Investigators searching for two people missing in last week’s devastating Marshall fire found partial human remains in unincorporated Boulder County on Wednesday.
The discovery of the adult remains came as searchers worked in the 5900 block of Marshall Road, according to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
The Boulder County Coroner’s Office will identify the remains and determine the cause and manner of the person’s death. The sheriff’s and coroner’s offices continued to work at the scene Wednesday evening.
Authorities have not publicly identified the two people still missing since the wind-blasted wildfire burned across 6,219 acres of unincorporated Boulder County, Superior and Louisville on Thursday, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and businesses.
Officials only have said they were looking for a woman living in Superior and a man in unincorporated Boulder County, and that both of their homes were destroyed by the fire.
On Wednesday, in announcing the discovery of the remains, sheriff’s officials said their missing-person investigation in the 1500 block of South 76th Street in Superior remained ongoing. Further details were not released.
The woman missing in Superior has been identified publicly by friends and relatives as Nadine Turnbull, 91. Hutch Armstrong told 9News that family members were unable to help her out of her Original Town home during the fire.
“They tried to go out the front door with the neighbor,” he said. “It was engulfed. Checked the back door, it was engulfed.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been created to benefit Layla Cornell, Turnbull’s granddaughter. The two women lived together in the home that was destroyed by fire.
“It’s just a little bit overwhelming right now,” Amy Smith, a family friend who organized the fundraising effort, told The Denver Post. “It’s been really, really hard, we’re just doing what we can to help them.”
Authorities have told family members that the Superior property was searched with dogs, but they hadn’t confirmed any human remains as of Wednesday, Smith said. Two horses have been confirmed dead, while two goats and two dogs are still considered missing.
The sheriff’s office said it had no update Wednesday on the continuing investigation into the cause and origin of the Marshall fire.
Investigators have said they’ve narrowed the point of origin to a neighborhood off Colorado 93 and Marshall Road, near where a passer-by captured video of a burning shed on property occupied by members of the Twelve Tribes, a Christian religious sect that operates the Yellow Deli in Boulder.
Sheriff’s officials have confirmed the Twelve Tribes’ property, which has since been fenced off by law enforcement, is a focus of the investigation.
Wintry weather has hampered the investigations, the sheriff’s office said, and more snow began falling in the area Wednesday afternoon as temperatures dropped into the teens.
