Eight men were working the overnight shift to fill potholes on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday and had paused for a break when the powerful Dali cargo ship slammed into the bridge, causing its collapse within seconds.
Two men were rescued on Tuesday. A day later, crews found the bodies of two men: Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26.
Four men were still missing as of midday Thursday. They are presumed to be dead, and search efforts have been exhausted, officials said at a news conference Wednesday evening.
The Baltimore bridge collapse victims were hard workers, fathers and immigrants, their grieving families told NBC Washington and Telemundo Washington. They built lives in the Baltimore area and hailed from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to the Maryland State Police superintendent. Here’s what we know so far about who they were.
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Alejandro Hernández Fuentes
Alejandro Hernández Fuentes’ body was found Wednesday in a red pickup truck that was submerged in about 25 feet of water near the middle span of the bridge, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, said. He was 35, from Mexico and lived in Baltimore.
He was the married father of four young children, his heartbroken mother, Obdulia Fuentes, told News4.
"I have a deep pain in my heart, I don't know how to describe it," she said in Spanish.
She spoke with her son hours before the disaster and told him to be careful.
After the bridge collapse, she waited for information about her son. Finally, she was told his body had been found.
"They took us to a room to talk to us and I was shaking from head to toe. I knew what bad news they were going to give us about my son,” she said.
Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera
Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera’s body also was found Wednesday. He was 26, from Guatemala and lived in Dundalk, Maryland.
Miguel Luna
Miguel Luna is among the men who were still missing as of midday Thursday. He’s 49 and originally from El Salvador. He’s a father of six, his wife, María del Carmen Castellón, told Telemundo.
“Our heart is broken,” she said as the search for her husband was ongoing.
Video showed Luna at a recent gender reveal party for his grandchild.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval was still missing as of midday Thursday. He is 38 and originally from Honduras. He’s a father of two: a teenage boy and a 6-year-old girl, his brother, Carlos Alexis Suazo, said.
He said his brother was always looking to the future for new opportunities. He was an entrepreneur and had invested in a hotel in Honduras.
The family is in “so much pain,” his brother said. The pain of family members in Honduras, including their mother, is even greater, he said.
Suazo said their family is praying for strength.
New details on a survivor
NBC Washington and Telemundo Washington are still working to learn the identities of two more of the missing men.
Construction worker Julio Cervantes was one of the two men to survive the bridge collapse, his wife told NBC News. She said it’s a miracle her husband survived; he was rescued from the Patapsco River and does not know how to swim.
“All of the men were on a break in their cars when the boat hit. We don't know if they were warned before the impact,” she said.
Cervantes said her brother-in-law was among the men found dead and her nephew is among those who were still missing.
'You can see the pain etched on their faces'
Father Ako Walker, a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus, said outside a vigil that he spent time with the families of workers as they waited for news about their loved ones.
“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.
Three or four of the men had welcomed newborns to their families in the past year, a foreman told NBC News.
Construction worker Jesús Campos worked for years alongside some of the men who went missing. He said he was moved to the day shift while others worked overnight. They were hard workers, he said.
“They’re fathers. They’re people who come to earn their daily bread,” Campos said.
What’s next in the search for missing construction workers after the Baltimore bridge collapse
The men who remain missing are believed to be inside vehicles that are trapped by the collapsed bridge.
Officials said they would need to start clearing away the twisted wreckage before anyone could reach the bodies of the missing men.
“We’re now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. Because of the superstructure surrounding what we believe are the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris, divers are no longer able to safely navigate or operate around that,” Butler said Wednesday.
“We have exhausted all search efforts in the areas around this wreckage, and based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down," he said.
Butler asked for patience, warning that “there’s no definitive timeline.”
Stay with NBC Washington for updates on this developing story.
