A year has passed since floodwaters tore through Camp Mystic and changed the Steward family’s life forever. Yet for Will and Cici Steward, one devastating part of that July 4 tragedy remains unresolved: their 8-year-old daughter, Cile, has still not been found.

While other families affected by the catastrophic flooding in Kerr County, Texas, were eventually able to recover and lay their loved ones to rest, the Stewards have endured a different kind of grief—one marked by waiting, searching and the painful absence of a final goodbye.

As the first anniversary of the disaster arrived, Cile’s parents shared an emotional message about the daughter they lost and the people who, even after an entire year, have continued looking for her.

“On this Fourth of July, it will be one year since our eight-year-old daughter, Cile, was killed in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic,” Will and Cici Steward wrote.

They acknowledged that they still did not know how they would face the anniversary.

But they also made something else clear: they would not be facing it alone.

A Summer Camp Devastated by Floodwaters

The disaster unfolded on July 4, 2025, when rapidly rising water struck Camp Mystic, located along the Guadalupe River in central Texas.

What should have been a summer filled with childhood memories instead became one of the region’s most devastating natural disasters in recent years.

Twenty-seven campers and counselors died as the floodwaters overwhelmed the area. The scale of the tragedy triggered an enormous recovery effort, with first responders, emergency agencies, volunteers and search crews working through the aftermath.

For many families, those efforts eventually brought painful certainty.

For the Stewards, however, the search did not produce the answer they desperately needed.

Cile remained missing.

Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Seasons changed, and eventually the calendar approached another Fourth of July.

Still, her family waited.

“Still Refusing to Leave Our Daughter Behind”

The first anniversary carried an especially heavy emotional weight for Cile’s parents.

It represented an entire year since they lost their daughter, but it also marked 12 months without being able to bring her home.

Amid that grief, the Stewards focused their message on the extraordinary commitment of the people who have continued searching along the Guadalupe River.

They described searchers still working among the wreckage and refusing to leave Cile behind.

“Their faithfulness is the reason we can meet that day at all,” the parents said, offering their gratitude to everyone who has remained involved.

Those words reflected one of the few sources of comfort available to a family living with such profound uncertainty: the knowledge that other people have not forgotten their child.

The Stewards specifically thanked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management for the assistance provided during the past year.

Their appreciation also extended to the volunteers, recovery personnel and search teams who have repeatedly returned to the river.

The Search Has Continued Despite the Challenges

Finding Cile has not been a simple effort.

Over the past year, volunteer organizations have returned to the Guadalupe River on multiple occasions, continuing to search despite difficult terrain and environmental conditions that can change with time.

The landscape left behind after a major flood can make recovery efforts extraordinarily challenging. Yet according to the family, people have continued showing up.

For the Stewards, every renewed search carries meaning.

Each volunteer who walks the area, every recovery crew that returns and every person willing to keep looking represents another possibility that Cile could finally be brought home.

It is also evidence that the little girl has not disappeared from the community’s memory.

After a year of waiting, that commitment has become deeply important to her parents.

Their hope is painfully simple: they want the chance to bring their daughter home and lay her to rest.

Texas Remembers the Camp Mystic Victims

The anniversary of the flooding has also become a moment of remembrance across Texas.

Memorial events have honored those whose lives were lost or permanently altered by the Camp Mystic disaster, including campers, counselors and the families left grieving afterward.

Communities have continued supporting those affected through remembrance ceremonies, charitable efforts and volunteer initiatives.

The tragedy did not end when the floodwaters receded.

For the families involved, its consequences continued through funerals, unanswered questions and the difficult process of living with loss.

For the Stewards, that journey has included an additional burden.

Their daughter’s story remains unfinished.

They know what happened to Cile during the flood, but they still do not have the closure of knowing where she is.

That distinction has made the passage of time particularly difficult.

An Anniversary Without Closure

Anniversaries often bring memories rushing back with an intensity that can feel almost immediate.

For Cile’s parents, July 4 now carries a meaning that is inseparable from their daughter.

It marks the day the floodwaters swept through Camp Mystic. It marks the beginning of a search that has continued for a full year. And it marks the moment their family entered a period of grief that still lacks the finality they have been seeking.

Yet their anniversary statement was not only about sorrow.

It was also about gratitude.

The Stewards repeatedly returned to the people who have stood beside them—the officials, emergency workers, volunteers and search teams who continue to treat finding Cile as unfinished work.

That support has given the family strength during a year they could never have imagined enduring.

Even after so much time, the search itself sends a powerful message: Cile still matters.

Still Waiting for Cile to Come Home

One year after the Camp Mystic flood, much has changed along the Guadalupe River.

But one thing has not.

Cile Steward is still missing, and people are still searching for her.

Her parents continue holding onto the hope that one of those searches will finally provide the answer they have waited so long to receive.

Until that day comes, the Stewards remain connected to a community determined to remember their daughter—not simply as one of the victims of a catastrophic flood, but as an 8-year-old girl whose family is still waiting to bring her home.

For Will and Cici Steward, every person who returns to search is a reminder that they are not carrying that hope alone.

A year after the floodwaters devastated Camp Mystic, Cile has not been forgotten. And for those still searching the Guadalupe River, the mission is not over.