His younger brother, Carlos Alexis Suazo Sandoval, said the family received word from officials soon after. “That was my number one goal,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message in Spanish. “thank god.”
Authorities previously announced that six construction workers, including Suazo Sandoval, who was repairing a hole in the Key Bridge, are believed to have fallen to their deaths after a ship collided with the bridge and collapsed last week. The bodies of two of the workers, Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorrian Lonial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Maryland, were recovered last week, authorities said. was searching for four more bodies.
It was unclear whether any other bodies were pulled from the water Friday. “There are families still waiting to hear if their loved ones have been found,” Maryland State Police Col. Roland L. Butler Jr. said in a statement Friday night.
“I can promise you, we will do everything in our power to find closure for each family,” Butler said.
Suazo Sandoval's nephew, Hector Guardado, previously told the Washington Post that the family hopes to take his uncle's body back to his hometown in Honduras for burial.
Suazo Sandoval, a father of two and avid fan of the soccer team FC Motagua, buys medicine for sick relatives, birthday cakes for celebrations, and soccer uniforms for children around the world. He was remembered by his family as an entrepreneurial family man who sent money back to Honduras. his town. He also helped his family open a small hotel there.
“We are suffering as a family,” Guardado said in a Spanish-language interview Friday. The news the family received from authorities around noon was “painful, but comforting at the same time,” he said.
“The last thing we asked was that his body be found,” he added.
Suazo Sandoval's body was taken to the coroner's office, then turned over to a funeral home and is expected to be released to family in Maryland over the weekend, Guardado said. The family's goal was to send the body back to his hometown of Askualpa in the mountains of western Honduras and “say goodbye to him with dignity and in the way he deserved,” Guardado said.
Suazo Sandoval left Honduras about 20 years ago for the United States and had long wanted to return to see his family.
“The town is waiting for him. The town is expecting its hometown son back,” Guardado said. “From here on out, we want to bring his uncle to his homeland and bury him here.”
Justin Jouvnal contributed to this report.
