{"id":185406,"date":"2026-02-20T01:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/185406\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:18:39","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/185406\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about the victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some victims of Tuesday\u2019s avalanche near Lake Tahoe, the deadliest in California history<\/a>, have been identified.<\/p>\n

The bodies of eight skiers have been found near Castle Peak, and one skier is missing and presumed dead.<\/p>\n

Though not all of the victims have been named, a picture is emerging of a group of friends who often traveled together to ski. At least one resided in San Francisco. Caroline Sekar lived in Bernal Heights with her husband and two children, a neighbor told The Standard. Her husband, Kiren Sekar, described his wife as \u201cauthentic and unabashedly unfiltered\u201d in a statement (opens in new tab)<\/a> to The New York Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaroline spent her final days doing what she loved best, with the people who loved her most, in her favorite place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The three-day backcountry ski party<\/a> comprised 11 guests and four guides from Blackbird Mountain Guides, an outfit based in Truckee. Three guides and six guests died, including Caroline Sekar\u2019s sister Liz Clabaugh, who lived in Idaho, the Times said.<\/p>\n

The toll is being felt especially hard in Marin County, where several of the skiers had homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Greenbrae, neighbors mourned Kate Vitt, who had moved to the enclave about four years ago with her husband and two sons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were just an ideal family,\u201d her next-door neighbor Sheryl Longman said, weeping. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitt\u2019s family was adventurous, often going on camping trips, Longman said. She shared a Christmas card from the family that showed them cradling their new Portuguese water dog, Smokey, on a rocky shore at the edge of a tree-lined lake in the mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttractive, hard-working people, good to their kids,\u201d she said. \u201cJust everything you\u2019d want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another neighbor, Carleen Cullen, said she and Vitt, a former SiriusXM executive, had bonded while discussing local public schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just was super friendly, upbeat \u2014 kind of, you know, a mom that was in there with the kids,\u201d Cullen said. \u201cShe definitely seemed like just a very friendly, energetic sort of person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In nearby Mill Valley, the mayor said several of the skiers on the trip \u2014\u00a0including at least one who died \u2014 were moms who reside in the Marin County town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur heart in Mill Valley goes out to the families that have been impacted,\u201d Mayor Max Perrey told the Marin Independent Journal (opens in new tab)<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge tragedy and a huge loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tragedy happened during what\u2019s often called ski week, the winter break when families bolt from the Bay Area to pack the resorts around Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n

Some of the victims have ties to the Sugar Bowl Academy, a private school for competitive youth skiers. Several of the victims\u2019 children are reportedly on the academy\u2019s teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are an incredibly close and connected community. This tragedy has affected each and every one of us,\u201d said Stephen McMahon, the school\u2019s executive director. \u201cThe depth of support for the families whose lives have been changed forever reminds us of how special this community is.\u201d<\/p>\n

One victim, who has not been named, was married to a member of the team that rescued the stranded skiers, according to Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some victims of Tuesday\u2019s avalanche near Lake Tahoe, the deadliest in California history, have been identified. The bodies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[23797,871,992,101,103,102,104,106,105,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-185406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-lake-tahoe","10":"tag-marin-county","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}