Owner of Miami penthouse photographed with exposed bunk beds is an NYC lawyer who is still missing
REVEALED: Haunting photo of exposed bunk beds at Miami condo collapse is from penthouse being rented by NYC lawyer who is still missing and doesn’t have children
- Linda March was renting a penthouse in the condo. March is an attorney who had recently moved back from Miami from New York after recovering from COVID-19
- Messages sent to March’s phone were unanswered and a friend said they recognized bunk beds and a desk chair as belonging to her apartment
- A viral picture of the bunk bed shows it relatively intact, albeit with a bent ladder
- Even the pillows and sheets seem to be in place, leaving many concerned a child may have been sleeping there when the condo went down
- The apartment was already furnished, however, and it’s believed that there was not a child sleeping there on June 24, especially since March had no children
- March was planning on breaking her lease at the condo
- The building was undergoing renovations and repairs when it collapsed
- The death toll from the Miami condo collapse has now risen to 16 after four more bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight
- Now, almost one week on from the tragedy in the early hours of June 24, 147 people are still missing among the rubble
Linda March was renting a penthouse in the condo. March is an attorney who had recently moved back from Miami from New York after recovering from COVID-19
One of the most haunting photos from the Miami condo collapse is now being revealed to belong to a New York City lawyer who remains missing.
Linda March was renting a penthouse in the condo. March is an attorney who had recently moved back from Miami from New York after recovering from COVID-19, a friend told Local 10.
She moved after losing her mother and sister to cancer over the past decade, followed by her father and a divorce.
Messages sent to March’s phone were unanswered and the friend said they recognized bunk beds and a desk chair exposed in the side of the partially collapsed building as belonging to the apartment she was staying in.
A picture of the bunk bed shows it relatively intact, albeit with a bent ladder. Even the pillows and sheets seem to be in place, an image of calm in a sea of devastation, leaving many concerned a child may have been sleeping there when the condo went down.
A viral picture of the bunk bed shows it relatively intact, albeit with a bent ladder
Her apartment was near the top right corner of the building, from this photo
The apartment was already furnished, however, and it’s believed that there was not a child sleeping there on June 24, especially since March had no children.
‘She sent me pictures of the apartment,’ March’s best friend, Rochelle Laufer, told the Miami Herald.
That apartment, which is still listed on Apartments.com, has ‘amazing waterfront views from this two bedroom penthouse,’ according to the old listing.
Laufer relayed to the Associated Press that the second bedroom in the apartment was used as a home office. A black rolling desk chair can be seen near the bunk bed in the photo.
‘She would say to me, “I’m all alone. I don’t have family,” and I would say, “You’re my sister, you don’t have to be born sisters. And I said you always have me,”‘ Laufer tearfully said.
These undated photos provided by Dawn Falco shows Linda March, who is still missing
Friend Dawn Falco, who was on the phone with March two hours before the disaster, also seemed to recognize March’s home in a photo.
‘My heart is breaking as I see the office chair that she just purchased next to the bunkbeds,’ Falco said.
Laufer joked to March once that she planned on taking the top bunk when she would visit.
Laufer says March did complain about the noise in the condo, saying: ‘The one thing she complained about was the construction. It started at 8 in the morning and kept going all day.’
She added that March was planning on breaking her lease at the condo, saying, ‘She was looking for another apartment when this happened.’
The building was undergoing renovations and repairs when it collapsed last Thursday morning.
The apartment was already furnished, however, and it’s believed that there was not a child sleeping there on June 24, especially since March had no children
A bunk bed is seen in a partially collapsed building in Surfside near Miami Beach
Friend Rochelle Laufer relayed that the second bedroom in the apartment was used as a home office. A black rolling desk chair can be seen near the bunk bed in the photo
March is among the many who remain unaccounted for following last week’s building collapse.
The death toll from the Miami condo collapse has now risen to 16 after four more bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight.
Now, almost one week on from the tragedy in the early hours of June 24, 147 people are still missing among the rubble. No survivors have been found since Thursday.
With 147 still unaccounted for and hopes fading that people will be found alive, the disaster is shaping up to be one of the deadliest non-deliberate structural failures in US history.
The search for victims and survivors has been hampered by numerous challenging factors including the threat of falling debris, heavy rain and wind, and the discovery of deep fires in the rubble over the weekend.
This handout video grab taken from a video posted by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue shows firefighters working in the basement parking garage at Champlain Towers
The death toll from the Miami condo collapse has now risen to 16 after four more bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight
While the search continues, questions continue to mount over what caused the collapse and whether critical failures by building officials left residents in the dangerous tower ahead of its collapse.
An alarming 2018 structural survey warned of ‘major structural damage’ in the building specifically to the pool area and underground parking garage.
On Tuesday, just 36 hours before the collapse, a contractor photographed worrying signs of damage in the parking garage.
The 1981 building was coming up for recertification – a process which is required every 40 years for buildings in Miami Dade.
Fears are now growing over the safety of other buildings in the county.
Miami Dade County officials said they are inspecting 501 buildings that is 40 years or older to make sure none are compromised like Champlain Towers South.
THE MIAMI CONDO COLLAPSE VICTIMS IDENTIFIED SO FAR
54-year-old Stacie Fang
STACIE DAWN FANG
Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, was with her son Jonah Handler, a teenager, when the building collapsed. They lived on the tenth floor. The boy’s small hand waved through the wreckage as a man out walking his dog hurried to the site, climbed through a pile of glass and rebar and promised to get help right away.
Rescuers helped the boy out from under a pile of cement and carried him away on a stretcher to a hospital.
