Estelle Hedaya, 54, was the last missing person to be identified in the Surfside condominium collapse.
The last person unaccounted for after the 12-story condominium collapse in Surfside was identified by authorities Monday. And for a longtime friend of 54-year-old Estelle Hedaya, it was a moment of relief and heartbreak after 32 long days. Hedaya was the 97th missing person recovered from the rubble of the oceanfront condo building that had fallen in the early hours of June 24. The Associated Press first reported the identification through Hedaya’s younger brother. The toll stands at 98 — one person who died at the hospital — with 242 others accounted for. Officials said they will continue to search the site for personal items or anyone else who might have been in the building on Collins Avenue. “We’re going to keep going until we’re done. We’re not stopping,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramierez III said at a news conference Monday. Obituaries: Remembering those who died in the Champlain Towers condo collapse in Surfside, Florida Unthinkable sadness: One month after Surfside, families grieve for victims of condo collapse ‘Treat her gently’: How an Israeli military search team helped recover majority of Surfside victims Hedaya was described as a “fun-loving person” by a friend of nearly three decades, Sharona Abadi. The two met at an event in New York for young Jewish professionals. “She was a person who loved life,” Abadi said. “You can put her into a room, and she’ll be the type that just makes friends.
