Mary Kathryn Jacobe, another 8-year-old from the Houston area, is among those whose bodies have been found. Margaret Bellows, also 8 years old, has been located.
Her mother, Dr. Patricia Bellows, spoke to ABC13 about the heroic efforts she feels Camp Mystic staff did to save her daughter.
“The main thing I have to say is unending gratitude for the brave camp counselors who safely evacuated so many campers, and to the two camp counselors who gave their lives trying to protect my baby,” Dr. Bellows said.
Family members told ABC13 that none of the girls and the two counselors who were staying in the cabin named “Bubble Inn” at Camp Mystic have been found alive.
The two counselors, both 19, are Chloe Childress, whose body has been found, and Katherine Ferruzzo, who is still missing.
The Ferruzo family released a statement on Monday saying, “As of (Monday), our daughter, Katherine Ferruzzo, a counselor in the Bubble Inn cabin at Camp Mystic, remains unaccounted for.
We ask for your ongoing prayers as responders search for her and the many other victims of last week’s devastating floods in Central Texas.”
Family members of a number of the campers told ABC13 that most attendees are multigenerational members of Camp Mystic.
Margaret Bellows’ mom went to Camp Mystic. And Blakely McCrory was the fourth generation in her family to attend camp in the Hill Country.
“We love the Hill Country, and we just couldn’t imagine anything like this could happen,” grandfather McLeod, whose mother first started going to camp in the area in the 1920’s, said. “It was just an act of God. It’s something nobody could have forecast.”
As the families continue to grieve and wait for answers, green ribbons are popping up in Houston neighborhoods with long ties to Camp Mystic.
Some are tied neatly into a bow or wrapped multiple times around trees.
The ribbons, in honor of the victims, are spreading across Houston’s Memorial, Tanglewood, Bellaire, and West University communities.
Just moments ago, investigators at Camp Mystic disclosed that they had found a long, blonde hair bun entangled in branches along the riverbank—precisely where they suspect the last missing 8-year-old girl may have attempted to flee.
At first glance, the hair corresponded with the girl’s description: soft, golden-blonde, styled in a small, disheveled bun—the same hairstyle she was last observed wearing.
For a fleeting moment, rescuers believed they were one step closer to locating her.
However, the DNA results soon followed.
In a shocking and heartbreaking turn of events, forensic analysis confirmed that the hair does not belong to the missing girl, but rather to her best friend, one of the 27 girls who had already been located.
This revelation has completely altered the course of the investigation.
Detectives are now contemplating several unsettling scenarios:
Was the best friend present at the riverbank with her… even after she was reported found?
Could the missing girl have kept the hair as a memento?
Or—most disturbingly—did someone intentionally place the hair there to mislead the search efforts?
One member of the search team remarked quietly:
“We thought we were getting closer. Now it feels like she’s slipping further away.”
Parents and volunteers are heartbroken, and the girl’s family is once again engulfed in excruciating uncertainty.
Police have narrowed the search area, particularly around the river’s edge, and have enlisted specialists in forensic mapping and behavioral profiling to reconstruct the movement patterns of the girls during their final hours at camp.
📌 A complete DNA analysis and an updated map of the riverbank site are available in the comments below.
The question on everyone’s mind now is:
If her best friend was here… where is she?
And what truly transpired on that riverbank?
Stay with us. This case is far from resolved.