Lúðvík Pétursson’s brother urges Grindavík to recover his remains

Elías Pétursson is asking Grindavík’s town council to lead efforts to recover his brother Lúðvík’s remains from a fissure, mbl.is reports. He says the house at Vesturhóp 29 should not be demolished and the fissure should not be filled until every safe effort has been made to retrieve him.

“We are not giving up. We will continue for as long as we can… and possibly a little longer,” Elías wrote in a detailed Facebook post on Monday.

The search was called off after rope-access workers descended into the fissure last Tuesday. They found no sign of Lúðvík’s remains, and police have said there will be no further searches. Elías told mbl.is that the family felt the operation was for show and believed the decision to stop the search may have been made before it began. In his post, he thanked the workers for their courage but criticised the decision to end the search.

Elías cited an April 20 memorandum from engineering firm COWI, which recommended searching in stages. The first stage would involve using cameras to look between rocks in the debris at the bottom of the fissure, followed by an assessment of whether to continue. Elías said the family was later told that further action would only be considered if the visual inspection found evidence. He has requested documents and an explanation of when that limitation was decided, but says he has received no answers.

Elías says another option would be to excavate into the fissure from the side and then towards the place where Lúðvík is most likely to be. He has decades of experience in earthworks and says he first presented the idea to the then police chief in October 2024, but it was never assessed. He stressed that the family has never asked anyone to put their life at unnecessary risk.

The family believes Lúðvík is most likely beneath the debris, at a depth of 13 to 16 metres and under the compactor. Elías says that makes it unlikely he could have been found using only cameras and visual inspection. He also said a Grindavík town committee had raised no objections to plans to demolish the house eight days before the search.