Days after an apartment building fell in Davenport, Iowa, Branden Colvin Sr., 42’s body was discovered.
One of the three bodies that were still missing after the tragedy was Colvin Sr. Daniel Prien, 60, and Ryan Hitchcock, 51, are still missing.
Colvin Sr is the first victim of the collapse who has been officially pronounced deceased.
A city official in Davenport, Iowa, reported Sunday that one of the three men whose corpses had been missing following the partial collapse of an apartment building had been located.
The corpse of Branden Colvin Sr. was found on Saturday, according to municipal spokeswoman Sarah Ott. Ryan Hitchcock, age 51, and Daniel Prien, age 60, are the other two men who are still missing. The first verified victim of the collapse is 42-year-old Colvin.
Other information was not immediately made public. Nancy Prien Frezza, Prien’s daughter, told The Associated Press that she hasn’t heard of any new developments in the hunt for her father.
Colvin’s son, Branden Colvin Jr., graduated from high school on Saturday, according to the Quad-City Times. He and other family members had been praying for a miracle at the collapse site virtually nonstop.
A day after police declared the search for survivors to be over, Colvin’s body was found, and the focus shifted to shore up the building so that recovery work could start.
In the first 24 to 36 hours following its collapse on May 28, the six-story apartment building’s remnants were constantly in motion, which officials claimed posed a risk to search and rescue personnel.
Colvin, Hitchcock, and Prien were earlier mentioned by city officials as having a “high probability of being home at the time of the collapse.”
The building was continually shifting and at risk of further collapse, according to the authorities, making it extremely dangerous for rescuers to search it. On Thursday, an Iowa task force finished looking for survivors and turned its attention to strengthening the building in preparation for recovery work.
After the collapse, Fire Chief Mike Carlsten briefed the media and said, “We are doing the best we can to balance the building conditions and the safety of our responders.” The answer, he claimed, may take “days and weeks” as opposed to the ideal time of minutes or hours because of the circumstances.
According to Mayor Mike Matson, the debris heap “could be a place of rest for some of the unaccounted.”
In spite of a structural engineer’s report issued just days prior to the collapse indicating a wall of the century-old building was at imminent risk of collapsing, neither the owner nor city officials issued any warnings to residents about possible danger. As demolition work on the structure continued, questions remained about why neither party did so.
According to documents made public by the city, the building’s owner and city officials were forewarned for months that certain elements of the structure were unstable.
In recent years, tenants have also complained to the city about various issues they claim were disregarded by property managers, such as no heat or hot water for weeks or even months at a time, mold growth, and toilet and ceiling leaks. Records show that despite attempts to resolve specific complaints and individual unit evacuation orders, no general evacuation was ever ordered.
Current and past residents spoke to The Associated Press about interior wall flaws that were reported to building management and ultimately led to the wall collapsing.
In a statement dated May 30, the building’s owner, Andrew Wold, expressed that “our thoughts and prayers are with our tenants.” Since then, he hasn’t released any statements, and attempts to contact him, his business, and a man presumed to be his lawyer have been futile.
According to county records, Davenport Hotel L.L.C. paid $4.2 million for the facility in a 2021 transaction.
