By Daniel Hurst | USA Frontline News | July 16, 2025
In a stunning turn of events that no one saw coming, rescue workers searching near the collapsed grounds of Camp Mystic accidentally slipped into a concealed sinkhole — and landed in what is now being called “the most critical breakthrough” in the search for the 27 missing girls in Texas.
At the bottom of the sinkhole — nearly 15 feet deep and completely invisible from above — they found five children lying silently on damp earth, their faces pale, eyes wide, but miraculously still alive.
But what shocked rescuers most wasn’t just their survival.
Each girl was holding something: mud-stained scraps of paper, torn from a map or notebook, on which crude drawings and arrows were marked. One had circled symbols that resembled a water tank. Another held a list of initials next to numbers. And the oldest girl whispered only one thing:
“They went where the humming never stopped.”
“We couldn’t believe it,” said paramedic Jenna Alvarez. “They were barely speaking — but they had been trying to tell us where the others went. They were waiting for someone to fall through… like it was the only way to be found.”
The location of the sinkhole had previously been dismissed as unstable and too dangerous to search on foot. Ironically, that very danger may have shielded these five girls from being washed further away during the flood.
Geologists now believe the underground pocket they landed in is part of a collapsed aquifer tunnel system, and that the children may have sheltered there for days — surviving on rainwater and sheer will.
The girls are now in emergency care and being debriefed by child trauma specialists and FBI agents. Authorities say the notes they were clutching contain highly specific directions — potentially leading rescuers to a second underground chamber.
“We may be on the verge of finding the rest,” said Texas State Police Commander Reggie Shaw. “What these five girls held in their hands… might save 20 more lives.”
Search and rescue efforts are now refocusing toward the southeast quadrant of Camp Mystic’s perimeter, based on the new sketches and verbal accounts from the survivors.
This is a developing story. Updates to follow as mapping teams and drones explore the newly revealed underground system.