A deadly mudslide buries hopes, dreams

A wall of mud stopped everyday life mid-text, mid-sentence, mid-dream for the family of Manuel Sandoval and Maritza Aquino.

A normal Thursday night, daughter-in-law Tanya Garcia had made her regular evening call to her mother. She worried about her blood pressure. Granddaughter Melany Sandoval was texting a friend in another state in Guatemala, and suddenly the conversation stopped.

In all, seven family members are now dead and four still missing from the canyon home that Sandoval built 16 years ago, and where he, wife Maritza, three sons and their families lived. They are among 69 dead and possibly hundreds more buried late Thursday when a rain-soaked hillside collapsed in the outskirts of Guatemala City.