Bodies of 3-year-old girl and her mother recovered after Indonesian landslides that killed 20

TANA TORAJA, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers recovered the bodies of a 3-year-old girl and her mother, the last victims still missing after landslides killed 20 on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, authorities said Tuesday.

The steep, muddy terrain blocked heavy equipment from coming in, forcing rescuers to dig through the mud with handheld tools. At least 20 search and rescue officers took part in the search, as well as dozens of residents.

Mud loosened by torrential rain poured from surrounding hills onto four houses Saturday at South Makale village in the Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, said local police chief Gunardi Mundu. He said a family gathering was being held in one of the houses when the landslide hit.

The last two victims were found late Tuesday afternoon as heavy rains continued. Rescuers carried them away, wrapped in orange body bags, across a dark and rainy field with the help of torches.

Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers joined the search in the remote hillside villages of Makale and South Makale, Mundu said. Rescuers early Sunday managed to pull out two injured people, including an 8-year-old girl, and rushed them to a hospital.

Tana Toraja has many popular tourist attractions, including traditional houses and wooden statues of bodies buried in caves, known as tau-tau.

Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or fertile flood plains.

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers search for survivors at a village hit by a landslide in Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Monday, April 15, 2024. A search and rescue team found multiple people killed by landslides on Indonesia's Sulawesi island and are still looking for a few missing, officials said Monday. (National Search and Rescue Agency via AP)

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers search for survivors at a village hit by a landslide in Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Sunday, April 14, 2024. A search and rescue team found multiple people killed by landslides on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island and are still looking for a few missing, officials said Monday. (National Search and Rescue Agency via AP)

In this photo released by Tana Toraja Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD Tana Toraja), rescuers search for victims of a landslide in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, April 15, 2024. Loosened by torrential rain, mud poured from surrounding hills onto houses just before midnight on Saturday killing a number of people, officials said. (BPBD Tana Toraja via AP)

PHOENIX (AP) — Prosecutors said Monday they will not retry an Arizona rancher whose trial in the fatal shooting of a Mexican man on his property ended last week with a deadlocked jury.

The jurors in the trial of George Alan Kelly were unable to reach a unanimous decision on a verdict after more than two days of deliberation. Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial on April 22.

After the mistrial, the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office had the option to retry Kelly — or to drop the case. Fink dismissed the case as requested by prosecutors.

Kelly could not immediately be reached for comment. His defense attorney Brenna Larkin did not immediately return a request for comment sent by email after Fink ruled.

The 75-year-old Kelly had been on trial for nearly a month in Nogales, which is on the border with Mexico. The rancher had been charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, killing of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea outside Nogales, Arizona.

Cuen-Buitimea had lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. He was in a group of men that Kelly encountered that day on his cattle ranch. His two adult daughters, along with Mexican consular officials, met with prosecutors last week to learn about the implications of a mistrial.

Prosecutors had said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men on his cattle ranch, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away. Kelly has said he fired warning shots in the air, but argued he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.

The trial coincided with a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security. During it, court officials took jurors to Kelly’s ranch as well as a section of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Earlier, Kelly had rejected an agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.

Kelly was also accused of aggravated assault of another person in the group of about eight people.

FILE - George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Ariz., Feb. 22, 2023. Prosecutors headed back to court Monday, April 29, 2024, to announce whether they will retry Kelly, an Arizona rancher, after a jury deadlocked in the fatal shooting of a Mexican man on his property near the southern U.S. border. Jurors in the case against Kelly did not reach a unanimous decision on a verdict and the judge declared a mistrial on April 22. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool, File)