ARLINGTON, WA, U.S.A.
CONSTRUCTION WORKER
03/22/2014, NEAR OSO, WA, U.S.A.
Mark J. Gustafson died March 22, 2014. He was killed by debris from a landslide near Oso, WA. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office identified 42 recovered bodies. The active search in the debris was suspended on April 28, 2014. Mark J. Gustafson, of Arlington died of accidental blunt-force injuries, according to the medical examiner’s office. Mark J. Gustafson was 54 years old.
Mark Gustafson was a construction worker who lived alone. He had a daughter and three sons, said his sister, Patty Gustafson. He was a custodian in Belt, Montana, before moving to an area near Oso several years ago, family and friends told the Great Falls Tribune. A sister and nieces and nephews still live in Belt. Patty Wakeford, a family friend, told the Tribune that Gustafson went to school there and “everybody in Belt pretty much knows him.”
“It’s not official yet, but we knew it was him because of the tattoo on his shoulder,” said Doug Smith, a brother-in-law from Galena, Alaska, who said nearly a dozen relatives had been helping in the search for two weeks.
One son, who has been stationed in Italy in the military, was able to get a Red Cross flight to the states and was on the scene even before the Smiths could get down from Alaska.
Smith, husband of Gustafson’s sister, Patty Gustafson, said the missing man’s three sons, a son-in-law and other relatives had assisted in the search from the first day relatives were allowed to help out, several days after the slide.
Patty Gustafson said her brother was a construction worker who lived alone. She said family members have been staying with her brothers’ friends in Arlington. “They’ve been a godsend,” she said