![]() ![]() Spezze said officials have asked the Forest Service to close it permanently. Forest Service maintains the busy Agnes Vaille falls trail near St. Buena Vista’s Cornerstone Church also set up a fund for the family. A memorial service for the Johnsons was set for Saturday at the high school gym, to be followed by a community meal separate services were being organized for the nephews in Missouri. ![]() The rock slide was too unstable for crews to retrieve the bodies Monday, so they waited till Tuesday, authorities said.Ī candlelight vigil was being held Tuesday night at Buena Vista High School’s football field. “I started digging her out until I had more help come and we got her all the way out,” he said. He saw Gracie Johnson’s hand sticking up through the rocks. Tolsma said he was one of the first at the scene and heard screaming from beneath the rubble. A hiker who heard the slide in Chalk Creek Canyon ran down the trail and called for help, Spezze said. Witnesses said some of the boulders were the size of cars. “In Colorado, there’s a lot of steep slopes, and I don’t think anybody’s got the money to pay for the studies for all the steep slopes,” he said. With enough data, geologists can identify slopes that are susceptible to slides, Higgins said, but finding all of them would be a massive undertaking. Rain or melting snow can make slides more likely by weakening a steep slope and making the rocks and soil heavier, said Jerry Higgins, an associate professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. What triggered it wasn’t immediately known, though Spezze said the area had heavy summer rain and a recent snowfall. The massive slide left a gash the size of a football field in the mountainside, Undersheriff John Spezze said. ![]() Monday’s slide sent 100-ton boulders onto a popular viewing area that overlooks Agnes Vaille falls below 14,197-foot Mount Princeton in south-central Colorado. “He probably did that without one bit of hesitation.” “Probably his only regret is that he didn’t jump in front of his whole family. Palmer said the coroner will make the final, formal identification.ĭwayne and Dawna Johnson were football and track coaches, respectively, in Buena Vista schools, were well known in the town and very active in community events.įamily friend Mike Carr of Buena Vista said Dwayne Johnson was quick to help others. They were nephews of Dwayne and Dawna Johnson.Īll five bodies were recovered Tuesday afternoon and identified by a family member, Sheriff Pete Palmer said. The other victims were identified as Baigen (BAY’-gun) Walker, 10, and Paris Walkup, 22, both of Birch Tree, Mo. The sheriff’s department identified the dead as Dwayne Johnson, 46, and Dawna Johnson, 45, Gracie’s parents and her 18-year-old sister, Kiowa-Rain Johnson. Gracie’s parents and sister from nearby Buena Vista were killed, as were two of her cousins from Missouri. ![]()
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