Camp Mystic has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas a year after the July 4, 2025 flash floods that killed 28 people. Families of victims say the filing is meant to delay accountability, while court paperwork says the camp faces more than $10 million in d
When Camp Mystic’s owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, June 24, the move landed on the same bruised timeline as the next anniversary of the July 4, 2025 flash floods.
For families still trying to grieve—some with bodies not yet recovered—the filing felt less like a legal reset than a pause button. Lawyers for multiple victim families described the bankruptcy as an attempt to avoid accountability and keep control of the camp while litigation moves forward.
Camp Mystic. located in Texas. said it is carrying debts exceeding $10 million and asked the court to place the case under Chapter 11. The operating entity, Camp Mystic LLC, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The camp’s filing comes a year after the disaster. when 25 young campers and three adults died during the July 4 flash floods at the camp.
Kyle Findley. an attorney with Arnold & Itkin LLP who represents six families—Getten. McCown. Pohl. Sheedy. Stevens and Toranzo—criticized the bankruptcy move as part of a strategy he said would slow responsibility being enforced. In a statement, Findley said, “The bankruptcy filing is not accountability. It is simply a financial reorganization that could allow the same people and entities to remain in control of Camp Mystic while attempting to circumvent the justice of the Court. After 27 girls died, this filing is just another attempt to delay taking responsibility.”.
Findley’s remarks pointed directly to pending litigation, including a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families. The bankruptcy filing, he said, paused the proceedings as the case heads through the courts.
Other attorneys representing families echoed the same anger, focusing on timing and what the filing means for people living with unanswered questions.
Sam Taylor. with the Lanier Law Firm in San Antonio. told KENS5 that the bankruptcy filing was another attempt to avoid accountability. “I’ve already spoken with most. if not all of our clients this morning. and literally. this is just another slap in the face that the people that caused the deaths of their daughter are seeking to avoid accountability. ” Taylor said.
Taylor represents the Naylor, Hanna, Hollis, Hunt, Dillon and Lytal families.
For the family of Cecilia “Cile” Steward. 8. the anger was sharpened by the fact that her body has still not been recovered nearly a year after the flooding event. Lawyers Brad Beckworth. Christina Yarnell and Blair Townsend. representing Steward’s family. told KYTX in Tyler. Texas. that the timing of the filing was “a despicable gut punch to families already bracing to grieve their daughters under a canopy of Fourth of July fireworks.” In their statement. they added: “Cile Steward was 8 years old. She was in Camp Mystic’s custody and care when she was killed on July 4, 2025. Her body has still not been recovered. A bankruptcy filing does not change what was promised to her, or what is owed to her family. We will never stop pursuing truth and accountability for Cile and the other precious girls the Eastlands killed on the Fourth of July.”.
A separate note of unresolved access also surfaced: USA TODAY said it reached out to Eastland’s attorney for comment but had not heard back.
The camp’s filing offers a different framing, grounded in court documentation. Court papers filed by Camp Mystic LLC name Edward Eastland as manager, listing him alongside his father, co-executive director Dick Eastland, who died in the floods.
The bankruptcy petition also identifies Dallas-based attorney Martin Sosland of Vartabedian Katz Hester & Haynes LLP as the company’s representative.
According to the Voluntary Petition for Non-Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy, Camp Mystic estimates it has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors, assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
The petition describes the case as a “complex” Chapter 11 matter. citing both the $10 million-plus debt and more than 50 parties with an interest in the case. Three affiliated entities were included in the bankruptcy proceedings: Natural Fountains Properties Inc. which lists between 1 and 45 estimated creditors and assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million; Mystic Camps Family Partnership Ltd. which lists between 1 and 45 estimated creditors. assets between $100. 001 and $500. 000. and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million; and Mystic Camps Management LLC. which lists between 1 and 45 estimated creditors with assets between $0 and $50. 000 and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
The tragedy behind the filings is a roster of names that families and lawyers have continued to repeat as they pursue justice.
In total, 28 people died at Camp Mystic: 25 young campers and three adults. The co-executive director, Dick Eastland, was the 28th person killed.
The young girls and counselors named as victims include May Grace Baker (8). Margaret Bellows (8). Lila Bonner (8). Chloe Childress (18. camp counselor). Molly DeWitt (9). Lucy Dillon (8). Katherine Ferruzzo (18. camp counselor). Ellen Getten (9). Hadley Hanna (8). Virginia Hollis (8). Janie Hunt (9). Mary Kate Jacobe (8). Lainey Landry (9). Hanna Lawrence (8). Rebecca Lawrence (8). Kellyanne Lytal (8). Sarah Marsh (8). Linnie McCown (8). Blakely McCrory (8). Wynne Naylor (8). Eloise Peck (8). Abby Pohl (8). Margaret Sheedy (8). Renee Smajstrla (8). Mary Barrett Stevens (8). Cecilia “Cile” Steward (8) and Greta Toranzo (10).
The sequence of the filing and the response from attorneys underscores the friction between two legal paths: bankruptcy proceedings framed around reorganization and litigation that families say is meant to force accountability in a federal courtroom.
For families still counting down to the next milestone of the July 4 anniversary, the timing isn’t theoretical. It is personal, immediate, and tied to what they say they are owed.
As the Chapter 11 case moves forward in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the dispute over what bankruptcy changes—and what it cannot—has already become part of the story families say they never agreed to pause.
Camp Mystic Chapter 11 bankruptcy Texas floods July 4 2025 wrongful death lawsuits victim families financial reorganization Southern District of Texas