While most of the buses managed to make it across, one bus from the Seagoville Road Baptist Church/Balch Springs Christian Academy in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs was swept away, along with Pastor Richard Koons, his wife Lavonda, chaperons Allen and Deborah Coalson, and thirty-nine children, ranging in age from 8 to 17. The vehicle had been among the last to leave the camp and proceed alongside the flooded crossing, but when the bus stalled due to rapidly rising waters, Koons and Coalson attempted to get the children to safety by instructing them to form a human chain so that they could reach shore hand in hand. As this was attempted, a sudden rush of water broke the chain and swept them all away. Rescuers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the US Army's 507th Medical Division managed to save all four adults and twenty-nine of the children via helicopters. The last survivor was rescued from the river around 11:30am, and by that afternoon two children had been confirmed dead, with eight still missing. The first confirmed fatality was 14-year-old Melanie Finley, who after being lifted from the river by helicopter lost her grip on the rope and fell to her death. The second fatality was thirteen-year-old Tonya Smith, who was found entangled in barbed wire two miles downstream from where the bus was washed away. Several parents of the children descended on Comfort, most staying at a makeshift shelter set up by town residents and the American Red Cross at the Comfort Elementary School. Six more bodies were recovered from the river on July 18, identified as Lagenia Keenum, 15; Michael Lane, 16; Michael O'Neal, 16; Cindy Sewell, 16; Christopher Sewell, 13; and Stacey Smith, 16 (Sister of Tonya Smith). The following day, the ninth and final body was recovered from the river, identified as 14-year-old Leslie Gossett. The body of 17-year-old John Bankston Jr., the oldest of the ten victims, was never found.