BC Coroners Service confirms identity of two bodies recovered from massive Johnsons Landing landslide
By Nelson Daily Staff
The B.C. Coroners Service confirmed the identities of the man and woman dug out of a massive landslide that struck Johnsons Landing in southeast B.C. a week ago.
The man was 60-year-old Valentine Webber, while the woman was his 22-year-old daughter, Diana.
The two bodies were recovered last week, a few days after the 83 acre slide — 2,000 metres long, 100-200 metres wide is at least three to five metres deep — thundered down the mountain, burying three homes in Johnsons Landing.
The coroners service says the identities were confirmed through visual and dental examination.
Webber’s 17-year-old daughter Rachel and a 64-year-old German tourist named Petra Frehse are still missing.
The B.C. Coroners Service decided to put the search on hold Wednesday after two days on the slide failed to recover the two missing bodies.
“The area remains unstable,” Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said Wednesday, noting the public should stay out of the slide area for some time. “It is very dangerous.”
“We do have a number of safety precautions in place to those who have been searching on the hill and are very, very fortunate we have not had an incident on the hill,” she added.
The landslide roared down on the tiny community north of Kaslo on the morning of July 12 after heavy rain in the region.
Experts say a series of smaller incidents may have caused a chain reaction that led to the bursting of a creek and gully, which became the landslide.
It is unknown when the slide area will be deemed safe for Johnsons Landing residents to return or if the two bodies may be recovered.
“We will try to make the determination what are the most likely areas we may find more victims and we’ll make some assessment as to how we can recover them safely but, of course, there are no guarantees,” Lapointe said.
“We might excavate several more tons of earth and may not find them.”
Two properties removed from evacuation order
Geotechnical experts have given the green light to a pair of residents in Johnsons Landing said Regional District of Central Kootenay Public Information Officer Frances Maika Sunday in a emailed press release.
“The RDCK consulted with geotechnical experts to determine that the east half of two properties formerly covered by the evacuation order are now safe to return to, while the west half of those two properties are still at high risk from the slide and so will remain under the order,” Maika said.
A total of 14 properties are still under the evacuation order and the RDCK will continue to reassess the order area over the coming days as more geotechnical information becomes available.
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