A family is still holding out hope that an 8-year-old girl will be found alive, two weeks after she went missing in a flood in Texas. Her family was driving on Christmas Eve when their car went off the road and into a drainage ditch. While most of her family was rescued after their car was caught in a floodwaters, the girl was carried away.
Thanks to their father, most of the family survived. Unfortunately, he lost his life attempting to save his daughter from being washed away. Police have not stopped searching for the girl, using all of their resources to try and find her.
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The family was driving from Oklahoma to Texas when their car went off the road.
Will and Kristen Robinson and their four kids were traveling from Durant, Oklahoma, to McKinney, Texas, on Christmas Eve, ABC13 reported. According to a report from WOWT, the family was driving in heavy rain that caused their car to hydroplane, landing their car in a drainage ditch in Sherman, Texas.
“Will kicked out the driver’s side window because they were trapped underwater,” family friend Lindsey Perkins told the outlet. “The car flipped back and forth.”
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First responders rescued most of the family members.
According to a GoFundMe account set up by friends of the family, Will Robinson was able to get the family out of the car. However, the quick moving floodwaters made everything more difficult. Thanks to the help of Sherman Emergency Services, Kristen Robinson was able to hold onto their youngest child and they were both rescued. Their eldest child and second youngest child were also rescued by first responders. However, 8-year-old Clara Robinson got washed away by the water.
Sherman Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief of Operations Bart Bowman, told KXII that Will Robinson was trying to save the girl, and died in his attempt. His body was recovered the same evening.
“The father did have the little girl in his arms at one time during the event and later they were seen, they weren’t together,” Bowman said.
Police have been searching for the girl since Christmas.
Search crews have been deployed since Christmas Day, trying to find the girl. They have been using an exhaustive list of searching methods, including drones and two different kinds of K9s. Task Force 2 Leader Garth Groves told KXII that the K9s are used to find either a live person or human remains.
“The live-find dogs have not had any indications that they have detected anything,” Groves said. “We’ve had a few indicators from the remains dogs.”
Unfortunately, the weather conditions immediately following Clara Robinson’s disappearance made search efforts more difficult. Searchers vowed to search any and all piles of debris for the girl.
Police are still looking for the girl, 14 days after she went missing.
“The search for Clara Robinson enters day 13,” the Sherman Police Department wrote in a Facebook post on January 5, 2025. “The morning of January 5th search teams re-deployed just after sunrise. Despite the coming winter weather our briefing room was full of searchers all committed to one cause, finding Clara.”
According to the post, the South-East Division of Oklahoma Disaster Task Force is part of the search team. Additionally, they are being joined by the fire department, the Celina Police Department, Tom Bean Fire Department, and Emergency Medical Services from Sherman Medical Center.
On January 4, police shared a map of their search efforts. “This does not depict everything we have done, merely what was covered in a single 24-hour period,” the department wrote.
A memorial was held for both Will and Clara Robinson in their hometown.
On January 4, a joint memorial was held for both Will and Clara, NBCDFW reported. The memorial was held in the Durant High School gymnasium. Will Robinson was a coach for the Durant Independent School District.
The oldest Robinson child, son Carson, spoke at the memorial, thanking first responders and hospital staff for the way they’ve supported the family. “Our two families will find a way to honor my dad and Clara and way to give back, though that has yet to be decided, it will come,” the boy said.
