On Thursday, June 24, about 55 of the 135 units at Champlain Towers South collapsed around 1:30 a.m. Here are stories of the victims who have currently been identified.
Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, Apt. 1002: The New Jersey native was the first victim to be identified. She was rescued and taken to a hospital after the collapse, but passed away there. Her son, 15-year-old Jonah Handler was pulled from the rubble and survived. The Fang and Handler family released a statement that said: “There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler family would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received. The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much-needed source of strength during this devastating time.”
Manuel “Manny” LaFont, 54, Apt. 801: Manny Lafont was born and raised in Houston. Lafont’s former wife, Adriana Lafont, told Houston’s ABC13 that Lafont was a doting father to their two children, Mia, 13, and Santi, 10. They had just spent Father’s Day together only days before the collapse. A friend posted a video of LaFont dancing on Facebook and saying he was the “life of the party.” LaFont coached his son’s baseball team, the Astros, at North Shore Park, just a mile away from the Surfside condo. A friend is petitioning the city of Miami Beach to rename North Shore Park after LaFont.
Andreas Giannitsopoulous, Apt. 801: 21-year-old Andreas Giannitsopoulous was visiting his father’s best friend, Manny LaFont, when the building collapsed. Giannitsopoulous from Houston, Texas, was studying Economics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Luis Andres Bermudez, 26, and Anna Ortiz, 46, Apt 702: Bermudez’s cousin contacted Local 10 the day of the collapse to say Bermudez had muscular dystrophy and can’t walk. His mother, Anna, was identified along with her son on Sunday night. “My Luiyo. You gave me everything,” Luis’ father wrote to his son on Facebook.
Frankie Kleiman, 55, Apt. 702: Frankie Kleiman was newly married to Ana Ortiz and lived with her and her son, Luis. Kleiman was identified as one of the victims identified on Monday whose body had been identified. Other members of the Kleiman family missing include Frankie’s brother, Jay Kleiman, who was visiting from Puerto Rico and staying with his mother, Nancy Kress Levin, in Apartment 712.
Leon Oliwkowicz, 80 and Christina Beatriz Elvira (Oliwkowicz), 74, Apt. 704: The daughter of the Oliwkowicz couple contacted Local10.com the day of the collapse to say that she had not heard from her 80-year-old father and 74-year-old mother who lived in the Champlain Towers. Their bodies were recovered on Sunday. They were among six Venezuelan natives missing in the building’s collapse. A story in an Orthodox Jewish news website featured a story about the couple in which Mr. Oliwkowicz commissioned a Torah scroll in memory of his parents and, speaking in Yiddish, blessed those in attendance in Chicago at the dedication with “health and long life.”
Antonio Lozano, 83, and Gladys Lozano, 79, Apt. 903: Sergio Lozano said he had dinner with his parents, Gladys and Antonio Lozano, only hours before the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in the early morning of Thursday. Sergio said his parents would have celebrated their 59th anniversary on July 21 and had known each other for more than 60 years. The son said that his parents had joked that neither wanted the other one to pass away first because they didn’t want to be without each other. Sergio said if he was to find solace, it is that if they did not survive the collapse, that they “went together and went quickly.”
Michael David Altman, 50, Apt. 1101: Michael Altman’s family and loved ones wrote to Local 10 after the collapse. They said they had checked hospitals and filed a missing persons report. On Monday, it was announced that his body was recovered from the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South.
The Guara family: Marcus Joseph, 52, Anaely, 41, Lucia, 11, and Emma, 4: Marcus and his wife, Anaely and two children, moved into the Surfside building less than a year ago, according to Betsy Gonazalez, who told the Washington Post that she was Anaely’s aunt. Marcus’s body was recovered Saturday. Anaely, 41, and 11-year-old Lucia, and Emma, 4, were recovered on Wednesday, June 30, according to Miami-Dade Police. The family were members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Miami Beach. Janice Gudman told Local 10 News her 11-year-old granddaughter had been friends with the two children since she was in kindergarten. “I feel incredibly sad. The girls were sweethearts,” Gudman said. Gonzalez told the Post that Anaely was born in Cuba and came to the United States when she was a teen. Marcus worked in the hotel business, Gonzalez said.
Hilda Noriega, Apt. 602: The mother of the North Bay Village Police Chief Carlos Noriega was pulled from the rubble in Surfside on Tuesday, June 29. The family was getting ready to move the 92-year-old out of the towers where she had lived for about two decades. “The Noriegas have lost their ‘heart and soul’ and ‘matriarch’ of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for,” a statement from the city of North Bay Village read.
