# Massive flooding in Texas; 20 children missing from a summer camp **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 4, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512 "2025-07-04T21:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/281 "2025-07-15T12:59:28Z")
We did a river clean up after Helene and were digging through piles of debris on the islands of the river, there were kayaks and tires and bits of docks sticking out of the piles and it was a bear to dig out debris just a few inches deep. There’s no way they can find everybody who is missing. A retired ranger friend of mine told me about someone hunting mushrooms in the Shenandoah National Park found an entire human skeleton in the woods. They never did figure out who it was or what happened. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/282 "2025-07-15T13:23:58Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > A retired ranger friend of mine told me about someone hunting mushrooms in the Shenandoah National Park found an entire human skeleton in the woods. They never did figure out who it was or what happened. Out of curiosity, did they go “Ah! A human body!” and notify authorities right away to ensure the scene was properly examined, or did they go “[Oh, neat. A human body. I guess I’ll pick up a stick and start excavating… Oh, super cool! There’s actually _two_ sets of human remains here, which I will happily proceed to fully uncover. I guess I’ll just stand looking whimsically at them and wonder what sort of story they might tell, if only they could talk…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Cow)” For those who don’t want to chance the link, I am satirizing (actually, just accurately summarizing) the opening scene to _First Cow_, and the link is to its Wikipedia page. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/283 "2025-07-15T13:31:26Z")
No, they were freaked out and ran to the ranger station screaming. This would have been in the 80s or 90s. I asked my friend if they ever went back to use new technology to figure it out and he said, “I don’t know, I retired.” Fair point. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/284 "2025-07-15T14:49:17Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > perhaps incorrectly reported as missing. You were spot on with this observation. > The number of people missing in the Kerrville area due to the Hill Country floods has been reduced to 97, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference on Monday. > > That number is significantly lower than the 161 missing people that Kerr County officials reported on Thursday morning at a press conference. > **[Number of missing people down from 161 to 97 in Kerr County after July 4...](https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/07/14/number-of-missing-people-down-from-161-to-97-in-kerr-county-after-july-4-floods-gov-abbott-says/)** > > The number of people missing in the Kerrville area due to the Fourth of July floods has been reduced to 97, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference on Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/285 "2025-07-15T18:03:53Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Yep. Head in the head. That is a mystery book just crying to be written. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/286 "2025-07-15T19:24:31Z")
That’s kinda what they did with [Ötzi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi) but it was even more Grab-Ass. Ice Axes, Hiking Poles and a power drill. Probably destroyed lots of valuable learnin’ in what turned out to be one of the most studied human beings that ever walked the face of the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/287 "2025-07-15T19:59:32Z")
The Mystery was solved. The girl killed her Mom for with-holding food. Apparently it was an ongoing problem. The folks were very backwoods, probably some inbreeding going on. The younger woman was institutionalized til she died. Someone published a detailed thing in a Regional rag we have here, about it. So all that can be known, is known. The story was kinda famous because when sheriffs went to get the woman out of the house her crazy brother showed up, throwing bricks, and a deputy killed him. It was a few decades ago. Flash forward…and her head shows up in the outhouse. I found her false teeth first. That was unnerving. Let me tell you what. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/288 "2025-07-15T22:29:01Z")
My BFF’s dad unearthed a skeleton while plowing a field, in the 1970s or 1980s. The farm had been in the family since at least 1900, and they never knew a person had been buried there, and because it was rural, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation got involved. They were only able to determine that the bones belonged to a Caucasian man in his 40s who had probably been dead for at least 100 years, and someone organized a county-paid funeral for him at a local cemetery, and the stone says something like “White Man, Found Outside (town and the date), Died Before 1900, Known But To God.” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/289 "2025-07-15T22:37:07Z")
