By Pepper Fisher
Port Angeles, Wash. – The woman who was swept out to sea at Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park Monday morning has been identified as 26-year-old Seattle resident Swetha Chirumamilla. Park officials announced Wednesday evening that her body wasn’t recovered until Wednesday afternoon at 4:45, despite being located 48 hours earlier.
They said the woman was hiking along Rialto Beach with two friends when a wave overpowered the group and Chirumamilla disappeared. We were told Tuesday morning by Coast Guard officials that by 5:00pm Monday, an Olympic National Park search and rescue team had located the body on land, and the Coast Guard ended their search. That’s when we and other news sources reported, inaccurately, that the body had been recovered.
It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that park officials announced that the body had not been recovered until 48 hours later. They said in a news release that extremely dangerous weather conditions prevented the completion of the recovery operation until that time.
We got some clarity from the Park’s Molly Pittman Thursday about why the recovery was so difficult. She said the woman’s body was located after hours of searching on Monday, but rangers were unable to safely carry her out that same day. The extraction operation required multiple people carrying a litter through tidal zones, which she said were exceptionally dangerous areas on Monday, Tuesday, and early Wednesday.
Pittman said search and rescue rangers worked around the clock to ensure the woman’s body stayed safe until they could carry her out at low tide Wednesday afternoon.