Body of construction worker missing after Key Bridge collapse recovered: Unified Command

(BALTIMORE) — The body of one of the four construction workers who remained missing following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was recovered on Friday, authorities said.

The recovered individual was identified by the Unified Command as 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval. His family has been notified, authorities said.

Unified Command salvage dive teams located what they believed to be the missing construction worker around 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday and notified the Maryland Department of State Police, authorities said. State police deployed a recovery team along with dive teams from law enforcement partners and recovered Suazo-Sandoval.

The father of two migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago, according to Gustavo Torres, the executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), a group that works with immigrants. He dreamed of starting a small business and brought joy and humor to his family, Torres told reporters last week.

Suazo-Sandoval was one of six construction workers killed when a cargo ship crashed into the Baltimore bridge early on March 26, causing a near-total collapse of the span in the Port of Baltimore.

The bodies of two workers were covered a day after the collapse. Divers found them trapped in a red pickup truck that was submerged in approximately 25 feet of water near the middle span of the bridge, Maryland State Police said.

The workers were identified by police as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a native of Mexico who lived in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, a native of Guatemala who lived in Dundalk, Maryland.

Three workers remain missing and are presumed dead. They include Miguel Luna, a father of five from Usulutan, California, in El Salvador, his family told ABC News.

A 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula, in Guatemala, and a worker from Mexico also remain missing, according to their respective country’s foreign ministry.

“There are families still waiting to hear if we have found their loved one,” Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police, said in a statement on Friday. “I can promise you, we are fully committed to finding closure for each of these families.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said the recovery of the third victim “brings us one step closer to closure,” though added that “my heart continues to be with all the families still waiting anxiously for their loved ones.”

“I am grateful for the first responders who have maintained focus on recovering the remaining victims and continued their work to clear the channel with the utmost care,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to do everything in our power to support these families, and provide whatever they need to persevere through this unthinkable tragedy.”

The recovery of the victim occurred the same day that President Joe Biden visited the site of the collapse.

Biden thanked first responders for their efforts and later was scheduled to meet with family members of the six workers killed in the bridge disaster.

“They were hard workers laboring in the middle of the night to repair potholes on a bridge that tens of thousands of travelers crossed every day,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing Thursday.