Who was the voice within the rubble? That query has been one of many heartbreaking mysteries of the Surfside constructing collapse.
A overview by Miami-Dade Hearth Rescue has concluded that it was Theresa Velasquez, a 36-year-old music business government from Los Angeles who was visiting her dad and mom on the Champlain Towers South on the night time of the collapse, in line with a memo obtained by CBS Miami.
Her dad and mom – Julio, 67, and Angela, 60 – additionally died.
Theresa Velasquez's brother, David, stated he accepts the findings of the hearth division investigation. "There isn't any approach to know 100%," he advised CBS Miami, "nevertheless it looks as if the logical conclusion."
In response to the 11-page memo, written by Miami-Dade Deputy Hearth Chief Ray Jadallah, Velasquez did survive the preliminary collapse, however rescue crews had been unable to achieve her earlier than she died.
Within the memo, dated April 25, and despatched to Hearth Chief Alan Cominsky, Jadallah notes his findings had been based mostly on greater than two months of interviews with the crews who labored to extricate Velasquez.
The report makes an attempt to refute the findings of a USA Right now investigation printed in December that recognized the voice within the rubble as 14-year-old Valeria Barth. The report additionally rebuts allegations that the actions of the rescue crews induced Valeria to burn to demise when firefighters by chance set hearth to the room the place the teenager was trapped.
There have been questions from the outset of the collapse about whether or not somebody was heard alive within the rubble. Jadallah and others initially denied a voice was heard. Later the division acknowledged there was a voice within the preliminary hours behind a thick concrete slab that had crashed into the underground parking storage.
These working within the underground storage all agreed the voice was feminine.
Some firefighters believed the voice stated she was in Unit 204. That was the unit the place Valeria was staying along with her dad and mom, Luis Fernando Barth and Catalina Gomez. They'd travelled collectively to Miami from Colombia a month earlier than the collapse.
Different firefighters stated the voice stated she was in Unit 304, which is owned by Theresa Velasquez's dad and mom.
The report notes: "…it was difficult listening to the girl."
"One rescuer acknowledged that after they requested the sufferer if she was with another person, the feminine voice responded she was visiting her dad and mom (paraphrased)," the report states. "This assertion correlates with the accounts from Theresa Velasquez's household stating that Ms. Velasquez was visiting her dad and mom from California and was staying with them in condo #304. Not like Ms. Barth, who was accompanied by her dad and mom visiting from Colombia and had been occupying condo #204."
"In response to rescuers, the voice was that of a grown girl whose English gave the impression to be that of an English speaker with native sentence syntax and glorious vocabulary," the report continues. "All of the rescuers unanimously acknowledged … [the voice] didn't have an accent."
The report notes Valeria's uncle stated the teenager's major language was Spanish "however she will communicate English" and does have a definite Spanish accent.
In response to the report, Valeria's uncle didn't imagine the voice was his niece.
CBS Miami was not in a position to attain both the uncle or Valeria's grandmother.
Theresa Velasquez's physique was unearthed on July 8. It was roughly 15 ft from the assist poles that they had erected whereas they had been trying the extricate the trapped girl. Nevertheless, the report doesn't say if Valeria's physique was additionally present in that space.
The report spends a substantial amount of time trying to refute accusations the division didn't have the mandatory gear to rescue the trapped girl. And it disputes the allegation that the firefighters by chance sparked the underground fires that induced rescue efforts for the trapped girl to be halted for a number of hours. After they returned, they might not hear the girl's voice.
The report paperwork the extraordinarily hazardous circumstances rescue crews had been working underneath to attempt to save the girl — together with excessive readings of carbon monoxide, hip-deep water polluted with hazardous supplies and the fixed danger of electrical shock and additional collapse of the rubble.
Theresa Velasquez's brother, David, stated Jadallah and different officers have spoken to him typically within the months for the reason that collapse.
"I belief what's in that report and the those that made that willpower," he advised CBS Miami.
Velasquez was a Los Angeles-based government for the Stay Nation occasion promotion firm.
"Theresa was an impassioned chief at Stay Nation, who elevated each undertaking she was a part of, on the identical time breaking down limitations for ladies, and the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood," the corporate stated after her physique was recovered. "We'll at all times bear in mind and honor the influence she made, and can miss her dearly."