This story came from my area in 2017. A man went out one early morning to get his paper and saw the fire in the darkness; he grabbed his fire extinguisher, probably destroying a lot of evidence (but the authorities understood) and at first, he thought it was a large dog but the First Responders knew immediately that it was a person. Because the body was so small, they thought it was a child (and it was so badly burned, they didn’t know if it was male or female until the autopsy). It turned out to be a man with a mild type of dwarfism who had a long criminal record, and he finally really pissed off the wrong person. That it happened in a middle-class neighborhood made it fairly big news here. p.s. Might help if I posted a link. > **[UPDATE: Burned body in Davenport identified](https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Body-found-burning-in-west-Davenport-neighborhood-425477503.html)** > > Police have identifed the person who was found on fire. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/290 "2025-07-15T22:44:26Z")
An update to that, they got and convicted the perpetrator: > **[Conviction upheld in 2017 Davenport murder case](https://www.kwqc.com/content/news/Conviction-upheld-in-2017-Davenport-murder-case-567616711.html)** > > The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Davenport man in the 2017 murder of 35-year-old Brandon Brooks. Tremayne Thomas, 45, is serving a life sentence after a Scott County jury convicted him of first-degree murder and abuse of a... ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/291 "2025-07-16T06:13:09Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I found her false teeth first. That was unnerving. Let me tell you what. Were they connected to the rest of her? Yikes! I was thinking of a mystery book, not connected to your mystery, with that as a title. It’s a great title. “The toilet snake came out bloody!” I don’t recall cozy mysteries starring a plumber. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/292 "2025-07-16T07:13:22Z")
No the false teeth were found as I was raking the remnants of the “crap” Mr.Wrekker was pulling out of the hole. He’d grab a scoop transfer it to the trailer. Stuff was everywhere, so I was on the rake, shovel and wheelbarrow. I saw a glint of white shiny stuff. Bent down thinking dog toy or kid toy. I was not happy to have “shitty” false teeth in my hand. Creeped me right out. Still, we were not thinking a head down there. We figured they were accidentally dropped in the hole. The head rolled off the scoop on to the trailer and I said to myself, “surely, not…” It had some bottom teeth, though half the jaw was missing. A big indentation in the back of the head. And a tuft of a root sticking out of the eye socket. Seriously jarring to look at. I kinda wanted to keep it. The Sheriff said I was plumb morbid. And no, I couldn’t have it. A nice cozy mystery could be fashioned from this. I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/293 "2025-07-16T15:23:26Z")
Kerrville city manager admits he had weather alerts turned off ahead of deadly flooding. He says this doesn’t matter as he has employees monitoring the weather constantly–yet still he didn’t inform the mayor until 5:30 am–4 hours after the major NWS alert. [https://www.chron.com/weather/article/kerrville-city-manager-weather-alerts-off-20770484.php](https://www.chron.com/weather/article/kerrville-city-manager-weather-alerts-off-20770484.php) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/294 "2025-07-16T16:48:06Z")
Let the lawsuits fly! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/295 "2025-07-16T16:51:46Z")
Maybe they should hire the Uvalde police to investigate. Keystone meet Kops. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/296 "2025-07-16T22:16:19Z")
Hey, it IS Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/297 "2025-07-16T22:22:35Z")
I think the cart before horse applies here. We gotta know who to blame, first. Then sue them into proverty!personally, I would start at the top…as in the fascist who cut the NWS ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/298 "2025-07-16T22:35:06Z")
Mining my memory data bank, they did catch him pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/299 "2025-07-17T00:25:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Maybe they should hire the Uvalde police to investigate. Keystone meet Kops. I was just thinking this situation reeks of the same incompetence and indecisiveness as what happened in Uvalde. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2025, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512/300 "2025-07-20T07:37:20Z")
> The **number of people still missing** in a Texas county ravaged by deadly flooding over the Fourth of July holiday weekend **now stands at three** , down from nearly 100… > > At one time, state officials said about 160 people were unaccounted for after the flooding in Kerr County alone. Kerr County officials said the number of missing people decreased as victims were recovered, contact was made with people who were found safe and some reports were found to be unsubstantiated or falsified. > **[What to know as Texas' search for flood victims stretches into a third week](https://apnews.com/article/flash-foods-texas-legislature-warning-systems-80d4db2882d57a4911191a85e1c23f9a)** > > The number of people still missing in a Texas county ravaged by deadly flooding over the Fourth of July holiday weekend now stands at three, down from nearly 100. So the total number of deaths is going to end up being a great deal fewer than previously predicted. [the number of bodies found is now 135]. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-flooding-in-texas-20-children-missing-from-a-summer-camp/1020512.md?page=16)