Only moments before floodwaters surged through the home she was staying, a 21-year-old Texas woman sent a heartbreaking text message to her family, begging for help as the violent waters washed her away.
As the Guadalupe River raged through Central Texas over the July 4th weekend, floodwaters rose with terrifying speed – swallowing homes, camps, and lives in its path.
According to AFP, “torrential rains” started the night before the holiday, causing “the river to rise to the height of a two-story building in less than hour, flooding parts of Kerr County.” As of July 9, at least 107 people are confirmed dead across six counties, NBC reports, including more than two dozen children and counselors from an all-girls Christian camp.
Dozens more remain missing, and the death toll is expected to rise as the search continues.
Among those who were missing was 21-year-old Joyce Badon and her three friends, Ella Cahill, Reese Manchaca and Aiden Heartfield, who were spending the July 4 weekend together at a country house along the river.
By the early hours of the morning, that house was gone.
Last contact
Joyce’s father, Ty Badon, told CNN that the family last heard from the group during a phone call with Aiden’s dad, who owns the house they were staying.
“We were told that they were on the phone… and then the phone went dead,” he said, adding that the house “is no longer there.”
Badon explained that Aidan told his dad, “’Hey I’ve got to go, I’ve got to help Ella and Reese…they just got washed away,’ and then a few seconds later the phone just went dead, and that’s all we know,” the 21-year-old’s father said, recalling his last contact with the group.
‘Flash flood’
On Facebook, Joyce’s mother Kellye, shared an emotional post, begging online users to pray for her daughter.
“A flash flood came through and washed their cars away. It happened so quickly with so much water, they could not get in the attic,” she explained, adding that “Aidan Heartfield, called his dad as it happened,” and then “he [and two] others got washed away by debris.”
The last person Aiden’s dad spoke with was Joyce, Kellye said.
The mom ended the July 4 post: “We pray for safety for JC and her friends. We are going to believe that we will pick up my daughter & her friends ALIVE in Hunt, TX today.”
Several victims found
Teams of volunteers combed through the debris and searched the banks of the river for Joyce and her friends, some tragically finding bodies belonging to others.
“One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded up by so much debris. Not one person could see it, so the more eyes, the better,” said Louis Deppe, a volunteer leading the search efforts for the Badon family.
Joyce’s dad also found a body.
“My son and I were walking, and I thought it was a mannequin. It was a little boy, eight or 10 years old, and he was dead,” Ty said. “We were just walking, doing the same thing we were doing when we stumbled across him.”
Divide and conquer
Hoping to find the college friends alive, Tina Hambly, the mother of a friend of Joyce, was also involved in the search.
“We’re doing a seven-mile stretch,” Hambly told AFP. “There’s seven teams, and we’re doing a mile apiece…just kind of dividing and conquering.”
“But, you know, we are friends and families and frankly, some strangers have shown up,” she added.
Joyce found
Sadly, on July 7, Joyce’s family received the news they had been dreading.
Their daughter’s body had been found, her father confirmed in an interview with NBC News. Later, her mother, Kellye Badon, shared a heartfelt tribute to their “lovely” daughter in a post on Facebook, honoring the young life taken far too soon.
“God showed us the way we should go this morning!” Kellye wrote. “We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years! We pray to be able to find her three friends soon. Thanks to EVERYONE for the prayers and support. God is good!”
Hours later, she shared a second post, along with a photo of a rainbow in the skies above the Badon’s home.
“Joyce Catherine telling us from heaven ‘all is well with my soul,’” she wrote in the heartbreaking message.
Final text
According to Louis Deppe, a volunteer leading the search efforts, Joyce sent one final text, begging for help as the surging waters were close to sweeping her away.
“On [Joyce’s] cellphone, the last message (her family) got was ‘we’re being washed away,’ and the phone went dead,” Deppe told AFP, per People.
According to reports, Reese’s body was also recovered but Aiden and Ella are still missing.
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