‘A gut punch’: Family of woman killed, man missing in B.C. landslide searches for answers
Global News
Nihad Hadzic' sister-in-law was killed and his brother remains missing after a landslide swept multiple vehicles off Highway 99 on
As search-and-rescue crews continue to scour the site of a deadly landslide on a mountainous British Columbia highway, the brother of one of four people still missing is grappling with anxiety and grief.
“I honestly feel numb right now. We don’t know what’s going on with him. We just want to have some closure,” a tearful Nihad Hadzic told Global News Thursday.
“We’re between shock and crying and not knowing and helplessness.”
RCMP have confirmed Nihad’s sister-in-law was killed in the slide on Monday, while his 35-year-old brother Mirsad may have been swept away when a wave of rocks and debris cascaded onto a section of Highway 99 between Lillooet and Pemberton known as Duffey Lake Road.
Officials believe two slides occurred at the site. The first stopped traffic, followed by a second slide that swept between five and seven vehicles off the road.
“We know his wife is deceased. That information we got. She was found in his truck and he was not,” Nihad said.
“I talked to one of the witnesses and she told me some of the people were outside the vehicles when it happened. So we are just assuming he was one of those people.”
The couple had taken a few days for a getaway in the Okanagan, leaving their two-year-old daughter with family in the Lower Mainland.