Search for missing people continues at Sunset Falls

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office was finally able to put divers in the water at Sunset Falls where two people have gone missing since June 17.

A 49-year-old man first fell into the Skykomish River while walking the area with his 32-year-old girlfriend. Less than two weeks later a 25-year-old woman is believed to have drowned at the same spot. Rescue efforts have been hindered by unsafe conditions; the water has been too cold and moving too fast.

Sheriff's Lt. Steve McDonald said the circumstances are still hazardous, as the “falls are still raging.” However, water levels have dropped enough that the agency was able to put a boat and two divers in the river Monday, July 3, to search around the base of the falls. They are specifically on the lookout for the body of the 25-year-old Texas woman, he said.

She was visiting with her mother, who was sitting on a rock with the woman when she went missing. Her mother looked away, and when she turned back the woman had disappeared. The woman's mother had searched the area on foot.

The sheriff's office has been conducting flyovers and regular checks of Sunset Falls since both people went missing. Sunset Falls is one in a series of waterfalls on the Skykomish River, and is about 150-feet tall, and the depth of the pool at its base is about 28 feet.

The body of a man was recovered about 200 yards upstream from the U.S. Highway 2 bridge on the 49100 block near Index on Saturday, July 1, McDonald said. A witness discovered and called in the body, he said.

Deputies were dispatched just before noon, and the sheriff's office Search and Rescue units spotted the man's body in the water from a SnoHawk1 helicopter. McDonald said the agency is waiting on a positive identification of the man from the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office, which will also determine the cause and manner of death.

Monday morning more than half a dozen responders were out at Sunset Falls, McDonald said. The crew included two divers, two boat operators and three members who remained shore as spotters, or worked an underwater camera. He said the device was used to get visuals close to the base of the falls.

Underwater sonar and camera equipment was used to survey the pool when the 49-year-old man first went missing. Since then, sheriff's office staff were waiting for evidence to turn up from either person that could help target a smaller portion of the basin to search.

McDonald said he was not yet sure if the agency would put anyone back in the water on Tuesday.

Sheriff’s office staff has advised people to stay away from Sunset Falls because the river unsafe, and the area is mostly surrounded by private property.