EVERETT, Wash.- The Snohomish County sheriff's office says search and rescue personnel believe they have located Molly Kristine Kris Regelbrugge, the last person who remained missing after the March 22 landslide that killed 43 people at Oso.
We're very, very confident we've located her, Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said at a press conference Monday.
Trenary said crews found pieces of Regelbrugge's home, which led them to the garage.
And that's where we found Kris, he said.
Trenary said the garage was buried under more than 18 feet of debris.
Although the search for victims ended in April, workers have been screening debris and watching for Regelbrugge.
Sara Regelbrugge, Kris's daughter, tells KING 5 the family was notified at 8 a.m. that a body had been found at the site of the slide. She says they are waiting for official DNA confirmation before getting their hopes up or commenting publicly.
Kris' husband, Navy Cmdr. John Regelbrugge III, also was killed in the slide that hit their home. His body was one of the 42 recovered earlier.
Fire Chief Travis Hots, of Snohomish Co. Fire District 21/22, served as a spokesperson for the search efforts in the days after the slide. Tuesday, he said he never had a doubt she would be found.
I tell every group who asked me, I am a hundred percent sure in my heart that everyone will be found, said Hots. We've come way to far not to find the last person, and it has nothing to do with luck.
Hots says it has to do with the perseverance and dedication of the search teams.
Hopefully this puts closure to a lot of this, said fire commissioner Lon Langdon.
It's going to be a big relief to the community, said Sandra Baker, former Oso fire chief. I think the community was very very invested in this whole incident. I know for me personally i feft a great sense of relief.
Researchers said precipitation in the area in March that might have exceeded 30 inches was one of multiple factors that contributed to making the slope unstable. Others included groundwater seeping into the slide mass as well as changes in slope stress and soil that was weakened by previous landslides.
The landslide, the deadliest in U.S. history, occurred in two major stages minutes apart, according to the team of seven independent researchers with the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association.
