LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said a man’s body was recovered from the Poudre River Sunday afternoon.
Search crews increased their presence along Poudre Canyon Sunday in hopes of finding the two remaining missing people after a mudslide sent debris plummeting into parts of the canyon last week.
More than a dozen searchers, three cadaver dogs and a hazard crisis response team probed through the shifted river waters and heaping piles of debris along a mile and a half stretch of Black Hollow Road.
“This area was searched Tuesday night by some other resources, what we call a hasty search, but we’re going back through that area now that the water is down several feet to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Sgt. Kevin Johnston with Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Services Unit said.
Crews found a woman’s body on Wednesday and a man’s body on Sunday. Officials tell FOX31 they believe two of her adult relatives are also missing.
“We know the outcome, it is a recovery mission, but we still put the effort in for the family to give them closure it’s difficult when you don’t have that,” Johnston said.
Neighbors who spent many years and summers a few doors down to the family crews are searching for tell FOX31 they are shocked and heartbroken.
“Our grandparents knew them well they, knew everybody in this cabin community,” Brita LaTona said, “It’s so devastating and surreal on so many levels.”
Brita and Alison LaTona saw what is left of their family cabin Sunday for the first time. Their grandparents brought the property in 1972.
“It’s kind of surreal, the whole layout of the living room is intact, nothings moved,” Alison LaTona said. “People are saying the table is there with the games underneath still, it’s unbelievable.”
The LaTona’s are especially shocked seeing the way the land shifted around their home. They say the river has widened and shifted, now holding an entire dilapidated home in front of their property.
“It looks completely different, unrecognizable from the home we came up to so many years in the canyon.” Brita said.
LCSO reported six residential structures and one detached garage were destroyed, and one residential structure was damaged on Black Hollow Road.