Six months have passed since the Guadalupe River turned into a monster overnight. It’s early 2026, and if you drive through the Texas Hill Country today, you’ll see open restaurants and steady traffic over rebuilt bridges. But for a handful of families in Kerr County and beyond, the clock stopped at roughly 3:00 AM on July 4, 2025.
Honestly, the numbers you see on social media or in old news clips are probably wrong. In the chaotic days after the flash floods, the "missing" list was a moving target. At one point, officials were looking for over 160 people. It was a nightmare of data entry—people were reported missing by three different relatives, or they were safe in a shelter but hadn't checked in. By late July, that list plummeted.
But it didn't hit zero.
As of January 2026, two people remain officially missing from the catastrophic July 4 floods. Two. It’s a small number that carries an unbearable weight. These aren't just "unaccounted for" statistics; they are specific individuals whose families are still waiting for a phone call that may never come.
The names behind the numbers
When we talk about how many people are still missing from the Texas floods, we are talking about Cile Steward and Jeff Ramsey.
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Cile is an eight-year-old girl. She was a camper at Camp Mystic, a place that has become synonymous with the tragedy. On that holiday weekend, a wall of water—some reports say the river rose nearly 30 feet in an hour—tore through the cabins. While dozens of campers were recovered, Cile remains the last child of the Mystic tragedy still out there.
Then there’s Jeff Ramsey. He was 63. A father. A man from Lewisville who, by all accounts, saved lives before the water took his own. His family says he called them in the middle of the night, shouting for them to wake up and get out. They made it. He didn't. His wife, Tanya, was found several days later, but Jeff is still out there somewhere in the debris of the Guadalupe.
It’s easy to look at a death toll of 119 or 137 and lose the individual thread. But for the Texas Rangers and the recovery teams still on the ground, these two names are the only thing that matters.
Why haven't they been found yet?
You might be wondering how, in 2026, we can lose an adult man and a young girl in a river and not find them for half a year. It sounds impossible. It’s not.
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Basically, the topography of the Hill Country is a trap. The Guadalupe River, especially around the South Fork near Hunt and Kerrville, is surrounded by incredibly steep, rocky slopes. When the 20 inches of rain fell, it didn't just rise; it "poured down those slopes like a funnel," as investigators have described it.
- The Debris Field: The flood didn't just move water. It moved houses, RVs, massive cypress trees, and tons of silt.
- The "Phase Five" Search: Texas Ranger Captain John J. Miller is currently leading what they call Phase Five. This isn't guys in kayaks with poles. They are using hydrostatic mapping—3D underwater scans—to look for "anomalies" in the riverbed.
- The Distance: The flood zone stretched 127 miles. That's the distance from Austin to Waco. Searching every square inch of a 127-mile mud-caked riverbank is a Herculean task.
The Camp Mystic Controversy
We can't talk about the missing without talking about the lawsuits. The legal fallout in 2026 is getting messy. Families are suing Camp Mystic, alleging the evacuation plans were insufficient for a river known for flash floods.
The camp recently announced plans to reopen for the 2026 season. For the families of those still missing, that feels like a gut punch. How do you send kids back to a river that is still holding onto the remains of the last group? It’s a question the community is struggling to answer. Honestly, the town of Kerrville is in a "negotiation" with the river right now, trying to figure out if it's still a place of recreation or a graveyard.
What happens next?
The search hasn't stopped, but it has changed. It's quieter now. No more buzzing news helicopters or massive volunteer lines. It's just specialized teams and the Texas Rangers.
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If you are following this story or looking to help, there are a few things to keep in mind about the reality of recovery:
Don't trust early 2025 reports.
Many articles from July 2025 still cite "160 missing." Those numbers were revised downward within weeks as people were found safe. The official number has been "2" for several months.
The search is technical, not manual.
Agencies are asking people to stay off the riverbanks in specific search zones. Private drones are a huge problem; they’ve actually caused search helicopters to make emergency landings in the past.
Focus on the memorial efforts.
Kerrville has established a memorial art installation with crosses and a mural. If you want to support the families, local organizations like the Kerr County United Way are still managing long-term recovery funds for the hundreds of families who lost everything, not just those who lost loved ones.
The hard truth is that as time goes on, the chance of a "traditional" recovery dims. But in Texas, we don't stop until everyone comes home. Whether it takes six months or six years, the search for Cile and Jeff continues.
To stay updated on the official recovery status, you should monitor the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office briefings or the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) portal. They remain the only sources for verified numbers as the technical search phases conclude.