No charges to be filed for avalanche

MISSOULA — The Missoula county attorney says he won’t file charges against four young men who were snowboarding or sledding on Mount Jumbo when an avalanche struck a Missoula neighborhood, killing one person and injuring two.

County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said Monday there was no evidence of criminal intent or negligence in the Feb. 28 slide. 

Sixty-eight-year-old Michel Colville died from injuries she suffered in the avalanche. Her husband, 66-year-old Fred Allendorf, and an 8-year-old neighbor, Phoenix Coles-Scoburn, were buried but survived.

Police recommended against charges. Van Valkenburg says Allendorf and Phoenix’s mother told him they wouldn’t object if no charges were filed.

Van Valkenburg says the young men might have trespassed on an area closed to protect elk, but he says city prosecutors should decide whether to pursue that.