Who Was Joyce Catherine Badon? Dad Who Found Dead Boy Searching for His Young Daughter Gets Devastating News She Died in Texas Floods
Her mother, Kellye Badon, shared the update on Monday. "God showed us the way we should go this morning! We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years! ❤️ We pray to be able to find her three friends soon. Thanks to EVERYONE for the prayers and support. God is good! ❤️❤️❤️" she wrote.
Searching for Dead Daughter
Family members later confirmed to News4SanAntonio and 12NewsNow that Joyce had died in the catastrophic floods. The heartbreaking news came after her father, Ty, found the body of another child while desperately searching for his daughter, who is among at least eight confirmed victims.
Over the weekend, Ty Badon was searching through the epicenter of the devastation in the rural town of Hunt when he came upon the body of a young boy—one of at least 89 victims claimed by the floods.
"My son and I were walking, and what I thought was a mannequin... it was a little boy, about eight or 10 years old, and he was dead," Badon told CNN.
The heartbroken father shared that he had been searching for his Joyce, 21, and his voice broke at the end of the interview as he asked the public to keep them in their prayers.
Badon said that the last known contact with Joyce was on July 4, the day the floods hit, when she was on a phone call with three of her friends.
The group had been staying in a cabin owned by one of the parents in the scenic town of Hunt, located around 120 miles west of Austin, Texas. During the call, Joyce told the cabin's owner that two members of their group had already been swept away by the rising waters, Badon said.
"A few seconds later, the phone went dead, and that's all we know," Badon said.
"We presume that she got washed away as well. If you go back to where the house is, it's not a good sight."
An Unexpected Loss
Badon said that the house where the group had been staying is "no longer there." "We're praying all four of them are still alive. They're all missing," he said. His daughter is one of many still missing, including 27 children, after the Guadalupe River surged over 26 feet in just 45 minutes during the early morning hours of July 4, unleashing a powerful wave of water that swept through several Kerr County communities.
Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that 41 people were officially listed as missing across the state, with the possibility that more people have yet to be identified.
Hundreds of young girls were attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp located along the river, and many others were vacationing in the rural area to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend.
Residents are now questioning why authorities failed to issue flood warnings until 1:18 p.m. on July 3—the day the storms began—and initially labeled them as merely "moderate."
The National Weather Service didn't upgrade the alert to a flash flood warning until 1 a.m. on Friday, declaring a Flash Flood Emergency by 4:30 a.m.
However, by that time, floodwaters were already rushing into people's homes. Many Texans believe the delayed warnings led to the high death toll.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
US man who decapitated father and displayed head on YouTube gets life in prison
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Justin Mohn, 33, admitted during his trial that he shot his father, Michael, 68, in the head and used a kitchen knife and a machete to decapitate him. BUCKS COUNTY, Pennsylvania - A Pennsylvania man who decapitated his father in 2024 and displayed his severed head in a YouTube video - saying his father had interfered with his plot to overthrow the government - was convicted on July 11 on murder and terrorism charges and sentenced to life without parole. The man, Justin Mohn, 33, admitted during his trial in the Court of Common Pleas in Bucks County that he shot his father, Michael, 68, in the head at their suburban Philadelphia home on Jan 30, 2024, and used a kitchen knife and a machete to decapitate him. Taking the stand in his own defence, Mohn appeared to show little remorse for the killing, which drew national attention and further scrutiny to violent content on YouTube. The video remained online for about five hours and received more than 5,000 views before YouTube removed it. In his testimony and public comments before his trial, Mohn said that he was making a citizen's arrest and that his father, who had spent many years working for the US Army Corps of Engineers, had betrayed him. Ms Jennifer Schorn, the Bucks County district attorney, said during a news conference on July 11, that it was unfathomable that Mohn could take his father's life in the home where he and his siblings were raised and loved by their parents. 'But then to know that he took time to sever his father's head so that he could then create a video and share that video with countless people for one purpose,' she said, 'to make sure that that video was a clear political statement that he hoped would incite violence and inflict terror to many, many individuals.' Ms Schorn added: 'We must never forget the depravity of his actions.' Prosecutors said that Mohn had intended to create a militia to help him assassinate federal officials and judges whom he viewed as hostile to his way of life as a straight, white, Christian man. Ms Steven M. Jones, a lawyer for Mohn, said in an e-mail on July 11 that his client had avoided the death penalty, one possible outcome that prosecutors ultimately did not pursue. 'The defence respects the court's verdict,' Mr Jones said. Mr Jones said that he could not comment about whether Mohn would appeal the verdict. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Mohn offered an apology to his family during the trial, but only when he was prompted by his lawyer. 'I don't feel guilty for what I did,' he said, 'but I am sorry my family went through what they did because of the federal government's actions and my reaction to it.' After a five-day bench trial, Judge Stephen A. Corr found Mohn guilty of first- and second-degree murder, two terrorism counts, making terroristic threats and abusing a corpse, among other charges. The judge, who sentenced Mohn to two concurrent sentences of life without parole, excoriated Mohn and questioned his mental state, even though he had been found fit to stand trial, the Inquirer reported. 'Just because our laws say you are competent to stand trial,' the judge said, 'doesn't mean you don't suffer from some kind of mental infirmity.' In the YouTube video, Mohn promoted conspiratorial and anti-government views and briefly showed what he claimed was his father's head wrapped in plastic. At the time, YouTube confirmed that it had taken down the video because it violated the company's graphic violence policy. It also terminated Mohn's channel for violating its violent extremism policies. YouTube said it was monitoring for any re-uploads of the video to prevent it from resurfacing. The company did not immediately respond on July 11 to a request for comment about Mohn's conviction. NYTIMES
