A grieving mother has described the terrifying final moments she spent clinging to her children before deadly flash floods swept them away in Ruidoso, New Mexico.
“We tried so hard to save our babies,” Stephanie Trotter wrote in an emotional statement, recounting how she held onto her son and daughter — Sebastian, 7, and Charlotte, 4 — as their RV filled with water in just seconds.
The Context
This flash flood tragedy is part of a broader pattern of devastating weather battering the American Southwest this summer. The flooding in New Mexico comes just weeks after deadly floods in Texas, where authorities recently reported more than 160 people missing in the aftermath of catastrophic storms. The tragedy in Ruidoso highlights growing concerns about increasingly intense weather systems striking communities with little time to prepare for sudden surges of water.
What To Know
Charlotte and Sebastian Trotter were found dead on July 8 after flash flooding swept through the village of Ruidoso and into Riverview RV Park. The children and their parents, Sebastian and Stephanie Trotter, had arrived just two days earlier for a family camping trip from El Paso, Texas.
“Our lives changed forever in the absolute worst possible way this past Tuesday while enjoying an innocent family vacation,” Stephanie wrote on Facebook. “I want to start off by heartbreakingly announcing that it is true… that our babies Sebastian Rowan (7) and Charlotte Emery (4) are gone with the Lord. Our dogs, Zeus (9) and Ellie (5), also did not make it. Somehow by an absolute miracle… our German shepherd Lily (8) survived along with my husband and I.”
The Trotters had parked their RV near a small stream when the water rose with frightening speed.
“In a matter of a minute or so of the water breaking… our RV was filling before we could step out the door,” she said. “We literally just got back to our site 10–15 minutes prior and never received warnings on our phones.”
“They received no warning or alerts on their phone when suddenly water began to flood the campsite at a rapid pace,” the children’s uncle, Wyatt, wrote on GoFundMe.
As the water rushed through the campsite, the family’s escape efforts failed.
“Our RV began to fill with what felt like 100 mph water and eventually the wall broke open in our RV and we were sucked into the water,” Stephanie said. “I was holding our babies FIGHTING in the water.”
The parents were separated from their children by trees and debris in the torrent.
“My husband was able to guide our son up a tree from a distance for as long as he could hold on, but Charlotte and I continued down the river until trees and debris separated us,” she wrote. “It was just simply impossible.”
Wyatt described how her husband dove into the water to reach Charlotte, while Stephanie and her son tried to climb to safety.
“It was impossible for them to fight against the speed and depth of the water at this point,” he said.
Stephanie said she felt herself drowning but somehow found the strength to fight back to the surface to try to reach her children. Both parents survived, with injuries that they say reveal “the story of a parent’s will to fight and risk their own lives to give their babies a chance.”
Now back in El Paso, the couple are recovering while mourning an unimaginable loss. Sebastian senior, who serves in the Army at Fort Bliss, requires surgery.
“Please pray for my husband as he goes in for surgery and pray that he can overcome the pain of some of the things he had to witness as a father,” Stephanie wrote.
The family says they are deeply grateful to the strangers and rescue crews who risked their lives to pull them from the water.
“Thank you so much to everyone that helped get my husband and I out of the water as swiftly as possible and risking your lives for us,” Stephanie said.
On GoFundMe, Wyatt remembered the siblings as the “brightest, most joyful souls you could ever meet.”
“Little Sebastian loved nothing more than chasing a soccer ball across a field, dreaming of playing professionally one day. Charlotte was our little performer. Always singing, always twirling, and lighting up every room she entered. They were kind, curious, and loved harder than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Fort Bliss, where Sebastian Trotter is stationed, has pledged to support the family during their recovery. Loved ones have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help them rebuild, which has raised more than $198,000 as of July 12.
Above all, the family asks for privacy and prayers as they mourn.
“Our babies were absolutely everything to us. Everything we did and have been working so hard for — was always for them,” Stephanie wrote. “Please just pray.”
A third victim, identified by officials as a man between 40 and 50 years old, was swept away at the same RV park as the Trotter family.
Meanwhile, videos circulating on social media show a house being swept up in the surge in Ruidoso as rushing waters tore through previously burn-scarred terrain from wildfires.
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