FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 22, 2025
July 5 Flood – Updated Stats and TCSO Response Data
As of today:
- A total of 10 bodies have been recovered.
- Nine of them have been positively identified.
- One of them is pending positive identification.
TCSO was able to locate and verify the identity of a person who was on the list of missing people for two weeks. This person is alive and well and has been removed from the list (the person is transient and reported sightings were sporadic, so the investigation took a while).
On July 16, the body of a man was located under the Big Sandy bridge as debris removal was being conducted. While the body could be that of the last person on Travis County’s list of missing people, this cannot be certain until positive identification is made through the Travis County Medical Examiner’s investigative process. For this reason, TCSO cannot officially conclude that all the people reported missing from Travis County have been found.
Today, TCSO’s Lake Patrol Unit is running a joint operation with Houston Police Department’s dive team, Texas Parks & Wildlife and Jonestown Police Department in the waters of Cow Creek in continuing efforts to locate and recover any outstanding victims of the floodwaters.
The following decedents, all from Leander, TX, unless otherwise specified, have been recovered:
- Dan Dailey, 67
- Virginia Watts Dailey, 66
- Betty Massey West, 84
- August Panning, 50
- 7 year-old female from Marble Falls, TX
- Alissa Nicole Martin, 54
- George Douglas West, 54
- 15-year-old male
- 16-year-old female
It has been the duty and privilege of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office to mobilize every resource available to serve and protect residents in the impacted areas. Those efforts include, but are not limited to the following:
- At 1:00 am on July 5, calls for rescue began coming to TCSO dispatchers.
- TCSO received more than 600 calls above its normal call volume that day.
- Deputies responded to calls for service and assisted in rescue efforts alongside other county agencies
- Deputies could get to many of the callers but were completely stranded from others by the raging flood.
- By daylight, there were more than 30 calls in queue, waiting for deputies to be able to physically reach them. TCSO Deputies made their way to every last one of them.
- TCSO’s Special Response Team was immediately assigned to prevent people from driving into areas where roads and bridges were washed away or deemed unsafe to drive on by engineers/officials.
- In the days immediately following the flood, TCSO’s Lake Patrol conducted searches in the Cow Creek area, which could only be accessed via water. The TCSO Drone Team assisted with search & rescue efforts in Sandy Creek
- TCSO Deputies have been assigned to the area affected by the flood 24 hours a day to handle traffic flow, respond to 911 calls for service, prevent theft and offer general assistance to residents, volunteers and restoration crews.
- In the district where the flood occurred, TCSO has responded since July 4, 2025 to the following calls for service:
9 flooded roadway
6 missing person
13 suspicious odor
30 suspicious person or suspicious vehicle
93 assist complainant
- TCSO Deputies have been and continue to be present in the Sandy Creek community during daytime and overnight hours to serve the community and prevent looters from entering the affected areas.
- TCSO has responded to ten 911 calls about possible looters. In each case, deputies were either unable to locate the suspicious person/vehicle or were able to confirm the suspicious person/vehicle is a resident of the neighborhood.
- Deputies engage in conversations with residents daily related to concerns about possible looting.
- TCSO Detectives were assigned to the Incident Command Post to handle the investigation of missing people and of decedents who were recovered.
- As search crews discovered vehicles, they radioed the license plate information to detectives who ran the plates to determine vehicle ownership. Detectives tracked down each vehicle owner and verified they were alive.
- TCSO Detectives also vetted reports of missing people, tracking each person down, via family and friends, if necessary, to make sure they were indeed unaccounted for.
- TCSO Detectives also responded on scene when cadaver dogs alerted in various areas, or when search crews reported the discovery of a body.
- TCSO Detectives are investigating each death associated with the flood as meticulously as they investigate any unnatural death in Travis County.
- TCSO’s Victim Services Unit worked alongside detectives to support the families of the decedents.
- Members of TCSO’s Victim Services Unit were stationed at the Resource Center to offer support and information.
“Words fall short when trying to describe the devastation the flood caused. These communities are hurting, and it has been the goal of TCSO to serve and protect them to the best of our ability. We remain committed to that mission.” - Sheriff Sally Hernandez
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Submitted By: Kristen Dark, Sr. Public Information Officer | (512) 854-4986 Drew Knight, Public Information Specialist | (512) 854-8426