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Straits Times
Armenian police detain seven opposition figures on suspicion of terrorism
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Police in Armenia arrested seven people associated with a pro-Russian opposition party on suspicion of terrorism following a slew of raids on their homes on Thursday amid a wider government crackdown ahead of parliamentary elections. The people are affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), also known as Dashnaktsutyun, a group part of the pro-Russian parliamentary coalition headed by Robert Kocharyan, a former president of the South Caucasus country. Armenia's Investigative Committee said police had arrested seven individuals and charged one of them with preparing a terrorist act. Reuters was not able to determine the identities of all seven of the people. ARF said in a statement that raids were ongoing at several MPs' homes as of early Thursday morning and that at least one politician and the son of another had been arrested. Thursday's arrests follow criminal indictments levied earlier this week against three politicians of the Armenia Alliance, the larger umbrella coalition of which the Armenian Revolutionary Federation is a part. Opposition groups have decried the investigations as politically motivated. The arrests come on the same day as a meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Abu Dhabi, where the two are working to finalise a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business S'pore to launch new grant for companies, expand support for workers amid US tariff uncertainties Singapore HDB flats less attainable in 2024 compared with 2022: Report Singapore PAP appoints new heads of backbench parliamentary committees Sport No pain, no gain for Singapore's water polo teams at the world championships World 'Do some homework': 6 key exchanges between US Senator Duckworth and S'pore envoy nominee Sinha World Trump's ambassador nominee to Singapore Anjani Sinha has a rough day at Senate hearing Multimedia 60 objects to mark SG60: Which is your favourite? Business Fresh grads should 'stay calm' in job search, uptick in hiring seen: Tan See Leng Pashinyan, who swept to power during street protests in 2018, has brought Armenia closer to the West and distanced the country from traditional ally Russia. But recent weeks have seen a widespread clampdown on Pashinyan's political rivals and critics, including opposition figures, a leading Christian cleric and a former president. Several prominent figures in Armenia, including the cleric, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, are accused of orchestrating a coup to usurp power, something they deny. REUTERS
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- AsiaOne
Texas officials deflect mounting questions about response to deadly flood, World News
KERRVILLE, Texas — Officials in flood-stricken central Texas on Wednesday (July 9) again deflected mounting questions about whether they could have done more to warn people ahead of devastating flash flooding that killed at least 119 people on July 4. At a morning news briefing in Kerr County, where the vast majority of victims died, Sheriff Larry Leitha defended the actions of emergency responders as the tragedy unfolded in the early morning hours on Friday. Pressed about how long it took for officials to respond to "Code Red" alerts about the flash flooding, Leitha declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding missing people and that a full analysis of what, if anything, went wrong would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "We're not running, we're not going to hide from everything. That's going to be checked into at a later time. I wish I could tell you that time." As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, suggesting the death toll could still rise significantly. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. The Kerr County seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than a foot of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly 30 feet (9 meters). The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, including three dozen children, Leitha told reporters. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. In Hunt, a community in western Kerr County, Jose Olvera's family set up a shrine near the spot where he and his wife were swept away by floodwaters outside their ranch house. The family found Olvera's body next to a nearby stream, his foot protruding from underneath a tree branch. His wife remains missing. "This could have been avoided, something like this," said Olvera's son, Macedonio, sitting outside the home and surrounded by debris. "There are ways to detect things, appropriate alerts to let the community know what is happening." Abbott on Tuesday sought to push aside questions about who was to blame for the mounting death toll. Invoking American football as an analogy, he told reporters that blame was the "word choice of losers" in the sport revered in Texas. "Every football team makes mistakes," he said. "The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, 'Don't worry about it, man. We got this. We're going to make sure that we go score again and we're going to win this game.'" The governor said the Texas legislature would convene a special session later this month to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. Communication challenges The state emergency management agency warned last Thursday on the eve of the disaster that parts of central Texas faced a threat of flash floods, based on National Weather Service forecasts. But twice as much rain as forecast ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice has said. The amount of rainfall in such a short period of time made it impossible to order evacuations without further endangering people, Rice said. He also noted that the county is sprawling and rural, with spotty cell phone service, creating communication challenges. County officials had considered installing an early-warning system about eight years ago but abandoned the proposal after failing to secure state grant money to fund it, according to the Houston Chronicle. Kerr County sits at the centre of a section of Texas Hill Country that is particularly susceptible to flash floods, due to the terrain. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 135 miles (217 km) southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. [[nid:719961]]
