6 more bodies discovered in Washington mudslide; death toll at 14

By Matt Pearce and Maria L. La Ganga

March 24, 2014 5:11 PM PT

ARLINGTON, Wash. — Six more bodies were found Monday in the massive Washington mudslide, bringing the death toll to 14, officials said.

The announcement confirming the deaths came from the Snohomish County Twitter account. A news conference was scheduled for early Monday evening.

Despite the efforts of rescuers, no survivors have been found since the Saturday mudslide just east of Oso. The square-mile debris field smashed through a rural cluster of homes about an hour’s drive north of Seattle. Officials said early Monday that they had preliminary reports of 108 missing people, though they cautioned that the number was “soft” and would probably change.

At least seven people remained hospitalized Monday, including a 22-week-old boy in critical condition. The infant, Duke Suddarth, whose condition officials said was improving, was hospitalized along with his mother, Amanda Skorjanc, 25, who was in satisfactory condition.

Fearing more moving earth at the site of Saturday’s disaster, search-and-rescue workers were pulled back Monday afternoon from searching for the dead and missing, officials said.

“There are concerns about additional slides in the same area affected Saturday,” Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Shari Ireton told reporters. “Ground crews have pulled back, and geologists are on the ground.”

There were still more than 100 responders in the field Monday afternoon, Ireton said, using search dogs, hovercraft, air support and sonar devices to look for survivors and victims in the square mile of deep debris.

Pearce reported from Los Angeles and La Ganga from Arlington.

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Matt Pearce

Matt Pearce was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2012 to 2024. He previously covered the covering internet culture and podcasting, the 2020 presidential election and spent six years on The Times’ national desk, where he wrote stories about violence, disasters, social movements and civil liberties. Pearce was one of the first national reporters to arrive in Ferguson, Mo., during the uprising in 2014, and he chased Hurricane Harvey across Texas as the storm ravaged the Lone Star State in 2017. A University of Missouri graduate, he hails from a small town outside Kansas City, Mo.

Maria L. La Ganga

Maria L. La Ganga is the deputy managing editor for California and Metro, overseeing the Los Angeles Times’ largest editorial department. She joined The Times in 1981 as an academic intern, splitting her time between the former Metro section and National Dragster, the official publication of the National Hot Rod Assn. She has served as Seattle bureau chief, San Francisco bureau chief, edited in the Business section and pitched in on six presidential elections, five for The Times and one for the Guardian. La Ganga left The Times in 2015 and returned in 2018 after a brief hiatus during which she wrote for the Guardian and the Idaho Statesman. She was named city editor in 2022 and promoted to her current role in 2024. La Ganga graduated from Granada Hills High School in the San Fernando Valley and Cal State Northridge, where she studied English literature and journalism.

6 more bodies discovered in Washington mudslide; death toll at 14

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