Pregnant Woman, Fiance Killed by a Wall of Mud : Foster Park: Rain-soaked, debris-laden dirt sweeps down a hillside and buries the couple in their bedroom.

Michele Bovee was counting the days until March, when she was scheduled to give birth.

As the rain began Tuesday evening, the 27-year-old woman organized toys and clothes for the baby at the Foster Park home she shared with her fiance, Glenn Queen, 30.

But as the storm intensified during the night, the dirt on the hills behind the couple’s rented house on Encino Lane, north of Ventura, started to swell and shift.

Shortly after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, a wall of mud carrying large trees and rocks in its wake swept down the hillside with the force of a bulldozer and crashed into the bedroom where Bovee and Queen were sleeping.

The couple--and their unborn child--were killed when they were buried in six feet of debris. Three other people who lived with the couple were uninjured.

Friends, who were planning a baby shower for Bovee on Feb. 22, say the outgoing couple made friends everywhere they went.

For six years, Bovee--a 1983 graduate of Ventura High School--had worked in the office of the Ventura County tax collector, explaining procedures to residents at the service counter on the first floor of the County Government Center.

“She was a good example for the rest of us,” said co-worker Moises Orozco. “She had the same good nature all the time. She was always at the counter with a smile. She had a beautiful smile.”

Queen, who specialized in laying carpet and tile, was described as a hard worker who went out of his way to help neighbors. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, but moved to Ventura County to work as a free-lance flooring contractor.

“He was the kind of person who made you happy you moved into the neighborhood,” said next-door neighbor Tamara Conlan. “He was always willing to offer a helping hand.”

Bovee and Queen met several years ago at a party given by a mutual friend. They had not yet set a wedding date.

Friends and family said Bovee was thrilled to be pregnant.

“All she wanted in this world was to have a baby,” said her father, Steve Bovee of Oak View.

Michele Bovee’s first child had died after being born prematurely.

Since then, all she talked about was having another baby, friends said.

Bovee had been preparing a special room for the baby at the large four-bedroom home, which the couple shared with two of their best friends and Queen’s nephew, Jason, 13.

Roommate Steve Rutledge said he was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom when the tragedy occurred.

When he heard a loud crash and the sound of shattering glass, he rushed downstairs and found mud oozing out under the couple’s bedroom door, he said.

“I kicked in the door,” he said. “There was six to seven feet of mud and glass everywhere. I just started digging.”

Conlan said she first thought that there had been an earthquake.

“Everything shook,” the neighbor said. “I heard a real big crash and then screams for help.”

Conlan said she ran to the home and found Rutledge inside clawing at the mud.

“He kept digging at it,” she said. “It was horrible. We were all hoping they were still breathing.”

It took Ventura County Fire Department officials nearly two hours to free the bodies from the debris.

“It hit with tremendous force,” said Mike Lindbery, a spokesman for the County Fire Department. “Like a bulldozer.”

Visiting the scene several hours later, County Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said she will ask county planners to determine if the home had approval to be built at the base of the hillside.

“We’ll have to take a look at what happened,” Lacey said. “We will certainly ask planning if this could have been avoided. This might just be a freak of nature. It’s a tragedy.”

Bovee’s longtime friend, Tracy Lapierre of Port Hueneme, rushed to the home after she heard what happened.

She said she had been at the house the night before to help Bovee organize the baby’s things.

“She was everyone’s best friend,” Lapierre said. “We had a baby shower for her last week and over 40 people were there.”

Friends at work were expecting an equal turnout at the baby shower they were planning for Bovee on Feb. 22.

“She would have made a good mother,” Orozco said. “She was like a mother to us. . . . She was an angel.”