‘There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie,’ members of her family said in a statement. ‘Many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much needed source of strength during this devastating time.’
Asked about the boy’s condition, a family friend, Lisa Mozloom told the AP ‘He will be fine. He’s a miracle.’
MANUEL LAFONT
Manuel LaFont, 54
Manuel LaFont, 54, was a proud father, a baseball fan and a business consultant who lived on the building’s eighth floor.
He had a 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter with his ex-wife Adriana LaFont, the Miami Herald reported.
Adriana asked her friends on Facebook to pray the rosary for Manny before his body was found. ‘So many memories inside the walls that are no more today, forever engraved experiences in the heart,’ she wrote.
LaFont, a Houston native, coached his son’s baseball team, the Astros, at North Shore Park, just a mile away from the Champlain. He was a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Miami Beach. The parish’s school parents gathered Saturday afternoon to pray for LaFont and his neighbors who were still missing.
An alumnus of Sharpstown High School in Houston, LaFont had worked across Latin America and the Caribbean for a manufacturing firm, leading a division focusing on roadway safety that built crash cushions and moveable barriers, the Herald reported.
‘I got into this industry specifically because I don’t want to sell widgets. I want to help people. I want to do something good in this world,’ he said at an industry conference in 2016. ‘When I die, I want to say that my life meant something.’
ANTONIO AND GLADYS LOZANO
Antonio and Gladys Lozano
Antonio and Gladys Lozano lived on the ninth floor. The two had known each other over 60 years and would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary on July 21.
Their sons told WPLG-TV that the couple had joked neither wanted to die before the other, because neither wanted to live without the other. Their one solace, the brothers said, was that they were together when they died.
Authorities confirmed on Saturday that Antonio, 83, and Gladys, 79, were among the dead.
Sergio Lozano said he had dinner with his parents hours before the collapse. He lived in one of the towers of the complex and could see his parents’ apartment across the way from his. That night, he said the heard a loud noise they thought could be a storm.
‘The building is not there,’ he said he told his wife. ‘My parents’ apartment is not there. It’s gone.’
ANA ORTIZ, HER HUSBAND FRANK AND HER SON LUIZ
Ana Ortiz, left, and her son Luis Bermudez and Leon Oliwkowicz and his wife Christina (right)
Luis Bermudez, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, had battled with muscular dystrophy for years and used a wheelchair. The 26-year-old man lived with his mother Ana Ortiz on the seventh floor of the Champlain Towers South.
His father, also named Luis Bermudez, texted the AP saying ‘my son is a hero.’ He also wrote on Facebook that he could not believe he’s gone.
‘Now rest in peace and without any obstacles in heaven,’ he wrote. ‘I will see you soon my Luiyo.’
Ortiz, 46, had just gotten married with Frankie Kleiman. Alex Garcia, the couple’s close friend, told The Miami Herald he had set them up on a blind date. Kleiman lived with his wife and stepson on the same floor as his brother Jay Kleiman, who was in town for a funeral, and their mother Nancy Kress Levin. The Kleimans and their mother are still missing.
50-year-old Frank Kleiman, left, was found on Monday. He was Ana’s husband
Ortiz was described as a woman who was committed to giving her son the best possible life.
‘She´s a rock star. And gorgeous,” Garcia told the Herald. “And on top of that a super mom.
FRANK KLEIMAN
Kleiman, 50, was the husband of Ana Ortiz, whose body was found alongside that of her disabled son, Luiz, over the weekend.
LEON AND CHRISTINA OLIWKOWICZ
Leon Oliwkowicz and his wife Christina were also identified as victims of the tower collapse on Sunday evening
The couple lived on the 8th floor of the condo tower for several years, according to Venezuelan journalist Shirley Varnagy, a close friend of their family.
They were among six Venezuelan natives caught in the building’s collapse. Still missing Monday were Moisés Rodán, 28; Andrés Levine, 27; Luis Sadovnik, 28, and his wife, Nicole Langesfeld, Varnagy said.
Varnagy said the Oliwkowicz’s daughter had been outside the building waiting for some information about their fate. Her husband answered their phone and asked to be left alone.
The couple’s daughter, Mrs. Leah Fouhal, works as a secretary at a Jewish school in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, where the couple donated a Torah in 2019 in a procession that included a vintage fire truck, music and a giant velvet and gold crown, according to COLlive.com, an Orthodox Jewish news outlet that covers Chabad-Lubavitch communities around the world.
Meanwhile, the parents of Rodán, Levine and Sadovnik live in Venezuela and traveled to the U.S. Friday. ‘Some did not have a visa, others had an expired passport, but with diplomatic collaboration they were able to arrive,’ Varnagy said.
MARCOS JOSEPH GUARA & MICHAEL DAVID ALTMAN
The body of 52-year-old Marcus Joseph Guara was recovered on Saturday
Hilda Noriega
Hilda Noriega (pictured) was named by her family Wednesday as the 12th confirmed victim of the tragedy
Hilda Noriega, who lived in Apt. 602 in the 12-story tower, was the mother of North Bay Village Police Chief Carlos Noriega.
She had only recently celebrated her 92nd birthday.
Her body was discovered among the remains of the condo tower Tuesday.
Her family paid tribute to the ‘matriarch of the family’ in a statement Wednesday.
Noriega’s son had traveled to the collapse site Thursday to look for his mother, who had only recently celebrated her 92nd birthday.
Among the rubble, the police chief found a birthday card a relative had given to Noriega at a brunch, reported Local10.
