After one final haunting message, Joyce Catherine Badon’s cellphone switched off, while torrential rains triggered flash flooding in parts of Texas early Friday.
The chilling message was enough to make Joyce’s parents imagine their worst fear: their 21-year-old daughter may never come back home.
Joyce is now among at least 104 people who lost their lives in the devastating flash floods.
Highlights
- Joyce Badon sent one last haunting message before she and her friends were swept away in the flash flood.
- They had traveled to a cabin along the Guadalupe River to spend the July 4 holiday together.
- Joyce's father said he stumbled upon the body of a little boy while searching for his daughter.
- “One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded up by so much debris,” one said.
Joyce Badon sent one last haunting message before she and her friends were swept away in the flash flood
Image credits: Jonathan Petramala
Joyce and her three friends, Reese Manchaca, Ella Cahill, and Aiden Heartfield, had traveled to a country house together to spend the July 4 holiday.
All four friends were Kelly High School graduates, and Ella and Aiden were reportedly dating.
They were staying at Aiden’s late grandfather’s cabin along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, one of the hard-hit communities in western Kerr County.
Image credits: 13WMAZ
“My little sister, her boyfriend, and their two friends are missing due to flood,” Ella's sister, Mackenzie Hodulik, wrote on social media. “Last we heard from them was at 4 a.m. They were trying to escape home to get to higher ground.”
Louis Deppe was the leader of a group of volunteers who helped Joyce’s family locate her body.
Joyce and her three friends had traveled to a cabin along the Guadalupe River to spend the July 4 holiday together
Image credits: Joyce Badon
“Their house collapsed at about 4 in the morning, and they were being washed away,” Louis told AFP.
He spoke about Joyce’s last text message to her family, reflecting the horror she went through with her friends in her last moments.
“On her cellphone, the last message (her family) got was ‘we're being washed away’ and the phone went de*d,” he said.
Image credits: Eric Vryn/Getty Images
Aiden had also called his father, Thad Heartfield, as the disaster unfolded around them.
“Aidan said, ‘Hey, I've got to go, I've got to help Ella and Reese ... they just got washed away,’” Joyce’s father, Ty Badon, told CNN.
“They just got washed away,” one of the friends said during a frightening phone call with a parent
Image credits: Kellye Badon
Ty said Joyce was the last person to speak to Thad on the phone.
“[Aidan] gave the phone to Joyce and [she] said, ‘They just got washed away,’ and a few seconds later, the phone went de*d. That's all we know. We presume that she got washed away as well,” the father said.
Image credits: KHOU11
Joyce’s father had joined the group searching for his daughter’s body amid the devastation caused by the floods, which included fallen trees, overturned cars, and rampant debris.
He revealed that the country house they had traveled to was no longer there after the flood.
While searching for his daughter, Ty Badon said he stumbled upon the body of a little boy, around 8 or 10 years old
Image credits: Jonathan Petramala
The grieving father spoke about finding a little boy’s body while searching for his daughter.
“My son and I were walking and I thought it was a mannequin. It was a little boy, 8 or 10 years old, and he was de*d,” he told CNN.
Image credits: Kellye Badon
He revealed that the search group was walking through the debris, looking for his daughter and her friends, when they saw the child's body.
“We were just walking, doing the same thing we were doing when we stumbled across him,” he said.
“One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded by so much debris,” said Louis Deppe
Image credits: CNN
Louis also spoke about the sights he saw while his team, which worked in groups of two or three, searched through the debris.
“One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded by so much debris,” he said. “Not one person could see it, so the more eyes, the better.”
Image credits: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
Joyce’s family eventually confirmed that her body was found days after she was swept away.
“God showed us the way we should go this morning!” her mother, Kellye Badon, wrote on social media.
“We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years!” she continued. “We pray to be able to find her three friends soon. Thanks to EVERYONE for the prayers and support.”
Image credits: REUTERS
Reese’s aunt and uncle also announced that her body was located “in the rubble and debris left by the rushing flood waters in the Hunt, Texas area.”
The search for Ella and Aiden continued, as the number of fatalities from the devastating flash floods crossed 100, and dozens still remain missing.
“Her father walked miles, calling out her name,” one commented online about Joyce’s father
