“Joyce Katherin,” Taj Badon called from the banks of the Guadalupe River. “Joyce Katherin,” he called again.
But, so far, there has been no answer.
He still prays that his 21-year-old daughter will answer his calls. Until then, there is no limit to how far a father will walk to find his daughter.
The father from Beaumont, Texas, urgently traveled to the Texas Hill Country on Friday afternoon, where Joyce Katherin was spending the Fourth of July weekend with three friends. The group was staying in a house right by the swollen river.
Badon began his search on Saturday morning from the house where the group’s last call came in around 4 AM on Friday. Joyce Katherin was on the phone with the parents of another friend in the group, describing how floodwaters were rushing into the house.
She said two of her friends were swept away by the water. Then the phone connection was cut. “That’s all we know,” Badon said. “We assume she was also swept away. And if you look at where the house is, that’s not a good sign.”
Joyce Katherin Badon is an architecture student at the Savannah College of Art and Design and planned to pursue graduate studies at Tulane University after graduating next year.
“She’s a beautiful girl,” Badon said. “I couldn’t ask for a better daughter.”
Badon said that he and his son encountered the body of a boy during their search.
“We hope to find our children, our daughter and her friends alive,” Badon said. “Time is running out.” The families of Sara Marsh and Laila Bonner, two campers who went missing from Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp in Kerr County, Texas, which was affected by devastating floods, confirmed to CNN that they had passed away.
Bonner’s family confirmed to CNN in a statement that the nine-year-old had died.
“In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time,” the family said in a statement. “We mourn with all who loved her and pray endlessly that others are spared this tragic loss.”
In a Facebook post, Alabama Senator Katie Britt said she was “heartbroken by the loss of Sara Marsh and that we are holding her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.”
Earlier, the mother of missing nine-year-old camper Jaynie Hunt from Camp Mystic told CNN in a message this morning that her daughter had passed away.
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Source: CNN Foto: CNN