Officials confirmed they found a 4th victim who died in Key Bridge collapse

The body of a fourth victim of the Key Bridge collapse was recovered Sunday and positively identified Monday, the Unified Command confirmed.

Officials did not identify the victim at the request of the family, but he is presumed to be one of the six construction workers who perished the morning of Tuesday, March 26, when the cargo ship Dali struck one of the two footings holding up the span. The Key Bridge fell within seconds, taking with it seven workers who were making repairs to the roadway that night.

An inspector narrowly escaped as the bridge went down. One worker was quickly rescued from the water. Of the six who did not survive, four have been found. Two workers remain missing.

“On the day of the collapse, I said that we would do everything in our power to support these families,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. “And we will continue to work every day to bring them closure with dignity. But more than that, we must continue to offer them comfort, help, and healing in their hour of need.”

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The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, were recovered March 27. The body of Maynor Suazo Sandoval was recovered on April 5. The men were immigrants from Central America who worked for a Baltimore County-based construction firm called Brawner Builders and lived in southeast Baltimore and Dundalk. The other three victims are Miguel Luna, 49; Jose Mynor Lopez, 35; and a man identified by Univision and CNN as Carlos Hernández, 24.

The person who was found Sunday was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and was positively identified Monday.

Last week, salvage teams located what they believed to be one of the missing construction vehicles and notified the Maryland Department of State Police. The Maryland State Police, the FBI, and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police responded. Once salvage divers found what could potentially be human remains, the task of recovery shifted to the State Police, whose divers eventually located the deceased victim inside the vehicle on Sunday.

Sunday was also the day salvage crews removed a 450-ton section of steel from the middle of the channel, the largest single piece since the salvage operation began.

Investigators from the Maryland State Police, along with an FBI victim specialist and linguist, the Baltimore County Mobile Crisis Team, and the Governor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs met with and notified family members Monday.

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“As we mourn the lives lost and continue the recovery operation, we recognize each missing individual is someone’s beloved friend or family member,” said Col. Roland L. Butler, Jr., superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police, said in statement Monday released by Unified Command. “Along with all of our allied law enforcement partners, we pledge to exhaust the physical and technical aspects of their training while deploying every available resource possible.”

Correction: This article has been updated to correct that seven workers fell into the water during the Key Bridge collapse.

This is a developing story.

Hugo Kugiya

Hugo.Kugiya@thebaltimorebanner.com