Volunteers and Texas Task Force 1 are still searching for Cile Steward and Jeff Ramsey. They may need your help.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — More than two months after the catastrophic flooding on July 4th, 8-year-old Cecilia “Cile” Steward and 63-year-old Jeffery Ramsey are still missing.
On Monday, KENS 5 met with volunteers and tracked down Texas Task Force 1 to find out what’s still happening with that search effort.
Working out of Hunt, the United Cajun Navy, a highly experienced nonprofit out of Louisiana, had already spent two months searching the floodplain around the Guadalupe River.
United Cajun Navy Lead Ryan Logue told KENS 5 that organization has been in Kerr County since at least July 6th and had used cadaver dogs and other assets to search both around and in the river. While the United Cajun Navy started scaling back Kerr County operations last week, Texas volunteers are now creating another 501c3 nonprofit called “Lonestar Guardians Disaster Response” to keep the search effort going.
Still, Logue said the United Cajun Navy had likely already covered the entire Guadalupe riverbank on both sides at least once. Unfortunately, there are many places a deceased individual could also be covered up by silt or debris.
“I would like to say we’ve searched all of it. But sometimes we go through points were we find things, we find areas, where it doesn’t feel like it has been completely searched before,” Logue said.
Anytime the group finds any kind of bones or personal items in an area they will go over that area again. While the bones may not be human, they still document and bag their findings according to state protocols and then turn them in with GPS location data.
On Monday, the remaining volunteers were searching south of Hunt.
Logue said Lonestar Guardians nonprofit will now continue the search with a greater focus on the Guadalupe River itself. The new nonprofit intends bring together experienced divers to search the river itself, starting at Camp Mystic.
“Our purpose is to make sure every square inch of this river is searched,” Logue said. “Any chance that she (Cile) can be found, she will be found.”
While searching for Steward and Ramsey is still the primary objective, Logue said the Lonestar Guardians will also be working to identify and clear hazards in the river so the community can have confidence that the river is safe again.
“For people to have confidence to go swimming in that river again, it’s going to take a group from the community who do search and rescue to say, ‘hey we would take our kids swimming again,'” Logue said.
Logue said Lone Star Guardians is currently applying for 501c3 status. He said they will need more experienced divers as well as buggies and drones to help with that search effort.
KENS 5 also reached out to Texas Task Force 1 on Monday and even visited their command center to get the latest information on their search effort.
While KENS 5 was able to speak to a “Task Force Leader” with Texas Task Force 1 in person, that supervisor said he couldn’t talk to us without the right approval from higher up. The Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) then refused to allow Texas Task Force 1 to go on record with KENS 5.
Instead, a TDEM spokesman then sent us a statement that said “search efforts remain ongoing” and sent us multiple social posts from back in August.
KENS 5 also specifically asked how long search efforts would continue. TDEM directed us to a statement TDEM Chief Nim Kidd made back on August 20 in which he said, “Governor Abbott has been very clear, crystal clear with me, that we are not stopping the search for Cile.”
KENS sent TDEM additional questions and will update this article when we receive a response.