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Body found at Washington State mudslide site ID'd as last missing victim

The remains of the last victim of the Oso, Wash., mudslide were found two months after the previous victim and four months after the disaster.

By Frances Burns
A military search and rescue helicopter hovers over the debris field on on March 27, 2014 in Oso, Washington. UPI/Ted Warren/Pool
A military search and rescue helicopter hovers over the debris field on on March 27, 2014 in Oso, Washington. UPI/Ted Warren/Pool | License Photo

EVERETT, Wash., July 23 (UPI) -- Remains found in the debris left by the mudslide in Oso, Wash., have been officially identified as those of the last missing victim, officials said Wednesday.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner said that Molly Kristine "Kris" Regelbrugge, like the other 42 people kiilled by the March slide, died of "multiple blunt force injuries." The death was classified as accidental.

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The body was found this week -- two months after the 42nd victim, Steven Hadaway, and four months after a hillside over the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River collapsed. The slide buried a square mile of the hamlet of Oso, covered part of a state highway and blocked the river.

Regelbrugge, 44, lived in Oso with her husband, a U.S. Navy commander stationed in Everett, Wash. The body of John Regelbrugge III, 49, was found a few days after the slide by family members who had volunteered to help with the search.

"His brother Greg lives up there and called him at 9:40 in the morning, and he said John just got up and they would get going in a little bit," his father, John Regelbrugge II, told CNN in late March. "Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the mud hit. They never got going."

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