Distraught Dad Says He Found the Body of a ‘Little Boy’ While Calling Out His Missing Daughter’s Name amid Texas Floods

NEED TO KNOW

• Ty Badon, the father of missing 21-year-old Joyce Badon, said that he was searching an area of Hunt, Texas, when he found a young boy’s body amid the flooding of Guadalupe River

• The distraught dad said the boy was about “8 or 10 years old”

• The death toll in the region has reached at least 79 people

A father who is searching for his adult daughter amid the flooding of Texas’ Guadalupe River made a horrible discovery.

Ty Badon, the father of missing 21-year-old Joyce Badon, told CNN on July 5 that he was calling out his daughter’s name when they discovered the body of a child as they were searching an area of Hunt, Texas.

“My son and I were walking and I thought it was a mannequin. It was a little boy, 8 or 10 years old, and he was dead,” said Ty, the dad of one of four college-aged friends who were believed to have been swept away in the floodwaters on July 3.

“We were just walking, doing the same thing we were doing when we stumbled across him,” he added. “Hopefully we can find our children, my daughter and her friends alive.”

His daughter’s group of college friends, who were staying in a cabin along the river, included Ella Cahill, Aidan Heartfield and Reese Manchaca, according to the Beaumont Enterprise and 12 News Now.

“It's been four o'clock yesterday morning that we were told that they were on the phone with Aidan's dad, who they own the house where they were,” Ty told CNN, adding that the house “is no longer there.”

“Aidan said, ‘Hey I've got to go, I've got to help Ella and Reese … they just got washed away,' and then a few seconds later the phone just went dead, and that's all we know,” the 21-year-old's father said, recalling his last contact with the group.

“We pray that all four of them are still alive,” Ty continued, sharing that authorities presume all four young adults were washed away in the flood. “All four are missing. They're still missing.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Flooding in the Guadalupe River caused it to reach its second-highest height ever, ABC News reported. The area received at least 10 inches of rain, per San Antonio outlet KSAT, and several counties are reporting a death toll, including Kerr, Travis, Burnet and Kendall, per KXAN.

Kerr County, which is approximately 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, has been hit especially hard by the floods. The city of Kerrville declared a state of emergency due to the floods, while Hunt (also in Kerr County) experienced more than six inches of rain in three hours on Friday, which is a “1-in-100-year event” in the region, according to CNN.

CNN reported that the flooded region experienced “more than an entire summer's worth of rain” in a matter of hours.

The death toll in the region had reached at least 79 people as of Sunday, July 6, according to the Associated Press, as first responders continue search and rescue operations.

By Sunday morning, 11 campers and a counselor from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' camp nestled in Texas Hill Country, were still unaccounted for, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

To learn how to help support the victims and recovery efforts from the Texas floods, click here.

Read the original article on People