HOUSTON, Texas – In a chilling Facebook post, a husband recounted the moments he lost his wife during the catastrophic flash flood in the Texas Hill Country on the Fourth of July.
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Randy Schaffer, a criminal defense attorney in Houston, said his wife, Mollie, was unfortunately one of the dozens killed in the flash flood along the Guadalupe River in Hunt and surrounding areas on Friday morning.
Randy said he and his wife, Molly, were celebrating their 46th annual law school reunion at the River Inn on the bank of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. Around 3 a.m. on Friday, Randy said he and his wife were awakened by the hotel’s manager banging on their door.
Mollie and I were at our 46th annual reunion with our best friends from law school at the River Inn, on the banks of the...
Posted by Randy Schaffer on Monday, July 7, 2025
“The manager banged on our door at 3:00 a.m. on Friday and said that we had to evacuate immediately because the river was about to overflow the banks. I looked out the window and saw the river raging like Niagara Falls,” Randy wrote, in part, in the Facebook post.
He said his wife was then instructed by the manager to get in their vehicles, turn left out of the parking lot and drive to the top of a nearby hill.
“He should have unlocked a two-story building at the base of the parking lot and told the guests to go to the second floor. Ultimately, every other guest was spared when, minutes later, he unlocked that building, and they went to the second floor. However, we had already left the property in Mollie’s SUV,” Randy wrote.
He said he and his wife did as they were instructed, but quickly realized when they saw other cars turning around that they had made a mistake. He said he looked out of his window and saw water rising to their car doors.
“The car started floating, hit a tree, and spun onto the road. We knew that we had to get out of the car. However, the doors wouldn’t open. The river was coming hard through the walkway of the River Inn towards the road. Mollie lowered the front windows and said to dive out feet first. I tried, but my seat was low, the window was high, and I fell back onto the seat. The last words she ever spoke were, “You have to push harder.” I pushed as hard as I could and went out the window," Randy wrote.
He added that he was carried underwater by a current and then propelled into a pole that was 25 yards from the river. Randy said he wrapped his arms around the pole, climbed it, and started searching and calling for his wife, Mollie.
After an hour, Randy said the water eventually started to recede, and he was able to touch the ground. He recalled everything being pitch black, but decided to go search for his wife and her vehicle.
He said his wife was recovered on Sunday. He identified her by a photo of her ring on Monday.
“Mollie died in a manner consistent with how she lived—selflessly taking care of someone else before she took care of herself. She wouldn’t leave the car until she was sure that I had done so. She saved my life. It wasn’t my day to die. I wish that it hadn’t been her’s," Randy wrote.
Randy said Mollie is currently at a medical examiner’s office in Austin, but he’s trying to get her back home to Houston. He hopes to bury his wife on Sunday.
“I met Mollie in June of 1967, weeks after we graduated from high school. We’ve been together ever since, separated only at the end by the raging waters of the Guadalupe River,” Randy said.