By Hannah Fields | U.S. Tragedy Watch | July 16, 2025
In a heart-wrenching turn of events, Texas rescue teams today confirmed the discovery of a baby girl found nestled in the exposed roots of a fallen tree — just yards from where the floodwaters of Camp Mystic finally receded.
But it wasn’t just the location — or the fragile state of the child — that caused responders and family members to break down.
It was what was in her pocket.
Wrapped in a shredded T-shirt, her face smeared with dirt and rain, the child was barely breathing but alive. As paramedics prepared to lift her onto a stretcher, one noticed a small, crumpled scrap of paper lodged deep inside her makeshift clothing.
The note — stained, nearly illegible — bore only eight shaky, hand-written words:
“Her name is Mia. Please find her mom.”
When the message was read aloud at the field triage tent, one woman — previously silent among the waiting parents — screamed, then fainted on the spot. That woman was later confirmed to be Mia’s mother, who had reported her daughter missing 13 days earlier.
“She didn’t even recognize her own child at first,” said medic Kyle Jennings. “The baby was unrecognizably caked in earth and bruises. But when she heard the name… everything shattered.”
Mia is now in intensive care in Austin, with doctors cautiously optimistic about her recovery. She is believed to be between 18 and 20 months old, making her the youngest survivor recovered so far in the Camp Mystic flood disaster.
What remains unknown is who wrote the note — and how Mia ended up alone in such a remote location, protected only by a tangle of roots and what appeared to be someone’s jacket wrapped around her legs.
FBI and local authorities are now treating the note as potential evidence, with handwriting analysts already comparing it to previous samples collected at the camp.
“That message didn’t just identify her,” said Lt. Marla Givens. “It tells us someone made a choice. To leave her, to name her, and to hope.”
As of tonight, 12 children remain unaccounted for in the aftermath of the floods.
But little Mia — dirt-stained, barely conscious, and found beneath the roots of a broken tree — has become the quiet symbol of a story still unfolding.
This story is developing.