Investigators: chaotic reunification, autopsy problems and a corrected DSHS reporting claim

Investigators told the committees that family reunification and incident management after the flood were chaotic and caused additional trauma for families seeking information about their children.

Casey Garrett said some of the earliest bodies were sent for autopsies without notice or permission from parents and, in a few cases, families were told the remains were in a different county than they actually were. Garrett described repeated, painful confusion for families and said investigators "shore[d] up" information through interviews with families and their lawyers. Garrett added that prank calls to families—sometimes as recently as a few weeks before the committee hearing—have continued to retraumatize survivors.

Garrett also corrected earlier information in the record about state reporting to the Department of State Health Services. "They did report the deaths on April 29," Garrett said, reporting that a Camp Mystic representative provided documentation showing the report had been filed. She said a DSHS staff member initially told investigators otherwise and the committees agreed to update the report to reflect the corrected fact.