Mystery emerges in effort to identify mudslide victims

Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash.

As medical examiners painstakingly piece together the identities and lives of the people killed when a mudslide wiped out a small Washington community, a mystery troubles them.

One of the 30 bodies found does not fit with descriptions on the missing-persons list, which, as of Thursday, included 15 people, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

The only clue to the man’s identity is his gold molars, said Heather Oie, operations manager at the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. He might have been someone who was on the highway or going for a hike.

The mystery underscores the tedious process of identifying remains more than a week after the March 22 landslide that broke off a steep hill, roared across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and buried a community at Oso, about 55 miles north of Seattle.

In some cases, searchers have found only partial remains. The goal of the team — made up of medical examiners, detectives, dentists and others — is to make sure there’s no doubt as to the victims’ identities, said Snohomish County Medical Examiner Norman Thiersch.