DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The body of one of three people missing after a partial apartment building collapse has been found. The discovery was made in Davenport, Iowa, a city official confirmed Sunday.
Brandon Colvin Sr.’s body was recovered Saturday, city spokeswoman Sarah Ott said. Two other men – 51-year-old Ryan Hitchcock and 60-year-old Daniel Brien – are still unaccounted for. Colvin, 42, was the first person confirmed to have died in the collapse.
No other details were immediately released. Brien’s daughter, Nancy Brien Frezza, told The Associated Press that she had not received any updates on the search for her father.
Quad-City Times Colvin’s son, Brandon Colvin Jr., graduated from high school Saturday. He and other family members remained at the crash site hoping for a miracle.
Colvin’s body was found a day after authorities announced the end of the search for survivorsAs attention turns to improving the structure, recovery efforts can begin.
The remains of the six-story apartment building were in constant motion for the first 24 to 36 hours after it collapsed on May 28, posing a danger to rescuers searching for survivors, officials said.
City officials previously said Colvin, Hitchcock and Brien had a “high probability of being home during the collapse.”
Officials said the search for the building was extremely dangerous – it was constantly shifting and in danger of collapsing, putting rescuers at great risk. Iowa task forces ended their search for survivors Thursday and began focusing on improving infrastructure for rescue efforts.
“We’re doing our best to balance building conditions and the safety of our responders,” Fire Chief Mike Carlston told reporters. He said conditions forced a response that could take “days and weeks” instead of minutes or hours.
Mayor Mike Madsen said the trash pile “could be a resting place for some unaccounted for.”
Demolition of the century-old building is moving forward amid questions about why neither the owner nor city officials warned residents of the danger, even after a structural engineer reported that a wall of the century-old building was in imminent danger of collapsing. collapses.
City officials and the building’s owner had been warned for months that parts of the building were unstable, documents released by the city show.
Tenants have complained to the city in recent years about a number of problems they say have been neglected by property managers, including weeks or even months without heat or hot water, as well as mold and water leaks from ceilings and toilets. While city officials tried to address some complaints and issued evacuation orders to individual residences, a broad evacuation was never ordered, records show.
Current and former residents told The Associated Press about internal cracks in the wall, which eventually collapsed and were reported to building management.
Andrew Woldt, the building’s owner, released a statement dated May 30 saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with our residents.” He has not issued a statement since then, and efforts to reach him, his company and a person believed to be his lawyer have been unsuccessful.
Davenport Hotels LLC bought the building in 2021 in a $4.2 million deal, county records show.
