's been alleged that somehow the water rose from the river just truthfully did not happen. Your data says it didn't happen. It's not just my data. It is what the digital evidence shows. Weather experts we consulted, including the National Weather Service, disputed that explanation They say the flood was caused by the rising river, and that's what created the eddies and swirls in the video and about those appeals to FEMA to remove buildings from the flood hazard area. You knew that the cabins that were on a floodplane No they're not. That's not true Watch says updated digital maps show the buildings were not in fact in the flont plane and FEMA agreed The bottom line is that's in the press and somehow, Dick Eastland had this unusual political ability to tell FEMA what to do. That's not the way it works. After the tragedy, FEMA said, itss maps are snapshots in time not predictions of where floods will happen Watts says nothing could have prepared the Eastlands for what was coming Not even that early morning warning We get flash flood warnings in Kirk County repetitively. Every time it rains, there's a risk of flash floods, but that's not the same thing as what happened here. This was a thousand year flood that nobody's ever seen before. But why not a specific flood policy? We do. We have a specific flood policy. You stay in the cabins until help can come and help you Hundreds of girls' lives were saved by that policy. So you're making an argument for keeping them inside the cabins during this kind of rain event? It's called Shelter in placeace. Watts argues it wouldn't have made sense for the youngest campers to walk through the raging waters because they would have been washed away. Would that have happened had they responded immediately to that