18-year-old Chloe Childress was one of the 27 kids and staff who lost their lives as a result of the floods that occurred at Camp Mystic in the previous summer.
According to a recent article in New York Magazine, hChloe's father identified her battered body. She was the 18-year-old Camp Mystic counselor who was killed in the tragic flood last year.
The Guadalupe River rose 20 feet in three hours due to the torrential rains that swept over Central Texas that morning on July 4th. More than 130 individuals lost their lives as the catastrophic flood destroyed structures and devastated the area.
Following the tragic murders of 25 kids and two counselors, including Chloe, the century-old Christian sleepaway camp for girls in Hunt, Texas, known as Camp Mystic, became a nationwide emblem of the catastrophe. Also passing away was camp co-owner Dick Eastland.
In the wake of the tragic deaths of the 27 girls—a group dubbed "Heaven's 27"—many distraught parents banded together to demand stricter safety regulations and sue the Eastland family's long-standing summer camp.
One of their leaders, Matthew, the COO of a legal business, believes the kids should stay out of camp until Congress finishes its probe. At the same time, this summer the Camp is still attempting to reopen.
A foundation of trust has crumbled. In a March op-ed for The Houston Chronicle, Matthew expressed his deep concern about the alarming number of youngsters killed in our state. "We deserve the full truth as the families most affected."
"The truth takes time—time that we can never get back with our daughters," the father of two concluded. "To make sure no other family has to go through what ours has been, we need thorough investigations and full disclosure of all relevant information."
Neither the Childress family nor a Camp Mystic attorney returned PEOPLE's calls for comment.
River Oaks is a Houston area with tree-lined avenues and multimillion-dollar mansions. Matthew and his attorney wife, Wendie, raised their son and daughter there.
It was a simple decision to send Chloe, their eldest kid, to Camp Mystic, which is about 300 miles away. According to reports in New York Magazine and The Texas Tribune, Chloe had happily remained at the camp for ten consecutive seasons, and both Matthew's mom and sister had gone as girls.
As a summer job, the 18-year-old girl and another counselor oversaw operations at Bubble Inn, a riverside lodge. The girl had plans to enroll at the University of Texas at Austin that coming September. After then, the floods arrived.
The Texas Tribune reports that Wendie and Matthew got in their car and headed west, believing they could bring Chloe back with them, after receiving calls from other worried mothers. What they got instead was a grueling waiting period of hours at a local Ingram elementary school.
New York Magazine reports that other parents had attempted to locate their daughters after arriving but were unable due to the destruction and debris left behind by the overflowing river. Matthew, however, was determined to begin searching for his daughter.
After waiting a few hours and hearing the last names of the females who had been located, Matthew came to the realization that his courageous child might not be alive.
Parents who had not yet received a response reportedly slept on a church floor that night, according to New York Magazine. Matthew and his wife both started crying when they woke up at 5:30 a.m., still not knowing what had happened to Chloe. They sought solace in curling up together on the floor.
The local funeral home called Matthew, shattering his clinging hope that Chloe was alive. He had to sit through a news conference when a Kerrville municipal official confessed they had discovered no survivors. After that, he fell to the ground.
Chloe's body was nearly invisible when they arrived at the mortuary. According to New York Magazine, her body was found on a riverbed after being dragged more than two miles downstream. In a final act of devotion to his love for her, Matthew turned around as he was brought away and kissed her seventeen times.
Following the floods, the parents of the campers who died created a group text. That was one reason why they banded together to ensure the safety of future campers and honor their children's legacy.
Three measures concerning camp safety and flood prevention had been enacted by the beginning of September. The victory brought tears to the eyes of Heaven's 27 parents.
The legislation stipulated that children's sleepaway camp cabins couldn't be located near floodplains, and that camp employees were to know how to evacuate the premises and keep an ear out for weather threats. Victims' relatives sued the camp and its proprietors two months after the tragedy, claiming extreme carelessness.
The families of five students and two counselors filed a lawsuit on Monday, November 10, claiming that the camp's owners prioritized profit before safety.
According to CNN, the complaint stated that now, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be in third grade, while counselors Chloe and Katherine should be first-year students at the University of Texas. "They have all departed."
The families involved are claiming that the group in Kerr County, Texas, neglected to adequately prepare for potential floods and instead opted to keep its camps in places prone to flooding.
Despite the ongoing legal battles, Camp Mystic has stated that the Guadalupe River camp would be closed until 2026 and that it intends to reopen its Cypress Lake facility in 2026.
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The parents of the last remaining camper, Cecilia "Cile" Steward, have filed a lawsuit against the camp, and earlier this month, a judge issued a temporary injunction against the establishment to safeguard evidence in the course of the continuing state inquiry.
Matthew and the other parents of campers who did not make it have found some solace in their relentless pursuit of justice, which has allowed them to confront and overcome their overwhelming grief and rage.
Almost as if I could bring her back, if I can solve this problem, Matthew told The Texas Tribune. I will rescue her if I am able to figure it out.