One year after flash flooding at Camp Mystic took 28 lives, three fathers are sharing how their young daughters’ private faith continues to lift their families.
Speaking on “Saturday in America,” Ryan DeWitt, Wade Lytal and Cole Naylor shared how their daughters’ deep-rooted faith has sustained them through tragedy. DeWitt and Lytal said they found journals their daughters left behind filled with Bible verses, prayers and messages to God, bringing them comfort as they grieved.
“We knew that she was deeply rooted in her faith, but she wasn’t outward about it or braggadocious about it. She just felt it. She felt very deeply,” Ryan DeWitt said of his daughter Molly, who was 9 years old when she died in the floods.
“She just had the biggest heart, and we taught her as much as we could, but there was certainly something else at play, and that was her faith, and it was comforting. As difficult as those days were and still are, it’s comforting to know how close she was to God,” he added.
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The fathers each recalled moments when they learned more about the depth of their daughters’ faith. DeWitt shared that Molly kept notebooks under her bed filled with hand-drawn crosses and Bible verses, including one page that read, “I can do anything through Christ.”
Wade Lytal recalled entering the bedroom of his 8-year-old daughter, Kellyanne, weeks after the tragedy and pulling open a drawer to find a journal entry that read, “Jesus I love you. Thank you for dying on the cross for all of our sins.”
“I think that’s the most important responsibility that we have as parents is making sure that, you know, our children are raised to love the Lord,” Lytal said.
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Lytal said that after the flood, he no longer believes in coincidences and views finding her journal as a gift during a dark time.
“We were going through her things and the first drawer I pulled open, that was the notebook that was in there. We saw what she wrote, and it did bring some comfort to us in a very, very dark moment in our life,” he said.
Cole Naylor, father of 8-year-old Wynne, emphasized that reliance on daily prayer has carried his family through the loss. He shared that he refuses to speak about his daughter in the past tense, standing firm in the promise that they will be reunited.
“Our girls are very much alive,” Naylor said. “They are more alive than any one of us are. Alive in heaven, we don’t get to see them, we don’t get to touch them, we don’t get to kiss them anymore, but they’re with us, and we will see them again.”
CAMP MYSTIC PULLS PLAN TO REOPEN THIS SUMMER AFTER BACKLASH FROM GRIEVING FAMILIES
In April, Camp Mystic announced it would not be reopening for the 2026 season despite having previously planned to welcome hundreds of girls back to the property.
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“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve,” the camp said in a statement.
“This decision is intended to remove any doubt that Camp Mystic has heard the concerns expressed by grieving families, members of the Texas House and Senate investigating committees and citizens across our state. Respect for those voices requires that we step back now.”