The remains of a fourth person killed in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland last month were recovered on Monday, according to authorities.
The body was found trapped inside a missing construction vehicle, the unified command group in charge of recovery said. The victim was transported to the medical examiner’s office and identified, but their name was not immediately released at the request of the family.
Of the eight construction workers sent into the Patapsco River in the early hours of March 26 when the cargo ship Dali slammed into the bridge as they worked to repair potholes, six were killed. Recovery crews pulled two bodies out of the river a day after the collapse, and a third body was found on April 5. They were identified as Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38; Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 26; and Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35.
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The bodies of the two final workers remain missing three weeks after the disaster.
“Our hearts continue to break for the loved ones of these victims,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a Monday night statement. “Our entire city remains with them, joining them in mourning and in healing now that one more of their loved ones has been brought home. For those still waiting, we join them in their hope and grief that they will have the same closure soon.”
“As we continue to recover those who have perished, may we never forget them, their loved ones, and the commitment they made to work in a profession that bettered the lives of so many Marylanders across the state,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) added in his own statement.
Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., the superintendent of the Maryland State Police, promised that law enforcement would use every available resource to continue the recovery operation.
State police officers were among those who responded to the scene on Monday after salvage crews discovered the submerged vehicle, officials said. Also responding were FBI agents, bolstering a federal presence at the site that had taken on new meaning hours earlier, when investigators boarded the Dali. The Washington Post reported shortly after that the FBI had opened a criminal investigation into the matter.
The federal probe is at least partly focused on whether the crew knew the 985-foot cargo ship had “serious system problems” when it left port the morning of the collapse, two U.S. officials told the Post.
The National Transportation Safety Board previously launched a separate inquiry into the collision. A preliminary report from the agency is expected in early May, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
