Last landslide victim found deadly landslide

 SEATTLE (AP) — Searchers on Tuesday pulled what they believe was the last missing body from debris left by a landslide in Washington state that researchers said was likely triggered by heavy rainfall.

The intensive search for the 43 people killed in the March 22 disaster in Oso ended in April, but workers have been screening debris and watching for the body of 44-year-old Kris Regelbrugge.

Her husband, Navy Cmdr. John Regelbrugge III, also was killed when the slide crossed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and decimated their home in the community about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. 

“I’m humbled and honored that we are able [to] return Kris to her family,” Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said in a statement.

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. 

A fast-moving mudflow remobilized a previous 2006 slide, bringing down old slide deposits across the valley that moved hundreds of meters beyond the river. That first stage caused all or most of the destruction.

The upper section of the slope collapsed a few minutes later, with the main mass of that slide dropping about 350 feet and traveling as far as 2,000 feet in less than two minutes.

The scientists said there have been 15 large mapped landslides in the river valley over about 6,000 years.