Closure for volunteer searcher who found sister in Oso mudslide
Mar 27, 2014, 7:04 AM | Updated: 5:14 pm
Finally, there is closure.
Dayn Brunner told KIRO Radio on Monday that he’s been searching along Highway 530 since Saturday for his sister, Summer Raffo, who was believed to be driving along the road when the massive slide one mile long and 1,000 feet wide, hit the area.
On Wednesday, searchers found her body in the mud, in her car, as they expected.
Brunner says it doesn’t appeared she suffered. “That was one of the concerns: Did she suffer? Was she still alive? It appears she did not suffer at all.”
Brunner says finding his sister’s body provides some comfort and closure.
“Just seeing the car put the exclamation point on the amount of devastation and the amount of force and the amount of physics that were involved with that mountain coming down,” he says.
Brunner is a police officer who is used to dealing with emergencies and tragedies. But he says there is nothing that could have prepared him for this.
“I’ve had my moments ever since Day 1,” he says. “I haven’t cried this much since I was about 2-and-half years old.”
Brunner’s story has a comforting ending because his sister was found. There are still reports of 90 missing and workers are now admitting that some may never be found.
KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan and MyNorthwest.com’s Alyssa Kleven contributed to this report.
