What We Know About the 6 Men Missing After Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Workers continue to investigate and search for victims at the scene after the cargo ship Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge a day earlier causing it to collapse, in Baltimore, Md., on March 27, 2024. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Six men are missing and presumed dead after a cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse.

On March 27, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told The Epoch Times the men were from El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras. This confirmed a statement issued earlier in the day by the Mexican Consulate in Washington.

Also, on March 27, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters that two of the missing men were Mexican nationals. Three Mexicans fell into the Patapsco River in the early hours of March 26, and one was saved.

Mr. López Obrador said the families of the missing men asked that their names not be disclosed.

In a March 27 statement, the Consular Section of the Mexican Embassy in the United States said the two missing men come from the states of Veracruz and Michoacán in Mexico.

The Guatemalan Ministry of External Relations said in a March 26 statement that two men, aged 26 and 35, from the Guatemalan towns of San Luis and Camotán, are among the missing.

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The statement said the Guatemalan Consulate General in Maryland was able to establish telephone communication with the brothers of the two missing Guatemalans.

The Guatemalan consulate confirmed one man had been in the United States on a passport registered in 2018. The other, according to the ministry, did not have immigration records on file and was only verbally confirmed to be from Camotán by his brother.

On March 27, The Associated Press reported that Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, from Honduras, is also missing.

In a statement published on its website, CASA Inc., a nonprofit based in Hyattsville, Maryland, said Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, is also missing. Mr. Luna, according to the statement, had been living in Maryland for 19 years.

“We discovered that one of the construction workers involved was a longtime member of our CASA family, adding an even deeper layer of sorrow to this already grievous situation,” CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said in the statement.

All of the missing men were employed by Brawner Builders Inc., a contractor based in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

On March 27, the company published a statement on its website saying its crew was performing bridge maintenance work on the surface of the span of Interstate 695 when the Dali container ship struck one of the bridge’s supports.

“I ... and other senior personnel have met with each and every family of our very valued and loved employees who have perished in this tragedy,” Jack Murphy, the owner of Brawner Builders, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this tragic event was completely unforeseen and was not something that we could imagine would happen.

“Our company is in mourning over the loss of these fine people. But of course, our sense of loss cannot in any way compare to what their families are feeling.”

Jeffrey Pritzker, Brawner’s executive vice president and general counsel, told The Epoch Times the company is choosing not to share the names of the missing men at this time.

The Brawner statement included a link to a GoFundMe account established by Latino Racial Justice Circle Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Towson, Maryland, on March 26. The account seeks to raise $60,000 for the missing men’s families.

“This is still a developing story, but we know that the six victims were all Latino immigrants who were supporting partners and children in the Southeast Baltimore and Dundalk communities,” the nonprofit organization said on its Facebook page.

Jackson Richman contributed to this report.