Search ends for presumed mudslide victims

LOGAN, Utah, July 12 (UPI) -- A 12-hour rescue operation in Logan, Utah, for a mother and her two children presumed buried by a mudslide has been called off, police say.

Logan police Chief Russ Roper said the search for Jackeline Alanis, her 13-year-old son Victor and 12-year-old daughter Abbe ended Saturday because of an unstable hillside behind the search site, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday.

The family's neighbors reportedly witnessed Alanis and her children enter their home minutes before Saturday's mudslide consumed the home.

"They were aware there was a problem and they were removing belongings from the house," Roper said.

Logan Fire Chief Mark Meaker said given how buried the home was by the landslide and the elapsed time, rescuers had lost hope for the family members.

"There's not any reasonable chance of anyone surviving in what's left there," Meaker told the Deseret News. "We don't believe there's savable lives."

"Everything that could be done, was done."